Grand Basel to become world’s poshest car show

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There is always room for a new ultra-prestigious classic motor show, it seems. We’ve got Villa d’Este, Pebble Beach, Amelia Island and the new City Concours. But Basel, Switzerland and Miami Beach, Florida soon hope to become the homes of the concourses d’elegance to beat them all. The organizers of the Art Basel fairs around the world have now decided to come up with a motoring equivalent ‘centered around 200 of the world’s masterpiece cars’: Grand Basel. The reason? “This is the next big thing when you look at the big collector markets of the world”, or so the organizers say.

And, yes, the cars on show will be offered for sale, but only by invited dealers and brokers. Auction houses will not participate. Bloomberg spoke to Mark Backé, who is appointed as the event’s director and who told them “The event will be so exclusive that dealers aspiring to attend cannot simply just book a space. It’s an application process. They give us the data about the various cars they would like to entertain. Then we hand over the data to our advisory board. They make the choice. They say, ‘This is interesting; this is not interesting.’ It’s not like a regular trade show.” He doesn’t see it as a competitor to other concourses such as Pebble Beach: “Pebble Beach is a beauty contest. Grand Basel is not a concours, not a beauty show like Pebble Beach. You go when you have the idea in mind to buy something. To invest in something.”

The inaugural Grand Basel show will take place from 6 to 9 September in Basel Switzerland, followed by the Miami Beach variant in February next year. Hong Kong is the next venue. Entry for the public comes at 75 Swiss francs. British actor and disc-jockey Idris Elba is found willing to promote Grand Basel and can be seen in a short promotional movie here. Interesting?

(Words editor, pictures Grand Basel)

   

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