This weekend’s 12th annual St. Petersburg car show is one of the four Festivals of Speed that Florida plays host to every year. Hundreds of exotics and homegrown performance machines garner the attention of over 15,000 attendees, making any FOS display worth a trip.
This year marks Auction America’s 14th Fort Lauderdale Auction, widely regarded as South Florida’s premier collector car auction. The docket reflects this, with a plethora of fine and noteworthy vehicles, from a BMW M1 to a Ferrari 512 BBi.
Named for a North African windstorm, the original 1967-1973 Maserati Ghibli blew through the ranks of Italian GT’s as a 150+ mph instant classic and – to most eyes — one of the most beautiful cars ever made. There is no questioning the original Ghibli’s place in the pantheon of motorized Italian masterpieces.
Founded in 1990 as a fundraiser for the Phoenix Art Museum, the Copperstate 1000 has burgeoned into one of the preeminent vintage rallies in America. It offers fine lodgings for a four-day all-inclusive trip on an unbeaten, carefully curated trail.
While I am drawn to many vehicles because of their design, my real joy comes in driving. There are certainly cars that might be considered by some to be a bit “visually challenged” but nonetheless deliver a rewarding experience behind the wheel.
The Diablo’s design was more elegant than the Countach, which had become festooned with all manner of body add-ons, including a rear wing that looked like a Boeing 727’s horizontal stabilizer. Like the Countach before it, the Diablo also grew a young fan base and became a poster car in many boys’ bedrooms.
The Nethercutt Museum offers a walk through the history of the automobile, showcasing over 130 pre-1970 cars broken into categories based on era of production. Next door, The Nethercutt Collection occupies the museum’s former residence, with four floors of only the finest antiques.
Gooding & Company’s Amelia Island auction is the penultimate sale of collector cars in this year’s Amelia Island weekend festivities. The docket is headlined by an estimated $32,000,000 worth of Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsches.
The Amelia Island weekend, home to one of the nation’s premier concours d’Elegance, begins in earnest on Thursday, March 10th, 2016. The days to follow promise three separate auctions of high-end cars and a chance to see and show the most distinguished automobiles.
