Jacksonville, FL, 9 March, 2014
Already for the 19th time the prestigious Concours
d’Elegance was held at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Hotel at
Amelia Island, again on its traditional date at the second
weekend of March.
With over 330 cars and a few bikes in no less than 40
different classes the international jury had the agony of
choice to pick the best cars out of a stunning high quality
field that is second to no other concours as winning an
Amelia Award adds a lot both to the cars value and history.
Being held in the mild climate of Florida spring this is also
the first of the annual big car shows followed by St. John
and Pebble Beach in summer. Unfortunately the weather the
days before the main event was not as warm as expected
when travelling to Florida as the Tour d´Elegance on Friday
morning was started in drizzly conditions with temperatures
in the low 40 degree Fahrenheit so it was not a surprise that
just about half of the initially entered cars took the tour to
the turning point in Huguenot Memorial Park and back to
Fernandina Beach for the lunch stop. Unfortunately the tour
itself does not mean that much compared to the counterpart
at Pebble so the parade of cars did not say anything about
the quality of the forthcoming main event on the lawn on
Sunday.
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After some seminars, the silent auction of automobilia in the
Ritz and the two big auctions of RM and Gooding the
concours cars started to be set up on the golf course on
Saturday afternoon. As the clocks were set to summer time
the following night the sunrise was again an hour late the
next morning leaving a small time window for the line-up
before the spectators entered the field. Not few entrants
tried to avoid the stress by setting up the car already the
day before and although most of them were covered up quit
soon one could get a first impression of the field and
fortunately the weather improved with every day and the first
sunbeams during the afternoon pronounced a very pleasant
Sunday weather and with even more great cars to come
there was a lot of anticipation.
As expected the following morning started very busy and
long before sunrise the first cars lined up in the hotels
driveway to wait for the official starting signal to enter the
field as soon as there was enough light for a safe set-up.
Numerous volunteers directed every single car with a golf
cart to its predicted individual spot on the field, the special
sports classes around the lake, the American classes near
the award ceremony area and the sports and race car
classes in front of the club house. With the limited time until
the spectators were allowed to come in and the judges
began their work the entrants, their curators or mechanics
were busy preparing the classics for the inspection by the
international jury. In typical American Style the awards
ceremony started quit early afternoon as the end of the
concours was scheduled for 5 pm. All the photographers ran
around to take a few group shots before the cars literally
disappeared in between the crowds as this year’s concours
was visited by almost 30.000 visitors making this the most
successful edition ever. After the mandatory morning prayer
and the national anthem it was time to take a closer look at
single cars and the different classes. Some of them are the
typical classes of every concours with different eras of
European and American coach built examples, single
marque classes of the most important manufacturers or
sports and racing cars over the decades but especially the
more interesting special classes for round anniversaries are
making every edition unique.
Just like in previous few years this year’s special classes
were quit sportive laying the focus even more on the race
cars than at every other concours. Therefore Amelia Island
is the only big car show with two Best of Show for the classic
concours cars and also for race cars and whereas other
event sometimes feature a designer or constructor Amelia
does also feature a race driver every year, this year’s
honoree was Jochen Mass.
The first class (es) to be mentioned is the centenary of
Maserati that will be certainly celebrated at every car show
in the world this year following last year’s jubilarian Aston
Martin. In two classes Amelia featured both the street cars
and more important the race cars, unfortunately just one car
represented the time before the war. When Maserati started
in 1914 the focus was just on race cars and the first
successful cars were the straight eight cylinder Type 26 in
different displacement, in 1929 finally Maserati created its
wildest car with the V4 that consisted of two straight eights
combined to a 16-cylinder V engine. With two superchargers
the car produced about 300 hp and was the fastest race car
of its period, and with just 2 example built even one of the
rarest. The car on show was the second one and although
sharing the same racing genes with the sister car this was
actually a road car bodied by this years featured
coachbuilder Zagato and represented in stylish two-tone
green livery. After the war Maserati actually started to build
production road cars just like its opponent Ferrari to finance
racing so in this period the history of the marque could be
divided in road and racing cars so there were two classes.
The heydays of Maserati were without doubt in the 1950s
when the company with the trident was not just successful in
sports car racing but also in Formula 1 with the Tipo 250 F.
The 250 F was one of the longest serving F1 cars of its
period and started development in 1954 and Fangio started
the season with two wins before changing to
Mercedes-Benz, the W196 was a tough opponent finally
preventing Maserati winning their first F1 championship.
After Mercedes quit racing after the Le Mans crash in 1955
the final development of the 250 F brought the
championship in 1957, again driven by Fangio, the car on
show was one of the 1955 works racers as driven by Stirling
Moss and Peter Collins. In recent years the car was part of
the Donington collection before it was sold to the current
owner.
Apart from the formula cars Maserati used the straight six
also in its sports cars, ranging from 1.5 litres in the 150S to
the 4.5 Litre 450S, in Amelia one example each of the
200SI, the 300S, the 350S and the 450S were lined up
making an impressive overview of this sports cars era. The
rarest of these and unfortunately not the most successful
one was the 350S with just three cars built for the works
team. The car in Amelia was entered at the 1956 Mille Miglia
in the hand of Taruffi (who should win the final edition a year
later) but failed to finish. The most powerful of the quartet
was the 450S with its V8. The car was raced against the
Ferrari 290MM and 335S in the 1957 season before the
restriction of the displacement in the sports car world
championship disqualified this model for European racing.
The open version of the 450 S (4508) was produced late in
1957 and therefore has most of its racing history in America
driven by Carroll Shelby, Maston Gregory and Jim Hall. But
this was not the only 450S on display as the Costin Coupe
(4501/4512) was at the Zagato display. Originally raced by
Moss in Le Mans 1957 it was later converted for road use
and renumbered. Later it was part of the Rosso&Bianco
Collection in Germany and today is restored back to the
configuration after the conversion including a tan leather
interior and the black paintwork.
Zagato also bodied on of the most beautiful Maserati road
cars with the A6 G54 Zagato. The G54 was bodied by
several different coachbuilders and one could debate which
one of the examples in Amelia by Frua, Zagato or
Pininfarina is the most appealing. For some the Pininfarina
design is the most interesting but this particular body was
actually replaced by an open Fantuzzi Spyder early in its life
and finally found its way to another chassis were it replaced
the original Spyder. So the car in Amelia was an original
chassis and body but not matching, maybe this is the
reason why the jury preferred the Frua Coupe instead.
The first real street car that was not intended to race any
longer was the 3500 GT, it was both available as Coupe and
Spyder and most unusual they were not designed by the
same designer as the coupe was a Touring design and the
Spyder by Vignale. Both cars were long time in the shadow
of the counterpart from Maranello but as the prices of
especially the 250 Series Cabriolets went crazy during the
last months especially the Vignale Spyder gets more into
focus. Not few have the impression that the proportions are
even more appealing than those of the Ferrari 250 Series 2
Cabriolet.
The arch-rival from Modena was set up on the far end of the
field behind the lake with two Ferrari production car classes
and a race car class. The first class was reserved for the
street cars up to the 250 series including two 212 Inter, both
bodied by Ghia (0137EL and 0213EL), the later one still in
original condition (except a respray) and in the current
ownership for 63 years. More extravagant was the 410
Superfast (0483SA) that was the 1956 Paris Show car
featuring a one-off Pinin Farina Coupe body with fins. The
car was brought to Amelia by Robert Lee who also owns
several finned Ferrari Boanos. More common were the 250
GT Lusso (5211GT), the Boano (0447GT) and the 400
Superamerica (5115SA). A trio of very special examples was
displayed in the second production car class, all of them just
seen a few weeks earlier down in Palm Beach during the
Cavallino Classics. The 330 GT 2+2 Navarro Special
(7979), the 365 GT 2+2 NART (12611) and the 365 GTB4
NART (14299) may not be the prettiest coach built Ferrari
but certainly some of the most unusual.
Of particular interest was the racing class including the
Cavallino Classic winning 166 SC (016I) that also won its
class at Amelia leaving the price for the best sounding car
on the field to the 335S (0764). The pontoon fendered
“blown-up” Testarossa design shared the same fate as the
Maserati 450S. Being built at the end of the big capacity
class in the sports car world championship the 335S
became obsolete with the introduction of the 3 litre limit at
the end of 1957. After winning the Mille Miglia the big engine
was just usable in the overseas racing from the next season
and this particular car was built in 1958 purely for this
purpose. Whereas in Europe the 250 TR dominated the
following season its body design was adopted in this on-off
Scaglietti Spyder and although it does not feature important
racing history (compared to the others) the sound and the
power (about 400 bhp) are very impressive.
Within just a decade the styling of the Le Mans race cars
changed completely and the prototype era started. With the
250 LM the engine went from the front to the back and the
following years the 4 litre P3 and P4 was used by the
Scuderia. The car on show (0846) started life as P3 and
was converted to P3/4 later to win the 24 hours of Daytona
before it was scrapped by the factory. Parts of the car went
into a replica built by David Piper and when the current
owner acquired this car he found parts of the (scrapped)
chassis surviving in the reconstruction. Over the last years
there was a lot of discussion in the Ferrari scene whether
this would be enough to claim this chassis number for the
car and the story behind the car seemed to irritate the jury
as the P3 was not awarded in his class. Still it was great to
see such a car on the field and the owner and his mechanic
were chatting to all interested spectators and were keen in
opening up the engine compartment more than once to give
a look on the heart of the beast.
With the different races in Europe ranging from the fast Le
Mans circuit to the twisty hilly roads of the Targa Florio not
only Ferrari was using different racers depending on the
track. Especially on the Targa Florio the 312 PB was used,
the car on show (0894) was entered in 1973 in the hands of
Jacky Ickx and Brian Redman but did not finish the race.
Now for three decades in the current ownership it was once
more shown after some appearances several years ago.
The early 1970s were also the time of the change of power
in the Sports Car Championship were the small company
from Zuffenhausen started its victory series at Le Mans.
Until the present day Porsche is still the most successful
manufacturer at La Sarthe but the last overall triumph dates
back to 1998 just before Audi started their series. As
Porsche is going back this year to fight the recent dominator
this was reason enough to recap the story of the Porsche
prototypes with an own class starting with the 904. In the
1950s the Fuhrmann Engine with 4 cams started its
triumphal march in the lower capacity classes in the 550
Spyder and the RSK. To start in the popular GT category
Porsche decided to build an entire new car around the 2
litre version of the engine using the latest technology of
fibre glass to safe weight, the result was the 904 GTS.
Especially at the Targa Florio Porsche dominated even with
the smaller cars in previous years so the new 904 had to
live up to the earlier success and the car on show (904-005)
did exactly what was expected with a first overall in its debut
race in 1964. The 904 was very successful in the hands of
privateers and the works team itself but certainly the main
goal to win Le Mans was impossible with this car. Although
the following 906 was originally designed as Berg-Spyder
(hill climber) the coupe became the weapon for the sports
car series. Although still in the 2-litre category it used the
new 6-cylinder boxer engine introduced with the 911 in
further development, again very successful at the Targa
Florio but also with class wins on many other events against
the Ferrari 206 S Dino, the car on show (906-155) started
as a works entry at Le Mans but did not finish.
Following the 906 was the 910, the first car that was not
street legal any more as it was just intended for the works
racing department and not for privateers. Still with 2 and 2.2
litre engines it was still not powerful enough for a LM victory.
In 1968 finally the engine capacity was reduced to 3 litres in
the WSCC and Porsche introduced the 907 that should
bring success in long distance racing. The first overall
victory was achieved in 1968 at the 24hours of Daytona,
although still with 2.2 litre engine the chassis 005 (that was
just sold at Gooding) led a 1-2-3 for the long tail racers. The
car at Amelia (023) is a short tail version and was entered in
Sebring were it did not finish.
With the following 908 different versions were introduced to
compete at the different race tracks and the short 908/03
was especially designed for the Targa Florio but also for the
NĂĽrburgring. Also in this period the famous livery of Martini
Racing and Gulf entered the Porsche world as could be
seen at the displayed model (90803-002).
Finally Porsche achieved their goal to win Le Mans in 1970
with the all-new 917, the most radical prototype up to date.
In the following year the 917 battled the Ferrari 512 S as
seen in the movie Le Mans with Steve McQueen and the car
at Amelia (917-015) is the actual Daytona 24h winner, at the
end of the career of the 917 a supercharged version
(917/30) was used in the CanAm series by Mark Donahue,
the 917/30 was the most powerful sports car for decades,
the displayed model was one of the unused spare cars (it
was for sale at Paris earlier this year with RM)
A decade later Porsche again created a car that should
dominate the scene for years with the 956; the car in Amelia
is one of the most successful of all of them. After the second
place at LM in its debut race in 1982 the car (956-003) won
no less than 5 successive races including Le Mans 1983.
In 1982 one of the drivers was this year’s honoree Jochen
Mass who also spans the bow to the other manufacturer
from Stuttgart, Mercedes-Benz. Back in the late 1980s
Mercedes was back in the Group C with its partner Sauber
and after some successful races the Sauber C9 finally
returned to Le Mans in all silver to give Mercedes the first
(and last) victory of an Silver Arrow at La Sarthe, later
attempts with the CLK-GTR failed. The winning Sauber was
on the Jochen Mass display and Mercedes celebrated the
25th anniversary of this victory as well as 120 year of its
motorsport history in general. The oldest Mercedes on show
was the winner of the French Grand Prix one hundred years
ago in 1914.
The pre-war Mercedes-Benz class was rather small with just
three more cars but they were extraordinary. Led by the
Pebble Beach winning 680S Saoutchik Torpedo that was
sold last year at the same place (see here) its sister car
(35903) was standing next to it. Although just a hand full of
the Saoutchik Roadsters were made also in the year of its
Pebble Beach BoS another one was presented alongside.
The class was rounded of by a 540 K Special Roadster that
was just sold last year at the same auction and that was
seen earlier this year at the multi-marque concours of the
Cavallino Classics.
But although Jochen Mass is today mostly known for his
sports car career he was also active in Formula 1 and even
achieved one victory with McLaren that celebrated its 50th
anniversary this year. Beside the M23 F1 in the Mass
display a line-up of 15 CanAm, Indy and GT cars celebrated
the round anniversary in style.
Further special classes were dedicated to Concept cars
from Chrysler and Packard (the later class featured 10 show
cars brought by one single owner, Ralph Marano), the
history of the Offenhauser engine, the American Underslung
and the BMW CSL Batmobile. In this class three of the
original works entered Batmobiles were reunited. Whereas
the private entered cars featured sponsor liveries from
Jägermeister or Gösser Beer the Bavarian works entries
featured the white paintwork with the red and blue stripes,
the line-up included the 12h of Sebring and the 24h of
Daytona winning car. But they were outshone by the first
BMW art car, the CSL by Alexander Calder. Although the
car did not finish at Le Mans it became the first of a series of
17 art cars until today, the car was presented as a piece of
art at Amelia in a special made glass box.
Finally at the end of the day the judges had to choose the
Best of Show both in the Elegance class and the
Competition class. Whereas the BoS winning Horch 853 with
Coachwork by Voll&Ruhrbeck was not unexpected the
wining Scarab was a bit of a surprise considering the
Maserati, Zagato, Ferrari and Porsche entries. The Scarab
was constructed by Lance Reventlow with a Chevy V8
engine to compete with the European manufacturers Ferrari
and Maserati at the end of the 1950s. With the limitation of
the engine capacity the Chevy engine was not usable
anymore and the Scarab appeared with less success with
an Offenhauser engine in Europe. Back in the US it was
raced with more success again with the larger Chevy V8 so
the value of this car can be maybe more appreciated in the
US than in Europe and as Amelia still is a big American show
the history of this underdog has its own appeal as it brought
the Americans to the European race tracks before the
Shelby Cobra and the Ford GT40 became common sight.
The Horch on the other side is without any doubt a show
stopper, the flamboyant art deco lines of the 5-litre straight
eight powered colossus made the car looking much lighter
than it actually is. On the wet ground of the golf course the
Horch sunk in leaving marks due to its heavy weight all
along its way to the winners’ parade and back. The car
brought over by Robert Lee was already crowned Best of
Show in Pebble Beach in 2009 and with this year’s award in
Amelia it is one of just very few cars having won the both
most important trophies.
After the traditional winners pictures down at the lake the
330 cars disappeared quit fast from the lawn leaving the
green keeper a little bit more work than usual due to the soft
ground with the rain the days before. But the cars did not
just leave marks on the ground but also deep impressions of
another memorable Amelia Island weekend with a selection
of cars that is hard to top in the years to come. Plans are
already under way for the 20th annual concours in March
2015 and with the jubilee one could expect another great
show, maybe a few highlights from the last 20 years might
be displayed on the green, we are all looking forward to see
what Bill Warner and his team will set up next year.
Report & Images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
Ferrari Entry
Model Colour Chassis # Entrant
Class FP
212 Inter Ghia Coupe Pale Blue Met’/Beige 0145E D. Nelson
212 Inter Vignale Coupe Black-Silver/Beige 0213EL R.
Junca de la Vega Jr.
250 GT Boano Coupe Red-Silver/Tan 0447GT D. Nicotra
410 SA Superfast White-Pale Blue Met’/ Black 0483SA B. &
A. Brockington Lee
250 GT S2 Cabriolet Featured in FNA Display – See Below
2473GT F. Ricciardelli
400 Superamerica Dark Red/Red 5115SA D. & C. Murray
250 GT Lusso Red/Beige 5211GT J. Dobbs Class FP1
330 GT 2+2 Drogo Gold/Black 7979 Goodman Collection
275 GTS (Black Hardtop) Red/Black 07767 D. & S. Nelson
275 GTB4 (Alloy) Blue Met’/Tan 09501 G. & S. Schaevitz
275 GTB4 Blue Met’/Beige 10803 P. Klutt
275 GTB4 Silver/Black 10533 J. Capasso
365 GT 2+2 NART Spider Red/Black 12611 Goodman
Collection
365 GTB4 NART Spider Blue Met’/Tan 14299 J. Barrett
365 GTB4 Red/Black 13231 J. & S. Campion
Class FR
166 Spider Corsa Red/Red 016I Collier Collection
340 MM Vignale Spider White-Blue/Blue 0324AM M.
Leventhal
335 S Spider Red/Beige 0764 A. Mohringer
330 P3/4 Red/Blk-Red 0846 J. Glickenhaus
312 P(B) Red-Green/Blk-Red 0894 J. Jaeger
Class Z
250 GT LWB Zagato Coupe Grey Met’-Silver/Red 0665GT
L. Herrington
Ferrari North America Display
250 GT Cabriolet (Hardtop) Red/Black 2473GT F.
Ricciardelli
FF Blue Met’/Beige-Tan 197977
Auctions America Display
365 GTB4 Red/Beige-Red 16393
Entrance Area Display
212 Export Touring Berlinetta Dark Red/Beige 0088E
RM Auction
250 GT S2 Cabriolet Red Met’/Beige 2093GT Lot # 162
365 GTB4 Red/Beige-Black 15569 Lot # 176
365 GTC4 Blue Met’/Beige 15859 Lot # 112
Dino 246 GTS Silver/Red-Black 08286 Lot # 127
512 BBi Red-Black/Black 44881 Lot # 145
512TR Black/Black 98634 Lot # 178
360 Challenge Red/Red 123439 Lot # 106
Gooding & Company Auction
250 Europa GT Silver-Red Met’/Red- Grey 0409GT Lot # 62
365 GTB4 Yellow/Beige-Black 15117 Lot # 74
365 GTB4 Dark Red/Black 15741 Lot # 34
Dino 206 GT Red/Black 00378 Lot # 70
Dino 246 GT Red/Black 04970 Lot # 45
Dino 246 GTS Purple Met’/Black 08070 Lot # 5
Keith Bluemel
03/2014
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