Friday, March 1, 2013

Top Auto Events of 2013

By Ken Gross of MSN Autos

No matter where you live in the United States, great car-culture events take place all year long. Looking beyond your local shows and cruise-ins, there are internationally acclaimed auctions, museum exhibitions, concours d'elegance and car shows that are perennial hits. In addition, there are a few selected one-time events in 2013 that you should consider attending; they won't be repeated. In a perfect world, if MSN Autos could travel on an auto aficionado's dream tour for the next 12 months, here's what we'd do and where we'd go. Put a few of these auto extravaganzas on your calendar. We'll see you there!
 

Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance

• March 8-10, 2013
• The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, Fla.
www.ameliaconcours.org
For 17 years, enthusiasts have gravitated to picturesque Fernandina Beach, about a 30-minute drive from the Jacksonville, Fla., airport, for a world-class concours featuring a pair of stellar auctions by RM Auctions and Gooding & Co., entertaining history seminars starring the living legends of auto racing, a vintage-car tour, book signings by major authors and much more. Throw in a little golf if you have the time, add great seafood and you'll understand why folks in the know return to the Amelia Island concours year after year.



 

61st Meguiar’s Detroit Autorama

• March 8-10, 2013
• Cobo Hall, Detroit
www.autorama.com
Detroit's huge Autorama has been the best indoor Midwestern hot-rod event since it started. Intense competition for its prestigious Don Ridler Memorial Award entices the country's top rod and custom builders, and lures owners with big checkbooks to compete with the best the country's top shops can build. Any type of rod or custom car can win the Ridler; it's not limited to roadsters, but it has to be a sweet ride. Rat rods rule in the vast Cobo Hall basement.


 

Keels and Wheels

• May 4-5, 2013
• Seabrook, Texas
www.keels-wheels.com
This is such a great idea, you'll wonder why more events don't try it. At the Lakewood Yacht Club, nestled by a pretty bay in Seabrook, Texas, several dozen beautifully restored wooden boats complete for attention with woodies, skiffs, sports and classic cars. Everything kicks off with the Yachta-Yachta cocktail party, where attendees sip drinks while hopping from one moored yacht to another.

 


2013 Invitational & Euro Experience

• May 17-19, 2013
• Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
www.saratogaautomuseum.org
The annual Saratoga invitational, held on the grounds of the scenic Saratoga State Park in the delightful upstate New York town that boasts the oldest thoroughbred horse-racing track in America, brings together many lovely cars each year. Actor Edward Hermann is the master of ceremonies; he is also the emcee for both the Amelia Island and Pebble Beach Concours. This year's featured marque is BMW. A bonus: The nearby Saratoga Automobile Museum will present BMW cars and motorcycles from BMW North America's private collection.
 
 
 
 

40th NSRA East Coast Nationals

• May 31-June 2, 2013
• York, Pa.
www.nsra-usa.com
The National Street Rod Association's big East Coast get-together is our favorite NSRA event. About 5,000 rods, customs and muscle cars converge on York for impromptu burnouts in the street. There's a corral of 1950s cars and performance cars, and resto-mods through the early '70s are now welcome. NSRA presents many events annually, including a 14,000-car extravaganza in Louisville, Ky., in August.




Sensuous Steel: Art Deco Automobile

• Nashville, Tenn.
• June 14 - September 15, 2013
http://fristcenter.org/calendar-exhibitions/detail/sensuous-steel
The art deco movement produced some of the most glamorous cars of the past century. Sensuous Steel: Art Deco Automobiles will present 18 lovely examples that recall the glory of a lost age when looks were everything and legendary Paris coachbuilders such as Figoni et Falaschi produced cars that resemble stunning haute-couture gowns on wheels. Occurring at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, itself an art deco structure, a prestigious gathering of cars like this is an unrepeatable event. And it is mere blocks away from the liveliest country-music scene in America.




L.A. Roadster Show

• June 14-16, 2013
• Los Angeles
www.laroadsters.com
Building a hot rod? The annual L.A. Roadster Show in Pomona, Calif., organized by the venerable L.A. Roadster Car Club, starts with a giant swap meet, where Southern California guys raid their garages and bring parts you've read about, but have never seen. Every major speed-equipment vendor is on site. There's a special parking area for more than 700 roadsters each year, with a 1937 model-year cutoff. Tip: Try the buttermilk pancakes and sausage patties at Norm's, a pilots hangout at the nearby Brackett Field airport. Don't worry about the calories. You'll walk them off easily.




26th Annual EyesOn Design Car Show

• June 16, 2013
• Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.
www.eyesondesigncarshow.com
You'd expect great cars when the auto industry's designers invite their favorites, and that's what you'll get at this "under the radar" charitable event that benefits the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology. The setting is on the manicured grounds of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores. Rub shoulders with the talented men and women who create some of the best contemporary cars while you enjoy more than 200 wonderful examples from the past.




45th Annual Back to the Fifties

• June 21-23, 2013
• St. Paul, Minn.
www.msra.com
The '50s will never die, thanks to the Minnesota Street Rod Association. Arguably the best outdoor hot-rod gathering in the upper Midwest, Back to the Fifties features great cars, good food, rockabilly music and — did we say great cars? For most of us, St. Paul is off the beaten track, but this one is well worth the trip.




Goodwood Festival of Speed

• July 11-14, 2013
• Chichester, West Sussex, England
http://www.goodwood.co.uk/festival-of-speed/welcome.aspx
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a fabulous weekend in the British countryside. It's a major new-car auto show, a concours d'elegance, a vintage sprint for cars and bikes, a pageant and a flea market, all rolled into one brilliant happening. This year it's celebrating 20 years of this event. Look for heroes and hero cars galore. Put this one on your bucket list.




35th Annual Concours d’Elegance of America at St. Johns

• July 27-28, 2013
• Plymouth, Mich.
www.concoursusa.com
Formerly the Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance, this Detroit-area classic has moved to the Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth, Mich. Well-supported by the domestic automakers, St. Johns presents a variety of changing themes, and there's an elegant fashion show, providing good reasons to return year after year. As if that weren't enough, RM Auctions holds a big auction here, and since it's very close by, you can also visit the Ypsilanti Automotive Museum.




Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

• Aug. 18, 2013
• Pebble Beach, Calif.
www.pebblebeachconcours.com
Celebrating its 62nd year on the golf links at Pebble Beach, Calif., "Pebble" sets the standard for every other concours around the world. Winning Best of Show here elevates an owner's status, arguably raises the value of the winning car and thrills thousands of spectators each year. Gooding & Co. holds an annual auction here, as do RM, Mecum, Russo & Steele, and Bonhams (at the Quail Lodge). This year, the concours honors Vanvooren Coachwork, custom 1930s-era Lincolns, Simplex, BMW 507s and French motorcycles.




Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

• Aug. 16-18, 2013
• Monterey, Calif.
http://www.mazdaraceway.com/rolex-monterey-motorsports-reunion
Laguna Seca Raceway, now called Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, was built in 1957 in the hills outside Monterey, Calif. At the track one August weekend in 1974, Steve Earle started running historic racing cars with his friends, and it grew to become an annual, weeklong event, now called the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. This year it starts with the "pre-historics" on August 9-11, then segues into the "historics" the following weekend. Corvettes will be on hand for the marque's 60th anniversary, along with everything from pre-WWII Grand Prix cars through Can-Am racers and contemporary Formula One cars, with hundreds of enthusiastic drivers holding very little back. The Corkscrew remains one of the most famous turns in racing, and it's still a terrific perch from which to watch the action.




Woodward Dream Cruise

• Aug. 17-18, 2013
• Detroit
www.woodwarddreamcruise.com
More than 1 million people gather each August, from 8-Mile Road to 14-Mile Road, celebrating the glory days of Detroit's Woodward Avenue and recalling when factory engineers from the Big Three automakers raced one another from stoplight to stoplight, testing new equipment and putting the muscle in the muscle-car era. Everybody's welcome; the car watching and the people-watching are great. Although it was only supposed to be one day, Woodward has become a long-weekend event with no sign of stopping.




Bonneville Speed Week

• Aug. 10-16, 2013
• Great Salt Lake, Utah
www.scta-bni.org
If you've never been to Bonneville, even as a spectator, what are you waiting for? The world's best gathering of high-speed amateur racers and their cars has been thrilling sunburnt spectators for 64 years. The setting — a salt-covered dry lakebed — is simply beautiful. Streamliners are topping 400 mph, with a thrilling sound that reverberates off the mountains as cars scream through the traps, then ends abruptly as each car shuts off, in a sublime moment of utter silence. Speed Week is Aug. 10-16, 2013; the World Finals are held Oct. 1-4, 2013. If you do 'em both, you'll get "salt fever" and then you'll want to get your own car.




Lead East

• Aug. 28-Sept. 1, 2013
• Parsippany, N.J.
www.leadeast.net
Irrepressible racer Terry Cook has been gathering '50s enthusiasts for 26 years over Labor Day weekend in this nostalgic northern New Jersey confluence of hot rods, period custom cars, authentic doo-wop a capella singing groups, loud-pipe rap-offs, swing-dance contests and Elvis impersonators — at the Parsippany Hilton Hotel. You got a problem with that?





17th Annual Radnor Hunt Concours d’Elegance


• Sept. 7 -9, 2013
• Malvern, Pa.
www.radnorconcours.org
The eastern United States has its share of historic classics and sports cars. One of the best places to see no more than 100 well-chosen examples each fall is on the picturesque Main Line of Philadelphia, at the venerable Radnor Hunt Club in Malvern, Pa. Huntmaster and Concours Chairman Mike Tillson knows where all the great East Coast cars are, and he proves it every year at this delightful show.




Goodwood Revival

• Sept. 13-15, 2013
• Chichester, West Sussex, England
www.goodwood.co.uk
Here's another fabulous weekend in West Sussex, in the British Midlands, but this event takes place at the famed Goodwood race circuit. The track and buildings look just the way they did before World War II, so many attendees wear vintage clothes and bring their old cars and picnic hampers. You'll think someone turned back the clock. It's fab!




7th Annual St. Michaels Concours

• Sept. 27-29, 2013
• St. Michaels, Md.
www.smc.de.org
One of the Chesapeake Bay area's best-kept secrets is the little town of St. Michaels, Md. The concours there is small, with about 65 cars, but they're all nice examples, and the event benefits the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. If blue crabs and fresh oysters are your thing, don't miss the Crab Claw restaurant, where you can sit on the dock, suck oysters, peel shrimp and knock back a brew. St. Michaels has a driving tour each year where participants visit historic homes. This event's a little gem.




11th Annual Kirkland Concours d’Elegance

• Sept. 8, 2013
• Tacoma, Wash.
www.lemaymuseum.org
The new LeMay: America's Car Museum took over the Kirkland Concours last year, and if the inaugural is any indication, it will go from strength to strength. If you haven't yet visited this architectural wonder, now's your chance. Besides a great car show and a remarkable new museum, Tacoma has some delightful little restaurants and bars where time seems to have stopped for decades.



AACA Annual Fall Meet

• Oct. 9-12, 2013
• Hershey, Pa.
www.aacamuseum.org
Nothing prepares you for this immense, 80-acre swap meet with 8,000 vendor spaces. It's been a fixture on the old-car calendar for more than 40 years. They say if you can't find it at Hershey, you don't need it. Crisp autumn weather (watch for rain), Pennsylvania Dutch meals, the distinct smell of chocolate in the air, a 1,500-car show, a huge car corral, the AACA Museum and a two-night RM auction round out an event that most East Coast historic-car buffs would never miss.


 

Porsche by Design: Seducing Speed

• Oct. 13, 2013 - Jan. 7, 2014
• Raleigh, N.C.
www.ncartmuseum.org
From the impossibly rare 1938/1939 Porsche Type 64 to the latest Porsche 918RSR, the German automaker displays a continuity of design, aerodynamics, strength and spirit endowed by Ferdinand Porsche, his son Ferry, Ferry's son Butzi, and a legion of dedicated stylists and engineers. The annual event takes place at the North Carolina Museum of Art, and will present 21 significant racing and road-going Porsches, including cars owned by the late Steve McQueen and Janis Joplin, as well as Ralph Lauren, the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, and the Prototyp Museum in Hamburg.
 
 
 

Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show

• Nov. 5-8, 2013
• Las Vegas
www.semashow.com
This is the best automotive trade show in the country. Racers, rodders, suppliers, off-roaders, custom shops, original-equipment manufacturers and show cars mix it up at the Hilton Convention Center in Las Vegas. If you don't know somebody in the car-repair or accessory biz, there are now days for the general public. Every possible car type is represented; if it's been modified in some way, it's probably here. We love "hot rod alley."




Arizona Auctions

The action is fast and furious as six major auction companies — Barrett-Jackson, Gooding & Co., RM Auctions, Silver, Russo and Steele, and Bonhams — converge on Phoenix and Scottsdale with several thousand cars, trucks and motorcycles, along with auto ephemera and petroliana galore. Spend a week in the sun, bid on and buy a new toy, and have fun at the largest concentration of auction sales each year. In 2013 sales were $224 million.




Palm Beach Cavallino Classic XXIII

• Jan. 21-26, 2014
• Palm Beach, Fla.
www.cavallino.com
A confluence of Ferraris in Florida, Cavallino presents the finest Prancing Horses from Maranello, Italy, in two superb settings: The Breakers Palm Beach and the Mar-a-Lago Club. There's a Jet Reception, a Yacht Hop and track days at Palm Beach International Raceway. It's "the right crowd and no crowding." Jay Gatsby would love it.
 
 
 
 

O’Reilly Grand National Roadster Show

• Jan. 2014
• Pomona, Calif.
www.rodshows.com
Celebrating its 65th year in 2014 at the sprawling Fairplex in Pomona, Calif., the granddaddy of them all attracts primo rods and customs, rat rods and lowriders, with plenty of vendors, hot-rod heroes and live doo-wop and raucous rockabilly music in a show within a show at the Suede Palace. It wraps up on Sunday night with the coveted AMBR Award, the 9-foot trophy for "America's most beautiful roadster." Then they drive them out, which is a show in itself.




7th Annual Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance

• February 2014
• Boca Raton, Fla.
• www.bocaconcours.com

The Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance is an event that gets better every year. This year it's celebrating Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Lamborghini. Florida sun, a first-class Bonham's auction of classic vehicles, a gorgeous setting at the Boca Raton Resort and Country Club and 10,000 car enthusiasts — what more could you wish for?
 
 
 
 
 
Ken Gross is a distinguished automotive historian and journalist and a member of the Selection Committee ofthe Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

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