I’ve attended the Greenwich Concours for over fifteen years and by all accounts this year represented the high water mark. For 2018, the show had all the attributes of a successful Concours d’Elegance: interesting people, breathtaking cars, decent weather and a beautiful venue on Long Island Sound. Festivities began on Friday morning with a vintage tour and concluded with an evening lecture about Briggs Cunningham with legendary collectors Miles Collier and Dr. Fred Simeone. Saturday featured American cars with a formal gala in the evening. Sunday’s field was primarily European vehicles with the Bonham’s auction in the afternoon. Cunningham was the featured marque this year and both days featured an extensive gathering of this rare and storied brand.
The mid-week forecast painted a grim picture—rain on Saturday and showers on Sunday. Over the years the show has endured its fair share of inclement weather. Violent electrical storms have ravaged the show field on more than one occasion, causing schedule changes and abbreviated awards ceremonies. This year the rain stayed well south of Greenwich—Saturday was hot and sunny and Sunday was cool and partly sunny.
With the passing of event founders Bruce and Genia Wennerstrom, the management of the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance transitioned to the next generation. Congratulations to the young-timers of the Wennerstrom family for continuing the family legacy in full force and beautiful style! The 2018 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance was a spectacular event and a resounding success. The show now firmly sits among the top five Concours held in North America. It will take hard work and creativity to stay at the top, however, this weekend certainly helped solidify the future of this venerable event.
The following photos are vignettes from a beautiful Sunday at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich. Some of these photos are courtesy of Dean Laumbach.
Jay Harman enjoying the taste of victory with his three daughters!
With Portia Pray and Lilly Pray.
Jay Harmon took home the coveted Founder’s Award for his stunning Bitter CD. Photo with show host Leif Wennerstrom.
Videos courtesy of Dean Laumbach, Laumbach Consulting LLC
After driving 8 hours to get to Connecticut, we were also very relieved that the weather was much better than forecast! The logistical efforts to get essentially every Cunningham car built–there were 34 of the 36 made present, and the missing cars were one that had been destroyed and the other that was too fragile to travel–was a once-in-a-lifetime event, as was seeing Tom Cotter model Briggs Cunningham’s raccoon coat. An excellent show, although judging from the cars in the visitors’ parking lot there is great potential for a Cars & Coffee event such as at the Concours of America or the Elegance at Hershey.