2009 Huntington Beach Concours – Click above for high-res gallery
We returned from a secret mission in Alaska just in time to make it to one of our favorite smaller concours, the
Huntington Beach Concours d'Elegance in Central Park this past weekend. Not quite as prestigious as the
L.A. Concours we covered from the Rose Bowl, it's always an eclectic show, with everything from hot rods to supercars, pre-war classics to bikes. In fact, Big Dog and Nimbus Motorcycles were featured this year.
Pontiac and
Aston Martin were the featured automotive marques, but there were a healthy showing of
Mini enthusiasts as well for the car's 50th anniversary. Not quite as many as the number at Silverstone last month, but there were about 50 of them in every color and configuration you could think of. Lots of
Ferraris,
muscle cars,
Corvettes and
motorcycles as well.
This concours always attracts mostly locals, but this year, that included seven
Borgward Isabella owners! We're not sure we've ever seen more than one in any single show before so this was a bit of a treat. And there was at least one representative of each
bodystyle: saloon, estate, cabriolet, and coupe. The Master of Ceremonies was local car presenter
Dave Kunz and the Grand Marshall was
Jim Wangers, "Godfather of the GTO," on hand to celebrate Pontiac. Although we couldn't make it on Saturday, the previous day's Grand Marshall was our MINI-mad friend,
Fireball Tim Lawrence, who was at the show on Sunday as well, just not marshaling as grandly.
Highlights included the Judson-supercharged
MG TD Mille Miglia, Ferrari
400 SuperAmerica,
Lusso and
Europa,
Barbie-pink Mini,
International Karate Champion Harley,
BMW 501 V8,
Pegaso 102,
Jaguar XK120R,
'31 Cadillac Convertible Coupe,
Marco Rigassi's '32 Highboy, a tangerine
AMX, and the Schwinn Stingray
Super Deluxe and
Apple Krate. Other sentimental favorites included the
'81 Lancia Zagato, two
Subaru SVX sports coupes, two early
Mazda RX-7s, and a
trio of '80s
GM ragtops. It was another fun, family-oriented show that had us smiling about being car people.
All photos copyright ©2009 Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.