2015 Amelia Island Concours
Rare Cars Win 2015 Amelia Island Concours …
AMELIA ISLAND, FL, March 15, 2015 — Two presitigious awards, among the top trophies in the collector car hobby, have been awarded here at the 2015 Amelia Island Concours. A 1930 Cord L29 Brooks Stevens Speedster with Woodlites, owned by Ed Schoenthaler of Oak Brook, Illinois, has been awarded the Best of Show Concours D’Elegance for the Amelia Island event. And a 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Zagato Spider, owned by David Sydorick of Beverly Hills, California, has won the Best of Show Concours de Sport. These two cars were chosen out of a field of 315 cars from all over the world to be honored as this year’s Best of Show at the 2015 Amerila Island Concours.
Brooks Stevens was a famous designer who hailed from the Milwaukee area in Wisconsin. Although he was one of the great designers of the 20th Century, his work in the automobile industry brought him the most fame. He worked for Studebaker and American Motors during his glory days. But he himself was an avid sports car racer and builder. Stevens was a young man when he bought this 1930 Cord L29 Cabriolet as a new car purchase. After his studies at Cornell University in New York, he decided to rebuild his L29 into a speedster much like the Auburns of that era. The car was entered in road races, hill climbs and rallies. In fact, Stevens loved this car so much that it was still in his collection at his death in 1995. Mr. Schoenthaler purchased the car from the Stevens estate, and put the car through a 2-year detailed restoration. The results are so stunning that it won the prestigious Best of Show Concours D’Elegance here at Amelia Island.
Here is a You Tube video about the 1930 Cord L29 Speedster done by Rides With Chuck as Chuck Derer interviewed Ed Schoenthaler on the car. Click video window to watch:
The 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Zagato Spider (shown above) won the Amelia Island Concours de Sport award as the top two-seater sports car here at the Concours event. The Italian made sports car shows styling by the Zagato design house, and is powered by a 2.3 Liter straight 8 cylinder engine built by Vittorio Jano. The Amelia Island judges noted its outstanding racing history and its impeccable restoration as reasons for its selection as Concours de Sport. Present for the awards ceremony was its current owner, David Sydorick of Beverly Hills, California. In 2003 Sydorick bought the vehicle and had Wisconsin-based restorer Rick Bunkfield rebuild the engine.
A gathering of some of the most avid car collectors in the world has convened here at the 2015 Amelia Island Concours. It is one of the world’s most exclusive automotive Concours D’ Elegance. Photo journalists Bob and Donna Boberg are covering the event this weekend. You can follow their reports on their Twitter feed, as well as on their eClassicAutos.com website. They are enjoying the 80 degree weather and getting great photos of some of the world’s finest motorcars. The top cars selected here are among the most prestigious and collectible automobiles in the world.
Here are some of the winners in other categories:
The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year during the second weekend in March at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Florida and along the fairway of the Golf Club of Amelia Island. As a top collector car event it is considered as important as the Pebble Beach Concours, Meadowbrook Concours and the Louis Vuitton Classic in midtown Manhattan.
Click the video window below to watch a video by eClassicAutos.com from the 2015 Amelia Island Concours:
2015 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance from eclassicautos on Vimeo.
As the big 2015 Amelia Island week, or as they call it, “March Car Week,” kicked off here, there were several high level collector car auctions to hold everyone’s attention. We watched on Saturday as the RM/Sotheby’s Auction was conducted at the Summer Beach Golf Club of Amelia Island. This is the first auction sale conducted by RM Auctions after being merged with Sotheby’s. It was the mosts successful sale RM has ever had here at Amelia Island with $60.3 million in total sales. RM has been holding an auction at the Amelia Island event for 17 years. They told us that 17 vehicles were sold for seven figure amounts. Here are some of the results:
On Saturday we visited the Gooding & Company Auction. For Gooding & Company the results were also spectacular. They told us their total sales for the auction were $26.9 million. According to their numbers, 76 vehicles out of 85 were sold compiling an 89 percent sell through rate. (Gooding & Company allows the consignor to set a reserve value for the sale.) Seven of the vehicles sold went for more than $1 million.
Here are some of the results:
Bonhams’ inaugural Motorcar Auction was held on Thursday, March 12, 2015, at the Fernandina Beach Golf Club. This is the first year that a Bonhams Auction has been presented at the Amelia Island Concours. Here are the top sales at the auction:
In our coverage of the 2015 Amelia Island Concours we will be bringing you more photos and auction action from the Ritz-Carlton of Amelia Island. There is a great video about the Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance that explains the history of the event and how important it is to the collector car hobby on the East Coast.
Click the video window below to see the sights and sounds of Amelia Island Concours: