The twin winners of this year's Amelia Island Concours in Florida last weekend (10-11 March) were a 1938 Bugatti Type 57 and a 1962 Ferrari 330GTO.
The pair bettered 293 other cars in the 17th running of the event, which this year attracted 23,000 visitors.
The Bugatti took the coveted Concours d’Elegance award. Owned by the Off Brothers Collection from Richland, Michigan, it is one of only three surviving Aravis Drophead Coupes bodied by Gangloff. The car was shipped to the USA in 1961 and was fully restored in 2009.
The 330GTO is owned by Jim Jaeger from Indian Hill, Ohio, and that took home the Concours de Sport award. The 330s were Ferrari’s in-house hot rods, prototype GTs with 4-litre V12s instead of the 250’s 3-litre unit. This example started the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hours from seventh on the grid with Mike Parkes and Lorenzo Bandini.
Other highlights included the 1964 Shelby Daytona Coupe that helped unseat Ferrari as World GT Champion, as well as the sleek 1929 Duesenberg J-108 Convertible Coupe that played a role in the classic move The Gay Divorcee.
As was promoted before the event, there were several other star cars including Rita Hayworth’s Ghia-bodied Cadillac, a Duesenberg once owned by Ginger Rogers (above), Natalie Wood’s Mercedes-Benz 300SL roadster and cowboy Tom Mix’s custom Cord 812 roadster (below).
Cars that graced the covers of Road & Track were also on display, as were a selection of cars that won the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. This year's event also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Ferrari GTO, with 12 examples on the show field.
Vic Elford was the star guest, greeting attendees throughout the weekend. He also took part in the Great Endurance Drivers Seminar alongside other legendary aces such as Sam Posey, Hurley Haywood, Brian Redman, Jim Hall, Gerard Larrousse, Joe Buzzetta, David Hobbs and Derek Bell.
