Palm Beach, 21th of January, 2012
More than 20 years ago the publisher of the American Ferrari
Magazine established the annual Cavallino Classic at the
Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. What started with the
Concours became a complete week with track days, evening
receptions and the multi-marque concours at the nearby Mar-a-
Lago Club but the Concours stayed the heart of the event. Before
the first edition on the climax of the Ferrari market the hotel staff
was surprised to hear the estimated overall value of the exhibits
so they quickly took down the coconuts from the surrounding
palms to avoid damages. Today in its 21st edition the whole
procedure is more practised so the field was well prepared on
Saturday morning for the first cars to arrive. Early in the morning,
just after the sun was out the first cars came down the driveway
to be set up in front of the hotel on their spot.
... gallery (288 images) >>>
The concours is basically divided in three areas, the upper lawn is
reserved for the early cars up to the 250 series. To many this is
the centre of the concours as most of these cars are one-offs or
small series by the known coachbuilders like Vignale, Pinin
Farina, Ghia or the competition models bodied by the late Sergio
Scaglietti.
This year was logically dominated by the 50th anniversary of the
legendary Ferrari 250 GTO. After the “jump start” of the Pebble
Beach Concours last August most of the Concours will feature a
GTO class and being a Ferrari event the Cavallino Classic was
certainly no exception. Five of the 36 cars built found their way to
Florida, all of them in the 1962 configuration with three of them
even raced the day before on the nearby Palm Beach International
Raceway. The remaining two examples were recently restored
and take their round on the Concours circuit this year. Both were
restored to race specification, the first production car (3223GT)
with its white nose band was brought by noted restorers Motion
Products after its class win at Pebble last year but this time it
had to give the Best of Show in the competition category to
Pebble runner up 3943GT. This car was in the headlines 2 year
ago when it was sold at a then record price and was restored
back to its first race appearance at Montlhery in October 1962
with a French tricolour stripe and the race number 6. Surprisingly
this car was not exhibited on the upper lawn but in the Ferrari
Classiche sponsor tent and therefore it was out of the focus of
many spectators.
But not just the line-up of the four GTO drew attention on the
upper lawn but also 21 more of the finest models built in the
1950s and 1960s. Two cars were even earlier models with both
the 125S and the 166 MM build in the late 1940s. The 125S
(01C/010I) was the first Ferrari model ever with a small 1.5 litre
engine but after just one season it was upgraded to 2 Litre
specification with a new Spyder Corsa body. Today the car is
brought back to its original specification with a replica body as
none of the original survived, the Spyder Corsa body was
displayed aside on a rolling buck.
The 166 MM (0004M) was the second Touring Barchetta build and
shares the chassis with the later 166 MM/53 with the attractive
Vignale body (0314M) standing just a few meters apart. This car
was brought over by English restorer DK Engineering who had the
car restored a second time after it disappeared during the Mille
Miglia in 2000. The car won the peoples choice award two days
earlier at the Jet Aviation Center Reception and competed in the
small Vignale class together with the very elegant 212 Export
(0090E) and the 340 Mexico (0024AT). The Mexico is one of just
three Berlinettas build and was sold last year at Amelia Island
and was one of the patinated cars on the lawn showing the trend
from the platinum award cars to the unrestored ones. Even more
so was the completely original 375 MM (0382AM) that was one of
the crowd-pullers all week long. After storage of more than 40
years the car is now kept in preserved running condition by its
European owner and just returned to Palm Beach for the first time
after its delivery to its local first owner. The car was already
shown at Pebble 2010 and last years Villa d´Este Concorso
d´Eleganza and received no less than 4 awards during this week.
Just after a few laps at the Track Days the car won public choice
at the Yacht Hop on Friday evening at the Palm Beach Marina
and on the Concours Saturday it won the class of the pre-1956
cars, the preservation and the competition award. The car will
stay in the USA for the next week for another appearance at the
Amelia Island Concours in March.
Another car in very special condition was the 400 Superamerica
(2207SA) that became the Superfast 4 being displayed in bare
metal showing the imperfection of the bodywork and the welding
of different metal sheets in time. Being rebodied several times in
period the standard is not exactly as expected giving an rare
insight underneath the perfect paintwork of today´s restorations.
Two more 400 Superamerica were displayed with the
Aerodinamico body (3097/4031SA and 3559SA) but different nose
showing the variations of the Pinin Farina design. But the name
Superamerica was also used before with the 410 SA back in
1955, the example on display (0715SA) shares the design by PF
with the shorter 250 GT Sepciale (0465GT) bending the bow to
the modern Ferrari in the middle of the lawn.
Today the name Superamerica reappeared with the introduction of
the open version of the 575M but American Collector Peter
Kalikow commissioned a special open version based on the 599
GTB named Superamerica 45 that was displayed together with
the “normal” SA Aperta.
The middle of the field is reserved to the later models of the 12-
cylinder era when the coachbuild small series were superseded
by the factory bodies, most of them designed by Pininfarina. In
the mid-sixties the 250 series was out of production and the 275
GTB followed. In recent years these cars became more and more
valuable due to the fact that they not just have a great design but
as they are also very usable on a vary of events like the
forthcoming Tour Auto. The fact that one of the 275 GTB/4
(10059) even won the Best of Show for road cars shows that they
are arrived in the focus of the Ferrari classic scene.
After a few 330 GTC the next step is the 365 GTB/4 Daytona that
was represented by about half a dozen of cars plus the 2+2
version of the GTC/4.
The lower lawn shows the newer history of the post-Enzo era with
the 8-cylinder cars and the later Maranello-models. In the middle
of the field was a circle of the newer competition cars including a
512 BBLM (38179), an Enzo and a FXX plus the Challenge and
Scuderia versions of the 8-cylinder cars and a new 599 GTO to
close the circle from the GTO-display at the upper lawn.
With the perfect weather and many visitors this years Concours
was a great opening of the classic car event calender 2012.
Whereas the winter in the North-East of the USA and in Europe
bans the cars to indoor shows the season in Florida with pleasant
temperatures invites owners and spectators every year to the
Cavallino Classic, still one of the most important Ferrari events in
the world after all these years. Most of them will be back next
January for the 22nd edition.
Text & images Peter Singhof www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
Cavallino Classic Saturday (2012-01-23)
Best of Show: The KingFisher
Cavallino Classic 2012
Ferrari 125 S s/n 01C/010I
Ferrari 166 MM Touring Barchetta s/n 0004M
Ferrari 166 MM/53 Vignale Spyder s/n 0314M
Ferrari 16M Scuderia s/n 167113
Ferrari 212 Europa PF Coupé s/n 0263EU
Ferrari 212 Export rebodied as California Spyder s/n 0147E
Ferrari 212 Export Vignale Coupé s/n 0092E
Ferrari 212 Export Vignale s/n 0090E
Ferrari 212 Inter Ghia Coupé s/n 0145E
Ferrari 212 Inter Ghia Coupé s/n 0213EL
Ferrari 225 S Touring Barchetta s/n 0166ED
Ferrari 246 GTS Dino s/n 06294
Ferrari 250 GT Boano s/n 0553GT
Ferrari 250 GT Lusso "Comp." s/n 4213GT
Ferrari 250 GT Lusso s/n 5675GT
Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder s/n 1451GT
Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder s/n 1627GT
Ferrari 250 GT LWB TdF s/n 0881GT
Ferrari 250 GT PF Cabriolet SII s/n 2489GT
Ferrari 250 GT PF Coupé Speciale s/n 0853GT
Ferrari 250 GT SII Cabriolet s/n 2359GT
Ferrari 250 GT SII Cabriolet s/n 2489GT
Ferrari 250 GT Speciale s/n 0465GT
Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder s/n 2505GT
Ferrari 250 GT SWB Comp. s/n 2083GT
Ferrari 250 GT SWB Competizione s/n 2083GT
Ferrari 250 GT SWB s/n 1757GT
Ferrari 250 GTO s/n 3223GT
Ferrari 250 GTO s/n 3445GT
Ferrari 250 GTO s/n 3705GT
Ferrari 250 GTO s/n 4757GT
Ferrari 250 TdF s/n 0881GT
Ferrari 250 TdF s/n 1321GT
Ferrari 250 TR s/n 0748TR
Ferrari 275 GTB 6C Alloy s/n 08343
Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy s/n 08191
Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy s/n 08859
Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Alloy s/n 10059
Ferrari 275 GTB/4 s/n 09517
Ferrari 308 Dino GT4 2+2
Ferrari 330 GTC s/n 10425
Ferrari 330 GTC s/n 10651
Ferrari 330 GTC s/n 11039
Ferrari 330 GTC s/n 9593
Ferrari 330 GTS s/n 9791
Ferrari 333 SP s/n 001
Ferrari 333 SP s/n 010
Ferrari 340 America Ghia Coupé s/n 0148A
Ferrari 340 Mexico s/n 0224AT
Ferrari 348 America PF Cabriolet s/n 0248AL
Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale s/n 137470
Ferrari 360 Grand AM GT s/n 118784
Ferrari 365 GT2+2 s/n 13165
Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona s/n 14635
Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona s/n 14867
Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona s/n 15279
Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona s/n 16693
Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona s/n 16819
Ferrari 365 GTC/4 s/n 14975
Ferrari 375 America PF Coupé s/n 0293AL
Ferrari 375 MM PF Berlinetta s/n 0416AM
Ferrari 375 MM s/n 0382AM
Ferrari 400 SA Aerodinamico s/n 5029SA
Ferrari 400 Superamerica s/n 3559SA
Ferrari 400 Superamerica s/n 4031/3097SA
Ferrari 400 Superfast 2/3/4 s/n 2207SA
Ferrari 410 Superamerica II s/n 0715SA
Ferrari 410 Superamerica s/n 0715SA
Ferrari 410 Superfast PF Speciale Coupé s/n 0725GT
Ferrari 512 BBLM s/n 31589
Ferrari 512 BBLM s/n 38179
Ferrari 512 S s/n 1040
Ferrari 512M
Ferrari 575 M Superamerica s/n 143924
Ferrari 575 M Superamerica s/n 146150
Ferrari 575 Z Zagato s/n 127394
Ferrari 599 GTO s/n 175547
Ferrari 599 SA Aperta s/n 182188
Ferrari Boxer Line-Up
Ferrari Dino 206 SP s/n 026
Ferrari Enzo s/n 132323
Ferrari F333 SP s/n 011
Ferrari F355 Berlinetta s/n 108508
Ferrari SA Aperta
Ferrari SA Aperta s/n 182188
Ferrari Superamerica 45 s/n 178976
James Cottingham
Jeremy Cottingham
Jet Aviation Center Reception
John W.Barnes, Publisher of Cavallino Magazine
Maserati 200 SI
Maserati 300 S s/n 3072
Ferrari Awards
Model Chassis # Award & Sponsor
340 Mexico 0224AT Gerald Roush Memorial
250 GT Coupe Speciale 0465GT Show Boats Outstanding
Coachwork
FXX 144880 Supercar Award
375MM Spider 0382AM Competition Cup
340 Mexico 0224AT Vignale Cup
250 GTO 3223GT Ferrari of Ft Lauderdale, 250 GTO Cup
275 GTB 08859 Ferrari of Ft Lauderdale, Judges Cup
250 GTO 3729GT Homann Classics, Ferrari Spirit Cup
250 GTO 4757GT FCA, Ferrari Spirit Cup
250 GTO 3223GT Chartis Insurance, Excellence Cup 1
308 GTB 19567 Chartis Insurance, Excellence Cup 2
246 GTS 06294 RM Auctions, Outstanding 6 Cylinder
360 NGT 016-M Show Boats International, Outstanding 8
Cylinder
550 Barchetta 124144 Show Boats International, Outstanding 12
Cylinder
365 GTB/4 16993 Ferrari Classiche Cup
375 MM 0382AM Pre’ 75 Preservation Cup
328 GTS 80143 Post’ 75 Preservation Cup
275 GTB/4 10059 Best of Show GT
250 GTO 3943GT Best of Show Competition
© Keith Bluemel & David O’Neill
01/2012
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