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A heritage parade on wheels on the Bund
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Last month on the stately streets along the Huangpu River, dozens of vintage car owners from around the world gathered in a rare spectacle for Shanghai. Against the backdrop of the famed buildings on the Bund, auto enthusiasts and their classic wheels provided a museum in motion, harking back to the city’s golden age in the 1920s and 30s.
China’s first international-level Concours d’Elegance, the Bund Classic, strutted a star-studded line-up that included a 1925 Renault 45 Tourer, a 1935 Auburn 852, a 1939 Rolls-Royce Wraith, a 1951 Bentley Mark VI and a 1963 Porsche 356 Super 90.
Speed is not of the essence. Participating cars competed in categories such as historical accuracy, technical merit and style. The event oozed exclusivity and glamour.
“But I would not say classic cars mean luxury,” said Delphine Lignières, founder and CEO of China Rendez-Vous, organizer of the Bund Classic. “It is more about culture, heritage and legacy. But indeed it is a lifestyle that can be expensive.”
Lignières, who started her business in China as an event organizer of another expensive pastime — yachting — was careful to avoid any words that might be translated in news reports as wealth-flouting.
The story about rich people’s life in China can often take on a life of its own. Hainan Rendez-Vous, an exclusive yachting social platform organized by her company, was caught up in a scandal of hosting “wild” parties this year. Lignières insisted the reports were nonsense.
This kind of misunderstanding never happens in Monaco or in France where boating culture is quite mature, she strengthened. In fact, across the globe, yachting is no longer the exclusive realm of the rich, and owning a car, even an expensive car, has become somewhat commonplace, she noted.
The same transformation may happen to the Concours d’Elegance in China.
“We started with the premium segment because it is nice to show the best part, the glamorous part,” she said of the exhibition of vintage cars.
Lignières said she once met a moderately well-off Chinese man in Xiamen, Fujian Province, who owns a collection of 40 classic cars, including a Citroen from 1934. His cars might not quite be up to the quality of this year’s Bund Classic, but that may change in time.
The standard of this year’s classic was bolstered by a high-caliber judging panel, led by Sandra Button, chairwoman of the world-renowned Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, California, which has 63 years of history.
“It is kind of fun to see an event at its very infancy,” Button said. “I am quite impressed with the level of the cars. Many could qualify in the Pebble Beach event. The Chinese people have a lot of love for beautiful things — quality, culture, history — and classic cars embody them all.”
For Button and other vintage car collectors, part of the fun is sharing their passion. Someone restoring an old car often searches out other collectors with similar models if a piece is missing or something has been changed by a previous owner to tarnish the car’s historical authenticity. Some collectors even share car pieces by mail.
“For a lot of enthusiasts,” Button said, “the emotional high they get from their cars is being able to use them. Restoration techniques today are so sophisticated that in some cases, a restored classic might be in more mint condition that when it left the factory.”
One special exhibit Pebble Beach once had is a Simplex car from the 1910s which never left the family that owns it from the very beginning, Button recalled.
“It is not a wealthy family,” she said. “Every year we have this kind of collectors coming, bringing their personal treasure and part of family history.”
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