Overview The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix races vintage cars on the public roads of Schenley Park, over the Panther Hollow Bridge and between stone walls and hay bales, with spectators within 50 feet of the cars. The festival calls it the nation's largest vintage street race. Race weekend closes a nine-day Race Week in July of car shows, cruises, tours and parties across the city and its suburbs, and each year is built around a Marque of the Year; BMW was named for 2027. The festival is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3), and its money goes to residential care, treatment and support for people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities in western Pennsylvania. On site Race weekend runs Saturday and Sunday: qualifying on Saturday, the Helltown Winners Circle races on Sunday. All weekend more than 3,000 cars sit on the Bob O'Connor Golf Course inside the park for the International Car Show, and admission is a donation that covers the car show, the paddock and the viewing areas. Between races the track runs drifting, BMW Ring Taxi passenger rides and student Formula cars from Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia University and NJIT. The rest of Race Week moves around the region; the 2026 calendar ran the Black Tie and Tailpipes Gala, a Kick-Off Rallye, the Walnut Street Invitational Car Show, a Waterfront Car Cruise, the Sewickley Stampede and Roundup, a downtown car display, a Countryside Tour, a Garden Party at Phipps Conservatory and the Evening of Speed drivers' reception. Audience Part of the crowd is the exhibit: the festival counted thousands of car owners showing their own cars in the International Car Show on the golf course in 2026. Each Marque of the Year gathers owners of that make, and the 2026 Jaguar year ran as the International Jaguar Festival. More than 1,200 volunteers worked that edition, and the race cars park in an open paddock that the donation admission lets spectators walk. Track record Art McGovern and Mary Beth Gmitter ran the first race on Labor Day 1983 with about 75 entrants and five races. Spectators reached 40,000 by 1985, Race Week started in 1987, and the 2026 edition was the 44th. A second race weekend at Pittsburgh International Race Complex ran for 22 years before that track closed after 2025. More than $7 million has gone to charity since 1983, and the festival was a finalist for Motorsport Event of the Year at the International Historic Motoring Awards in 2024 and 2025. Brand presence Partners on race weekend run working spaces: in 2026 UPMC ran the cooling tent, Peoples Gas the kids' tent, Ghost Energy a bank of racing simulators, and Caliente Pizza sponsored the car show. Vendors set up in a village of uniform white hi-peak tents with back walls, in three sizes, supplied and pitched by the festival along a dedicated pathway. Because the village sits on a golf course, displays cannot include RVs, heavy trucks or building materials. The Marque of the Year brings its maker in too: Lotus's chief executive was Honorary Starter in the Lotus year, 2025.