Concours d'Elegance Drives In at Western Gateway Park Sunday

Cars in the "exotics" class lined up on 12th Street near Western Gateway Park Sunday. Photo: Andrew Houp

(Des Moines, IA) -- Car lovers and classic car owners came together for the annual 2023 Des Moines Concours d’Elegance car show on Sunday. The event featured approximately 130 cars and 25 motorcycles. Rich Collins, recruitment chairman, says each year brings a vastly different group of entries. "We do not recruit cars by the prior year, ninety-five percent of these cars are going to be cars that have not been in the event before, or at least not in several years," Collins said.

2023 featured a few new categories compared to last year, including special classes for the 70th anniversaries of the Corvette and Nash Metropolitan. The 1963-1973 Buick Riviera was also featured.

Deborah Henry and her husband came all the way from Mississippi to show her 1934 V12 Packard 1107 Club Sedan. It won second place in the classics category. She says family history inspired her purchase of the car a few years ago.

"My dad had old cars, he did not have a Packard, but my mother's two brothers, one had a Packard, one had a Pierce Arrow," Henry said, "I focused in on Packard because they were in business longer."

Best in show this year was a 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom II. Show proceeds benefit the Children's Cancer Connection.

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