Get Geared Up for the Hagerty Family Car Show

Event Date: July 5th, 2009 11am – 4pm
Location: Hagerty Campus, 141 Rivers Edge Traverse City, MI 49686 (Google Maps)

Join us in Traverse City, Mich., for the Hagerty Family Car Show, scheduled for Sunday, July 5 on the Hagerty campus. It’s our very own hometown event and a major part of the National Cherry Festival celebration, scheduled for July 4-11, 2009.

The Cherry Festival is our region’s largest annual civic event and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors for concerts, parades, craft fairs, midway rides and dozens of fun competitions and events. In fact, the National Cherry Festival was recently named one of the “Top 10 Civic Festivals” in the country – quite an honor for our hometown.

Hagerty’s sponsorship of the Family Car Show has attracted a very diverse mix of collector cars, racecars, hot rods, customs, tuners, trucks and now, classic motorcycles and vintage tractors. In 2008, we displayed over 300 vehicles, highlighted by the Futurliner, a fully-restored luxury bus built by GM in the 1950s to highlight new technology.

For 2009, we reached out to the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, and with support from local alumni clubs from both schools, we have two very unusual and exciting exhibits. The U-M Solar Car Team will be displaying its record-breaking 2008 North American Solar Car Challenge vehicle, the “Continuum,” and MSU will be exhibiting its Formula SAE carbon-fiber monocoque racecar. Both teams are entirely student run and funded by cash and in-kind donations through student fundraising efforts.

Also among the cars to be displayed will be a rare 1948 Tucker. One of only 51 made, the Tucker is on loan from the Gilmore Museum, located in Hickory Corners, Mich.

The Hagerty Family Car Show is made possible in part by support from hundreds of local businesses, our local car dealers and other promotional partners, Turtle Creek Casino, our local fire and law enforcement officials and the National Cherry Festival itself. One of our goals was to include the entire community in this event, so we have created several ways for your family to participate. Onsite in Lay Park, we’ll host young kids’ activities, where they will be able to color, draw and paint their own collector cars. In addition, youth age 7-15 can take part in Hagerty’s Youth Judging Program, where they will meet some collectors and get an up-close view of their collector cars.

Awards will begin at 3 p.m., with over 40 Class Awards and dozens of Special Awards available. Even the National Cherry Queen will choose her favorite car.

Registration is $12 per vehicle before June 27 and $15 at the show. Goodie bags will be given to the first 200 entrants. The show is free to the public and will be held from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Vehicle registration will be 8-11 a.m. For more information, visit National Cherry Festival or call Bob DeKorne at (231) 933-3766 or Neil Livasy at (231) 883-4871.

You can also join in some old car fun on Friday, July 3, and take part in the area’s largest Cruise Night, sponsored by Turtle Creek Casino. We’ll depart from the Casino about 6 p.m. for a scenic one-hour drive, and then we’ll enjoy some good old fashioned “car guy” food and entertainment right back at Turtle Creek. It’s a great weekend to be in Traverse City and enjoying your collector vehicle, so please join us!