SLIDESHOW: Concours D' Elegance Draws Antique Car Collectors From Around the Country

The Palo Alto Lions club's Concours D' Elegance, a sort of beauty contest for cars, raised over $100,000 for local charities last weekend.  For over 45 years, car fanatics have come from around the country to display their restored cars, some hoping to win an award. 

The contest is invitation-only and the top 300 antique cars are picked to be displayed in the show.  There are about 25 different catagories of cars grouped by age and manufacturer, as well as special exhibits such as, hot rods, racing cars, vintage race cars, midget race cars and Duesenberg.  The featured cars this year were the BMWs, for foreign car, and the ford flat heads, which refers to the configuration of the car’s engine. 

"Since I was 16 years old I loved cars," Chip Payne, who exhibited his 1928 Ford Roadster, said. "I hunt parts and meet people from all over the world. We can be from all over the world and can be poppers or multi-billionaires, but there is one common thread: cars and memories." 

The cars vary considerably in both age and value. The oldest cars that were displayed were made in the early 1900s, and the most valuable cars were the Dusenburg models, which can sometimes fetch over one million dollars on market. 

"You can buy the car cheap, but it's a real job job to restore and can cost a lot of money,"  said Bill Downey, a volunteer for the show.

According to Downey, as time passes, certain collector cars come into fashion and out of fashion, depending on the age of the car collectors.

"Most people who come out and have an interest in cars they saw when they were in college and were impressionable, the cars that you really wanted but couldn’t afford," Downey said. "There was a time when the Model T Ford was the most desired collector car, but the people who knew the Model T Ford in their childhood have died off so they move up to time to more modern cars. "

 Although Downey appears to have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of car trivia, he may actually just be an example of the average antique car fan. 

"I really don't know that much," he said. "I just like cars."