Concours d'Elegance

Anyone remotely interested in old cars, whatever you call them, will have heard of a concours d'elegance and most will have been to at least one concours event.
If you haven't by the way, Google your nearest big town; they are almost sure to have one every year.

Annual concours events are held in almost every country in the developed world because the restoration and concoursing (parading) of their pride and joy, is a multi-million dollar industry.

Concours events for motorcycles also exist but are not so well

known or attended although participants are often even more patriotic over their models and more enthusiastic about their events.
If you have ever been in the midst of a dozen Harley or Vespa owners, you will know what I mean.



So what is a Concours d'Elegance?
French for a start, it simply means a parade of elegant looking vehicles.
Entries are always divided into categories, often by years or decades, body shapes (sedan/coupe etc), engine sizes (under 2000cc etc) and even manufacturers (BMW etc).

Entrants have restored their cars to a high standard of finish, often with quite exhaustive reference to original specifications.
Sadly, except for the world's best known concours events such as Pebble Beach, judges do not have sufficient knowledge to determine how original the restorations really are.
This is true for most events and top placings in the final judging can be awarded to cars that have been restored to a very 'elegant' finish but with little reference to the manufacturer's specifications.

Therefore, it would be true to advise that attention should be given to past winners in your class before deciding exactly how far you want to go in restoring your classic.

Let me give you an example - in 1992 I was given 4 penalty points for poor paintwork. I used ordinary automotive paint similar to that which was used when my 1926 Vauxhall DX was produced. They expected to see 'two-pack'.

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