This year's Concours d'Elegance & Motoring Festival has expanded to four days, the events package is offering new experiences on Hutchinson Island in Savannah. Over a hundred years ago, people fell in love with their automobiles, races sprang up all over the world. This included Savannah's Great Races which ran from 1908 to 1911 and were brought back in 1997, but it never regained it's popularity.
The grand prix track still exists, but Hutchinson Island is now the home to the Westin Hotel, a golf course and some real estate development. This year, people are going to be able to drive their own vehicles on the track for a great experience; such as laps at high speeds, auto cross, Gymkhana courses and rides in classic and the lasted sports car models. What is Gymkhana? I went to Wikipedia for the answer.
Gymkhana courses typically involve only the use of first and second gear, where auto-testing in the UK and Ireland add the use of reverse gear. A Gymkhana course will typically be from 0:45 to 1:30 in length. Like auto-cross and auto-testing, Gymkhana courses are laid out with cones representing "obstacles" to navigate through slaloms, 180 degree turns, 360 degree turns, figure eight turns and some times parking boxes. Gymkhana requires strong mental concentration and memorization of the track, as sections of the course frequently must be repeated or navigated backwards and or differently.
This will be a great thrill for the automobile enthusiast, these events will occur on October 30 and 31. On Saturday, November 1, the festival moves to the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. They expect over 150 automobiles to be on display, many traveling from all over the country to compete in certain classes, over the next two days. Event planners are expecting over 15,000 to attend. Below I added a link to their website that provides all the information about the four day event.
Good video review of the Hilton Head Concours d'Elegance & Motoring Festival
(2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDQH-ZaBdTs
Posted by: Drew | December 31, 2008 at 11:02 AM