Demonstration Day at the Simeone Foundation -- Gallery

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we checked out the "People's Choice" Demonstration day over at the Simeone Foundation in Philadelphia.  They had the 250TR, the 917, and the GT40 opened up for all to see, and they took the Corvette Grand Sport and Shelby Daytona Coupe outside for a spin! There was a great enthusiast crowd, and Dr. Simeone gave a very informative lecture about the cars beforehand. For anyone on the East Coast who hasn't been over to see this collection, you really need to go. Now. The cars are not only top notch in curation and originality, but almost all of them have some significant provenance. Case in point: There are were only 6 Shelby Daytona Coupes built. Simeone has one of them. But this is the ONLY one that was actually built by Shelby in the USA. The other 5 were made in Italy to save time and money.  See what I mean?

Click the photo below for the entire gallery.  I shot these on my cel phone, so the quality isn't up to my usual standard!

This image taken from the foundation website: http://simeonemuseum.org/

Grand Sport Moment of Zen

Just paid a visit to the Simeone Foundation Museum's "People's Choice" Demonstration Day.  The Corvette Grand Sport sounded sublime. The real showstopper was the Shelby Daytona Coupe, however. More pics to come.

Shelby Daytona Coupe: Then and Now

The Shelby Daytona Coupe, penned by Pete Brock, has to be one of the most elegantly proportioned yet brutal GT racing cars America has ever produced.  Below are two films with excellent period footage of the cars when they raced! Note: The opening music and voiceover are the same, but these are two different movies.

This next movie has Dr. Fred Simeone eloquently recounting the history of the coupe on one of his demonstration days at the Simeone Foundation Museum in Philadelphia.  His particular coupe (one of 6 made) has a very interesting history. Wish I could have been there! It's a long story but worth the listen if you are a history buff. I found it most interesting to learn that while this car was built in the States, the other 5 bodies were made in Italy in order to save time --the Italians being much more adept at turning out handmade aluminium bodies in a timely fashion.

Click the pic below to see my gallery of Dr. Simeone's car. It's got wonderful patina and amazing presence in its unrestored original state. Kudos to him for not turning it into just another glossy Pebble beach trailer queen.