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Gearing Up: Highlands Motoring Festival
Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: April - 2022
Highlands Motoring Festival revs up the excitement for their June gathering.
Plans for the Highlands Motoring Festival are full speed ahead. What started as a local car show and single-day event back in 2008 has grown into a four-day festival featuring eight different events.
“The high quality of the show cars and the related events have made it a major happening in the classic car world,” explained Festival Coordinator Steve Ham.
He shared that in 2019, the festival gained the national spotlight after Classic Motorsports Magazine readers voted it “The Best Concours.” That year, HMF also attracted Dennis Gage to film an episode of his weekly television show, My Classic Car, for his millions of viewers around the world.
To make HMF a reality, a team of more than 20 dedicated volunteers work year-round to plan logistics, staging of cars, fundraising efforts, and more. This year’s festival takes place June 9-12, with activities including a Grande’ Driving Tour, Movie Night in the Park, Speciale’ Driving Tour, Cars in the Park Invitational Classic Car Show, Awards Gala, and the High Octane Car Show and Social Gathering.
“The centerpiece event of the festival is the Saturday car show ‘Cars in the Park’ that will exhibit more than 80 of the most desirable classic cars in existence,“ said Ham. “Every car must go through a rigorous application process to gain an entry invitation. These cars come from the pre-computer days (prior to 1990) and span nine decades of automotive evolution. The cars will be judged in eight classes, in addition to the 2022 featured marque, Porsche, which will draw more than 20 of the brand’s historic, limited production, and competition cars.”
Some of the cars already invited and accepted into the 2022 Cars in the Park are a 1968 Porsche 908 Short Tail Coupe; a Porsche 906, which has an extensive race history from 1966-68 with many first place finishes; a 1931 Packard 840 Dietrich Custom Convertible Sedan, which is one of only four produced; a 1930 Aston Martin International; and, a 1973 Ferrari 246 GTS.
In 2021, the festival was able to donate $81,000 to support local needs. Visit HighlandsMotoringFestival.com for more information.
