2021 Concours Recap

A BEAUTIFUL, WARM SEPTEMBER DAY, a great venue, an array of beautiful Porsches, a large group of public spectators, and — most of all — enthusiastic UCR participants and volunteers. This is the perfect recipe for a successful Concours d’Elegance, and we had it all last month.

Firemen’s Park in Niagara Falls was the place to be on Sept. 4 for the annual PCA UCR Concours d’Elegance event. Why Niagara Falls? Originally, we had booked the park for UCR to host the larger PCA Zone 1 Concours in 2020, making it easily accessible for our fellow American PCA members to attend. Then COVID-19 happened and the event had to be cancelled. The Concours team then thought, why not keep the venue and have our own event there in 2021, and we are glad we did.

When we arrived at 6:30 a.m. to set up the show, a team of volunteer chefs from the park were already preparing the warm breakfast choices with enthusiasm. The vendors started rolling in and all were guided to their spots and, before you knew it, like clockwork, they were set up and ready for the day.

Our volunteers are second to none, with nearly 30 coming out to assist. When the first volunteer arrived at 6:40 a.m., we knew we were in good shape to accomplish the set-up. The 160 goodie bags were prepared the night before in a production line format and we were ready.

Our volunteers guided the non-Porsches into the general, public spectator parking and the Porsche cars to the Concours field for pre-registered cars or to the adjacent grassy field for Porsche-only parking. At one time during the day, we had approximately 150 cars in the Porsche-only parking area and another 150 on the show field. Many of the cars we had never seen before, and it was a great mix of years and models to behold.

Twenty of the planned 25 classes of Porsches were organized and grouped on the field. If you had brought your 968, Panamera, Macan, Taycan or Special Interest Porsche, you would have won your class, as no others were registered. Trophies were awarded in each class for the winner and runner-up in the Peer Judging category, as well as top awards handed out for the judged Porsches.

Porsche Centre Oakville, our title sponsor, awarded the Judges’ Choice trophy for the most outstanding car of the day; Hagerty presented the award for Best Preserved Original Porsche; Restoration Design was on hand to award the Best Restored Porsche trophy; Sonax awarded the Best Presented Porsche; and finally, Johnston Research & Performance (JRP) gave out the People’s Choice Award, which was voted on by all participants and the spectators as well. Our event co-host was Niagara Parks.

Everyone that day was just so delighted and grateful to be out at a UCR event and it was so nice to see families enjoying the great camaraderie and beautiful venue. We received positive accolades all day, including “Best Concours ever!” “This is what club membership is all about!” “When can we do it again?” “Love the drive to Niagara and the event should be held at the same venue again next year” “Amazing burger” and, one of our favourites, “There is enough room at this place to double the number of Porsches next time!” Like we always say, “It’s not just the cars, it’s the people.”

We sincerely thank all our sponsors as, without them, we could not have made the event the success that it was. Porsche Centre Oakville brought a truckload of beautiful Porsches, from restored 356 and 944 Turbo models to the latest 911s, and also organized test drives in the Porsche Taycan — what a treat! Be sure to join us next year to get in on the fun! </>

A sincere thank-you to our generous sponsors!

Title Sponsor: Porsche Centre Oakville

Premier Sponsors: JRP Johnston Research & Performance, Hagerty, Restoration Design, SONAX, Niagara Parks

Supporting Sponsors: Porsche Canada, Dave Moore RE/MAX Realtor, Collector Car Canada, Kyser, The Armchair Motorist, Auto-Tailors, Reif Estate Winery

Story By Michael Pohlmann and Kye Wankum

Photography by Christopher Hebert, Eshel Zweig and Graham Jardine