In October of last year, while participating in the Euro 2001 Auto Festival, at the BMW Manufaturing facility, near Greenville, SC, I had the priviledge to meet and talk with Bill Warner. As most of you know, Bill is the organizer of the Amelia Island Concours D' Elegance. At that time, he extended an invitation to bring our 1938 SS Jaguar 1.5 Liter Saloon to Amelia 2002. It has been one of my goals to participate in this event. The opportunity came much sooner than I expected.

My son, Nick, and I loaded Peaches in the trailer late Thursday afternoon. I had spent most of the day running errands in preparation for our trip. The Amelia organizers encourage participants to dress in the era of your car. We thought that would be alot of fun, so we rented thirties type costumes. I stopped by Jaguar South to pick up some hardware and to get some last words of wisdom from my Jaguar Gurus, Mark Lovello and Allen Bradley. My excitement for the weekend was steadily building all day.

Diane and I left the house at 7:15 Friday morning, and began our journey to Amelia. It was an uneventful seven hour drive. Though I think every motorcycle in the world passed us on I-95. Bike week was happening at Daytona Beach. When we arrived on the island, we dropped the trailer at the designated parking area and headed over to the Ritz to pick up our registration package. There were several beautiful vehicles staged near the entrance and there were people everywhere. After picking up our registration packet, which contained many wonderful items, we headed to the lounge to relax a bit. There we saw Paul Ianuario and Chuck Bennett. Paul is the Zentrum (BMW Museum) Curator and had brought his 1908 Cadilac and an Austin Healey Sprite. Chuck, who is with Zymol, was there as a spectator and to help Paul detail his cars. We enjoyed drinks, conversation, and wonderful cigars. At the tables in the lounge area there were the most delicious olives that I have ever tasted. Our server informed us that they were served with olive oil and a touch of garlic. I would go back to the Ritz just for those olives!

After checking in to our hotel, we headed to the historic district to grab some lunch and browse thru some of the shops. We returned to the District that evening for dinner at The Crab House. A friend had encouraged me to try their grilled shrimp. They were very tasty. The oysters were great as well. Then it was back to the hotel after a long, though enjoyable day.

Fiday morning, I awoke at about 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I was excited, to say the least, thinking about the final details that needed to be attended to on the car. While Diane got her beauty rest, I went to trailer parking area, unloaded the car, and drove her back to the hotel. While working on the car in the parking lot, many folks stopped by to check out the old girl, including Russell Glace from SFJC. He and his brother were there to attend the show and run a Ferrari through the auction. It amazed me that most of the people at the hotel were there as spectators and some had traveled great distances. I was beginning to think that this must really be a special event. After completing my chores, I returned the car to the trailer and decided just to enjoy the rest of the day.

Again, we headed back to the Historic District for lunch, this time at a great Irish Pub. They had Newcastle on draught, so I was extremely happy. We toured the shops again and picked up a few things for the kids and our grandson. Then we drove over to the Ritz to check out the auction.

As entrants in the show, we were able to use the valet parking when we registered on Friday. No such luck on Saturday. We parked along the side of the road and had about a mile walk up to the Ritz. The auction was being held in a huge white tent behind the hotel. The place was packed. We were able to get inside the tent and stand for a few minutes, but it became very uncomfortable. While there we saw one of Nicholas Cage's cars, a gorgeous Bugatti, an Aston Martin DB5, my favorite Jamea Bond car, and a green E-Type competiton coupe. The auction cars were staged in another huge white tent about 50 yards form the auction. We ventured into the tent and gazed at the offerings, which included a Mercedes 540k that was later auctioned for $2,970,000! Having had enough exitement, we headed to the lounge to have a lovely beverage and pig out on those tasty olives. That evening it was back to town, again, for another wonderful meal.

Sunday morning I was out of bed and on the way to pickup the car by 6:30. Again, I brought her gack to the hotel. Diane was all decked out in her lovely chifffon dress and fur. I changed into my zoote suit, spats and all, and by 7:30 we were on the way to the "Field of Dreams". When we arrived at the Ritz, there were many people admiring the cars as they were directed onto the field. The attendants directed us down a cart path onto the 10th fairway on the golf course. We eventually ended up staging the car on the adjacent 18th fairway. I parked Peaches beside an incredible Mercedes roadster and then watched as the rest of the cars entered the field. I had never seen such an assembley of beautiful iron in my life. Chills were racing thru my body!

After a final dusting of the car, we had some time to walk around the field and view some of the other cars, Dusenbergs, Packarks, Cadalics galore, race cars, muscle cars and more. We of course were looking for Jaguars and found two others on the field, a beautiful red SS100,belonging to Don and Molly Marsh from Ohio and Tom Palisi's perfect XK120. I was able to talk to Tom later in the day and watch as he paraded on the field to accept an award.

Upon returning to our car, the rest of the cars in our class had arrived and were in place. There was a 1939 Bugatti 57C Arivis, a1939 Bugatti T-57-C Atalante, a 1936 Delahaye 135 Competition Coupe, a Delage D8.120SS, and the Mercedes 380k parked on the edge of the fairway next to our Peaches. I was truly outclassed. These were some of the finest cars in the entire show, all of which eventually won class awards. Unfortunately, we were not among them when they paraded the field for their awards, but it was a thrill just being near them.

Many of the spectators showed interest in our car and took many pictures of her and Diane and I in our costumes. People were calling me Bugsy and Al! One fellow asked me where my gun was and I explained to him that security had confiscated it at the gate! As we have done at other shows, we asked people that showed interest in our car if they would like to sit behind the wheel and have their picture taken. Most of them are quite surprised when we make the offer, but we explain to them that we want others to enjoy her as we do. We receive much satisfaction from doing this. We talked to many people during the event. One gentleman in particular that we talked to was Jaime Del Valle, the president of Jaguar of Puerto Rico, who owns a 1939 SS 1.5 Saloon, basically the same care as ours. He explained to me that the car was in pieces, but that after seeing our car he was excited about getting his back in running order. I, of course, encouraged him to do so.

Best of Show was awarded to the Delage, which was a super beautiful car. I don't know if this had any impact on the judging, but there was this young, tall, thin, and very well endowed blond woman that was with the Delage for most of the day. And I do mean well endowed! If I were judging, I certainly would have have had some questions concerning authenticity! None the less, this car was very desrving of the award.

Amelia is by far the most incredible car event that I have ever attended. The hospitlity by everyone on the island was second to none. The huge crowd that attended(estimated over fifteen thousand)was extremely well behaved and many expressed their thanks to us for bringing our cars. The setting and facilities were all first class. Bill Warner really knows how to put on an event and should be congratulated. I can't imagine how Pebble Beach could be any better than this! If you are an automobile enthusiast, attendance to this show shoud be mandatory. It was a wonderful honor just being able to participate and we hope that we will have the opportunity again someday.

 

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About the author - Mike and Diane Fulton are members of the Carolina Jaguar Club proud owners of Peaches, their 1938 1.5 litre SS Saloon..

Posted 4/8/2002

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