New cars at the Concours? Just like 100 years ago!
It was once again striking at Pebble Beach this year: new luxury cars from Bugatti, Hennessey, Aston Martin, and Lamborghini made their debuts in droves at what is essentially a classic car event. This can sometimes seem odd, but it's actually a long-standing tradition. Or to put it another way—concours d'élégance events originally started with new cars.
The first concours events began about 120 years ago; in German-speaking countries, they were initially called “parades” or “elegance contests” and later “beauty contests.” For example, in 1904 in Bad Homburg v.d.Höhe as the finale of the Gordon-Bennett Race Week and in 1905 at the German Automobile Week in Munich. In Austria, the honor goes to Abbazia (today Opatija in Croatia), where a beauty contest took place in 1912 as part of the Adria Sports Week.
The war then put a stop to such events for nearly ten years, until a Frenchman paved the way for a new beginning. On September 4, 1921, the writer and aesthete Marcelin André Becq de Fouquières (1874–1959) organized the first true Concours d'Elegance in the French seaside resort of Dinard, the “Nice of the North.”
He was the first to bring together coachbuilders and haute couture, thereby sparking a boom: In Baden-Baden (1921), Paris (1924), Vienna (1924), and Geneva (1924), this new type of event—showcasing cars, art, and fashion—was also celebrated. The spotlight was on luxurious, beautiful, and expensive cars: dream cars by Saoutchik, Chapron, and Vanvooren. The most beautiful and latest works of art in metal of the season. When a few pre-war models were exhibited at the 1932 Concours in Zurich, they were mocked as “old clunkers.”
With the decline of the art of coachbuilding, the concourses disappeared—only to reemerge years later to once again celebrate those masterfully crafted models that had since entered classic car status. In recent years, car manufacturers have also rediscovered classic car concours d'élégance for themselves. Especially since the former leading auto shows in Detroit, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Geneva have disappeared or are now merely a shadow of their former selves.
So new cars are once again taking center stage at the Concours d'Elegance. New dream cars—particularly sporty, luxurious, and expensive. As exclusive as they were 100 years ago—and, it seems, even more so with each passing year. And here and there, these one-day concours events are evolving once again into full-fledged automotive weeks, much like in the old days in Baden-Baden and St. Moritz—featuring races, concours events, and, of course, plenty of new cars.
