Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance
Article by Jim Roberts
Photography by Marina Pushkareva and Denis L. Tanney
Winner of the Amelia Award, the 1955 300SL of Elliot and Marjorie Hillback of Needham , Massachusetts.
Bill Warner has been staging the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegence on the golf course of the elegant Ritz Carlton just north of Jacksonville, Florida for 17 years.
Under his direction, this great event has grown in participation, attendance, and stature to become the leading Eastern car show, considered by many to be second only to Pebble Beach. This year’s event March 9-11 certainly met those standards.
Warner has worked hard to ensure that Amelia Island is more than just looking at fabulous cars on the show field. Friday and Saturday featured seminars and panel discussions of everything from projected values of collectable cars to historic racing-oriented presentations by the people who participated in these races.
Because these retired racers, as well as current racers, writers, stars, and captains of industry are all “car crazy” – as described by Barry Meguiar who attended the event – they are very approachable and even willing to sign autographs, if you’re not too pushy. I’ve never felt inclined to pursue this, but several friends who do were elated at the number of signatures they wrangled from famous people.
Endurance champion Vic Elford was most approachable. Elford and racing legend Brian Redman were the masters of the Targa Florio with its 44-mile laps around Sicily. which made it the last true open road race when it ended in 1973. Hurley Haywood, who reportedly drove his last professional race at the Rolex 24 at Daytona this year, is often in Birmingham tending to his duties with the Porsche Sport Driving School.
Adam Paige, manager of Brand Public Relations at MBUSA and the company’s liaison to MBCA, told us he is most enthusiastic about plans for Startech 2013 in Birmingham at the Mercedes-Benz U.S. International factory, which is now preparing for production of the new C-Class.
As co-chair of StarTech with Bob Hinds and as a member of the MBCA Educational Foundation’s Safe Drivers–Safe Families program, I scored invitations for my wife and me to attend the Mercedes-Benz gala dinner Saturday evening.
We wound up being seated not only adjacent to the honored panel of retired endurance drivers, but also near luminaries such as Indy 500 winners Johnny Rutherford and Dario Franchitti. Many people believe Franchitti’s wife, actress Ashley Judd, is the more famous. Yes, she is striking and is taller than he – it could be the heels – but race drivers need to be small nowadays.
Doug Dees presents the MBCA Award for the Most Historically Significant Mercedes-Benz to Hans Wurl for the Le Mans-winning 1952 W194, owned by Bruce and Jolene McCaw, Bellevue, Washington.
I was pressed into service as a photographer the following day as MBCA Educational Foundation President Doug Dees presented the MBCA “Most Historically Significant” award to MBCA member Hans Wurl for the 1952 LeMans-winning W194 300SL Gullwing. It was joined on the field by more than 15 other valuable 300SL Gullwings and Roadsters celebrating six decades since production of the first racing Gullwings. I also watched as the Kemp Museum’s 1935 540K Special Roadster displayed by MBCA Past President Roger Van Ness received the Amelia Island Award for the vehicle with best new coachwork or re-creation.
Rodger Van Ness, past president of MBCA, accepted the Judge John North Trophy for best new coachwork or re-creation for the 1935 500K Special Roadster owned by the Kemp Auto Museum of Chesterfield, Missouri.
The MBUSA Star of Excellence for the most elegant Mercedes-Benz was presented to Carla Tyson of Austin, Texas, by Leo Levine, former vice president of communications for MBCA.
The Gil Nickel/Far Niente Award for best car in which to tour the Napa Valley was awarded to this 1928 Mercedes-Benz 5, owned by the estate of the late John Rich Sr. of Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
In addition to the official festivities, Peachtree Section MBCA staged not just one, but two evening dinners for club members at the Crab Shack in historic Fernandina Beach. Both were fully subscribed. Peachtree Section President Daryl Williams told me that the 68 attendees on Saturday night represented 14 sections from all over North America.
If you have not yet attended the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance and all the relatived activities, put it on your bucket list. If you attend, it is likely to become part of your annual calendar on the second weekend in March. And if you wear your MBCA shirt and nametag, you will look very official and doors will open.
And if your taste runs to auctions, both Gooding & Company and RM Auctions staged excellent events with an emphasis on upscale European cars. A Porsche 917 with no racing history brought $4.4 million.
1971 280Se 3.5 sold at Gooding Auction for $190,000 plus buyers premium.
1960 300SL Roadster sold at RM Auction for $990,000 plus buyers premium.
An immaculate 300SL Roadster on display in the Classic Center Pavilion.
The tube chassis and drive train of a 1954 300SL Gullwing, under restoration at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California.
A Singular Motorsports Event
John Kuhn Bleimaier
Some critics have said that what prevents the Amelia Island weekend from overtaking the Pebble Beach weekend in the world of classic cars is the absence of a serious driving event in conjunction with the former. While there is no race track within easy reach of the Floridian concours d’ elegance venue, I personally don’t find that to be an issue. You see, for me the second weekend in March, when all the automotive cognizanti gather on Florida’s northernmost island, always begins with a high-speed driving adventure.
My Amelia Island motorsport event comes in the form of either a historic race or a time trial, depending on whether I get behind the wheel of my vintage 300CD or of my modern C-Class sports coupe. In either event, at 12:01 a.m. on the Thursday morning before the Amelia Island Concours I point my star toward the south and blister the pavement of Route I95 from the Garden State to the Sunshine State. The ensuing 13 hours of intense competition, jockeying with 18-wheelers, Winnebagos, and choppers heading for Daytona Bike Week, is an unmitigated blast. The trip has also been the ultimate driver education session, teaching me the indispensable skill of “flying under the radar.”
In general, the Amelia Island Concours d’ Elegance signals the beginning of the enthusiast season. While much of the nation is still in winter hibernation, Florida is basking in sunblock-worthy rays and balmy breezes. No icy pavement or pesky road salt to contend with in Fernandina country. The weekend features a charity classic car drive-by; two collector automobile auctions presented by Goodings and RM respectively; the main concours d’ elegance: as well as a whirl of associated social gatherings. For 2012 a new component was added, the Concorso Atlantico, consciously modeled after the WestCoast Concorso Italiano.
Anyone who cares about historic vehicles inevitably becomes a connoisseur of the silver star. That’s because, not only did Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler invent the automobile in the first place, but the Mercedes-Benz firm has been pre-eminent in virtually every epoch of the motorcar’s evolution. Thus Amelia Island is awash with three-pointed stars during this very special weekend.
A 300SL Gullwing participated in Friday’s charity drive. Mercedes-Benz vehicles elicited stellar bids at the two auctions. MBUSA was a prime mover at the attendant social swirl. A covey of 300SLs, a 1935 540K special roadster and a type S from 1928 graced the field at the main event. Even at the Concorso Atlantico a 190SL was exhibited alongside the gleaming exemplars of Italian coachwork. In addition, AMG vehicles were made available to Amelia attendees for test drives starting and ending under the portico of the Ritz Carlton. Numerous MBCA luminaries, including our national president and several board members, were in attendance.
The joy of viewing objectively beautiful forms, contemplation of mechanical ingenuity and a reverence for the historic past are what draw us to a great concours d’elegance. Whether these gatherings of automobilisti take place on the shore of Carmel Bay or on a luxuriant sand bar in the estuary of the Saint Mary’s River, it matters not. And when I can drive my starship to an event like Amelia in a singular burst of speed, the journey is also the destination