Chasing Classic Car Weeks
Happy Labor Day!
Last week I was back out on the road and visiting friends and clients in the Denver, Colorado area. The primary reason for my trip however was to attend the 21st annual Morgan Adams Foundation Concours and party at the Centennial Airport in Englewood, a nearby suburb.
I must say, this was an incredibly impressive event. Very well organized, the presentation was flawless, car, motorcycle and airplane selection was amazing, the crowd was large, engaged and excited and most importantly, they raised a TON of money for the foundation and their mission to battle childhood cancer. Motorwerks offered some design assistance for the event and it was an honor and a privilege to be involved.
I also ran into a lot of people who were in the area visiting specifically for this event. Folks from Arizona, California, Texas, the Midwest and of course basically everyone that we work with in Colorado was also there. It’s very clear that word of this event is getting around and that it’s definitely starting to become a thing.
But what if it really became a thing?
We talk a lot about car weeks here and the importance of having the main ones exist in a strong and healthy capacity, but what if there’s room for more? Chattanooga Motorcar Festival is certainly starting to create a buzz and as we all know there is auction activity starting this year with Broad Arrow Auctions inaugural event this October. There seems to be a significant degree of potential here, but what if there’s other places that offer as much or more?
A fact that may be surprising to some, is that Motorwerks has our highest concentration of clients in the world located in and around the Denver area. It’s not just one thing either. It’s muscle car stuff, it’s sports car stuff, it’s race car stuff, it’s late model, it’s events, it’s non-profits, we’ve got a little bit of everything in that area. There’s also cars. Lots of them and lots of significant ones. The collections that I’ve been in and out of in Colorado are among some of the most impressive that I’ve ever seen. From the perspective of people, with over 600 through the door at Morgan Adams on their main night and then several hundred more the following day for their cars and coffee/soiree event, it shows that there’s genuine passion and a strong community of like-minded enthusiasts there as well.
But what does this all prove?
It proves that there’s a real structure and a backbone to car culture in the Denver area and I wasn’t the only one to observe this. While spending time with a group of clients from here in Arizona, the primary topic of discussion was how impressive everything was in Colorado, that they really may have something happening there and how it could potentially attract a lot of eyeballs if positioned correctly.
This is not a particularly isolated scenario either. Not long ago, I was in the Seattle, Washington area and thought nearly the same thing. Between organizations like Lemay and America’s Automotive Trust as well as social and lifestyle clubs like Avants and The Shop Clubs and presence of major national automotive car care brands like Griot’s (not to mention some of the best car collections I’ve certainly ever seen anywhere), Seattle certainly has the structure to accomplish some fairly significant things on a national stage, if that’s something that collectively decided they wanted to do as well.
The question I walked away asking myself however, was are we better off having fewer major series of events like we do now or does it become a more positive thing for car culture overall to spread this stuff out and do as much as possible, in as many places as possible?
On one hand, I feel like having too many options takes away any degree of “specialness” that’s currently presented by limiting major event series to Arizona, Florida and Monterey and that could potentially segregate people and make things harder as more people choose to attend regional events in lieu of the larger National gatherings. At the same time, if for some reason one of the legs does break off this chair that we are all sitting on, is it actually better to have more places to congregate, network and ultimately do business?
I hear concerns from people in and around this business and this hobby a lot that it’s getting more difficult for people to spend time together and do things face to face. Of course, the insinuated primary culprit of most of this is the internet, but what if the answer to that was easier accessibility based on regional activity?
I think it’s an option, but I’m not sure it’s actually the right one
That’s it for this week…
Darin Roberge