From House To Home

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What has more than a thousand wheels and is worth over $95 million? Well, how about the 270 classic sports and racing cars exhibited at this year’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance?

Each year, gleaming cars by the dozen drive onto the golf course at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida; some whisper, some rumble, all excite. Everyone else savors one of the standout automotive exhibitions events in the world.

Bill Warner, the Jacksonville businessman who founded the event in 1996, said this year, “It was our dream to create more than a show recognizing the automobile’s contributions to design, engineering, and the freedom of mobility. We also wanted to recognize the people, particularly racing drivers, who have contributed so much to the 100-plus years of automotive history.”

Now in its 12th year, the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance is far more than just a car show. It has generated $1.5 million dollars for charity—the Community Hospice of Northeast Florida and Spina Bifida of Jacksonville.

“Beyond wanting to celebrate automotive beauty and accomplishment, we also believe it’s important to improve the quality of life for those most in need of a helping hand,” Warner said.

A concours d’elegance—the term was invented by the French in the 1920s—means nothing more (or less) than a “contest of elegance.” It is not a contest aimed at honoring the best or most expensive restoration or the rarest and most expensive automobile. It recognizes timeless beauty.

At this year’s Amelia Island extravaganza, a man with two young red-headed sons in tow said, “You don’t have to be rich to appreciate beauty. You just have to love beautiful things.” His attitude is representative of the spectators who pay $45 for the privilege of spending four to six hours on the green lawns of the Ritz-Carlton meandering among cars that can cost more than the homes that most of us occupy.

With good reason, classic automobiles are often called rolling sculptures. Seeing a well-designed and well-crafted automobile on the road is every bit as satisfying as seeing a Rodin or Henry Moore in a garden. But what is a classic? Among car enthusiasts, this question can spark arguments as heated and long-lasting as religion or politics.

In 1952, a group of vintage car owners founded the Classic Car Club of America. The CCCA defined as classic the great machines from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The original CCCA definition included specific nameplates from 1925 to 1942—great marques such as Duesenberg, Lincoln, Pierce-Arrow, Packard, and many others. The group has since added cars as recent as 1948 models and is somewhat flexible about the 1925 beginning.

That’s the hard-edged version of classic, though it is not entirely without subjectivity, an inevitable ingredient in any determination of classicism. David Schultz, a judge at Amelia Island, writing in Hemmings Classic Car, quoted a definition that dates to the 1950s. It was written by an Oklahoma collector, Lewis C. Markley. Mr. Markley’s salient points included the following thoughts.

“When a person speaks of a classic, he may be referring to a painting, a piece of music, or literature, or an automobile. In any case, he means [something] so outstanding and so brilliantly and artistically done that it forever retains its popular appeal. It was the best, and it’s still the best. That’s a classic.”

Mr. Markley went on to say, “Three factors contribute to the special appeal that makes a car a classic: quality, performance, and beauty…high quality—outstanding workmanship and design with [the consequent] high price tag—is essential. No car without it ever attained the title.”

You can see that these comments are applicable to cars of more recent vintage—Ferraris and Bentleys from the 1950s and 1960s, for example. Because of this, a show such as the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance divides cars into classes, using criteria that include country of origin, year of manufacture, type of car, and so on. At this year’s event, organizers presented classes for cars with custom coachwork, classic closed cars from specific periods, postwar sports cars, racing cars, and more. Altogether, the event’s 80 judges chose winners from 33 classes.

A feature unique to the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance is the selection of two Best in Show winners. One, of course, is the most elegant classic car in the opinion of the committee of judges who chooses best in show. The other winner (of the Concours de Sport prize) is a racing or sports car. At Amelia Island, racing cars from the past play a prominent role in pleasing the crowds. But elegance fails as a differentiator between a 1960s Indianapolis 500 winner and a 1936 Delahaye coupe with custom coachwork—hence the dual award system.

This year, the event featured racing cars that had participated in historic road races once held on public roads and highways—a practice long since discontinued in the interest of public safety. These included the Mille Miglia (Italy), the Targa Florio (Sicily) and the Carrera Panamericana (Mexico). Vintage racing cars and the now-vintage drivers who piloted them were on hand to mix with the crowds.

Another feature unique to the event is a slate of seminars featuring the racing personalities present—and sometimes heavyweights from the global auto industry. These are held on Saturday before the show and are attended by hundreds of spectators who have the opportunity to meet and ask questions of the famous drivers and important executives. No fewer than five former or present vice presidents of automakers are on the judging team.

If you want more action, RM Auctions conducts an all-day sale of vintage and classic automobiles on the hotel grounds. This year, bidders bought more than $20 million’s worth of cars.

Shortly after noon on Sunday, the award-giving ceremonies commence. With spectators lining both sides of a 200-yard stretch of fairway, one gorgeous machine after another motors up one side of the fairway to the reviewing stand. Once there, the owner is congratulated, answers a few questions about the car, accepts a trophy, and then drives away along the other side of the fairway. This year’s parade of elegance—and “presence,” the word the organizers use to describe outstanding racing cars—continued until some 124 different cars had made the U-shaped tour of the fairway. 

William Jeanes is a former editor-in-chief and publisher of Car and Driver and now writes for Winding Road.