Rétromobile, Past and Future

This week’s blog post is from SCM Editor-in-Chief Jeff Sabatini.

I just returned from Paris, where I very much enjoyed the Rétromobile show. We’ll have more on that in the May issue of SCM, including full reports from the four auctions that sold an impressive $186m of cars this year. This morning, however, my first order of business was to book my room for the next Rétromobile — which won’t be held in Paris, but rather New York City, later this year.

The inaugural Rétromobile New York will be held November 19-22 at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. Organizers expect the show will host more than 200 exhibitors and attract over 70,000 attendees. Tickets are on sale now at retromobile.us, starting at $63, which is relatively affordable compared to the pricing of many car events these days. Gooding Christie’s will conduct the official Rétromobile New York auction on November 19-20, and it was mentioned in Paris that at least one other auction house will soon be announcing an “unofficial” sale in New York to be held around the same time.

There was a great energy about Rétromobile this year as its 50^th anniversary was celebrated. This included displays of BMW art cars, one devoted to the “golden age” of rallying, and even a showstopping Bugatti rail car. For many car lovers, it has become an annual tradition. So it goes that organizers are seeking to export this quintessentially European event to the U.S.

For the uninitiated, Rétromobile is part classic car exhibition, part collector car sale, and part car club meet-up. In attendance are classic car dealers, museums, auto manufacturers, parts vendors, memorabilia dealers and, of course, innumerable gearheads of every persuasion. Like all the best car gatherings, Rétro consistently surprises with a mix of cars you’ve always wanted to see, things you never knew existed, and stuff you never realized you were fanatical about until you did. It’s an entirely indoor event, which is good, as it’s held during typically rainy January at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.

New York in November shouldn’t be much different, weather-wise, and there’s nowhere in the U.S. that has a more similar vibe to Paris than New York. That might help explain why it was chosen, rather than glitzy Miami or sunny Southern California. Perhaps more of an issue than the location is the date, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Regardless, we hope the organizers can capture the flavor of the original Rétromobile here, and that the American collector car community enjoys and embraces it.

Read Keith’s previous blog posts here.

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