Went to Amelia Island earlier this month, just a few photos to give an idea for those who haven’t been before….
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I want that Caddy wagon!!!
I too think the Caddy is interesting.
Thanks for sharing those cool pics! 
The Caddy had bench seats facing each other in the back….he converted it from a hearse…https://youtu.be/Eb_YjUB_YGQ
Thanks, @NeenahSpeedster for the pics. And yeah, the Caddy wagon is nice (maybe wild is a better word!
) but look at that 4cam Speedster!
Does anyone know how many 4cam Speedsters are still around? I believe about 150 were built originally.
I also want to thank @NeenahSpeedster for posting the video.
The Caddy looks amazing but I didn't like the plastic seat covers.
Isn't Amelia Island a fabulous setting for a car show?
We were there maybe 15 years ago and loved it. Got a pass for the weekend, stayed at a hotel on the island (which cost a fortune, but what the heck) and had a great time. But back then, we were living only 2 hours away!
I love Amelia Island and it's reasonably close to me, but the last time I was there (2013, I think) it was so crowded on Sunday you could hardly get a decent picture. Since then it's gotten reeeeeeally expensive just to look at the cars, and no one seems to like what's happened since Hagerty got control. Too bad. I hear the Hilton Head show has gotten almost as nice and hasn't yet choked on its own success.
I guy up the street from me, when I lived in Hartford in the early '90s, had a Cad Hearse like the one pictured, although unrestored. Red, brush paint; huuuuuge. He used it as a transport vehicle for his "band," which consisted of himself, some mixing boards, about three guitars, two Fender amps and some kind of keyboard/drum contraption of his own invention.
Greg's other running car was a 1957 Eldorado Brougham. That thing was incredible. Black, with a stainless steel roof. The engine had dual quads, four speed automatic trans: Liquid-smooth, but could chirp the tires on the upshift. There was a feature which restarted the car if it stalled in traffic. The glove compartment concealed a mini bar. . . .
Fabulous thing. Basically untouched.
Its owner was a piece of work. His thing was all '50s, all the time, though he was maybe five, 10 years older than me. He made diner tables out of old records and had a hobby/business/obsession collecting and reselling jukeboxes.
No job.
He had worked for some years in the U.S. Postal Service, got himself fired and then sued and won a substantial settlement. That paid for his home/showroom/office: a small rancher on a 50-by-150 lot a few hundred yards inside the city line, which he dubbed "The Cadillac Ranch." He was obviously living off the wrongful termination settlement when I knew him, and that appeared to be going about as well as you'd expect.
There were three or four other cars on his property, in various stages of returning to the earth. Municipal officials took an interest in their removal, beginning with a campaign of gentle persuasion, and escalating from there. This little drama became a minor news story, and somewhere in a file cabinet I have a picture of Greg posed pointing a .357 at me, to demonstrate his regard for the local code-enforcement constabulary.
At some point the city (or more probably the one guy in charge of code enforcement in that far southwest corner of our fair city) got fed up and, while Greg was away on some gig or other, backed a tow truck over his side yard fence and snagged three offending former automobiles from their open-air graves.
Greg called me straight away Monday morning, ranting about this dastardly violation of his Constitutional Rights. But of course this was the break he's been hoping for all along, and he filed his lawsuit about three weeks later, no doubt hoping another big settlement would carry him many years further into his midlife retirement.
I moved away before the case was settled. He reportedly later sued the owner of a local "Cadillac Ranch" restaurant for trademark infringement, so one presumes his payout on the towing scandal was modest, at best.
Greg used to tell anyone he met that his Eldee was the most expensive production car made in the year it was built—"way more than a Rolls Royce"—and that was true. I was grateful for having got a ride in it. The vehicle itself would have made it a top-5 car memory even if the owner had not given off an air of psychological instability and menace.
That a one-of-700 ultraluxe car like that—a thing so radical and precious that GM supposedly lost $10,000 on every one sold (even at its princely sticker price of $13,000)—could a mere 32 years later end up in the hands of someone like Greg . . . to me, that really defined the American Dream.
Hilton Head was a good show as long as you went on Saturday and got in as a car club member and showed your car - That was $40-ish for car and driver and another $40 for a passenger. If you want Sunday all-inclusive tickets these days you're talking $200 including parking on the plantation.
That's still cheaper than the Newport, RI concours at about $250 the day of the Concourse (parking is extra) and if you want the several day inclusive ticket there it's around $1,550 each.
It was a bit “spendy” for a car show, but it was one that was always on my list to see once…..it was nice to check that off the list…..there are a few others, Pebble Beach, Luft…..now that the kids are in college and no longer in travel sports (hockey and lacrosse for my son and swim for my daughter) I’m still coming out ahead as crazy as that sounds 😂
Do you live within a day trip of Newport, RI? You could go to the Audrain Concours in the Fall. Pro'bly see Jay Leno. Get some Lobstah Stew or Quahog Stuffies at Floe's Clam Shack in Newport. It is as well attended as Amelia Island here on the Atlantic Coast
Thank you for the suggestion, I’m in Wisconsin, but that’s what they make vacation time for…..
@NeenahSpeedster posted:The Caddy had bench seats facing each other in the back….he converted it from a hearse…https://youtu.be/Eb_YjUB_YGQ
I don’t know if it was model or year dependent or just an option you could select, but my best friend growing up’s family always had station wagons and they had a mix of rear facing and opposite facing third seats.
I don't care that y'all want a Caddy. You can have it.
I want the Carrera Speedster, or that survivor 356 coupe.
The Alfa makes me drool on my computer, though. That thing is the shizzle.
Thanks for the pics, @NeenahSpeedster
Ok Danny, you can have the Porsches. I'll take the Jaguar C-type.
Dibs on the Ferraris.
C-Type - - - about as sublime as they ever were or would be. You can get a replica, as I hear it, just provide a Jag donor (not sure which models will work) and put up a bunch of bucks, and you can have one. Classic looks like no other and +/- modern mechanicals.
@El Frazoo posted:C-Type - - - about as sublime as they ever were or would be. You can get a replica, as I hear it, just provide a Jag donor (not sure which models will work) and put up a bunch of bucks, and you can have one. Classic looks like no other and +/- modern mechanicals.
"the original verdict has been overturned in the SVEA Court of Appeal in Stockholm."
"Despite the appeal which will presumably save the Magnussons from bankruptcy, the court still recognizes the Jaguar brand’s copyright on the C-type design. This ruling could prevent other third parties from replicating the C-type for commercial purposes."
Txs for the rest of the story, such as it is. I totally missed all of that. And I note dates: ca. 2021. I wonder what's happened since? PS: I still love the C-type. Did I see in all of the froth here that maybe the industrial giant Jaguar might have been imagining building (and selling) their own throw-back version of the C-type? If so its easy to understand that if they were, and they did their due diligence about what it would take to actually do it, and meet all the various modern rules and regs, the thing might cost a bloody fortune. And if there were available on the market "cheap" replicas, they might have a marketing problem. Solution: crush all the replicas.
.... verdict overturned? Sanity has prevailed? We can keep our plastic clown cars? Whew . . .