Hillsborough Concours – Caviar and Cool Cars
The Hillsborough Concours is America’s longest continuously-running Concours D’Elegance. While we thought twice about that statement, it was confirmed by Show Chairman Rich Kelaita.
Rich explained while other similar events have been happening longer (Pebble Beach etc), those events have taken a few years off throughout their life span, making the 62nd annual Hillsborough Concours the longest-continuous event of its kind. We got their early in the morning to catch a glimpse of the special vehicles before the sun came up. Coffee at the Concours!
Held at Crystal Springs Golf Course on the fairway of the 18th hole, the event had all the makings of a great day with over 225 regal classics, wine, cheese, caviar, frilly hats and hot rods? Yup – South City Rod & Custom’s Bill Ganahl and a band of merry hot rod brethren crashed the course to compete alongside Packard’s, Bugatti’s and the world’s elite sports and race cars. Ganahl’s crew scored the hot rod class win when Nick Rogers’ blue ’51 Mercury, built by Ganahl in 2013, crossed the red carpet to collect his hardware. This Merc is a former Goodguys Custom of the Year winner also. It looked as good as ever on the green.
Speaking of hardware, the Hillsborough Concours had the most pristine show awards we’ve ever seen. Loving cups stuffed with flowers, hand sculpted statuettes and dozens of crystal class awards filled the judges table.
While we don’t normally run in concours circles, it was an exercise in education walking the fairway. For instance, winning the prestigious Bob Cole Award was John Tennyson’s 1961 Morgan. I didn’t know anything about Morgan’s other than they’re British but the cars here are steeped in tradition. Massive and beautiful Bentley’s and Buicks, early Jags and rare Lamborghini’s are here as are race machines and more. It was the first time I had stood next to these makes and models.
The car that got the most chuckles crossing the block was the bitchin’, fully stocked and ready-to-go ’72 Cadillac Ambulance belonging to the Bayshore Ambulance station. All that was missing was Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis!
More award winners can be found here.
Another vehicle that got thunderous applause was the ultra-rare 1952 Vincent Motorcycle owned and shown by Colorado’s Gene Brown. There were only 17 of these British beauties ever made and this one was showroom condition. Gene and his assistant Robin Hansen were literally the first guys on the lawn getting there just after 6am. Gene was the clear winner of the Motorcycle class which had some other bitchin’ two-wheeled wonders.
