The 2009 Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance was held November 1st at the historic Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
As the featured event of the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival, the 8th annual Concours’ strong field and beautiful fall weather assured its prominent place on the national show circuit. This year’s event featured Mercedes-Benz.
Philip Capossela, Event Chairman for the Hilton Head Island show, said, “We certainly had a tremendous show this year with more entries. This year’s top honors were well deserved and we’re proud to have them in the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival’s history book.”
Adding to the sentiment, Dr. Paul Doerring, one of the founding members of the Hilton Head Island event, stated, that “because we are able to display such outstanding cars, we had to showcase more of our remarkable entries with additional top awards over the past two years. We’re proud that selecting a single “Best of Show” has becoming nearly impossible.”
Best of Show at the Hilton Head Concours d’Elegance was awarded to a 1933 Rolls-Royce Coupe owned by Frank & Milli Ricciardelli of Monmouth Beach, NJ. First Owned by Sir Hugh Cunliffe-Owen, Baronet of Brey, County of Berkshire, Chairman of British American Tobacco Company and Director of Midland Bank, this car is a one off example with a PII Continental High Speed Chassis. It was built specially for demonstration purposes.
Other significant winners included “People’s Choice” awarded to a 1932 Packard Opera Coupe owned by Grace Clark of Yonges Island, SC. The car was restored by her father 17 years ago. Most Outstanding Car – Pre-1948 went to John W. Rich Sr.’s 1914 Renault EF and Most Outstanding Car – Post 1945 went to a 1957 Ford Thunderbird owned by Vernon Smith.
Dates for next year’s event will be November 5-7th, 2010. For more information, visit www.hhiconcours.com.
2009 Hilton Head Concours d’Elegance Photo Gallery (Click image for larger picture and description)
Best in Class Featured Car – 1959 AC Bristol
The AC Bristol was made in the United Kingdom and was the forerunner to the AC Cobra. Only 360 AC Bristols were produced, with many becoming successful production sports car racers and earning national championships in the USA and Europe.
This particular 1959 AC Bristol was produced with all of the then available racing options, including roll bar, oil cooler, redundant fuel pump and coil, grille shroud and intake manifold.
The car’s first owners, a Chicago-area resident, raced the car in SCCA races throughout the upper Midwest from 1959 into the mid-1960s. The car then moved to the Carolinas and later to Colorado where it was restored and resided for a decade in the Shelby American Collection Museum in Boulder.
This AC Bristol now competes in vintage racing with the Vintage Sports Car Club of America series.
Quality turnout at Hilton Head. Love the Mercedes contingent.
It’s a pleasure to watch the evolution of this Concours d’Elegance event over the last five years. The level of cars is outstanding and the team does an excellent job of choosing “interesting” examples that educate and excite enthusiasts. Keep up the good work!
I had a wonderful time at this event, but I do have to say that I found it curious that there were so few post war Aston Martins, significant Ferraris and no Maseratis. The “grand classics” contingent was very strong, though strange that the Aston LeMans and the MG PA-Airline Coupe were grouped together with Packards and Rollers. The Mercedes were well selected but I can’t help but think this event could do with more Ferrari 250’s, 400 and 410SA’s, perhaps a Zagato Aston and a smattering of examples from Maserati, Cisitalia and Siata. And where were the race cars??!! One AC, one Midget and a 356 Club racer were about it… bring on the Indy cars, the classic F1 cars, and be a mold breaker and hunt down 50’s and 60’s stockers or saloon car racers. Mix it up a bit!
Overall I felt this was a great event that needed just a little more variety to bring it up to the level of a World Class concours event. I mean this all as constructive criticism, I really did have a great time at a beautiful venue.
I really did miss the auction this year that seemed to curtail the depth of automotive pleasure experienced in 2008. Please secure a well known classic car aution company to help “round out” and promote this first class Concours de Elegance.