I’ve finally taken a ride on the Chattanooga Choo Choo.
This was my fourth visit to the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival, sponsored by Millennium Bank. Like a fine wine, this event gets better each year.
Developer and philanthropist Byron DeFoor is the founder of the festival. His commitment to nurturing the resurgence of the city’s downtown has had remarkable results.
It has not been an easy road for Chattanooga. In 1969, Walter Cronkite named it the “dirtiest” city in America. (It is surrounded by mountains, which trap industrial pollutants.) Today, it is regarded as one of the top travel destinations in the South, especially for outdoor activities.
Festival organizers have created a weekend jam-packed with activities, including a street celebration, a fund-raising gala, a balloon drop, live bands and a laser light show. There was also a welcome emphasis on family-friendly activities, leading to lots of kids — perhaps future collectors — in attendance.
Best of Show this year was a handsome 1935 Swallow Sidecar SS1 owned by Eduardo Zavala of St. Petersburg, FL. It was delivered new to Argentinian tango performer Ada Falcón and spent 80 years in Buenos Aires before coming to the U.S.
In the flesh
The festival has always featured luminaries from the collector car and racing world in panel discussions. This year, these included Grand Marshal David Hobbs, Jochen Mass, Brian Redman, Linda Vaughn and Lyn St. James. The talk was moderated by my good friend Bob Varsha.
When I was a wet-behind-the-ears newbie doing color commentary at the Barrett-Jackson telecasts on SpeedVision, Bob carefully coached me through it. He also told me not to quit my day job.
The “Ferrari — Collecting, Restoring and the Value of the Brand” panel was moderated by SCM Contributor Ken Gross and included experts Kevin Caulfield, Connor Cogan and SCM Contributing Editor Steve Ahlgrim. Steve’s son Alex did a tremendous job of organizing the J. Willard Marriott Ferrari Club display, with cars ranging from the 375 MM that ran at Indianapolis in 1952 to a showroom-fresh SF90.
I was also featured on a panel discussion, this one related to collecting and also including Wayne Carini and Corky Coker. The discussion was held as a precursor to the Broad Arrow Auctions sale on Friday. We all agreed that the market is going through a downward cycle, which can make it an excellent time to buy.
Sold, sold, sold
And buy they did. The inaugural Broad Arrow auction here was a success, bringing in an announced $12.3m total. The cars on offer ranged from very nice to excellent, and across the board they made market-correct prices.
Of particular interest to me was a tired 1961 Giulietta Sprint Speciale that brought $72,800. A 1960 Giulietta Spider Veloce with an upgraded 2-liter motor sold for a healthy $81,200. My favorite, a 1970 Lancia Fulvia Rallye 1600 HF “Fanalone” (“big headlights” is the family-friendly translation), was a bit of a bargain at $79,520. The understated-but-classy Broad Arrow presentation took a positive step forward for the auction component of the festival.
There weren’t as many car clubs participating as in years past, but I am told they will be back in force next year. However, the mini “Luftgekühlt” did return, featuring a Q&A with founder Patrick Long and David Hobbs, who drove a number of Porsches at Le Mans in the 1970s and 1980s.
Due to conflicts caused by construction, there was no vintage-racing component this year. I can’t say that I missed it, as I had more time to look at cars and enjoy the vibrant city center.
Worthy cause
In my own five-plus decades of going to car events, one factor about the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival stands out from all the rest. That is that it has a host hotel — the Chattanooga Westin — in the center of all the activities.
We arrived at the hotel from the airport via ridesharing, and didn’t think about getting in a car again until it was time to return to the airport. By comparison, this made my recent attendance at Monterey Car Week seem like a re-enactment of the Battle of Verdun, with getting from event to event and finding parking only slightly less grueling than trench warfare.
The proceeds from the weekend benefit Chattanooga’s NeuroScience Innovation Foundation, a leading Alzheimer’s, brain-health and stroke-research foundation. During my visits to the festival, I have gotten to know its President and Medical Director, Dr. Thomas Devlin. He is fiercely devoted to cutting-edge research in these fields and he has become a good friend.
The Chattanooga Motorcar Festival occupies a unique position in the ever-evolving world of car shows. It’s not held on a golf course, but rather transforms the downtown streets of a pleasant midsize city into a car-lover’s paradise. More than just a two-hour gathering, it’s a three-day celebration of the cars and the people that make the hobby so great to be a part of.
Oh, and the Choo Choo was pretty swell too. ♦
