St. Michaels Concours d’Elegance Chairman, Luke L. Phipps below, announced that the St Michaels Concours d’ Elegance, will once again be held on the famously idyllic waterfront lawn of Inn at Perry Cabin by Belmond and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum on September 21-23, 2018. Check back here, tickets go on sale June 1st.
Please join me for an elegant weekend of Grand Classic Motoring, fine wines and gourmet food, classic wooden speed boats, fashion, and casual elegance on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. St. Michaels is home to galleries and museums, award-winning dining and accommodations, luxurious spas, and an upscale collection of boutiques. Accessibility by car, boat and small plane make it ideal for long weekends for travelers from D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, New York and beyond.
Now in its 12th year, the internationally acclaimed St Michaels Concours was in fact opened on the grounds of the Inn at Perry Cabin back in 2007 by Concours Founding Chairman George Walish, past GM of Rolls Royce of North America.
“The Inn’s historic and elegant nature”, says Phipps, “its beautiful 200-year-old gardens and its grandeur are the perfect backdrop for an event that has style at its core.” The Inn’s waterfront lawn and show field on Sunday will feature rare, pre-war (1900-1942) European and American coach-built automobiles as well as significantly important post-war (1946-1969) Sports Cars. A special class of previous Best in Show winners is being created and for the first time inclusion of a Classic Car Auction on Saturday sponsored by The Classic Motor Museum.
The St. Michaels Concours d’Elegance showcases the finest motorcars from around the world and is proud to announce Sonny Abagnale is the Honorable Chairman for 2018. It’s fair to say Abagnale knows something about motorcars, whether it’s collecting, selling, renting or racing them. The former stock car racer and stunt driver has a rather significant private collection, including a 1931 Pierce Arrow that was originally owned by Rose Kennedy. “It has her initials on the passenger door and the darkened windows are an early attempt at providing security during the Great Depression,” he says.
The former car dealer also has provided cars for several television shows and films, including “The Godfather.” “I still have a couple, including Sollozzo’s Buick Limited Touring Sedan.”
But elegant touring cars and roadsters, particularly Duesenbergs, are the cars Abagnale is most fond of.
“They are the best. They’re all hand-built,” he says. “I showed a 1934 Duesenberg SJ Rollston Limousine at Pebble Beach in 2014. It’s is all original and fully restored. With a supercharger and a closed roof, it’s very rare. The original owner had it built to tour Europe and carry 800 lbs. of luggage on the roof.”
The Duesenberg Limousine is representative of the qualities that collectors like Abagnale look for in classic automobiles — elegance, rarity and provenance — and when they are fully restored why collectors seek to present them at Pebble Beach, Amelia Island and other Concours events around the country such as the St Michaels Concours.
The Concours will continue its partnership with the Classic Motor Museum in 2018, too, with plans for the Museum to host Saturday’s Motoring Tour departing from the newly constructed post and beam exhibits barn housing the museum’s main collection.
Final details of Concours weekend are being made to include a Gala and Dinner Dance on Saturday evening at Inn at Perry Cabin to benefit the Classic Motor Museum’s budding educational program.
In the tradition of the historic Concours events held in Paris, Sunday’s exhibit of automobiles will be complemented by an enhanced and elegant fashion show. An additional display of classic wooden speed boats, along Inn at Perry Cabins waterfront lawn on the Miles River, will enhance the mood of stepping back in time.
I am looking forward to seeing you there…