Palm Beach, 24th of January, 2020

The 29th Cavallino Classic is on its way....Every January the first major concours of the year happens in Palm Beach at the famous Breakers Hotel attracting Ferraristi from all over the world to the (mostly) sunny and warm winter domicile in Florida. The event as we know it today consists not only of the main event on Saturday but an additional multi-marque concours at the Mar-a-Lago club as well as receptions and the track days.

Registration starts on Wednesday when old and new friends check in at the hotel. Thursday was always the first of the two track days but unfortunately the recent years showed that this part of the Cavallino Classic is not too well received anymore as the decline since the end of the challenge days became more obvious every year. With increasing value of the cars as well as the increasing age of the regular contenders on the nearby Palm Beach international raceway less and less owners were brave enough to driver their treasures in anger. About two years ago he actual racing of the drum and disc brake classes stopped and the track days became a free driving event both for modern and old Ferrari.

After a first private track day the second on Friday was open to the public but unfortunately just one pre-war Alfa Romeo, a Jaguar C-Type and a Ferrari 250 GT Boano could be seen on track with the addition of some challenge and street cars. Fresh from the delivery was the McLaren Senna GTR that was certainly public favourite that day doing its first laps driven by Tom Price. Especially missed this year was the trio of 512 BBLM who made the day last year playing around in PBIR, unfortunately the owners decided to not come back this year.

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Another tradition was the annual Jet Aviation reception the the nearby airport but since Trump became president the area by the hangars became a security zone preventing any cars to be set up on the tarmac. This year the party was back but further south in Boca Raton and although quit a number of visitors found their way to the reception, thanks to a shuttle service running between the Breakers and Boca, only a few Ferrari showed up, most of them newer models leaving the show winning 246 GT Dino the sole vintage example.

With a rainy and windy weather the 30-miles drive just before the concours certainly kept owners from coming avoiding a rather extensive detailing the following day to get the car ready for the show field.
This also leads us to tomorrows Concours, the annual highlight of the Classics and most likely the main reason to visit. This year will see the anniversary both from the Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder as well as of the 250 GT/E Model. Both types are expected to be seen at least 8 times on the field tomorrow making this especially for the California a rather spectacular field.

A first glimse at the race track also revealed a Ferrari 340 Mexico from the collection of Wexner and restored by MPI. Already yesterday three more cars were spotted during the symposium with the silver 250 GTO of David MacNeil as well as the very last California Spyder and the black 735 Sport in Carrera Panamericana Livory as seen at last years Pebble Beach Concours. The GTO will be joined by the 250 TDF in the same livery and from the same stable, also as shown in Monterey last August.

A late addition to the show will be the recently announced Lanca Martini Collection from Jacksonville, the Champion-Collection as shown by Max Girardo. The Cars were set up this evening in the vendors area and will certainly attract a lot of interest.




Images Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de