Geneva’s Concours d’Elegance to feature 350 cars

The Concours d’Elegance, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25 in downtown Geneva, will feature 350 cars, said Pat Barrett.

“We are celebrating the art of the automobile for 20 years,” Pat Barrett said, who is co-director with her husband, John. “We’ve done this celebrating from 2004 to 2024.”

The show includes the Magnificent Locomobile, a pioneering American automobile manufacturer founded in 1899.

“There are only three of them,” John Barrett said.

“They are beautiful cars. They started out as steam cars that then went to regular gas engine cars,” Barrett said. “There are only three of them. It shows you how rare they are. The three are from 1912, 1918 and 1924.”

The event will also recognize Carl Benz’s 180th birthday. Benz built the world’s first practical automobile with an internal-combustion engine.

“The most interesting car the show is featuring is the Mercedes with an 1886 replica of his first,” Barrett said of Benz’s creation. “It’s a beautiful representation of his original car...That’s how we came to use the statue of Carl Bentz (for awards) as he is considered the father of the automobile.”

Other vehicles to be featured include Morris Garages – the MG, Lite Trucks, vintage race cars and collector cars.

“We will have 17 feature MGs, a variety of them from 1922 through 1981,” Barrett said.

The Lite Trucks will be new this year.

“There’s so much interest in them. It’s not the kind of thing you would think a show like this would feature, but there were so many people asking us,” Barrett said. “Turns out, there’s a lot of them and they’re beautifully restored. In this case we will have 14 trucks, seven of them with family history. ... Those stories will be on the story board for each car.”

The oldest trucks will be a 1922 Model T Ford, a Modal A fire truck and a tank truck, both from the late 1920s.

“Trucks were just kind of coming on in that era,” Barrett said.

The tank truck was used to haul gasoline to gas stations.

“It’s small by today’s standards, but it was large in its day,” Barrett said.

Not all the vehicles will be part of the judging – which will be awarded at the end of the shot – but are there for display.

The cars will be on display on South Third Street and the cross streets from State to South streets.

The car show will also be a benefit for Northwestern Medicine Living Well Cancer Resource Center in Geneva.