Carmel Concours on the Avenue is back, set for August 16

Monterey Auto Week 2011 in August, the yearly collection of car shows, vintage races, auctions and memorabilia, will also include the return of one of its unheralded, grand events — the Concours on the Avenue.

According to a report in the Carmel Pine Cone, the car show presented on Ocean Ave. and various side streets in downtown Carmel, will be held August 16.

The weekly newspaper reports owners Doug and Genie Freedman believe the daylong show will feature 175 collectible American and European cars and motorcycles from 1940 to 1989.

The event was canceled in 2010 for lack of sponsorship and after a last-ditch effort by Carmel city officials to raise $200,000 from local businesses failed.

According to the newspaper account, featured classes in 2011 will include American, Italian and British sports cars, luxury cars and family favorites, as well as hot rods, muscle and micro cars, historic racecars and motorcycles, and several classes of Porsches and Ferraris.

“We’re excited,” Doug Freedman told the newspaper from his office in Atlanta, Ga. “We’re going to be there. We are working hard, and we’re doing all the things we’ve done before . . . we’ll have a full complement of cars.”

Freedman stresses the show’s biggest need is sponsorship.

Concours on the Avenue was held for two days in its debut year 2007 and twice as one-day events.

The last Concours on the Avenue, held in 2009, was ideally presented August 11 under cool, overcast skies. An estimated 200 vehicles — Ferrari to Porsche, Austin-Healey to Volkswagen — shared the spotlight.

The cars were diverse — a 1943 Volkswagen (the only one of its kind in the United States) to a 1968 Pontiac GTO and a 1955 Porsche 356 Continental Coupe to a 1972 Ferrari  246 GTS.

For more information, visit: www.motorclubevents.com or phone (404) 237-2633.