Top collector cars coming to DIA in 2022 for Concours d'Elegance of America

Detroit Free Press (MI)

The Black Ghost is one of the most famous muscle cars ever made in Detroit and it is sure to be a big draw at the premiere car enthusiast show, Concours d'Elegance of America, next month in Plymouth, just west of Detroit.

A triple-black 1970 Dodge Challenger, the Black Ghost is a Detroit legend steeped in mystique and street lore. Dodge only made a couple dozen of them. Its first owner, Godfrey Qualls, was a Detroit cop who kept his car a secret. He'd take it out at night to drag race it on Woodward Avenue, smoking everyone at the time with a top speed of 135 mph.

"Nobody knew who he was. He'd run a couple races and then he'd disappear," said Gregory Qualls, Godfrey's son and owner of the car. "People would look for the car to come back and every so often, it'd pop up, win some races and disappear again."

The Black Ghost is among several of the 250 top cars shown at the Concours d'Elegance of America that has Detroit ties. Those ties make it fitting for Concours of America to finally move the event to the Motor City, said McKeel Hagerty, CEO of specialty car insurance provider Hagerty. Hagerty acquired Concours of America earlier this year.

Starting next year, Concours of America, an event where rare and collectable cars are displayed and judged, will be held at the Detroit Institute of Arts. It will also move to September, but further details and show dates will be announced later. The show this year will still be at the Inn at St. John's in Plymouth — where it's been since 2010 —on July 23-25.

"We're going to be bringing the best cars in the world here to the DIA and hopefully to the whole surrounding neighborhood," said Hagerty at a media briefing in front of the museum Wednesday. "We're working on those details now."

Hagerty owns three Concours events: Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, off the Florida coast, which Hagerty purchased on June 23; the Concours d'Elegance of America in Plymouth; and the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance in Connecticut, bought in 2019.

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Concours of America is in its 42nd year. It was canceled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When Hagerty took over, it asked the board of directors to reassess the event. Hagerty said. The Concours of America board told him its dream was always to hold the event in Detroit. The event first was held at Oakland University's Meadow Brook Hall.

"These cars are first and foremost really elegant and a car in the right setting looks different than it does on an everyday street," Hagerty said. "Then when you realize Detroit has been going through this amazing renaissance for the past several years, yes COVID was tough on everybody, but the momentum was still there. We said, 'Let's figure out how to make it happen.' "

Within about two months, Hagerty said, Concours and the DIA had reached a deal. Part of the DIA's openness to the car show was the fact that it has an exhibit running called, "Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020."

The Concours of America event will bring in business and buzz, Hagerty said. A ticket costs $35 and the shows typically draw about 10,000 car enthusiasts from all over. So Hagerty is working with nearby hotels and restaurants.

"We need to secure several hotels, you want to partner with restaurants, you want to show people where they can go out to eat, you'll need food trucks to make these things really work," Hagerty said. "Detroit's going through a renaissance, but we need this event to be a shining light of what it can be."

For car enthusiasts such as Qualls, being able to show off his father's car at the DIA on Woodward Avenue, where it once raced, is extra special.

Godfrey Qualls died in 2015 at age 73. A year later, his son got the car out of the garage where Godfrey had parked it 37 years ago.

"I wanted to drive the car because I wanted to know what was so special about this car, because he always talked about it, but I only had a ride in it once as a little kid," Qualls said. "He put a hundred-dollar bill on the dash and he said, 'If you can get this hundred-dollar bill when I say go, it's yours.' He says 'go' and takes off and as I try to reach to get the bill, I get put back in the seat of the car. I never did get that hundred-dollar bill."

Qualls said in 2016, the rubber on the car was deteriorated and it needed some work such as new hoses, but he hand-cranked it and "it turned right over real easily. It has a 426-Hemi engine, but what's special about it is the gator-grain roof."

He drives it about once a month now, taking it to car shows to keep the Ghost going for his dad.

"I do this as a tribute to him since he didn't get to do any car shows," Qualls said.

Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.