How to Prepare a Car for a Vehicular Beauty Pageant

People have gathered to proudly show off their cars for as long as cars have existed. These days, those who celebrate the beauty of the automobile are spoiled for choice. During the warmer seasons, there’s a cruise night, cars and coffee meet, club gathering, or organized car show almost any day or night of the week. During the winter, the big manufacturer-supported auto shows have their moment across the country, too.

While those events frequently offer some surprisingly lustworthy machinery, none can blow the minds of automotive appreciators like a Concours d’Elegance event. Dating back to the 1600s, the well-heeled would peacock their horse-drawn carriages in Paris parks, and after the advent of the automobile, it became a gathering of the finest motorized vehicles, eventually evolving into a judged competition.

Today there are more than 50 different Concours events around the world, but the only one in Canada is the Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance near Owen Sound, Ont. A relatively small event compared to the Emelia Island, Greenwich, or Pebble Beach Concours, Canada’s Concours nevertheless draws a sensational gathering of machinery and folks in their finery in a beautiful setting.

The impressive assembly of vehicles is largely due to David Murphy, the Vehicle Registrar at Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Murphy, along with the event’s chief judge and Cobble Beach CEO Rob McLeese, consults with an advisory board to decide which vehicles make the initial cut to be invited to such an illustrious occasion.

But leading up to this point, the Registrar has a lot of legwork to do. Murphy is very active in the automotive community, participating in smaller, local shows and travelling across North America to attend other Concours events. At some of those events, like Detroit, Cincinnati, and Hilton Head, his enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge often earn him judging duties.

A Concours event is meant to be different from a typical car show. Yes, the pomp and circumstance of ladies wearing fascinators and gentlemen in blazers and hats might be a bit much for some modern showgoers, but it adds to the air that this is a very different event. Given the calibre of vehicles on display, it all seems somehow appropriate, especially next to a row of pre-war Packards gleaming in the sunshine.

Murphy notes that when cultivating the vehicles and categories for display, he’s trying to tell a story that showcases the art and beauty of the automobile. “I want people to say, ‘Wow, I never knew that car existed!’ or ‘I never thought I’d see one of those in real life!’”

Sometimes it means having to say no to cars (and owners) that just don’t quite fit for a theme or the categories presented in any given year. While the show offers consistent categories that honour outstanding pre-war and post-war entries, American muscle cars, and exotic machines, it also includes clever categories like this year’s celebration of designer Pininfarina and the category for traditional hot rods from before 1951. It keeps the show fresh for visitors and competitors alike, since typically a car shown at a Concours event typically can’t be shown again for another four years.

Concours-worthy machines don't necessarily have to be gleaming, better-than-new showpieces worth millions of dollars, either. Sometimes a car with plenty of patina, or a very rare, unrestored barn find can do very well. Cobble Beach offers a 30 under 30 category that showcases cars whose owners must be under 30 years old and whose car’s purchase and restoration value is under $30,000. This year’s group included a lovely Mercedes-Benz 190D, a car as common and pedestrian as could be when new, and Spencer Chow’s stunning yellow 1966 Mustang. Justin Sookraj’s very simple 1984 Honda CRX earned a second-place ribbon in the Japanese Sports Cars 1980 to 2000 category, partly because it was the first of its kind in Canada, but a far cry from the near-priceless vintage Rolls-Royce parked just metres away.

Murphy notes that he looks for cars with a story, and sometimes their provenance can forgive some otherwise obvious visual imperfections. Any imperfections on the 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K that was the original Berlin Motor Show car required an exceptionally keen eye to spot, while others, like the 1990 Lotus (Opel/Vauxhall) Carlton in the pre-2008 Exotic Sports and Supercars category, show the marks of real life on their paint.

This particular Lotus belongs to Adi Desai, and it exudes the provenance that Murphy is actively seeking for Cobble Beach. Not only is the car incredibly rare (not just here in North America where it was never sold, but even in Europe they were pretty uncommon), but this — pre-production unit number 002 — was the very car used for Opel’s promotional materials, media testing in Europe, and the show car in both Geneva and Paris Motor Shows. Add to that the bragging rights of being the car that unseated the vaunted BMW M5 as the fastest sedan in the world, and its presence at a Concours event makes sense.

In preparation for Cobble Beach, the Lotus underwent a handful of touch-up treatments. This is not a car that sits in a museum like so many Concours cars. Desai drives his car, and in fact, a friend of his attempted to do a cross-country journey with it to bring it home to Oakville, Ont., from B.C. That is, before a brake caliper came apart, smashing a wheel and rendering the whole car undrivable somewhere in the middle of Saskatchewan. The Lotus was, of course, also driven to Cobble Beach from Oakville, unlike most show cars, which are swaddled like a baby and transported in an enclosed trailer.

The Lotus faced tough competition in its class and ultimately failed to place in the top two spots. Still, Desai is rightfully proud that the Carlton was the only car in the class with over 100,000 km on its odometer. His sentiment that “it’s important to appreciate cars that are actively driven rather than used as showpieces” resonates strongly with many enthusiasts. While he has enjoyed his time at this Concours event, Desai is keen to try others in the future, too.

A Concours d’Elegance event is a car show that can truly appeal to everyone, from those who could not care less about cars to the nerdiest automotive enthusiasts. The sense of occasion, the beautiful surroundings, the champagne, the artists displaying their work, and, of course, the exquisite array of machinery representing the finest and most interesting examples of a century-and-a-half of mechanized transportation make it a day well spent.