By Anne H. Oman
Reporter-At-Large
March 13, 2018 8:00 p.m.
“Life’s too short to drive boring cars.”
Sticker on the window of an E-type Jaguar at the Concours d’Elegance
Last weekend, several hundred anything- but-boring cars – from a 1918 Packard Twin Six to a prototype Shelby Lonestar (once advertised as “Sex on Wheels”) to a 1968 green Mustang the one Steve McQueen drove in “Bullitt” (“the ultimate chase scene car”) to the newest electric vehicles –converged on Amelia Island for the 23rd Annual Concours d’Elegance (KON KOR DEL AY GANZ’), a beauty pageant for classy chassis that traces its roots back to the 17th century in France and to 1996 on Amelia island. The two-day event held sway on the fairways of the Golf Club of Amelia, adjacent to the Ritz-Carlton, but people who didn’t want to buy a $95 ticket had the opportunity to view a couple dozen of the cars and they motored around the island and parked in the historic downtown Friday.
Several hundred locals, snowbirds and visitors – men, women, children and dogs — filled Centre Street under sunny skies to look, learn and pick their favorites.
Lin Vincent, who lives in South Bristol, Maine, except for winter months spent on Ocean Avenue in Fernandina Beach. said her “Numero Uno” was a midnight blue Bentley with the tan upholstery, parked in front of Ciao. For her husband, Bob Fraser, the piece de resistance was a red Rolls Royce parked across Centre Street.
“What’s that wooden box on the running board?” a reporter new to the automotive beat asked the phalanx of fans gathered around the aforementioned Rolls.
“That’s the booze box,” quipped one wag.
Not so, corrected Bill Smith, a visitor from Omaha. In fact, he explained, the box contains a device that generates the gas that powers the headlights.
Brian Ceeler, who lives in Nassau – the one in the Bahamas –was admiring a 1960 Alfa Romeo 2000 Coupe hand built by Alfredo Vignale, a renowned “body designer” from Torino, Italy.
“This is the second year in a row I’ve been here,” he said. “I buy and sell cars. Last night, we bought a 1953 Jaguar.”
A red Packard with New Jersey plates attracted the attention of Bill Field, who grew up on the shores of New Jersey’s Lake Hopatcong but now lives in Daytona.
“We come every year to ooh and ahh,” he said.
A black Duesenberg with running boards and wire wheels had its hood open and its spotless engine open to view. Mainly men were looking at this.
“Now that’s one I might be able to park,” said Debbie Thomas of Fernandina Beach, taking in a red Trident, a three-wheeled car about the size of a trash can, as her two teen-aged daughters crouched on the ground taking photographs. The Peel Trident, a microbar with a kerb (British spelling) weight of about 300 pounds, was made on the Isle of Man and is reportedly making a comeback.
A tan Corvette with matching tan leather driving gloves resting on the console seemed like an invitation to go for a spin, while another antique car whose logo consisted simply of the letter “P” raised a question. Was it a Packard, a Pierce Arrow?
“That’s a Peerless,” explained David Smittle, the senior half of a father-son team from Ada, Ohio. “It’s an American-made car from the mid-thirties. See those head lamps? They’re connected to the steering and shine the light on the direction you steer in.”
This is a return trip for the Smittles. A car that they built was featured in the Concours a few years ago. They are still building racing cars, using old MGs as a base.
Carolyn Sharer, a visitor from Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, said she and her husband, Fred, had attended the Bonham’s auction the previous day and that he had been tempted by a Morris Minor “Woody”.
“He said that for an instant he even thought about buying it, but he already has a TR-6, which he bought new in 1973,” reported Mrs. Sharer, who sounded somewhat relieved.
A small crowd was gathered around a canary yellow Renault 8, the car in which Emerson Fittipaldi — this’s years Concours d’Elegance honoree – won his first race, on September 7, 1965 in Rio de Janiero in his native Brazil. Fittipaldi, now 70 and retired from racing, is the only driver to win two Formule 1 championships and two Indianapolis 500s. Mr. Fittipaldi made an appearance on the show field at the golf course Saturday morning, and still more of his winning cars were among the more than 300 vehicles on display.
All day Saturday, thousands of spectators roamed the 10th and 18th fairways of the Golf Club of Amelia, a field that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could stretch. A dozen Auburns, a car made in Indiana from the early 1900s until the Depression, held court along a water hole. A black 1933 model with shiny chrome moldings caught the attention of two attendees, who pondered how they would vote for the People’s Choice award.
“I probably won’t vote,” decided one.
“How do you pick?” shrugged the other.
(It was later announced that the People’s Choice award went to a 1959 Ferrari 196 S Dino. The official judges picked two cars for Best in Show: a 1963 Ferrari 250/275 P and a 1929 Duesenberg J/SJ Convertible.)
Across a bridge crowded with people resting on the fence and quaffing $3 bottles of water, sat rows of Duesenbergs, including one 1939 green number “cloaked in Willoughby seven-passenger coachwork” that was sold to a Pittsburgh judge. The brothers Duesenberg starting making the cars in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1913, and the company later merged with Auburn and moved to Indiana. Like the Auburns, the Duesenbergs died with the Depression.
“Have you seen the hunting cars?” asked an excited Pam Hart, a part-time Amelia Island resident and a regular Concours attendee with her husband, Joe. “There’s one that belonged to a maharajah and one that belonged to the British royal family.”
A 1925 Rolls Royce was custom-outfitted for the Maharajah of Kotah, an avid tiger hunter. It features searchlights, lockable gun racks, and a Chubb safe in which to store contingency cash that might be needed to compensate the families of hunting assistants killed in stalking big game.
The Armstrong Siddeley Shooting Brake, made for the then Duke of York (later King George VI) in 1928, has a more sedate feel, with woody sides and picnic baskets on top. The royals took it to Balmoral and used it to shoot grouse on the Scottish moors. If you prefer quail, there was also a copy of a 1968 Jeep used to hunt those birds on the King Ranch in Texas.
Reads the placard: “Unfortunately, this is an era that is lost. All that remains are these hunting cars, which are stored in barns.”
Alas. A large field of pre-war MGs—the sports cars later made popular here by returning GIs –included one delivered to the Lancashire Constabulary in 1933 for use as a police car. But Bill Richey, the authentically attired constable in attendance fessed up to being not from Lancashire but from Bowling Green, Kentucky.
“Look at the handcuffs,” he said. “They would handcuff the prisoner in the back seat and hook the handcuffs to the car so the prisoner couldn’t rise up and bop them on the head.”
His pure wool uniform – complete with the iconic beehive-shaped hat — was uncomfortable with the temperature rising into the 70s, but he wore it with pride.
“My wife got it from a movie house that had bought up a lot of uniforms from an auction house in England,” he explained. “Unfortunately, I’ve gained a little weight since.”
And the field stretched on. The American Classics section was a sort of “nostalgia gulf” for people of a certain age: a 1953 Buick Estate Wagon, a 1960 Lincoln Continental, and an aqua and white 1959 Ford Fairlane Skyliner that would have looked at home in my high-school parking lot.
Behind the rows of vintage Porsches, red-and-white racing cars – even a few motorcycles – concession stands sold Italian wraps, hummus bowls, cheeseburger, and Bloody Marys. Families picnicked on the immaculately groomed grass, and sunbathers stretched out by the small lake.
In addition to the 304 official Concours d’Elegance entries, hundreds more chariots were brought to the island by the auction houses whose white tents lined Amelia Island Parkway. On the show field, Jake O’Gorman, the Sotheby’s representative, was answering questions about a 1962 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster, turquoise with butter yellow leather interior, to be auctioned off in Fort Lauderdale in April. The estimate: $1.2 to $1.4 million.
“We sold 107 lots yesterday,” he said. “A few memorabilia but mostly cars.”
In addition to the stated Concours raison d’etre, to celebrate “the automobile and the people who love cars for their beauty, power, speed, poise and their ability to entertain and transport us physically and emotionally” the event also helps local charities. Since 1996, the show’s foundation has donated more than $3.2 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society, Shop with Cops and other organizations.
And the event has other economic benefits for the community.
“It’s a tremendous asset,” Amelia Island Convention & Visitors Bureau President and CEO Gil Langley told the Observer. “It almost falls into the category of irreplaceable. Last year, the event and ancillary activities generated about $25 million.”
Editor’s Note: Anne H. Oman relocated to Fernandina Beach from Washington, D.C. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Washington Times, Family Circle and other publications. We thank Anne for her contributions to the Fernandina Observer.
Great reporting job…