It was very cold, only got up to about 60 degrees and very windy all day. Not a good day to be out in open or in a Jolly car driving over to the meet.   Buster and Brenda Tankersley won with their 1957 BMW Isetta.    The Palmetto awards went to  Mark and Hillary Becker in their 1939 American Bantam Station Wagon  and Larry and Janice Newberry in their 1958 Vespa 400 Jolly. As usual the microcars stirred up a lot of interest. There was a walking tour of the microcars at noon that was put on by  J.C. O’Steen.   Other people attending the event from microcar world wias Robert and Betty Mercer with their 1940 Bantam Hollywood ,Don and Ruth Ittel with their Vespa 400,  Patricia Schwarze drove her 1967 Citroen 2CV and exhibited, Bruce Hall had his 1971 Fiat SHellette and Lane Motor Museum had a 1959 Fram King S-7 and a 1969 SS Suburban on display. As usual the show was wonderful with lots of people visiting even with the cool weather. A great time was had by all. There was a great group of all classes of cars. Probably the best to date. Looking forward to next year. – Larry Newberry

Mark and Hillary Becker in their 1939 American Bantam Station Wagon

Larry and Janice Newberry in their 1958 Vespa 400 Jolly

Buster and Brenda Tankersley with their 1957 BMW Isetta

The 2008 Hilton Head Island Concours D’elegance featured a MICROCARS specific class this year
In attendance were examples of Messerschmitt Tg500, Messerschmitt KR200, Mochet Velocar, IOTA, Peel P50, Zündapp Janus, FIAT Jolly, Vespa 400, BMW Isetta 250, Berkeley and Scootacar MK2.

There were also a pair of Crosleys in another catagory: Outstanding Orphans.
(This was primarily because the “Microcars” class was featuring European Microcars and the Orphans class was featuring American Orphans, otherwise they would have been in the Microcars class)

David Anspach's Crosey HotShot won an award in another catagory.

Palmetto Awards went to Janice & Larry Newberry’s FIAT Jolly and to Kerry and Linda Erendson’s Scootacar MK 2. Best of Class went to Jim Garbo’s Messerschmitt KR200.

Although NORMALLY exhibitors are required to stay until 4pm for the benefit of those who paid to get in to see the cars, the weather turned to light rain in mid-afternoon and anyone who wanted to leave the grounds around 2pm did not get any resistance from officials. Otherwise it was a gorgeous event.
Because the turnout was so good, it is possible that the Microcars Class will become a regular class at this Concours D’elegance.

More info on this and other Concours events around the country in a future issue of MICROCAR NEWS magazine.

[UPDATE] Hilton Head Island Concours has posted a GALLERY of the winners this year.
Click the MICROCARS section to view the 3 winners, also click the ORPHANS section to see the winning Crosley.

Looking for the 2009 Hilton Head Island Concours winners for Microcars Class? Click Here

photo: Mark Hatten

Vintage Microcars have started becoming a “must have” at Concours d’Elegance events since 1996 when Pebble Beach made a separate catagory for them and invited a number of owners to show their cars that year.

Amelia Island Concours also had a Microcar catagory in 2006 and smaller Concours events around the country appear to have taken a cue from this and decided that “it’s OK” to have Microcars at Concours events. The Milwaukee “MASTERPIECE” has had at least one Microcar in their show for the past few years and will continue to do so in 2008, Hilton Head Concours also featured Microcars in 2007.

This year the Forest Grove Concours in Portland OR had two Microcars; an Isetta owned by Phil Richardson and a Messerschmitt KR200 owned by Mark Hatten. Read more coverage of the event at the NEWS TIMES

more coverage of Mark’s Messerschmitt at the Concours is HERE