The Amelia Island Concours included plenty of other fun events
Cars & Coffee at the Concours
The fairways were alive with local car club classics, muscle cars and the just intriguing on May 22, as the Amelia Island Concours’ d’Elegance’s annual Cars & Coffee at the Concours, presented by Heacock Classic, parked on the same golf greens as the 26th annual concours the next day.
Founded in 2013 to let those with vintage, exotic and collectible vehicles to gather on the concours grass, there were 450 on display from Porsches and Panteras to GTs and BMWs on the first, tenth, and eighteenth fairways. Like the concours, there were winners. Chairman’s Choice went to author and Barn Find Hunter YouTube series host Tom Cotter’s 1939 Ford Deluxe Woodie, and Tom and Elaine Moske’s 1988 BMW M3. The Shifting Gears award went to Donna Brandt’s 1968 Porsche 911 Targa; the Pixar Pick to Geoffrey Lane’s 1965 Peel Trident; and Caffeine and Octane/Speed and Style to Jason Newman’s 1963 Aston Martin.
Rare Bimmer raises more than $85K
A rare 2002 BMW 530i raised $85,226 to benefit Spina Bifida of Jacksonville, as part of the Concours d’Elegance Foundation’s annual charity auction at the classic car event. The Amelia’s annual donation to the nonprofit organization helps those affected by this birth defect of the brain and spine as well as their families. YouTube personality Samcrac donated his BMW with rare 5-speed manual transmission and unique specification. Raffle tickets were $20 per, the winner from Texas. The concours foundation has donated more than $3.75 million to Spina Bifida, Jacksonville’s Community Hospice & Palliative Care and other area non-profits since 1996.
Hagerty announces new foundation
With the original 1985 DeLorean DMC-12 time machine from 1985’s “Back to the Future” as a backdrop on the Amelia show field on May 22, the official launch of Hagerty Drivers Foundation was announced by CEO McKeel Hagerty.
“We talk so much about the dollars and cents of the car world and we don’t talk about the cultural value of it,” he said. ” … Our entire organization is to save driving and car culture for future generations. And the mission is to create the organization big enough, connected enough and strong enough to participate and do it.”
Jonathan Klinger will head the new foundation, telling the crowd that they will focus on education and preservation and spurring new ideas to keep those skills alive.
“This is all of you and all of us working together,” he said. ” … How can we spur innovative ideas in the business sector, and award efforts to keep these skills that are potentially going to die.”
The non-profit foundation will build upon the work of the 11-year-old Historic Vehicle Association, which promotes the cultural and historical significance of the automobile, and protects the future of automotive history. It will also build on Hagerty’s own works such as its youth judging program and Restore the Roar, which provided $500,000 to help small automotive companies during the early days of the pandemic.
Through an initial Hagerty pledge of $2.5 million, the new foundation will continue the National Historic Vehicle Register with the U.S. Department of the Interior. This creates a permanent archive of significant historic automobiles, motorcycles, trucks and commercial vehicles within the Library of Congress, 28 so far. The DeLorean will be the 29th added to the register, as will another vehicle, both part of the foundation’s September Cars at the Capital display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The foundation will also provide $400,000 to educational institutions with programs that teach automotive restoration or preservation, and give scholarships to help young drivers afford driver’s education. Information: hagerty.com/driversfoundation.
Lemons get the spotlight, too
Beautiful cars have assembled for the past 26 years at the annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. But the not-so-beautiful, odd or just fun have been shown in recent years nearby at the Concours d’Lemons Florida. Sponsored by Classic Motorsports magazine and Hagerty insurance,
Concours d’Lemons celebrates what it calls the oddball, mundane and truly awful automobiles out there, and did so at Main Beach Park in Fernandina Beach. Worst in Show was a 1982 DeLorean DMC-12 that owners Oliver and Terry Holler turned into the 1985 “Back to the Future” film’s DeLorean DMC-12 time machine. Driving it 827,000 miles over the past 20 years, they have raised $800,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Fernandina Beach residents won other awards, like Sight for Sour Eyes to Susan Taylor’s 1961 Triumph TR-3; Rust Belt American Junk (Other) to Rose Edmondson’s 1949 Crosley CD wagon; and Der SelfSatisifiedKrautenWagon to Pete Haney’s 1965 Volkswagen bus. A1960 Panhard PL17 Tigre was awarded the “French Legion of Horror.”
Dan Scanlan: (904) 359-4549
