Chattanooga Motorcar Festival Turns 5, Elegantly

The Chattanooga Motorcar Festival turned five a week ago, and the mid-south may never be the same.

Normally, when you think of fancy concours they’re on a lawn in places with a lake and a castle and lots of old guys wearing identical straw hats, navy blazers, and khaki pants. The Chattanooga Motorcar Festival had the hats and the pants, but the setting was unlike anything you’d expect at an event many are saying is on its way to world class. Eventually.

“The Concours is spread out throughout West Village,” said the show’s PR doyen Judy Stropus, referring to the hip, up-and-coming section of Chattanooga where the cars were parked. “Displays and classes are in different sections of West Village, on other sides of buildings, in some cases. They are not visible as one whole Concours. It’s all in the streets.”

Thus, the accompanying photos feature no overall shot, the kind you could take at Pebble Beach shooting down from The Lodge, or from a boat on Lake Como aiming back toward Villa d’Este.

Chattanooga’s show is spread out across town and lasts three days. It features a gala, a road rally, a car club event, a smaller version of Luftgekühlt, a Broad Arrow auction, a couple panel discussions, and a Sunday concours on the last day.

“We’ve got a lot of enthusiastic people wandering around, and the turnout of cars is terrific,” said concours director Ken Gross. “A concours d’elegance is all about elegance, and we had some of the most elegant cars of the 1930s on hand.

“We had several Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Duesenbergs. We had Ferraris and more than 30 vintage Jaguars. And we never had Sports Customs before. These are hand-built, homemade cars from the early 1950s. It’s a great event.”

Retired racer Jochen Mass said much of the appeal of this concours is the charm of Chattanooga. “I think this is a wonderful place to have this sort of event,” he said. “I’ve never been to Chattanooga and [my experience] has been very positive, and I really love the place. The quality of the cars is really amazing. I love it. It’s very honest.”

Added grand marshall David Hobbs: “It’s just such a lovely collection of cars, and the great thing about the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival is that it’s all so compact. It’s downtown, and at the same time it’s so friendly, free, and easy. I’ve been to many concours that are spread out. This one is so compact. It’s absolutely great—great for families. It’s very reasonably priced and there’s lots of good restaurants in West Village.”

Car celebrity Wayne Carini has been to the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival the last four years. “I keep coming back because of the people and the event itself. You always go back to a place where you feel welcome and I feel very welcome here."

Best in show went to a lovely 1935 Swallow Sidecar SS1 two-door coupe, owned by Eduardo Zavala of St. Petersburg, Florida. You may know the Swallow Sidecar Company by its later name, Jaguar Cars.

There were numerous classes covering everything from Ferraris and Porsches to a class for Radwood entries—the latter a class like Audrain’s 30 Under 30 aimed at attracting younger entrants and keeping the enthusiasm going to a new generation.

By all accounts the weather was perfect and you could get a three-day ticket for just $20. What’s not to like?