A car weekend in Florida… (last weekend)
I took the 10-year-old to the 12 Hours of Sebring IMSA race, conveniently located right next to the Sebring airport.
Chevy, whose team finished just behind the Porsche 911 team, brought the latest Corvette ZR1X to the event:
I’m not sure who needs 1,250 horsepower to get to Publix, especially given that the nearest curve on a public road is in Georgia. The sacrifice of the front trunk space seriously compromises the ZR1X’s utility as a car. Chevy also brought the “Stars and Steel” 250th anniversary of the U.S. edition Corvette (a car that is made out of plastic (body) and engine (aluminum)):
GM unveiled the Grand Sport version of the Corvette at the event, but few details were provided.
Consistent with the quantities of alcohol previously consumed at Sebring, a drunken 4-day experience for many, Ford brought a Mustang tipped on its side:
Access to the elevated viewing deck is limited to Mustang owners and, presumably, their friends, so try to show up with a Mustang owner. Here’s the view from the top:
There’s a small museum next door. Reflect on the fact that today’s Islamic Republic of Great Britain was once sufficiently mighty to engineer and manufacture cars that could run continuously for 12 hours:
(See also 12 Hours of Sebring 2025 and 12 Hours of Sebring, a perfect Florida fly-in destination)
The next car event for the weekend was Cars and Coffee in Boca Raton at the office park in which the IBM PC was developed 44.5 years ago. I’ll cover that when the PC turns 45.
The final car event was a show here in Jupiter at the Double Roads Tavern. This show was heavier on antiques than the usual South Florida event. Here’s a 1946 Ford cab-over-engine (COE) truck:
A Lincoln Continental next to a 1955 Thunderbird (the first year for a car that lasted until 1997 and then had a retro version from 2002-2005) next to a 1957 DeSoto:
A lot of old pickup truck action:
This Chevy 3100 was a work of art:
Maybe the El Camino (1968) should be brought back for those who want to transport bicycles rather than the heavy cargo for which the Ford F-150 is spec’d:
What happens to all of these collectibles when Americans are no longer able to drive because robots have taken over? Will it be fun to sit in the passenger seats while the Optimus robot does the driving of a classic car? If not, do the ones that aren’t in museums get scrapped?
Was the Mustang driven by Tiger Woods?
He lives just to our northeast (on “Jupiter Island”, which isn’t part of the town of Jupiter). We should go to his restaurant (“Woods”) to show our support. The restaurant IS in Jupiter.
’61 T-bird — ghey.
And a here-here for Zora Arkus-Duntov
The Lincoln headlights always looked to me like they were inspired by US military aircraft insignia.
12 hours? That’s commuting. Bring back the Daytona 24 Hour. Enough time to watch the start, get drunk, sleep it off, spend a couple of hours watching headlight breaking from 160 down to 50 and then accelerating past headlights that looked like they were standing still, coffee at sunrise walking through the actual working garages then a sunburn and more beer before the finish.
And Jim Hall and the first movable wing plus the Ford GT40 team fix a batch of badly heat-treated trannie parts by stealing transmissions out of customer’s cars in the parking lot leaving notes offering a biz jet ride home. A time when folks still knew how get things done… and take a joke and fly home with a great story.
El Camino was great.
he problem with making a modern one is that most trucks have 4 doors now so the dads can carry the kids every other weekend.