The Shelby American (Spring 2016)

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ell, let’s see now, Drew, Janet,
and Emily Serb are going,
Gayle and Peter Brock are going, Rick
and Colleen Kopec are going, a bunch
of guys from Sacramento are going,
soooo…ah, to Hades with it, I’ll go, too!
I don’t have any buckaroonies left this
month to go anywhere, but that’s no
big deal, because my credit card has
plenty of red hot simoleons, just sittin’
there, ready to be spent any time, on
any thing.
I approach the much better half
with my last minute decision to fly
3,000 miles across the good ol’ US of A
to make a first time appearance at
Florida’s Amelia Island Concours
Week, where I’ve heard the classic, ex-
otic, and muscle cars are plentiful and
beautiful. She sarcastically says, “ You,
go to a car show all the way across the
country? Noooo!” Then she sets down
to begin the arduous task of using re-
wards points to get lil’ ol’ me to Florida
and back for zippo, zero, nada. Well,
the flight may be sort of a freebie, be-
cause after paying extra for more
legroom and extra to check a bag, my
sorry butt may be sitting in the seat
for “free” but I’m still forking out
scheckels for “a thissa’ an’ a thatta’.”
Both of those things used to be free not
that long ago.
Considering I was born cheap, and
have matured to become even cheaper,
I am surprised to find my rental car, a
full-size furrin’ somethin’ ‘ur other, is
more than reasonably priced, as in
four complete days for under 200
George Washington greenbacks. Now,
the hotel room was a different story al-
together. Don’t get me wrong, I under-
stand supply and demand, so in their
eyes, hoteliers feel they have a perfect
right to jack up the prices when there
are going to be an unlimited number
of warm bodies looking for a limited
number of rooms, especially when
those rooms are on a small island. My,
shall we say, average room cost me
over $200 a night, while the weeks be-
fore and after Amelia Island Concours
Week cost $90 a night. I definitely felt
I should have gotten a kiss each
evening right before going to bed, be-
cause…well, you know.
Thursday, March 10th
Bonham Auction, Gooding Preview
“URR-URR-URR. Wakey-wakey
time, as in a thoroughly obnoxious,
bone-jarring cell phone ripping off
your right ear to announce that,
“ Morning has broken, like the first
morning…” Cat Stevens 1971. It’s my
very first time at a large event like
Amelia Island Concours, so I arise as
early as humanly possible so I can
drive around the newly discovered
highways and byways to get “the lay of
the land.” Cruising slowly along unfa-
miliar dawn-lit roads, turning “thiss-
away an’ a thattaway” (that sounds so
cool), it doesn’t take long to figure out
Amelia Island Parkway is literally the
main artery of the whole concours
week. Each and every event held day
or night can be found either on the
parkway, or on ancillary roads branch-
ing off the parkway to a nearby loca-
tion.
I always use my trusty GPS
(Grandpa Positioning System), which
consists of a series of Google map con-
figurations printed out before leaving
my Sacramento front door, because I
have been led astray too many times
by Nav Sat systems to points un-
known to most humankind. This is
Florida ‘gator country, and I have ab-
solutely no intention of winding up on
a dead end in some swamp, face to face
with a long snouted, razor toothed crit-
ter that has not evolved beyond its di-
nosaur days. I watch those kind of “get
lost” movies, and trust me, they never
end well for the “lostee.”
The first place I visit to see some
serious chump change get double
greased from one palm to another is
Bonham’s, a most respected auction
house frequented by classy patrons to
buy and sell classy automobiles of all
shapes and sizes (and that also de-
scribes the patrons). The first gentle-
man I see of any notoriety is Wayne
“Chasing Classic Cars” Carini. I
record his program which I watch over
and over again, because I actually
learn valuable “car shtuff” from this
guy. Not to mention, I absolutely love
Roger the par excellence mechanic on
the show, who consistently makes non-
PC comments, which add so much real
personality to the program.
Wayne’s been a knowledgeable
“mover ‘n shaker” in the car biz for a
few moons and definitely has the in-
nate ability to “ know when to hold’em,
and know when to fold’em” – Kenny
Rogers 1978, when it comes to bidding
for exotic, classic, and muscle cars. I
have introduced myself to him once at
Scottsdale, and once at Monterey, al-
ways making sure I wasn’t interrupt-
ing him when working or socializing.
The SHELBY AMERICAN Spring 2016 66
A Fulk’s Eye View of the Pebble Beach of the East
— Bill Fulk W