The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance 2020 was a great success with more than 300 cars and motorcycles attending the 25th anniversary celebration on Sunday, March 8th.
The fairways of The Golf Club of Amelia Island were packed and any concerns about coronavirus did not seem to have a major impact on attendance this year.
Guardians of Porsche Wine Maker’s Dinner- Thursday, March 5
The Guardians of Porsche Wine Maker’s Dinner has become one of the serious highlights and must-attend events during the Amelia Island Concours week. It is a fun event that has become like a family reunion among Porsche collectors, industry insiders, and brand enthusiasts. The wine dinner itself is very compelling and this year’s wine pairings were quite impressive. The evening concluded with Roger Penske being interviewed by Pedro Mota, VP of Marketing at PCNA. Mr. Penske shared some entertaining and insightful stories about his relationship with Porsche throughout the years. “A lifetime of effort equals results.” Roger Penske
Competitive Classes and Entrants
One of the coolest classes ever assembled for any concours has to be the one that Bill Warner pulled together to celebrate Roger Penske’s racing achievements for the 25th Anniversary of Amelia. It was class composed of cars he either raced personally or was campaigned by a Penske race team. The Ferrari 250 GTO (s/n 3987) that Roger raced in period and resides in the Ralph Lauren Collection was certainly the highlight of the class.
Road Scholars Preps to Special Porsches:
We had the honor and privilege to show two different Porsche Typ 540 America Roadsters this year in the very competitive Sport Car 1 class. The Typ 540 model was the first Porsche purpose-built production race car and precedes the Typ 550 Spyder. Only 17 examples were built and the America Roadster, as it would become known as, achieved significant racing success in the 1950’s that garnered much press for Porsche.
Chassis 12371 Is the last America Roadster built and is the only steel body car that Heuer Kerrosiebrik built before going bankrupt. First owned by Ex-Brundage Motors Inc. (Brumos Porsche) Hubert Brundage raced chassis 12371 at the 12 hours of Sebring in 1954, finishing 15th overall. Gary Kempton (GK Restorations) took 15 years to painstakingly restore the car to his highest standard. To help make the car as correct as possible, Jan Brundage provided many period photos of the car as well as his recollections of its details. Gary finished the car in 2004. The current owner and great friend Chip Perry from Blowing Rock, North Carolina charged us with the responsibility of preparing chassis 12371 for Amelia Island. Taking a sixteen-year-old restoration and making it competitive for Concours is never an easy task. Our restoration team totally de-trimmed the car of all exterior parts. Much attention was lavished on the paint and body fitment of the panels. The entire car was carefully wet sanded and buffed. We also addressed some body gaps on the doors by making some critical adjustments. Multiple paint chips on the body and windshield were filled and carefully sanded. All exterior parts were re-chromed to factory standards. Serious effort was spent on bringing aluminum trim pieces back to life and the turbo rings on the wheels were re-anodized. Our vigorous efforts were acknowledged by the judges, as chassis 12371 was chosen for an Amelia Class award. Chip Perry had the opportunity to drive the car and accept the award with his son Skip in the passenger seat. It was a very satisfying achievement in a very competitive class. The car is painted in its original color of Rosedegrun – easily the most frequently asked question of the day.
Chassis 12336 is the ninth America Roadster of the sixteen aluminum roadsters built. This car was special ordered in Fire Red by John von Neumann of Competition Motor fame and sold to John Crean. John Crean shared 12336 on race weekends with Josie von Neumann, who was the stepdaughter of John von Neumann. Crean and Josie racked up race wins at West Coast SCCA and Cal Club races in 12336. We painstakingly restored 12336 (saving the original aluminum body) and took third place at the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Full story here. For the second year in a row, we were very fortunate to be chosen for the Porsche Corporate Award for most significant production Porsche on the field. There are two Corporate Porsche awards, the other one is for most significant race car. These are coveted awards and considered better than a class win at Amelia because you are judged against every Porsche on the field that is competing in the concours, regardless of class. We were very happy for the Ingram Collection. It was quite a sight to see Bob Ingram driving up to accept the trophy with Jacky Ickx in the passenger seat.
Best of Show:
The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance awards Best of Show for two designations — Concours de Sport and Concours d’Elegance. Best of Show Concours de Sport was awarded to the 1973 Porsche 917/30 Can-Am Spyder owned by Rob Kauffman of Charlotte, North Carolina. Best of Show Concours d’Elegance was given to the 1929 Duesenberg J-218 ‘Whittell’ Limousine owned by the Lehrman Collection, Palm Beach, Florida.
“The 1929 Duesenberg J-218 Town Limousine and 1973 Porsche 917/10 Can-Am Spyder both embody the spirit of our awards,” said Bill Warner, Chairman and Founder of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.
