Remember back this past June when Hagerty acquired the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance from its founder, Bill Warner?
Well, that event, as wonderful as it had been for a quarter century or so, is no more, Hagerty has announced. Instead, the recently NYSE-listed Hagerty Inc., has announced it rebranding the event as “The Amelia,” with a “reimagined” calendar of events and even a new logo.
All, according to the announcement, is “indicative of the event’s evolution — an effort to innovate while honoring tradition.”
Scheduled this year for March 3-6, the concours remains the climax of the weekend and will feature the 60th anniversary of the 24 hours of Daytona and the 70th anniversary of the 12 Hours of Sebring, plus the 75th anniversary of Ferrari, the centennial of Lincoln, and 90 years of hot-rodder’s favorite, the 1932 Ford.
All that plus the Davis Motorcar Company, Indianapolis roadsters, aluminum-bodied Porsche race cars, Waterhouse Coachwork, “and more.”
So still a concours d’elegance, albeit with an emphasis on motorsports. But changes are planned for Saturday, March 5, with a new Cars & Community “suite of events” including a Cars & Caffeine cruise-in, a RADwood showcase of cars from the 1980s and ‘90s, a Concours d’Lemons, and a new Kids Zone, a family friendly concept Hagerty introduced in 2020 when it reinvented the Greenwich Concours, which it also now manages.
Hagerty also promises a “fresh take” on Saturday evening events, including the gala, and to offer more family friendly features and expanded dining options on Sunday.
The weekend at the Ritz-Carlton and Golf Club will continue to include an RM Sotheby’s collector car auction, according to the event website.
Representing the changes, Hagerty unveiled a new logo for The Amelia, with the initials “A” and “t” featured inside an oval.
“The Amelia is truly a motoring event like no other and we wanted a logo that reflected its strength and uniqueness,” Tarra Warnes, Hagerty vice president of creative strategy, is quoted in the announcement. “We were inspired by the coastal locale, the motorsports focus and the dynamic energy of the event when we designed the new identity.
“The new icon is bold and confident in its simplicity, and its timeless design will carry the event into the future, while honoring its incredible legacy.”
Retromobile postponed to mid-March
In response to the latest surge in the coronavirus pandemic, Retromobile, the big winter collector car event in Paris, has been postponed until March 16-20, and with it Artcurial Motorcars has announced new dates for its Paris auction, March 18-19.
Retromobile had been scheduled for the first week in February, but organizers surveyed those involved and 80 percent favored the postponement, they said.
Bonhams and RM Sotheby’s have yet to announce new dates for their early-February auctions in Paris.
Historic group adds vintage rally
As it plans for the second Saratoga ABC Rally — ABC short for Artists, Battlefields and Covered Bridges — the Historic Automobile Endurance Runs has announced a new and fourth event for its 2022 calendar, the inaugural Scholarie Turnpike-Kaaterskill Clove road rally is scheduled for June 12.
The route will follow the 1803 Scholarie Turnpike route from Dutchman’s Landing Park on the Hudson River in upstate New York to the Old Stone Fort Museum.
But even before that new event, the group based in Shokan, New York, stages its ABC rally that will venture into Vermont on May 22 with stops at such places as the former home of artist Norman Rockwell and Grandma Moses.
Historic Automobile Endurance Runs was founded in 2017 to stage a vintage vehicle rally along the historic route of the 1903 New York to Pittsburg Endurance Contest in hopes to having the route designated a heritage trail. It’s 2022 calendar includes the ABC event, the new rally, the 6th Catskill Conquest (1903 route event) on September 24 and the 4th Catskill Covered Bridge rally the weekend of October 15-16.
The historic group’s events are not restricted to vintage vehicles.
Redman’s Targa 66 set for Palm Beach
Brian Redman’s 31st annual Targa 66 gathering of high-performance sports and racing cars is scheduled for February 11-13 at Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida. The event is open to modern high-performance road cars and to vintage racing machines of all ages.
“Targa 66 is a relaxed event to get race cars ready for the 2022 racing season or to just exercise them at an interesting track,” Redman is quoted. “For those in the colder climates, it is a nice time of year to visit Florida, with temperatures expected to be in the high 70s for Palm Beach in February.”
RADwood readies for 2022 show season
RADwood, the car show series designed to feature vehicles, clothing and the lifestyle of the 1980s and ‘90s, opens its 2022 schedule of events February 26 at the Circuit of the Americas at Austin, Texas.
The event had been scheduled for 2021 but was postponed by the pandemic.
RADwood also has announced the return of its Philadelphia-area show, scheduled for May 21 at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Autonomous racers go head-to-head
The second round of the Indy Autonomous Challenge was held this past week in conjunction with CES at Las Vegas and included for the first time head-to-head competition, which was won by the PoliMOVE team, a joint venture between the Politechnico di Milano in Italy and the University of Alabama.
The winning team’s driverless Dallara AV-21 Indy-style car was the fastest qualifier at 173 mph.
“Today was the real birth of autonomous racing,” said Sergio Savaresi, at professor at the Politecnico di Milano. “The real high-speed multi-agent racing was pushed to its very limits. The research on autonomous cars will certainly benefit from this historic milestone.”
According to Energy Systems Network, the program’s goal is to use motorsports to accelerate commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles and driver-assistance systems.
“We all came CES this week, the world’s most influential technology innovation event, to showcase to the world how this competition is catapulting autonomous technologies forward,” said Paul Mitchell, Energy Systems president.“We’re harnessing the power of prize competitions to attract the best and the brightest minds from around the globe to further the state-of-the art technology in safety and performance of automated vehicles and the teams did just that today with another historic competition.”
The autonomous race cars are equipped with a trio of lidar sensors for 360-degree sensing designed to enable safe autonomy at high speeds.
