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stunned silence as we all stared at its
curvaceous redness with a “we are not
worthy” gaze upon all our faces.
Enough of furrin’ cars: I want to
see the supercars that are really im-
portant; namely, the GT40s that have
been going to Le Mans! It doesn’t take
long to find them, because there is a
crowd of folks standing in a semicircle
in front of all four of the gorgeous
beasts and you could hear their laugh-
ter from a 100 feet away. I walk up to
take a peek at the cause of the commo-
tion and — surprise, surprise — it’s
faux celebrity “GT Joey,” who au-
thored a book, “Around the World in a
Ford GT,” which tells how he and a
buddy “
planned, prepared, and exe-
cuted a very unique adventure, stop-
ping along the way to invite friends
and fans to take part in the celebra-
tion of our journey
.” Today Joey is sit-
ting, kind of, on Jeff Burgy’s motorized
cart, yakkin’ on his cellphone and ob-
viously enjoyin’ life!
The rest of this sunny, mid-70s,
splendiferous Cars ‘N Coffee event I
spent looking at cars, photographing
cars, looking at more cars, photograph-
ing more cars, but then, the real fun
began, the fun of meets ‘n’ greets with
new friends, old friends, and just plain
folks. It was a classic case of turning”
thisaway” to see Drew, Janet, and
Emily from Northern California, and
“thataway” to see Joe and Gayle from
Sacramento. I also ran into Lee from
Maryland, who was on the island to
put an ‘88 Ferrari 328 GTS and a ‘60
Austin Healey 3000 MKI BN7 up for
auction with RM/Sotheby.
However, the gentleman who was
really interesting to chat with was
North Carolina Ron, who introduced
himself to me because I was wearing
my NorCal Shelby white collared
shirt. He proceeded to tell me he had
built a couple of Cobra kits. It turns
out this gentleman is a master crafts-
man of all trades when constructing a
car, including being quite the fabrica-
tor, and is currently building from
scratch a Lance Reventlow 1958
Scarab sports-racer. The reason I was
impressed is that he mentioned hav-
ing to purchase a rolling wheel in
order to create the body panels. Con-
sidering the only mechanical talent I
have is clicking my ballpoint pen in
order to write a check for work done on
my cars, I was more than just a little
impressed.
Amelia Island Select, along with
Festivals of Speed, is located on the
grounds of the Omni Amelia Island
Plantation Resort and while just
standing in the midst of all this classic
Florida ambience, I am surprised at
how some car events can offer up some
pretty cool “surprises.” This moment,
for instance. I am taking a few deep
breaths of wonderful fresh air being
supplied from a slight breeze coming
off a picturesque inland waterway full
of sailboats. The immediate surprise to
my senses, however, is the young, full
figured model with the long blonde
hair, wearing a 1950s Bettie Page-
style leopard bikini, draped right be-
fore me over a classic car which I
couldn’t begin to describe. Do I really
have to tell you why I can’t remember
the car? It turns out she and a profes-
sional photographer were doing a
photo shoot for a calendar and they
were given permission by certain own-
ers to use their cars as backdrops. At
least, I think they were cars.
This wouldn’t be all that big a deal,
except it immediately followed an-
other “surprise,” namely a half dozen
or so beautiful women in formal ball
gowns strolling around the grounds,
posing for photos in singles or pairs
alongside the cars for us rank ama-
teurs. I questioned one of the Amelia
Select officials and she said it was all
part of what was being done to benefit
the charity receiving the majority of
the proceeds being generated on this
day. She said it was a takeoff on the
well-known idea beautiful cars are
usually associated with beautiful
women. I told her I couldn’t agree
more, and no, none of them will appear
in this article.
The last surprise was a meet ‘n
greet with Larry Beach (what a name
for a Floridian!), who just happens to
be Team Shelby’s Florida State Direc-
tor, part of their South Atlantic Re-
gion. I was snapping photos of all
these new Shelbys lined up LeMans
start-style, when I happened to notice
their club flag flappin’ in the breeze
above their tent, in the middle of their
club cars. I walked in said, “
Finally, I
find my brethren!
” About a dozen guys
give me the, “
Who the Hades are you?
”
look, until I point to the logo on my
shirt. Then they replied, “
A NorCal
guy!
” so all was well. To Michael
McGuirk of Northern California, Team
Shelby Larry says, “
Hello!”
Driving exhausted back to my
hotel, I’m moanin’ and a groanin’, be-
cause both of my pedibus are hot and
sore even without socks, albeit not in
as bad shape as a couple of days ago
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2016 71