HomeNews and EventsBoca Raton concours has become major winter event

Boca Raton concours has become major winter event

-

Concours featured a magnificent profusion of Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs | Jim McCraw photos
Concours featured a magnificent profusion of Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs | Jim McCraw photos

At the 11th annual Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance, staged at the famous Boca Raton Resort and Club on Florida’s east coast, there was a lot of money to be made, but it was made for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, almost $10 million so far.

The all-volunteer concours (more than 300 persons this year) was founded by megadealer Rick Case and his wife, Rita, and has grown to become one of the major events of the winter in the Southeast.

The weekend started with what must be the largest hangar party on Earth, hosted by Atlantic Aviation at the beautiful Boca Raton airport, with acres of concrete absolutely slathered with private jets, many of them open for inspection during the evening. Food from 20 of Boca’s best restaurants, drinks aplenty, live Latin music, car and motorcycle displays, and a huge crowd of people made for a memorable evening.

Saturday was set aside for the auction operated by The Finest and for a seminar about the history and accomplishments of three of America’s treasured car brands — Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg, the trio of featured marques at the 2017 concours, which was the largest gathering of A-C-D cars anywhere in the world outside of Auburn, Indiana.

The Saturday gala featured redneck comedian Jeff Foxworthy.

Sunday, there were more than 200 cars and 60 motorcycles on the show field. Each and every one of the A-C-D cars on the field already had won Best Of Show somewhere at least once. A secondary celebration was for the 50th anniversary of the 1967 ponycars.

The rest of the field was up to the usual Boca Raton standard in terms of overall quality of finish, rarity and presentation, with more than a handful of machines that we had never seen or heard about previously.

Photos by Jim McCraw

Jim McCraw
Jim McCraw
Jim McCraw has been writing about cars, motorcycles, design, technology, car people and racing for 50 years, in such publications as Hot Rod Deluxe, Super Chevy, Muscle Mustangs, Road & Track, Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Penthouse, Winding Road, The Mercedes-Benz Star, AutoWeek, The New York Times, and a number of European publications. He was executive editor of Motor Trend, editor of Hot Rod and Super Stock. He co-holds the record for the drive from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Key West, Florida, 96:22, and has run in major events such as the Mille Miglia Storica in Italy, Goodwood, the California Mille, the Colorado Grand, the New England 1000, Forza Mille, and four One Lap Of America competitions He owns a pristine Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan.

Recent Posts

spot_img