Motorheads search for memories, dry weather at the 2021 Concours d’Elegance
Umbrellas were in high demand Sunday morning at the Port Royal Golf Club during Hilton Head’s annual Concours d’Elegance.
And any umbrellas that could be found were used to protect the cars.
The weather did nothing to deter eager car enthusiasts from attending the motor festival, which was back on after COVID-19 canceled it last year. People brought raincoats and thanked the owners of the cars for being “good sports” to have them out in the rain.
Howard Banaszak, the owner of a cherry red 1951 Cooper MG Barchetta Roadster, also known as a Joy 500, said he paused when deciding to bring his own car out for the show.
“I thought about it this morning because it was pouring when we came in and we did the tour on Friday,” Banaszak said. “I said, ‘you know, the British drivers drove in this when they were racing back in the fifties, so you can suck it up.’”
The two small windscreens in front of the car “don’t do anything” when it comes to protecting him from the rain, according to Banaszak. He has to wear goggles to drive that make him “look like a goob,” he said, but his eyes will water if he doesn’t. He has owned the car for 20 years and his favorite thing about it is its history, he said.
For Philip Ross, an engineer and car enthusiast from Ohio who drove 12 hours to get to the festival, the day was about searching for a Hudson Hornet like the one his grandparents used to own.
“It was an ugly thing,” Ross laughed. “It had four colors on it — white, pink, gray and gold. That was the factory, it was not special order or customized afterwards, they bought it new that way.”
Most of the vehicles, decked out in all their vintage glory, have been painstakingly preserved and are rarely driven. That much cannot be said for the 1969 Series II Jaguar Natalie and Scott Bluestein brought to the show.
“I drive mine all the time,” Natalie Bluestein said. “I do, my husband can’t drive a stick shift. I drive it and he looks good.”
The Bluesteins dressed the part to go with their car. Scott was decked out in a floral button-down and vest and Natalie in go-go boots and blue eye shadow. The couple has been coming from Charleston to the show every year for 10 years. They enjoy blasting music and cruising down the road with the racing carburetors installed by the previous owner.
“She doesn’t purr, she roars,” she said.
