A Competition in Elegance

Every year at the beginning of October, Orange County residents get to see several hundred of the most exquisite classic automobiles ever built. Each is lovingly restored and maintained by its owner to seeming perfection (by everyone but the judges). This amazing display is called the ATSC Newport Coast Concours d'Elegance.

Competition in Elegance
Owners of automobiles can compete with each other by racing their cars or by displaying them. Through the first half of the 20th century, competitions based on looks and style compared what was newer and better, much as auto shows do today.

By 1950 there were enough beautiful classic and antique cars—cars which wouldn't have been accepted in a normal auto show—that it was possible to get owners to show and compare their cars by their beauty, their style, their authenticity, their rarity. It wasn't to be a race but a competition of elegance—a concours d'elegance.
The first Concours d'Elegance was held at Pebble Beach in Carmel, California in 1950 in conjunction with a road race. While the road race was probably the major draw that year and the classic cars an added attraction, over time the show became the major event. (The tree lined 17 mile drive proved to be too dangerous and the road race ended in 1956 with the death of one of the drivers.)

Over time, the Pebble Beach event became so popular that the idea spread to other parts of the country. In 1976 a competition in the Midwest took the name Concours d'Elegance. In 1983 some visionaries in Newport Beach created the Newport Coast Concours d'Elegance.

Those visionaries were Catherine Thyen, Francie Carver, Lani Straman and Judy Gertner. As Catherine Thyen recounts it, "recruiting notables in the automotive world, developing a motivated steering committee (many of whom are still active today), enticing the owners of great cars, particularly from local collectors who were not accustomed to exhibiting their prized treasures, recruiting knowledgeable judges who were naturally suspicious of neophytes, and visiting other concours to woo those owners to attend, became a passion for the novice committee.

"The energetic team did it all—from laying out the field to finding underwriters, designing trophies, throwing press parties, luring a famous automotive artist, persuading a generous Michael Gertner to buy the first canvas, selling ads, convincing the late Dr. Aldrich that they needed the bucolic greens of Aldrich Park at UCI, choosing caterers, finding generators, walkie-talkies, maps, signs and more signs of all kinds. And it all came together on October 9th, 1983."