For the fourth time in a row, I had the opportunity to take a car from the Maine Classic Car Museum (where I am the collections manager) and show it at The Amelia Concours d’Elegance. This year, we chose a 1954 Hudson Italia for the event. This was not just any Italia (already a special car with only 26 built)—it is the only unrestored car out of those 26, being completely original down to its 71-year-old tires.
I went up to Maine prior to the Italia being shipped to Florida and spent four days carefully cleaning and prepping it for the Concours. This might not sound like a big deal but, with a car this old and original, you have to be extra careful as some of the paint is cracking and your job is to clean the car without causing more paint to flake off. After we finished that, we made sure the car was mechanically ready to go, checking all the systems and ensuring that the car was drivable. Everything checked fine, so the
Hudson was loaded on the transport trailer bound for the Sunshine State.
On the Monday before the show, while I was still at home in Connecticut, my driver, Mark, called to let me know that the car was at the destination but that there was a problem: while the Italia was being moved off the trailer, it had developed a pretty serious cooling system leak and was pouring antifreeze all over. I asked Mark, whom I knew from previous shipping adventures, if he could find out where the leak was coming from. He said he would check and let me know.
About an hour later, Mark told me it was a broken heater hose. As we had originally thought it might be a blown head gasket, I was thrilled to know it was something simple. I went to my local auto parts store and bought three feet of 5/8-inch heater hose and several hose clamps, gathered some extra tools, and packed it all in my luggage. I also called Mark and let him know I would be by the car by 3 p.m. on Wednesday to fix the issues.
I arrived at the Amelia Island Ritz Carlton at 2:30 p.m. and, with equipment at hand, got a ride to the Peters Point drop-off spot next to the Ritz.
After getting to the car, Mark and I got right to work. It turns out that two of the heater hoses were broken, so we replaced both in 42 minutes, added coolant, and started the car. The system was fine—there were no leaks and the car ran as it should. We congratulated ourselves for a job well done . . . and then I slid into the Italia and put it in reverse to back off the ramp. The car had a hard time moving backwards, and the brake pedal felt really hard. Mark and I eventually got the Italia off the liftgate, but the brakes were locked up.
I sat in the Italia for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do next. It was not drivable, so we were never going to make it to the garage at the Ritz, let alone the show field on Sunday. Then I had the idea to call the only person I knew who might have a solution: The Amelia founder Bill Warner. He picked up on the first ring and asked what was going on.
I explained that the brakes on the Italia were locked up and asked if he had any ideas of where to go to get it sorted out as I could not fix it on the back of a truck. He said to call a guy named Al at Eight Flags Autosports in Fernandina Beach, just down the road. I called, but got their answering machine as it was after 5 p.m. I left a message explaining that Bill had said to call. About five minutes later, Al called me back and said that if I could get the car there by 8:15 a.m. the next day, they may be able to help. I thanked him and immediately scheduled a pickup in the morning with Hagerty’s roadside assistance service. The rest of the evening, throughout dinner and while talking with friends, I stressed out about whether or not we were going to be able to show the Italia.
The next day I met my tow driver on time, and we towed the car to Eight Flags. Al was there and said he would handle it. I took a taxi ride back to the hotel as I had an upcoming 11 a.m. lunch. During the entire meal, while talking to various VIPs in the classic car world, my head was spinning thinking about the car. What surprised me is that, during the lunch, I received my first phone call from Al giving me a status report on the work being done and then, at 3:45, I received the call I was hoping for: the Hudson was ready—the brakes worked as they should, and it was time for pickup.
I contacted Hagerty Roadside Assistance and, 45 minutes later, we were unloading the car and parking it at the Ritz.
The next day saw me working as the head judge at the Classic Motorsports Amelia Island Kickoff Show. We had a field of more than 150 cars with everything from muscle cars to BMWs, Porsches, and Ferraris. My amazing judging team did a terrific job in choosing the awards and, by shows end, the Best of Show award was won by a Ferrari 360 Spyder.
Some other standout cars were an amazing E30 M3, one of the best second-generation Fiat 124 Sport Coupes I have ever seen, and a stunning green Viper. That was in addition to the huge turnout of Morgan cars in attendance dating from the mid 1950s to the 2000s.
When we returned to the hotel, we learned that the day of the Concours had been moved ahead to Saturday due to a 90-percent chance of thundershowers on Sunday. This meant that the rest of the evening was spent with friends John Saccameno, Alan Galbraith, and me working to put the final cleaning touches on the Italia, knowing full well that we would have to again go over the car the following morning. That is the nature of concours events! We all turned in early, as being ready to drive on the field at 6 a.m. makes for an early morning followed by a long show day.
Saturday saw me up at 5:15 a.m. to set up for “Concours Day.” I was at the Italia at 5:45 where I found Alan already next to the car in the Ritz garage. He told me our friend Richard Lincoln had just left to line up with his Iso Rivolta, so we got in and headed to the drive in area where we found ourselves second in line behind our friend. We discovered that load-in was not going to happen for about 30 minutes, so we hung out talking with friends who were either in line to get on the field or there to watch the procession of cars.
At 6:30, we returned to the car and made the short trek to our space on the field in the American Limited Production Class. We were one of the first cars to be there and, after parking, started the final cleaning of the car. Alas, the one thing that I forgot to pack was a portable vacuum cleaner. Happily I found an entrant showing a Speed Yellow Porsche Carrera GT who had one to lend us.
The first judges showed up at 8 a.m. to look at our car as a candidate for the Preservation Award. The judge from FIVA spent 20 minutes looking at the car and its documents, and went away impressed with its originality.
Our class judges were at our car by 9:15 so I showed them around, pointing out the originality and the documents that included the original bill of sale, as well as period photos of the car with its first owner.
The final judges, the Hagerty Youth Judging group, were the most fun. They were led by my friend Evan Zema. I took about 30 minutes showing them the Hudson, explaining the features, and answering the many questions they had. These kids were so thoughtful and enthusiastic and asked harder questions than the preservation and class judges. It was great fun to be able to show them the car.
Then the waiting began. As usual, on Concours Day, I missed lunch, waiting to see if the Italia would take an award home. One p.m. came and went, then 2 and 3. At this point, the awards were already being given out and the cars were driving up to receive them, so I figured we were out of luck. Sometimes all the hard work in the world ends up finishing last. I asked my friends Alan, Joe, and John (all who helped with the car prep) to pick up our stuff and load it in the car as it appeared we were not going to win anything.
As we were about halfway done, my friend and car collector Ralph Murano came by and suggested we should probably stop what we were doing as a new team of judges were handing out ribbons—including one for the Italia! We then were told to quickly get into our car as we needed to drive across the stage to obtain our award. We had yet to learn what the award was, but owner Miles Prentice hopped into the passenger seat and we took the drive through the show field to line up.
The drive seemed to take forever, and proceeding through the crowd was seriously helped by the Hagerty staff and volunteers that guided us in.
Finally we arrived at the stage where Leslie Kendall of the Petersen Automotive Museum gave us the Petersen award, and McKeel and Soon Hagerty (along with their daughter) congratulated us. The Petersen award is in a nutshell the award that goes out to a car that they wish they had in the Petersen collection—it is for a car that represents what the hobby stands for. Miles was thrilled and I could finally relax. Despite the many issues of the week, our car was a winner.
The two Best of Show awards went to a pair of very deserving cars: a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B won Best of Show, Concours d’Elegance, and a 1967 Lotus 49 was honored as Best of Show, Concours de Sport.
The Concours d’Elegance-winning 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B is Chassis No. 412028 and believed to be one of the prototypes built to compete in the 1938 Mille Miglia. When it was restored, it was found that the car was an original short chassis model, and the engine had different characteristics than that of the Sport 8C 2.9, including a larger, different exhaust system. The car was ordered new in 1938 by the famous Italian racing champion Giuseppe Farina. It is the only 8C 2900 bodied by Farina.
The Concours de Sport-winning 1967 Lotus 49 Chassis No. 49/2 is the second Lotus 49 built. It was debuted by the legendary Jimmy Clark at Zandvoort in 1967. In addition to winning with Clark at Silverstone and Watkins Glen, it also was the winner of four Tasman races from 1967-68 while being driven in 1968 by Jackie Oliver and Jo Siffert. It was then raced by Mario Andretti in South Africa in 1969, and afterwards sold to Pete Lovely by Lotus’ Colin Chapman in 1969. Lovely then raced the car in multiple grand prixs from 1969-71. The car was restored by Classic Team Lotus in 2010.
After the awards were finished, I drove the Hudson back to the truck load-in area and met my driver, Mark. I thanked him again for all the great help over the week, and even commemorated the weekend with a picture of the two of us holding the award, as he was part of us winning.
The takeaway for you, the reader, is that the next time you go to a concours event and see all the glitz and glamour, the amazing cars and people dressed in expensive clothes, remember that sometimes the lead-up to the show is anything but glamorous and involves a lot of hard work assisted by good people.