Cavallion Classic

For the eighth year in a row
Already for the eighth year in a row, the Ferrari world focussed on southeastern Florida once again in January for four eventful days: While large parts of the U.S. and Europe were covered by tons of snow, "Cavallino", which is most probably the world�s most renowned and respected Ferrari magazine, hosted its traditional "Cavallino Classic" in its warm and sunny home state of Florida. Again, the very exclusive town of Palm Beach was the site of the event, or � to be more precise � the famous Breakers Hotel.

The impressive hotel on the beach of the Atlantic ocean was the official headquarter of the meeting, and its front lawn was used as the area for Saturday�s Concours d�Elégance. Hundreds of Ferraristi with hundreds of cars participated in the eighth Cavallino Classic, and the extremely beautiful weather was just one reason among many to be there during these four days of action.

Action at Moroso Park
But the event�s main site on Thursday and Friday was not glamorous Palm Beach, but the racetrack of Moroso Park, located about half an hour away from the Breakers in Palm Beach County. The majority of the participants went there, and even if one did not want to perform on the track, one had the possibility to admire many interesting Ferrari automobiles which had poured out of an impressive number of trailers and trucks. Naturally the turnout of cars not suitable for public roads was remarkable at the track since the Cavallino Classic provides the rare opportunity to use this machinery in an adequate way.

Several 348 Challenge and F355 Challenge cars showed up at Moroso - some of the F355-pilots probably wanted to do some practice prior to the start of the 1999 season.

One genuine F40 LM (the very last one made, featuring a push-rod suspension) and the modified example of Benny Caiola were very spectacular and were only topped in aspects of speed and noise by the 312 PB s/n 0892 of Cornelius Tamboer from Puerto Rico and the 333 SP s/n 019 of Charles Arnott. The successful former Momo car was among a bunch of cars brought to Florida by the Symbolic Motor Car Co. of La Jolla, CA.

Symbolic Motor Car Co. shows up with impressive array of cars
The world�s most successful company in dealing historical Ferrari motorcars is � according to my knowledge � one of the event�s sponsors and did once again present some very interesting examples of the marque, of which the majority was even moved on the track: One could see the ex-Carlos Monteverde 166 Formula Libre s/n 011F as well as the recently acquired 625 Formula One s/n 0482; this car had been sold originally to the Australian privateer Peter Whitehead. S/n 0482 being a customer car is the reason for which this monoposto does have a serial number in the range of the even numbered competition cars instead of the separate numbering system used for Formula cars. However, s/n 0482 had just been purchased (or taken in trade) from collector Ed Davies.

Officially entered by Peter Agg from the UK, but represented in Florida by Symbolic was the rare 250 Monza Spider Scaglietti s/n 0432M which was parked next to another spectacular Ferrari, the 712 CanAm Spider s/n 1010. Symbolic had apparently bought this car back from collector John McCaw. Chris Cox � who does much business with Symbolic � showed up in his 375 MM Spider Pinin Farina s/n 0362AM which is painted in the Argentinean racing colors of light blue with a yellow band.

Scaglietti spyders
Several spyders bodied by Scaglietti were among the cars on the track as well: Peter Hosmer brought his perfectly restored 500 Mondial s/n 0536MD, while Todd Morici drove the very next car in Ferrari�s numbering system, the one-off 750 Monza s/n 0538M. John Devine had entered his yellow 500 TR s/n 0622MDTR which had formerly been owned by Mexican Rudolfo Junco de la Vega and which was serviced by restorer Steve Tillack.

Concorso d�Eleganza
Not only the track event (called "Trofeo di Florida") was held on Friday, but also a rallye around Palm Beach, called "Tour di Palm Beach". Many Ferraristi who did not want to move their car on the circuit or who had already been satisfied by the track action on Thursday made use of this nice occasion to explore beautiful Palm Beach County by car.

However, the Cavallino Classic is probably best known for its famous Concours d�Elégance held on the front lawn of The Breakers on Saturday. This year�s concours was dedicated to the tipo 166 and the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, and the turnout of cars was tremendous. The majority of the important cars which one had already seen at Moroso was there, but some real "creampuffs" had arrived by trailer which had not yet been seen during the Cavallino Classic VIII.

Tipo 166 en masse
Not less than nine 166s showed up on the perfectly maintained green of The Breakers�, the oldest example being the cycle-fendered 166 Spider Corsa s/n 010I/1C of Frank Gallogly.

Three Touring Barchettas were there as well, s/n 0006M of Bud Lyon, s/n 0020M of Hervé Willems and s/n 0050M of Tom Stegman.

Two Touring Berlinettas were parked alongside the Barchettas, thus enabling the spectators to compare the similarities and differences in the classic designs. Bruce Lustman had entered his s/n 0060M which he had purchased from Symbolic recently, and Hervé Willems presented his s/n 0066M. The two cars of Willems (who runs "Heritage Classics" in West Hollywood, CA) were reportedly sold as a package during the Cavallino Classic, but this rumor has not yet been confirmed.

The only 166 Inter s/n 039S present at Palm Beach was the nicely restored Vignale coupe of Richard Fraser.

An unique car was brought to the Concours by Bob Selz: s/n 0300M, a 1953 166 MM rebodied by the Belgian coachbuilder Oblin in 1954. The lines of this "one-off" are as flamboyant as the style of the bodies designed and built by Vignale (who had also provided the original body for s/n 0300M)!

Outside the Concours area, Ed Davies had parked his Touring Barchetta s/n 0054M, and the 166 Monoposto s/n 011F of Symbolic was present again, too, of course.

More "Ferrarities"
If I personally would have had the imaginary choice of picking one car from the Concours field to keep it for myself, noted Ferrari-collector Jon Shirley would be missing one of his cars right now: His extraordinary, fantastic and unique 375 MM Berlinetta Speciale Scaglietti s/n 0402AM is probably not only my dreamcar. The silvergrey racecar with the one-off body designed for the use on the road by Umberto Rossellini had slumbered in France for decades until Shirley bought the car and had it restored to perfection. Since then, it has proven as crowd-stopper at several meetings.

Not THAT rare, but still rare is the 410 Superamerica Coupé Pininfarina Series III of Luigi Chinetti, Jr. The son of the famous late Ferrari-importer and �racer had just added this beautiful original car to his collection.

In the 1960�s, there were still small series of hand-made Ferrari automobiles built to the specifications of the customers. The successor to the 410 SA in this tradition was the 400 Superamerica, two of which were present at Palm Beach: Firstly, Oscar Davis� unique Cabriolet by Pininfarina, s/n 1611SA, which looks simply fantastic in its dark green livery with an all-red leather interior. This beautiful convertible had been featured in "Cavallino" recently, and according to Ferrari-historian Alan Boe it is known as the "water melon" due to its paint scheme. The second 400 SA on show was a Coupé Aerodinamico by Pininfarina, s/n 4279SA of Jack Thomas from Missouri that is preserved in a nice original condition.

The 400 SA was followed by the 500 Superfast � of which none was present during the Classic VIII � and the last tipo produced in a mini-series was the luxurious 365 California. One of these huge, but elegant Ferrari convertibles could be admired on The Breakers� lawn: s/n 09849 of Bill Kontes.

To a European Ferrarista, seeing a genuine 275 GTB/S4 NART Spyder is a pretty rare event � made possible at the Cavallino Classic: E. C. "Eddie" Smith showed up with his s/n 10709. The car�s color has changed several times since 1967 (originally metallic blue, it is simply red today), but the owner has not!

Other specialties included the first 250 GT SWB Berlinetta ever made, s/n 1539GT of Mexican owner Lorenzo Zambrano, and two LWB California Spyders of Richard Sirota (covered headlights) and Peter Kalikow (open headlights).

Daytonas strong at the Classic VIII
Since the 365 GTB/4 Daytona was the feature car of the 1999 Cavallino Classic due to its 30th birthday, there was quite a number of examples present at Palm Beach. Among them were four genuine 365 GTS/4 Spyders, Bill Kontes� Competition Daytona and a Competition Conversion of local Ferrari-dealer Tom Shelton. The most outstanding Daytona was once again Arthur Zafiropoulo�s Spyder s/n 17069 that had been brought to The Breakers all the way from California.

Mar-a-Lago
On Sunday, there was a cocktail party held at "Mar-a-Lago"; being one of the most famous mansions of Palm Beach�s Golden Era, the estate now houses an exclusive private club. The original plan for the day had been to present some of the event�s automotive highlights on the lawn of Mar-a-Lago, but on Sunday morning a thunder storm brought tons of water to the area (the hot Florida sun broke through the clouds again shortly after!), making it impossible to park the cars on the wet green. So, the attendants simply enjoyed the atmosphere and a fashion show.

Other cars on the track
Compared to the many open racecars at the track, there were almost no competition coupes, except the 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione of Charles Wegner from Chicago and of course except the 365 GTB/4 Daytona Competizione of Bill Kontes.

Somehow unusual as a track car was Bob Pease�s 330 America which sported non-original alloy wheels of a later 330 GT instead of Borrani wire wheels. More suitable for this purpose was Bernie Carl�s 512 BBLM, but I cannot recall whether it was actually moved on the track or not. Same situation with the 1991 Formula One car (s/n 126) which was apparently brought to Florida by the Caiola family and which was on display in a small tent.