Spent the weekend down in Amelia Island where one of our clients was entered in Sunday's Concours. It's a 1924 Aston Martin Grand Prix car that raced in the first British Grand Prix in 1926. The car was discovered a few years ago and High Mountain Classics out of Colorado has spent the last year and a half restoring her, and just in time for Amelia. The Aston was finished on Sunday, loaded into a Penske truck, and headed south. We first saw the car Thursday for a quick stop in Atlanta.



One of the things we did at the shop was pull the seat to work on the leather as it had developed a few mystery stains on the trip down. It's amazing how small the driver and the mechanics seat are, I wouldn't fit in the driver and I'm skinny.



We headed south Friday morning and made a quick stop at the Gooding & Co. auction just in time to see a '66 275 GTB break the $2mm mark.



What really got me is the price of these now.



Back at the trailer the Aston was experiencing some mechanical difficulties. In the '26 British Grand Prix it DNF'd due to a leaking water pump seal. Oddly enough the same issue plagued us for 2 days.

 

Saturday morning work continued on the Aston to get her running while I headed over to the Festival of Speed to meet up with some other clients that were down for the weekend. Atlanta Motorsports Park had brought some cars down for the weekend and had a booth set up as well.

They had their 999 Motorsports racecar freshly painted by Classic Livery of Atlanta



Two Lexus LFA's owned by the same owner. The first one sold in the US and the last one





And the Topcar USA Panamera. I'm not a huge fan of body kits but the quality of the materials and craftsmanship was outstanding on this car.



We also knocked the pollen off of Bugatti NA's display car.



Headed back to the concours grounds for setup and watched some history roll in









Guy driving this GT40 lost control coming around the green and almost took out a tent



As the sun set Saturday night the Aston drove under its own power for the first time in a few decades



Walking back to the hotel I had the concours lawn pretty much to myself as only a few workers were left setting up displays

 

We were up and out at the crack of dawn to unload the car and get it staged on the lawn for judging which began at 9am.







Once on the lawn we got to work prepping the car for judging.

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Finished up with the judges looking over our shoulder as we were the first car judged at 9am. A few hundred cars and of course they start with us





With judging over we had some time to kill until we found out the results. Plenty of time to walk the field and take in the concours.





This '66 350 won the padlock award for sexiest Italian







Turns out my buddy Victor knows Valentino Balboni pretty well. Got to chat with him for a while while they tried to convert me from a Porsche to a vintage Lambo guy.









Had the opportunity to buy this Glockler Porsche back in 2000, but being a broke college student I couldn't afford the restoration let along the pile of car. Looked good seeing it restored.

 

This Gullwing will be auctioned off at the end of the month









This '39 Bugatti Type 35B Miller Racer was restored by High Mountain Classics a number of years ago.







Back at camp ribbons were awarded, we took second in the Pre-War Race Car class!



Up close shot of the engine



And the pedal arrangement. The little horse shoe looking thing curved around the steering shaft, that would be the gas pedal!



The owner and his wife accepting the award for 2nd in class

 

I had a buddy with a media pass so I snuck right up front onto the green for pictures during the award ceremony.













Jeff Zwart in one of his many historic Porsche race cars













Some guy with the last name Ford handing a trophy to a guy driving some car that one this race in France once

 

Oh wow those are some amazing photos !! How do you get invited to such an event ? As a spectator that is. I wonder what the Gull wing will bring.

 

Awesome pics and congrats.

 

Amazing shots, thanks for sharing.

 

I wish I had known about this. Great pics.