News & events
A pair of cars from opposing ends of the motoring spectrum landed the two top trophies at the 26th annual Amelia Island Concours d’elegance, held on 23 May after its original March date was postponed due to the pandemic.
Unlike other top concours, Amelia Island splits its overall award into two categories, for road and competition cars, with Best in Show – Concours d’elegance going to the 1926 Hispano-suiza H6B Cabriolet of Jill and Charles Mitchell, and James Bartel’s 1974 Shadow DN4 landing Best in Show – Concours de Sport at the Nassau County, Florida, event.
One of 2350 H6s built from 1919-’33, the Hispano-suiza was given elegant Cabriolet Le Dandy coachwork at the Henri Chapron Works in 1931. Sharing only its black hue with the H6B, the freshly restored Shadow DN4-1A was the 1974 Can-am Championship winner, driven to victory in four out of five races in the abbreviated season by Jackie Oliver and kept by team boss Don Nichols until 2014.
“This year’s showfield might have been reduced to encourage social distancing, but the quality of the entries made selecting the winners as difficult as ever,” said founder and chairman Bill Warner.
Other class victors ranged from the 1905 Columbia XXXV Open Drive Brougham (right), brought along by Mark Hyman with Mary and Ted Stahl, to Jim and Stacey Weddle’s 1985 Ferrari 288GTO.
The 13-strong group dedicated to the ‘Allconquering Porsche 935’ to mark 45 years since the racer’s debut was won by David Macneil’s 1980 K3/80.
Amelia Island always features a fascinating mix of road and race machinery, and an honoree from the latter. The title was bestowed this year on racer and broadcaster Lyn St James, who was on hand to enjoy a class of 11 of her cars – won by the 1985 Mustang displayed by 3 Dog Garage.
Elsewhere, highlights included two classes of Chevy Thunder, augmented by a seminar with NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jnr; an entertaining Weird and Wonderful group; Supercars; and a new Taking Charge Parade of EVS, joined by the 1895 Morris and Salom Electrobat IV from the America on Wheels Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania, believed to be the oldest-surviving electric vehicle.