I’ve attended many concours in the past and even judged a few, but I’ve never entered a car in the highly competitive contest of a national marque-specific concours. That all changed this month when I brought one of our cars to the Porsche Club of America Concours d’Elegance at Porsche Parade in Lake Placid, New York. In this week’s Market Monday, I’m sharing my key takeaways from the experience.

As an appraiser, attendance at concours events and major auctions is a valuable tool in building expertise and experience. Many appraisers participate in concours judging activities as well, and I’m currently scheduled to assist in planning our regional Porsche club’s upcoming concours. While I’ve judged before, I wanted to know more about the process from the participant side. I find the best way to learn something is to do it, so attending a national concours seemed like the most intense way to educate myself on the rules and regs for a PCA concours. Additionally, I’m planning to sell my 2006 Porsche Cayenne S and it needed a little spiffing up prior to listing. Entering my Cayenne S in the Porsche Parade Concours d’Elegance was a way to kill two birds with one stone.

The annual Porsche Parade is the flagship gathering of the Porsche Club of America (PCA), bringing together Porsche enthusiasts from across North America for a week of driving tours, concours competition, autocross, rallies, technical seminars, social events, and celebrations of the marque. Held in a different city each year, it combines competitive events with education, camaraderie, and some of the largest displays of Porsches anywhere in the country.

The 2026 Porsche Parade was held in Lake Placid from June 14-20 and marked the event’s 70th anniversary. Centered around the Lake Placid Olympic facilities and the Adirondack Mountains, this year’s event drew more than 2,000 attendees and approximately 1,300 cars, making it one of the largest Porsche Parades ever. Our primary reason for attending was the concours, held this year on the Olympic Speed Skating Oval. We left for home the day after, but if you can stay the full week, it seems like it would be a blast.

If you’re thinking of attending a future Porsche Parade and considering entering your car in the concours, here are my main takeaways from participating with our 2006 Porsche Cayenne S at the Porsche Club of America’s Lake Placid Porsche Parade Concours d’Elegance.

To create a more fair competition, concours d’elegance events are divided into various groups so that similar cars compete against each other. In the case of the national Porsche Parade Concours d’Elegance, there are a series of primary groups defining the type of preparation and sub-groups based on the type of vehicle you enter. I entered our 955 Cayenne S in the Preparation Group – Touring category, which meant the car’s exterior, interior, engine bay and storage compartments would be evaluated by the judges. The undercarriage was not evaluated. Our class included Cayennes and Panameras from 2003-2011 with 235 total points possible across the scored areas.

The groups and classes and the rules for each can be a bit bewildering, but fortunately the Porsche Club of America publishes their Parade Competition Rules (PCR), which includes lots of useful information including sample score sheets for each group. Study these carefully, as you’ll need to know which class to enter at the time of registration and you won’t want to miss a critical area the judges will be inspecting.

The only way to participate in the Porsche Club of America’s national concours is to attend the Porsche Parade. This event sells out almost instantly, as do the many activities and dinners offered during the week. Know your intended concours preparation group in advance and be ready to book within the first hour of registration opening. Lake Placid in 2026 was the largest attendance for a Porsche Parade in history, and still the event sold out within hours.

Once you’re registered, start preparing your car right away. Don’t do as I did and wait until the 2 weeks prior to the event unless your car is already nearly immaculate. I had numerous small cosmetic repair and reconditioning jobs to do before moving on to detailing, and trying to get everything done in time for the event nearly broke me. Murphy’s Law seems to be even more true when you’re short on time. Planning can help here: make a timetable based on your car’s condition and focus on one part of the car at a time. Even if you’re driving your car to Parade and to the concours, have it essentially show-ready before you depart.

The morning after we arrived, we attended a one-hour presentation by the head judge called “Concours 101.” While it included a lot of information from the PCR and other research, we learned crucial new fundamentals and some tricks of the trade. One mnemonic shared was the “Three C’s” of a Porsche Parade Concours d’Elegance.

Judges for the Porsche Parade Concours d’Elegance concern themselves with three things: Condition, Cleanliness and Consistency. The first two are of the greatest concern for us participants. Deductions are made in tenths of a point, with things like rock chips, scrapes, scratches and the like resulting in a negative mark. Wear on the seats, frayed seatbelts and other flaws are similarly scored. Aside from the condition, the event is very much a cleanliness competition. Obviously, the car must be spotless overall, but the tiniest bit of dust in your gauge cluster, dirt in your fuel filler area, and grease in your engine bay (if judged) will result in lost points.

Be aware: judges can and do touch your car in limited ways. Seams in the seats will be opened to inspect for dirt and if there’s a hole somewhere, expect a judge’s finger to enter it in search of missed grime. My wife and I spent 5 hours the night before the concours cleaning our Cayenne and doing final prep and yes, Q-tips made an appearance. They’re the only way to get into some areas, and after all that effort we still lost points by missing dirt deep inside the hinge area of our rear tailgate. See takeaway #2 above.

If your car is well-prepared in advance and you have an enclosed trailer and tow vehicle, there’s no easier way to be ready for the show on concours day. We drove our Cayenne to New York, as it’s the car I wanted to enter and it’s a great road trip vehicle. We collected a lot of insect carcasses, pollen, road dirt and brake dust on the 10 hour journey, all of which had to be cleaned prior to the concours. Thankfully, the wheels and exterior were waxed and we took precautions for the interior (such as placing our floor mats in a bag in the trunk and a ban on eating in the car). We were able to fully prepare in one day, but it wasn’t easy. Many other competitors had driven their cars, so it’s not necessary, but a trailer is recommended if you have the means.

Our Cayenne has a spacious cargo area that we packed full of not only our luggage, but every conceivable cleaning product and tool we thought we might need for final prep. Classic Motorsports has an excellent guide to the types of tools and supplies you’ll need to prepare for a high-end concours event. Using an “if in doubt, bring it” approach, we included pretty much everything on that list and more in our supplies bag. My biggest piece of advice: don’t skimp on towels. Bring tons — and I mean tons — of microfiber towels. You will use ALL of them.

I”m not sure if all concours events offer this, but the Porsche Parade team arranged two extremely useful facilities for participants. The first was a car wash, sponsored by Griots Garage. Amenities included buckets, hoses, wash soap, and wheel cleaner. The car wash operated all week, I believe, but we took advantage of it on prep day to knock off our travel grime.

The second facility was a dedicated indoor prep area in the 1932 Jack Shea Arena. Though it was an added cost, I booked this feature early as it seemed a good idea. It’s only available for certain classes with more areas of the car to be judged, such as the Restoration, Preservation, and Preparation Touring groups. It turned out to be a brilliant move, as it rained pretty much the entire afternoon the day before the event. Having a dry, heated area to fully detail our Cayenne was a massive benefit.

This year’s Porsche Parade Concours d’Elegance featured almost 180 cars, despite the threat (and presence) of rain. This is a ton of cars to evaluate in just a few hours, and while there are multiple judging teams and each judge focuses on a specific area — such as the interior or engine bay — judging takes time. Each car is evaluated in about 10 minutes or less, and the final awards ceremony was still an hour late. Additionally, the judges not only have to evaluate each class, they then have to re-judge some cars for the group awards. Having judged a regional concours for our club, I can tell you that it’s a ton of physical and mental work. Thank your judges with sincerity.

You need to stay with your car until it is fully judged as you are an active participant in the process. There’s no way to know when your class will be judged. You could be first, or you could be last. In our case, we were among the last few classes to be judged, so we were waiting about 3 hours. Pack your patience — as well as snacks and layers in case it gets hot or cold.

The judging process, once it arrives, is a blur. After a minute or two describing your car to the judges, the head judge will spend a few minutes examining the exterior of the car. After that, you’ll be asked to open all the relevant compartments and the full team will start their evaluation. While you won’t learn your score and the specific deductions until the score sheets are shared in a few weeks, the judges will share suggestions and problem areas before moving on — something I didn’t expect.

It’s best to approach the concours as being about enjoying the experience, rather than winning your class or even a group award. You won’t know until the day of the concours how many other cars will be in your class — It could be one other car or it could be 12 other cars. The competition is frequently made up of repeat entrants or winners and they will be tough to beat. Other classes, such as the Restoration class, will have world-renowned shops preparing freshly restored vehicles to achieve a score that’s half a point away from a perfect 300. Careful selection of the car you enter, your chosen group and a lot of hard work can increase your chances of a win.

It’s hard work. Participants know it by their aching muscles, but non-participants recognize it. You’ll be among a small group of (perhaps somewhat crazy) people who are preparing their Porsche to a level most will never achieve. Both the prep area and the concours itself are open to spectators, and you will absolutely receive tons of compliments on the condition and cleanliness of your car. I didn’t expect much love for our first-generation Cayenne, but many stopped to admire its condition. Enjoy these accolades, because you’ve earned it!

One of the experienced judges told me this: “No matter where you place, you know every inch of your car after preparing it for this event and it’s better than over 90% of the same cars on the road.”

Our class only had two vehicles competing for the win, including ours. After weeks of prep before the event and hours just before, we managed to secure a first-in-class trophy for our Cayenne S. Our competition was a rather beautiful and super-cool 2010 Cayenne S Transsyberia, who we beat by just 3-tenths of a point.

Would I do it again? – Maybe! Our hard work secured us a first-in-class trophy, which was not our expectation. The trophies are the most attractive, high-quality and thoughtfully designed awards I’ve seen outside a premier concours event and I’m thrilled to take one home.

Aside from the trophy and bragging rights for my Cayenne, I walked away with something more valuable: first-hand experience on what it’s like to participate in a national-level marque-specific concours. Not only will this help me as I assist my local region in its concours planning, but it’s extremely valuable knowledge to have as an appraiser of collector and classic vehicles.

If you’re thinking of entering your car in a local, regional, or national concours and haven’t done so before, I hope this information will help you decide on whether to go for it. Have a great week, everyone.

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisals, and auction services for buyers and sellers of collector European cars. If you’re interested in acquiring an overseas car, give us a call or drop a line!