Andy picks his favorite cars at Bonhams’ Amelia Island sale
The weather can be fickle in the Sunshine State. With thunderstorms forecast for Sunday, the 2018 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance has been moved forward to Saturday in nearly the exact same scenario as last year’s weather-related switch.
The celebrated event at the Golf Club of Amelia Island at the Ritz Carlton in Florida will be held Saturday with all its planned features intact. It will take place at the same time as Saturday’s already scheduled Cars and Coffee car show, which will be moved to a different fairway.
RM Sotheby’s collector car auction, which was set to run on Saturday at the Ritz Carlton, will be moved ahead one day to Friday so as not to interfere with the concours.
The schedule change for the 2017 concours also was made because of the dour Sunday weather forecast, and the quick switch went remarkably smoothly, at least from the spectators’ point of view. Some 250 select vehicles were brought in a day ahead of time to go on display and vie for prizes in what has become regarded as one of the world’s greatest concours shows. The many sponsors and vendors also were present and accounted for.
The show must go on, and this year’s concours is sizing up to be another dazzling affair whichever day it’s held. The concours honoree is Emerson Fittipaldi, two-time F1 world champion and two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, with a special class of his race cars on display.
Other special classes at this year’s Amelia concours are:
Cars of Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth – The California customer who created a new genre of creative car-building and counter-culture thinking, from the seminal Beatnik Bandit show car to the image of Rat Fink.
Auburn – One of America most-beautiful lineup of classic cars from the 1920s and ’30s.
Cars of Martini Racing – A class of the 1960s team’s legendary racers from Le Mans, Monte Carlo and Formula 1.
Ferrari Daytona 50th Anniversary –Designed a half century ago by Pininfarina, these iconic front-engine GT coupes are considered the last-generation of “pure” Enzo Ferraris.
Electric Car Pioneers – From the earliest days of motoring when electric power was a viable alternative to steam and internal-combustion engines.
Jaguar E-type – The XK-E is considered one of the most-beautiful and purposeful sports cars in history, modeled after Jaguar’s Le Mans-winning D-type with a style that changed everyone’s perception of British cars.
Hunting Cars – The vehicles with custom coachwork built specifically for game hunters, anchored by the famed King Ranch Buick.
Porsche Carrera – Celebrating three decades of race-winning cars, named after the Carrera Panamericana in which Porsche dominated the five-day, border-to-border race across Mexico.
Pre-War MGs – A group of the agile little cars from Morris Garages from before the British marque launched the sportscar frenzy in postwar America.
IMSA GTP 1981 to 1993 – A showing of competition cars from one of the fastest and most-exciting eras in racing.
N.A.R.T at 70 – The cars of Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team, three-time Le Mans winners for Ferrari and the force behind the Italian brand’s GT cars.
The Amelia Island Concours hosts a number of other special events, including seminars and appearances by a wide range of celebrities from motorsports and the auto industry.
For more information, visit the event website.
Porsche honored at Goodwood
For the third time, Porsche will be the honored marque at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in honor of the 70th anniversary of its first 356. Porsches will adorn the renowned Central Feature automotive sculpture as the first brand so honored at three Festivals of Speed, held this year July 12-15 at the Goodwood estate in Great Britain.
“Previously, the German marque has celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1998 and the 50th anniversary of the legendary 911 in 2013 at Goodwood,” according to the Festival news release. “This year’s Festival will showcase the full range of Porsche’s achievements in a dedicated batch on the Goodwood Hillclimb, with other examples of the marque’s rich heritage also displayed around the sell-out event site.”
Porsche has been a strong supporter of the Festival of Speed since 1995, as well as a leading participant in the Goodwood Revival since 2010, the news release says.
“We thought long and hard about how best to celebrate the 70th anniversary of our sports car and how we could share this with enthusiasts, Porsche fans and owners here in the UK,” Alexander Pollich, managing director of Porsche Cars Great Britain, said in the release. “The Goodwood Festival of Speed will be the perfect setting – allowing the cars that, over seven decades, have made Porsche so unique and so special, to be seen, and heard, in action.
“Watching a 917 twitch and weave its way past the flint wall is a highlight that I’m very much looking forward to this July.”
For more information, visit the event website.
Chicago gets own Classic Auto Show
Following the rousing success of its Los Angeles Classic Auto Show, LeftField Media will take its winning formula to the upper Midwest with the inaugural Chicago Classic Auto Show, to be held September 8-9 at the Stephens Convention Center.
Using a similar format to the Los Angeles event, the Chicago edition will host 600 classic cars and 200 venders offering a variety of goods and services, according to the organizers.
Features that will be carried over from LA include:
• The popular Grand Boulevard, which provides spectators with a historical walk-through of automotive history in a display of the finest classic and historic vehicles from all eras.
• A live stage for interviews and panels with classic car celebrities.
• A stopover by the official Project Car, a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro built by Jeff Allen, owner of Flat 12 Gallery and Host of Top Automotive Podcast Skidmarks Show.
• A family friendly KidZone.
“Chicago was a very logical choice as the next city to roll-out our newest edition of The Classic Auto Show,” Mike Carlucci, senior vice president at LeftField, said in a news release. “The Chicagoland area and beyond boasts a large concentration of classic car owners and enthusiasts who support the hobby – and we are thrilled to enter the marketplace. This market is so strong, we anticipate over 25,000 attendees in our first year.”
For more information, visit the event website.
Inaugural Greenbrier Concours
The inaugural Greenbrier Concours d’Elegance has been scheduled for May 4-6 at The Greenbrier resort and The Greenbrier Sporting Club set in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia.
Events associated with this new concours include the exclusive President’s Club showcase, a Club Day for car clubs to show their vehicles on the concours grass, Retrograde Car Displays of replicas and re-creations, Automobilia and the Summit Driving Tour.
For more information, visit the event website.
Oregon Festival of Cars reprieved
The Oregon Festival of Cars is back! After the September 15, 2018, show was canceled a few weeks back because of a scheduling conflict with the venue, as well as losing a key sponsor, the event has been revived for this year on the same day at a new location: the Deschutes Historical Museum in downtown Bend.
For more information, visit the event website.
