{"id":27587,"date":"2021-07-04T16:15:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T20:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=27587"},"modified":"2021-07-04T16:15:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T20:15:44","slug":"payne-concours-delegance-move-downtown-jump-starts-2022-detroit-car-calendar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/payne-concours-delegance-move-downtown-jump-starts-2022-detroit-car-calendar","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Concours d’Elegance move downtown jump-starts 2022 Detroit car calendar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cool cars are coming back to Detroit.<\/p>\n

In a major move for the 43-year-old institution, the Concours d’Elegance of America said it is moving to downtown Detroit for the first time in September 2022. With its new home at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, the high-profile collectors car show gives momentum to the North American International Auto Show\u00a0\u2014\u00a0aka, the Detroit Auto Show \u2014\u00a0scheduled for the same month as the city reboots after two years of COVID cancellations.<\/p>\n

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“We really want to celebrate the glorious, elegant history of Detroit with all of its cultural value. The DIA in particular is tailor-made to showcase the elegance of truly great cars,” McKeel Hagerty, CEO of The Hagerty Group, said in an interview. Hagerty owns the Concours. “The DIA also happens to be right on Woodward, which is one of the very few roads in the United States \u2014 think of Route 66, think of Highway One \u2014 that has, in and of itself, a history in the automotive world.”<\/p>\n

Concours has been anchored in the Metro Detroit suburbs for decades \u2014\u00a0first at Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester Hills and then the Inn at St. John’s\u00a0in Plymouth. The event will take place in Plymouth this year (July 22-25) with delicious\u00a0classic cars sprawled\u00a0across the Inn’s main campus and golf course.<\/p>\n

The Concours move to Detroit dovetails with plans for the Detroit Auto Show to return to the TCF Center in the fall of 2022. Last held in January 2019, NAIAS has twice been canceled due to coronavirus concerns \u2014 first in June 2020 and then this year\u2019s planned event in September. NAIAS will have a scaled-down show outside Detroit \u2014 called Motor Bella \u2014 Sept. 21-26 at M1 Concourse in Pontiac.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more car events in Detroit the better,\u201d said Detroit Auto Show CEO Rod Alberts. \u201cHaving Concours\u00a0around the same time (as NAIAS) created more reason to go downtown and complement what we are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traverse City-based Hagerty, the world’s largest provider of specialty insurance for enthusiast vehicles, has raised its profile in recent years as an auto\u00a0enthusiast brand with sponsorships of over 2,500 auto events from vintage racing to classic car auctions to the Festival of the Exceptional in England. This year, Hagerty added the Concours d’Elegance\u00a0of America and Amelia Island Concours d\u2019Elegance\u00a0to\u00a0its portfolio.<\/p>\n

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McKeel Hagerty said the September date is scheduled with an eye on the Detroit Auto Show \u2014 as well as other summer classic car events like The Henry Ford’s Motor Muster in June and M1’s American Festival of Speed in September.<\/p>\n

“The most coordination we can possibly have, the better,” said McKeel Hagerty. “If you look at, for example, in the vintage car week out in Monterey, California, which starts with vintage racing (at Laguna Seca Raceway) and then culminates with the Pebble Beach Concours \u2014 it’s a lot of events that cluster near each other. It’s meant to be highly collaborative and (to) say that this a great month for the vintage historic, cultural value of cars. It’s not just about the new car market.”<\/p>\n

In the absence of auto shows\u00a0the Detroit Institute of the Arts provided welcome eye candy over the last year with its “Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020” exhibition. The show brought in some of the most iconic auto designs of the post-WWII\u00a0years \u2014\u00a0vehicles like GM’s 1956 Firebird III and 2017 Ford GT \u2014\u00a0to show off the evolution of automotive\u00a0design. The show will run at the DIA through January\u00a02022, said curator Ben Colman.<\/p>\n

Detroit got a needed boost this summer from the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear which returned to Belle Isle after cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19\u00a0pandemic. As vaccinated Michigan rapidly accelerates out of the epidemic, the\u00a0nationally televised Grand Prix was the first U.S. professional race to ditch masks.<\/p>\n

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Hagerty\u2019s move of the Concours downtown drives against traffic as enthusiast events have\u00a0been headed north into Oakland County. In addition to Motor Bella at M1, the Pontiac-based car club will be the epicenter for Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge on Aug.\u00a014, followed by the Woodward Dream Show Aug.\u00a021. The inaugural American Speed Festival will follow Sept.\u00a030 to Oct.\u00a03 with a celebration of performance cars “past, present, and future.”<\/p>\n

Speed Festival this week announced the legendary Jim Hall,\u00a0founder of Chaparral race cars, will be the Inaugural Master of Motorsports, On display will be, among other classic cars, the 1966 Chaparral 2.<\/p>\n

Further north in Oakland County, off-road enthusiasts will descend on Holly Oaks ORV Park \u2014\u00a0one of the country’s premier off-road facilities \u2014\u00a0for Detroit 4Fest Sept.\u00a025-26.<\/p>\n

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The September 2022 Concours d’Elegance show will feature classic cars at multiple locations in Detroit with the DIA as the show\u2019s anchor. Hagerty thinks the timing will benefit schools as well as the NAIAS.<\/p>\n

“We are deeply passionate about also doing our car events whenever possible during the school year,” said McKeel Hagerty. “Imagine sending cars around to the schools and involving different school aged kids.”<\/p>\n