Hi Friends!

Over the last couple of weeks, there’s been significant discussion here surrounding major classic car events in this country and we’ve learned a lot as a result. At this point we’ve pretty acutely identified what people don’t like, who’s doing more and who’s doing less of those things and had a pretty good opportunity to examine things that currently exist and/or things that have existed, both good and bad in the past.

So now the question remains, moving forward, what would create the ultimate classic car week for you? 

It may sound like a simple thing to nail down, but there’s actually kind of a lot involved. As many readers of this newsletter know, due to their involvement in this business as a direct professional, member of the media or as a serious collector or hobbyist, these things have a lot of moving parts.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks thinking about this a lot myself and the conclusion I have come to looks like the inside of a 30-year-old SPICA mechanical fuel injection system, but I’ll try and break it down and describe it as simply as I possibly can:

Transportation & Logistics 

Ideally for me, I would like to be able to access air travel in and out of the area easily. I would like to have solid access to rental vehicles and I would like a reasonable freeway system that can not only handle the increased volume of traffic, but is also simple to navigate for someone who doesn’t live there and can get me to and from events efficiently, in approximately 20 minutes or less. Regarding hotels, there needs to be enough of them, they need to be a maximum distance of 20 minutes away from the events epicenter and there needs to be at least a three star range between the top and the bottom of what’s available.

Non-Auction Events

This seems pretty easy (just have some, right?), but not really. There needs to be enough events to make a trip to the area worthwhile and connect everything together from beginning to end, but it needs to not be overwhelming at the same time. Although I think they’re an important component overall, private events are largely irrelevant to this conversation. It’s a good idea to have stuff like this, but they’re not showing up in ads or anything that pushes the week forward long-term. Personally, I’m a big fan of events that have car club/reoccurring name brand type components (I think Werks Reunion by Porsche Club of America is a good example of somebody doing both of these things well), so I would always like to see the major ones represented and active in some capacity. I also think you need independent, defined opening and closing events (think for example, Concours on the Ave on Tuesday and Pebble Beach on Sunday like they used to do in Monterey). It also can’t be one company that runs the entire show. That limits the involvement of people from both a professional and spectator sense and sustainability comes into question there. Think of it like restaurant week. If there was only one restaurant, it be pretty boring and it wouldn’t really be a “week”, would it?

Auction Events 

Regardless of current trends with online auction platforms and people more and more choosing to bid from their couches, live auction events are a huge part of this hobby and not only serve as a significant intersection between buyers and sellers, but often the centerpieces in which everything else exists. Auction companies are simply the top of the pyramid and everything else trickles down from there. Especially in environments like this. Like with the restaurant week analogy, the same logic applies, and you also need more than one to make it work effectively. Obviously, all three major car weeks in this country do this and in my opinion, it can’t be a serious event series without it. You absolutely have to have multiple auction companies in play or else it just doesn’t work.

Major Players 

As stated repeatedly here, these things can’t be a monopoly. Unfortunately, there has been a significant degree of consolidation that’s occurred in recent years and although it may work for some, it seems that it’s not particularly working in the best interest of the marketplace overall. My memory instantly hearkens back to April’s Sports Car Market Magazine cover and it’s no holds barred take on Arizona Car Week of 2024. Major consolidation has occurred here, it’s limited the appeal that the marketplace presents, choaked out complimenting events and there’s been consequences. Major events, above and beyond everything else, need to be sensitive to the market. Without the market, none of it makes any sense and none of it works. Once you lose sight of that, you’ve lost your week. You need to have several people working towards a common goal. They can definitely be working against each other to get there (and they probably should be), but they all have to be moving towards the same thing. It can’t just be one.

We’ll conclude this little discussion series next week with part 4 and we’d like to do it with your thoughts, ideas and comments.

That’s it for this week…

Darin Roberge

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