Road map to 2030: Where is the collector car hobby headed? – The ClassicCars.com Journal

Punch “2030” into your GPS and it’s likely to provide you with a list of local streets, avenues and boulevards with addresses starting with 2030, or perhaps it will suggest the route to Dover, Massachussets, and its 02030 zip code.

But your GPS won’t point the way to 2030 for the collector car hobby as it rolls through a major transitional period during the next few years, as Baby Boomers give way, albeit reluctantly, to the upcoming generations of car collectors and what initially will be their very different interests.

To help predict and perhaps even to help point the way, we again have asked several leaders in the hobby, include some of those very next-gen members, to help us provide a road map as we move on down the hobby highway.

We did this exercise last year in the week leading up to Monterey Car Week, and we’re repeating the process this year, though with different essayists.

While this article is by way of introduction, the series begins Tuesday, August 6, with Lindsey Harrell, who this fall will become the president of the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival, looking at the future of concours and auto shows.

On August 7, John Kruse, professional educator and co-founder of Worldwide Auctioneers, examines the next decade ahead for the collector car auction industry.

Next up is Roger Falcione, founder of ClassicCars.com, who will look at the changing collector car marketplace and the vehicles that will appeal initially to the newcomer next generations. (Remember, however, you Baby Boomers, that when you were young, you probably had little if any interest in the pre-war, let alone Brass Era cars that you now collect. You were into building hot rods and maybe that Mustang you coveted in the high school parking lot.)

On August 9, Michael Bodell, Lotus enthusiast and collector, motorcycle racer and the youthful deputy director of the Petersen Automotive Museum, looks at how technology is updating the country’s car museums and making them more attractive for visitors.

It’s my turn next, on August 10 taking a look at the next-mod trend in collector cars. We’ve had resto-mods. Next up come electro-mods, or as some put it, the future proofing of the collector car.

On August 11, McKeel Hagerty writes about the seismic demographic transition the hobby is experiencing and what it means.

And then, on Monday, August 12, as Monterey Car Week begins, we’ll summarize the series and ask for your comments and reactions.

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