Attended the "Event," But.....
....there was no event there
:confuse2:
First, the museum itself.
This was my first trip to the Simeone Museum. You have to understand that they haven't been in the current location for more than a couple of years, so it's understandable that the money is in the cars and not in the surrounding gingerbread.
Dr. Simeone's themes are "The Spirit of Competition" and Preservation, so expect to see sports cars that are actual race winners, race competitors, or examples of car models that have a significant race pedigree. Few of the cars have been "restored" in the typical fashion.
The cars were amazing! Their crown jewel is the Shelby Daytona Coupe that won its class at Sebring and set endurance records on the Bonneville salt flats.
Other notable cars are two mid-'30s Alfas, both of which ran in the Mille Miglia. One car won the 1938 race and returned in 1986 after being restored to original racing condition.
The event was entitled "90 Years of Italian Design Excellence". The cars on display were mostly from the museum's collection, and some museum patrons brought their more recent cars, such as two Alfa Duetto spiders, Ferrari 308, 355 and Mondial, a newer Ferrari and an almost-new Maserati Quattroporte.
The two cars I liked the most were the 1962 Ferrari 250 GT and the 1965 Ferrari 365P Tre Posti Berlinetta (one of two made). Of course to buy both would cost you around $80 million!
I expected to experience some sort of presentation about the topic. I arrived early (drove the X1/9) stayed until 7pm, and saw a small gathering of people milling about, but the whole thing was unstructured and I ultimately left feeling a little let down.
On a bright note, when I walked out to the parking lot to leave, there were two new FIAT 500s parked nearby. Although no FIATs were on display inside, we were well-represented in the outside "driver" class.
