Hemmings Concours d'Elegance

September 15-16, 2018 — I traveled to Lake George Friday where I had booked a room at the Wingate for two nights to take in the Hemmings Concours d'Elegance. Hemmings had moved the event, which started in Stratton Mountain, Vermont, twelve years ago, to Saratoga Springs, New York, for several years, then to Lake George last year. I was seeing it for the first time at Lake George.

On Saturday, the Cruise-In Spectacular is open to all makes. Sunday's Concours d'Elegance is invitation only for the cars which must be approved in advance by officials, and must be 1974 or earlier. It's the crème de la crème of car shows. Weather for both days was almost as good as it gets, sunny but hot, especially for mid-September in upstate New York.

The shows were held on the Festival Commons at Charles R. Wood Park, a large open field that easily accommodated the hundreds of cars in each show. It's in a picturesque spot, surrounded by the Adirondacks with Lake George within a short walk. On the downside, parking for spectators is inconvenient, mostly on-street and metered, although the town fathers generously offered not to ticket for non-payment for the weekend. Good restaurants were hard to find, and truck food at the show wasn't as good as it was at Sarasota Springs.

Overall, it was a great show featuring a broad variety of vehicles. I was especially impressed with the beautifully restored pre-war vehicles, always my favorite. Since no vehicles were allowed to exhibit at both shows, it was as good as two completely different shows, and that's how I treated them, building two sets of pages on my website.

You can view my photos of the Saturday Cruise-In at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/lakegeorgecruise/

Sunday's Concours d'Elegance can be seen at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/lakegeorgeconcours/