Our Excellent Adventure to Amelia Island Florida

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Well, we just got back from the big show at Amelia Island in Florida.  The Amelia Island Concours is a charity show benefitting a local hospice near Jacksonville.   About 250 cars are invited each year, everything from the brass era on up, and a heavy helping of race cars.  RM conducts an auction on site and the big show on Sunday is held on the golf course at the Ritz Carlton. 

We had planned to take the Ramo Stott Superbird to the show for months, and left the car at the Wellborn Musclecar Museum in Alabama over the winter.   Tim Wellborn was nice enough to let me keep the car and trailer there and took great care of it.    It's only 350 miles to the show from there, so it really cut down on the inbound tow distance.

Our crew was myself,  Chuck Porter, his son Jeff and DSAC stalwart Mike Borkowski.   Chuck provided the tow vehicle, his 2004 F150 Super Crew.  We left Milwaukee at 6:30 PM last Tuesday not knowing how far we'd get.   Turns out, we had decent weather and ran straight through arriving to Alexander City and heavy rain Wednesday morning just before the museum opened.      Tim and his guys had the car already removed from the showroom and placed by the exit door.   Since we were there early and could not check in to the hotel, we took the time to clean up the car a little. 

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While we were at the museum, we asked Phillip the manager, "Hey did Tim get that K & K Daytona sheet metal?"      

"Yes", was the answer.  

We then asked, "Can we see them?"




Note that the DAYTONA letters are hand painted!





Note that the door panel is covered indicating that the roll bars do not extend into the door.   That would make this car a 1969 or earlier build as new cars for 1970 have bars that extend into the door cavity.  Older cars were grandfathered on this.

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By early afternoon, we had the Bird shined up pretty good and ready to load.


Jeff Porter decided to play pit man with the chalkboard.

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Believe it or not, this simple trailer hauled the K & K Daytona around the country.

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A surprise on the day we visited the museum was that the K & K Daytona is leaving for the  new NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.   While we worked on the 7 car, Phillip and Jerry pumped the remaining fuel from the tank of the #71 as the car is being mounted on a simulated banking.   The car will be there for the next two years.




Talk about a lucky guy - for his 17th birthday, Jeff Porter got to steer the K & K out of the building and onto the hauler.    Jeff is fully aware of how lucky he was to be able to fart in the same seat as Bobby Isaac.  


Jeff is still in the car and they are just about to push it inside.    The other cars in the trailer were an Earnhardt Monte Carlo and a Bobby Allison Buick.

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Well, we had our car loaded, said goodbye to Phillip and Jerry, and headed to the Jameson Inn for some sleep.   Thursday morning we were out the door headed for Valdosta Georgia to visit Chuck's daughter Caitlin stationed at Moody Air Force base.   Caitlin had arranged for us to stay on base at the visitors hotel.    We had a 2 bedroom condo with kitchen and laundry for $42.   What a deal!   That offset the fuel economy of the F150 which was pulling low 8's in the MPG department.   But I knew that going in.    The truck actually did a fine job pulling. 

Friday morning we were on the road to Amelia Island, just north of Jacksonville.  We arrived just about 2:00 PM and dropped the trailer at the secured site for single car trailers.   A little paperwork and we headed over to our hotel, the Seaside Amelia on the north side of town.  The island is about three miles wide by five miles long, so it's not real big.    Checking in,  we then went back over to the Ritz Carlton to pick up our credentials.   

My girlfriend Miss Sue was flying in from Milwaukee on Friday through Atlanta.   In talking to friends who flew down the day before, the story at the Atlanta airport was not pretty.   Both people I spoke to ended up renting cars in Atlanta when their flights were delayed or cancelled because of weather.     The word from Sue was not good that her Milwaukee flight was delayed because Atlanta was closed.  She ultimately took off 2 hours late, then got stuck in Atlanta.    Finally, her flight from ATL left for JAX at 11:30 PM.    Talk about a long day.   I picked her up at the airport and returned to the hotel just before 2 AM.

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Satrurday morning we headed over to the Ritz for "The Three Greats" seminar.   Scheduled to attend was Richard Petty, the weekends guest of honor,  Don Garlits and Stirling Moss.   Unfortunately, just days before, Stirling who is 80 years old, fell down an open elevator shaft three stories.  He was in his flat in London, speaking to someone behind him.   The elevator door opened and Sir Stirling walked in not realizing the elevator car was not there!    He broke both ankles and a whole lot of other stuff.   

I was not sure who would replace Stirling, and did not put 2 + 2 together when I saw Carroll Shelby pass me in the hallway when we entered the hotel.    Turns out that was who it was.    Here is the Petty Superbird and Garlits dragster in the ballroom.




Something about the Petty Superbird looked different to me, but I couldn't put my finger on it, just yet...

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Sam Posey at far left was the moderator.  Here are Shelby, Garlits and Petty telling stories to a packed house.  Garlits was probably the best of the three with a great story about being frustrated with the 426 Hemi when it was initially forced on him to run it.    Petty was very candid about his road rage encounter running a guy off the road some years back.    "I just tapped his bumper and he got all squirelly."    Shelby through various answers indirectly gave us his standard line about how much the cars he built are worth today.

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I am speechless. Without speech.

You must live right.

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Walking out of the Ritz, here is a Duesenberg dropping off passengers at the front door.


A Bugatti Veyron on display just off to the side of the front door.   Mercedes, Aston, Maybach, Tesla, Jaguar, Porsche, Bentley, Spyker and Lingenfelter all had stuff out front on display for people to check out.

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Most cars are driven on the public road about a mile to the show field.   Race cars have the option of unloading much closer.   Saturday afternoon after the seminars, we hooked up the trailer and brought it over to a site about a 1/4 mile from the field.  Here it is coming out of the trailer.



We have just lit the car off and after warming it up a little, are ready to drive onto the show field.  That is the Atlantic Ocean in the background.


Although off the public road, we drove the car past a bunch of condos rattling the windows and onto the show field.   We have just put the front spoiler on.    We would cover the car and leave it overnight as the field is patrolled constantly by security.   Cars are beginning to get staged on the field, with more cars coming Sunday morning at 7 AM.

[Y-BRIDGE HEMI]

WOW !! Thanks for sharing Doug.  Fantastic story.   

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Saturday night, we went to the Gala dinner featuring Richard Petty as the speaker.    Below are Mike Borkowski, Sue and I.




Bobby Unser and Peter Brock, designer of the '65 Cobra Daytona Coupe.


Mike Joy was the emcee, interviewing Richard Petty


This was a huge chocolate sculpture.  We wanted to break off a piece for ourselves.   Think anyone would notice?


Giant telegram from Andy Granatelli.

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Sue getting her program autographed by The King.


Mike gets to meet The King too...


After things wound down, we try on The King's throne for size...

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Sunday morning came REALLLY early, especially losing an hour to daylight savings and being out late the last couple nights.    We were off to the show at 8 AM.

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We got the car uncovered by 8:45, and the show opened at 9:30.    It was COLD for Florida with sun and a brisk wind.   Our car was in the shade, so we walked around in the sun for a while to try and stay warm.    While we did this, there was the sound of a Hemi awakening in the distance (not ours!).    Around the corner came Richard Petty in a 1971 Road Runner to open the show.


The King looks pretty happy driving his old car through the crowd...

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Here are some of the cars we snapped walking around, in no particular order.

GM 1951 Lesabre dream car - one of my all time favorites


Davis 3 wheeler


GM Firebird III turbine car




Hudson Italia

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300 SL


Rolls


A different kind of Aero Car...


Wood bodied Rolls - incredible...


Talbot Lago


Cord

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Maserati race car - check out the individual panels welded together.   This is how it was done...


Ex-Stirling Moss Birdcage Maserati - beautiful...


Stunning Cal Spider Ferrari


410 Superamerica Ferrari in black.   This car is reference original with 19k miles on it.   One of the most original old Ferrari's on the planet.  Words cannot describe.

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Huge crowd and the Cars of Petty class to the right.


Petty Magnum appears to be a real honest original car.   It sounded horrible limping onto the field on six cylinders.  I had no idea there were any real Petty Magnums left in original livery.   These four shots below are all of the Magnum.   The hood up shot is when they were playing with it trying to get it to run a little better.   I really liked this car.

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Porsche 917 was also a featured car.    The silver car was an all original as raced car with 1971 paint on it.


#23 was the 1970 Lemans winner.  


Gulf 917 with nice race patina.

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Superbird is looking good.   The judges have already come through.   Ray Evernham was one of the guys who judged the Superbird.     The judging criteria favored freshly restored "pretty" cars versus originality.

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Porsche 907 - this car was the 1968 Sebring winner


Jaguar XJ13 - the only one built - it would have been Jaguar's race car to compete with the GT40 type cars.


The Hemi McKee Can-Am car


GT40 Mark II


Barn Find Sprint Car

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Sam Posey Challenger T/A


Garlits dragster


Paul Goldsmith Indy Roadster


Carroll Shelby Ferrari


Barn Find Cobra still with the dirt on it.

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Petty 1957 Oldsmobile.    This car is a replica.   The top is bolted on and could be removed to run the car in a convertible race.


Petty 1967 Plymouth from the RP Museum.   I think this is the real deal, but what is going on with the rear track being so much narrower than the front?





Another shot of the 1971 Road Runner.


1969 Torino - Although Ford records say that all four Petty Torinos were scrapped at the end of the season, two exist today...