The 14th annual Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival & Concours d’Elegance will take place over two weekends beginning Thursday October 22 with a Pace Lap Party at City Market in Savannah, Georgia, beginning at 5:30 p.m. and sponsored by Critz BMW and Hilton Head BMW.
The first weekend then continues on Friday, October 23 with the three-day Savannah Speed Classic on the Grand Prize Track of America road course on nearby Hutchinson Island. Among the special vehicles on hand will be a 1911 EMF “30” racecar recently acquired by local resident Dale Critz Jr. This car competed in the series of Great Savannah Races and took home silver in the Tiedman Trophy contest of 1911.
This year’s Grand Marshal, Skip Barber, will be guest of honor at a special dinner event, on Friday, October 23 at 6 p.m., at the Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront (843-785-7469 ext 4 for reservations). Tickets are $125 per person, with all proceeds benefiting Driving Young America, the designated charitable fund for the Savannah Speed Classic and the Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival.
The following weekend attention turns to the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance, which caps off the Festival on Sunday, November 1 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at Port Royal Golf Club. The concours will feature an unprecedented collection of new and historic Volvo cars (above) to help celebrate a long lineage of elegant and iconic automotive design. Five historic Volvo cars will sit alongside the future of the company — an all-new XC90 T8 Twin Engine, the world’s first seven-passenger plug-in hybrid SUV.
Prior to the concours, vintage aircraft aficionados will enjoy the Aero Expo at the Hilton Head Island Airport, where among the planes on display will be a 1928 Ford Motor Company Tri-Motor 5-AT-B and a 1938 Lockheed 12 A Electra, one of only 125 built. Also featured will be “BMW Milestones,” which will celebrate the aviation-based company’s many anniversaries — 20 years of manufacturing in South Carolina, 40 years in North America and 100 years of BMW worldwide — with one significant vehicle from each decade. And, Auctions America will be holding its first Hilton Head sale on the Saturday evening, with two of its top offerings being a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC and an F-code 1957 Ford Thunderbird with the supercharged 312 V8.
There will also be a Car Club Showcase between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday at Port Royal Golf Club, and both Saturday and Sunday will offer a Motoring Midway filled with vendor displays, again between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. For more information, visit the official Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival & Concours d’Elegance website at www.HHIMotoringFestival.com.
