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Auto Attraction
Auto museums and events around Florida
 Thousands attend the Concours d’Elegance competition each year in Winter Park. |
Thousands of car lovers will fill Winter Park this month to ogle 125 gleaming cars — antique, vintage, classic and exotic — on Park Avenue for the high-brow Concours d'Elegance competition. In a concours, cars don't race; they primp, pose and radiate their beauty while judges scrutinize them from tonneau to clutch pedal. Although they are all in running condition, they motor only in brief parades and, owners hope, to the winner's circle. It is not for the average car buff, but for the Jay Lenos and others who can afford $3.5 million for a 1961 Ferrari Superamerica and its care and feeding.
That Ferrari will be at the Winter Park Concours, along with such precious specimens as a 1920 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost and a 1931 Bentley so perfectly maintained that they won medals at the 60-year-old Pebble Beach Concours, the gold standard.
For all their cost, these machines have a vicarious appeal so visceral that the event drew 70,000 people last year. (After a short parade and an exclusive airport reception Saturday, the street display on Sunday is free).
This will be Winter Park's ninth Concours, and it kicks off the 2010-11 season. More polished chrome, fine leather and internal combustion engines will be on display at the Cavalino convention of Ferraris in Palm Beach in January and at concours in Boca Raton in February and on Amelia Island in March.
Auto Museums
Elliott Museum, Stuart — Stutz Roadsters, '57 Chevys, Bugatti and a Cunningham built in Palm Beach are displayed.
Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing, Ocala — The king of Florida drag racing shows off vintage autos and muscle cars.
Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum, Fort Lauderdale — The half-century history of the great American marque is showcased in two dozen Packards and their contemporaries.
Sarasota Classic Car Museum, Sarasota — The collection runs from vintage bicycles and the Duryea Buggyaut to celebrity limousines and DeLoreans.
Muscle Car City, Punta Gorda — Rick Treworgy has collected 200 cars dating back to the '20s, but his love is the street monsters of the '60s and '70s.
Tallahassee Antique Car Museum, Tallahassee — Devoe Moore has collected almost 100 vehicles from Lincoln hearses to Duesenbergs and Plymouth Prowlers.
Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, Pinellas Park — French engineer Alain Cerf has sought out breakthroughs in mechanics and design, like sleek Citroens and sharp-edged Czech Tatras from Europe and the Willys Knight from the U.S.
Ragtops Palm Beach, Palm Beach — It's a museum, sales gallery, party venue, rental service and archival garage with a multiuse celebration of grand old LaSalles, vintage wagons and convertibles.
 1922 Model T at the Elliot Museum in Stuart |
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
