The Shelby American (Spring 2016)

All of a sudden, I hear a loud,

“

They’ll let anybody in this place!

” and

shoot, sugar, sonofagun, it’s Mike and

Susie from Cars ‘n Coffee in Folsom,

California, a couple of my fellow Sat-

urday morning java and doughnuts

gang. Mike is on the island to sell one

of his many collector automobiles and

said, “

I was just driving down the

parkway, happened to see their ban-

ner, so I pulled in for a looksee.

” Proof

to the fact that Motostalgia chose a

great location to enter the auction

competition during Amelia Island

Concours Week. We promise to see

each other at C & C Folsom in a week

or so (we did). They had to quickly look

around before checking on the car they

brought to Amelia.

One of Motostalgia’s team mem-

bers approached me when I was in-

specting a neat looking little Devin SS,

the Atlantic pond. He commented that

they really had to spend some serious

research time determining that all of

the little car’s provenance history was

straight and true. He told me owners

are supposed to provide the necessary

paperwork to substantiate each and

every statement concerning their car,

“

but…,

” and the “but” was his main

concern. He also said some owners al-

ways want to attach some little ob-

scure factoid that will make their

collector car that much more valuable;

however, there’s no paperwork to back

it up, “

so…

,” which is also a concern.

You could tell his number one priority

was to make sure each and every car

at auction was represented honestly,

but the bottom line was that all

prospective bidders have the ultimate

responsibility to do their homework to

make sure they “get what they pay

for.” Caveat emptor.

I kid you not, in this high humid-

ity, high 70’s – low 80’s heat, my feet

are absolutely on fire and sweatin’ at

the same time! What’s up with this

nonsense? I think it’s about time I quit

being a socks snob, and go “

Bare-

footin’

” – Robert Parker 1966. Tomor-

row, shoes only, no socks!

Saturday March 12th

Cars ‘N Coffee Concours

Amelia Select Auction Preview

Okay, in Folsom, California, we

have a great Cars ‘N Coffee, started

two years ago by a couple of car enthu-

siasts in a small parking lot (the very

first C&C had 11 cars; the latest one,

in a larger lot, had 142 cars). The

Amelia Island Concours Week Cars ‘N

Coffee is slightly different than the

one run by our local boys, both in

terms of quantity and quality.

Now, I am in no way, shape, or form

denigrating the efforts of the boys on

the home front when it comes to put-

ting on a mo’ fine C&C, but the Amelia

Island crowd actually requires you to

pre-register and then you must be “ac-

cepted.” And the number of cars is

limited to the first 350 accepted. I’m

sure this is to keep just anyone from

driving right on in behind the wheel of

their hoopty mobile. I know each and

every one of you has a personal defini-

tion of a hoopty, but let’s be honest —

some wheels are highly prized by their

owners but should be viewed in the

garage by just their owners. No disre-

spect, boys ‘n’ girls, I’m just sayin’…

As for the venue, well, parking lot

be darned, the Amelia gang has their

Saturday C&C on the exact same fair-

ways of the exact same golf course

where the Amelia Island Concours is

held the next day, on Sunday. We’re

talkin’ a pastoral setting consisting of

long stretches of perfectly manicured

green grass, surrounded by beautiful

trees and flowered bushes, blossoming

every color in the rainbow. No blacktop

or concrete for these finer than fine ex-

otic, classic, and muscle cars, no sir-

reee. Only the finest southern

Bermuda grass will be allowed to ac-

commodate their royal presence when

“

here comes the judge

” – Pigmeat

Markham 1968, to do some serious

judgin’.

The very minute I walk through

the drive-on fairway entrance, I am

walking up a small hill to find a good

vantage point from which to ogle and

drool over the fine mobiles as their

owners slowly drive them down the

fairway to assigned group parking

(Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Corvettes,

Hot Rods, etc.). How do I know about

this “vantage point” you ask? Easy,

motor sports fans and inflamed tissue

sufferers, I learned it from none other

than Wayne Carini. Every year he

tapes a “Chasing Classic Cars” episode

at Amelia Island Concours Week. He

once said get to the Saturday C&C

early, stand on the little hill near the

drive-on fairway entrance, and enjoy

the sights and sounds of the cars as

they are driven onto the fairway. Who

says you can’t learn anything from

watching television?

I find out quickly the best place to

view from the small hill is already

taken by Statler and Waldorf from

“The Muppet Show.” No kiddin’ — I al-

ways wondered what happened after

they retired, but here they were in

their folding chairs, alive and well,

criticizing, trashing, sometimes almost

heckling the poor drivers of some of

the cars. Not loudly, of course, but just

loud enough for surrounding people to

kind of do an “OMG” now and then,

while at the same time chuckling, be-

cause these two guys were standup

comedy hilarious. They could have lit-

erally taken their “show on the road”.

Then I and everybody around me

got really, really quiet, because cross-

ing majestically from left to right, was

a Ferrari Series One 250 GTO, with

that rich, gutteral sounding, almost

race-tuned V12, rumbling slowly but

steadfastly to its assigned parking

spot. Even Statler and Waldorf sat in

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Spring 2016 70