Lock a car guy inside during a pandemic… bring on the nice Spring weather… don’t let him attend car shows. I was about to be on the floor, feverishly shaking in a fetal position with all of this going on… until…. I caught wind of car guy extraordinaire Andy Reid’s newest great idea, the “Isolation Island Concours d’Elegance”. Imagine, a Concours d’Elegance in these unusual times of global pandemics and economic collapse, a concours event you can enter a car in and attend from the comfort of your own home, yet it’s organized very much like Pebble Beach or Amelia Island, that’s the ‘Isolation Island Concours d’Elegance’ for die cast cars.
I entered my 1979 450 SLC 5.0 African Safari Rally Car into class 10C ‘Race Cars 1968 – 1982’.
That’s right, you take a photo of your die cast car (1/18, 1/24 or 1/43 scale only) and post a handful of photos of the car on the “The Isolation Island Concours d’Elegance” Facebook group for all to enjoy. It’s a little more complicated than that, of course, Andy has set up this concours much like the most prestigious concours events in the world in terms of car classes. There are 10+ classes covering Pre-War to modern cars, European and American cars, competition cars and road cars, from various manufacturers, it’s pretty authentic. But all the cars are die cast and you don’t have to be a rich guy with a 6 or 7 figure car to participate.
Andy and I have been the guest speakers at the Mercedes-Benz Club of America Desert Stars Section ‘Auction Week Dinner’ event in Scottsdale for the past few years, here we are talking Mercedes auction prices in Scottsdale, January 2020.
Andy’s thoroughness doesn’t stop their. What do they say, “a concours event is only as good as its judges”? Well, Andy has recruited a number of top notch concours judges to help with the judging duties. For example… Paul Russell of Paul Russell and Co. will be judging the Mercedes Class. Legendary race driver David Hobbs has been recruited to be a judge. Other judges are a who’s who of the car and concours world… Tommy Kendall, Ken Gross, Dr. Paul Sable, Keith Martin and the list goes on. Does it get any better than that?
Like most great concours events, this one also aims to do some good. In the official concours rules Andy was sure to include a charitable requirement… in his words, directly from the rules of the event: “PLEASE GIVE SOMETHING BACK: Finally we ask you to make a small donation to a community food bank or first responders charity in your area. This is on the honor system as you are likely to come from all over the world. Anything is good and this is on the honor system. If you can only give a dollar, please give a dollar. Also please call out the charity you gave to in your post description.”
Andy’s creative idea has brought out the kid in all of us and brought a little levity to these days by creating a unique online event to take our minds off of all that’s weighing on us and to enjoy our car hobby, even if we do it from our living rooms.
The deadline for entries is later this week, so visit the Facebook page, read the rules, take some photos of your favorite die cast car and post them to the “Isolation Island Concours d’Elegance”.