Wheels Across the Pond 2025 car show

In honor of D-Day (June 6, 1944), a few photos from Wheels Across the Pond 2025 car show, an annual event in Jupiter, Florida that showcases British and European cars (April 19 this year). It’s free for spectators and only $45 per car for show vehicle owners so it is unclear how the event survives financially.

Our show began in the $10 premium parking lot with a rare Talbo. These were apparently made in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, one town to the south, beginning in the mid-1990s. One sold in 2023 on BaT for $230,000 (2023 dollars, remember!). The BaT description: “Designed to resemble a Figoni et Falaschi-bodied 1930s Talbot-Lago T150C SS, the car features fiberglass bodywork finished in burgundy over a tubular steel chassis, and power comes from a 5.0-liter Ford V8 paired with an AOD four-speed automatic transmission. … TLC Carrossiers Incorporated was founded by former Pratt & Whitney engineer George Balaschak in 1990 to create a car inspired by the 1938 Talbot-Lago T150C SS that utilized modern running gear.” (Pratt has a big operation, complete with its own airport (private 7000′ runway), just west of Jupiter/PBG.)

A local art car was parked right near the entrance:

(The biggest art on display here is keeping an older Jaguar running!)

A guy whose dad was the original purchaser of a 1967 Morgan exhibited the family heirloom ($4,092 in what we are informed is our inflation-free society; about 75,000 Bidies today for a replica) and let us touch the wood that supports the body:

The English struggled to make decent cars before they were enriched by migrants. Examples:

Now that the UK is fully enriched, the Aston Martin DBX (not based on a Volkswagen like most of the high-dollar European SUVs) is available. It might be worth the $288,000 price if they could just make the interior a little more orange:

Since we don’t care about pedestrian safety anymore (if we did, we would impose a 50% tax on SUVs and pickups not purchased by people with honest jobs), why can’t we get this look for the nose of our Honda minivan?

Here’s a display that attributes the 1950s decline of the British luxury car industry to the British “victory” in WWII:

Turning now to the country that the British purportedly defeated, we find a great example of speaker-listener disconnect (“pragmatic failure” for the academics)… “I’ll pick you up in my BMW and we can go out for lunch” (a 13 horsepower 1957 BMW Isetta 300):

For scale, next to a baby stroller:

What Germany was able to build before it became an Islamic (as measured by hours spent on religious activities) nation (1961 Mercedes 190SL; current value about $150,000):

A Fiat Topolino and perhaps the only surviving Marot-Gardon (the owner drives it around his Palm Beach County (Lake Worth Beach) neighborhood):

Elizabeth Warren was at the event, but I didn’t get a chance to ask if I could join her on a taxpayer-funded trip to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia:

Also in the motorcycle section, a 20 lb. bicycle from 1900, no carbon fiber required and the roads back then weren’t as smooth as they are now:

Who agrees with me that the 20-year-old Ferrari 360 is more attractive than their latest and greatest?

(They seem to be available used for about $100,000. It was $153,500 in 2000, which translates to roughly $285,000 in today’s mini-dollars (i.e., it wasn’t a great investment if held from new). Our neighbor who owns a couple of Ferraris says that maintenance on the 360 is astronomically expensive due to the need to drop the engine in order to replace a timing belt that has a 3-year life. “Ferrari realized that the reputation for excessive maintenance costs was killing sales so they made the F430 a lot cheaper and easier to service,” he said. Used F430s are perhaps 10-20% more expensive than the 360.)

Let’s close with some Deplorability, a MAGA sticker on a Superformance replica and a “Black Labs Matter” explanation on an old Land Rover:

There were a ton of recent McLarens at the event, but I don’t want to include any here because they’re as common as dirt parked in the strip malls of South Florida. Also, according to a friend who owns a Ferrari and an Aston Martin (24 cylinders total!), McLarens are horribly unreliable and expensive to maintain, e.g., due to broken axles. I’m also leaving out the Triumphs and MGs because the Mazda Miata is so much better.