Many thanks to everyone who participated in the Jacksonville Car Culture Holiday Lights Cruise on Jekyll Island. The overnight invite-only event provided a much needed break from the day-to-day routine and the often depressing reality that is 2020. Masks were required at all events and physical distancing was encouraged at all times.
A stunning BMW i8 sparkles under the holiday lights. Photo courtesy of Deremer Studios, LLC
We are grateful for the amazing team at The Westin Jekyll Island. Our host hotel worked diligently to help us put this wonderful event together. Whether is was hot cocoa and cookies around the courtyard fire, lining up the cruise vehicles in front of the hotel, late night drinks from the bar or a hot coffee from The Westin Cafe, the incredible hospitality, luxurious accommodations and idyllic setting were the perfect match for our exclusive event. We honestly couldn’t have asked for anything more.
View the weekend highlights video by Deremer Studios, LLC. The Westin Jekyll Island, our host hotel. Photo courtesy of Deremer Studios, LLC.
The Westin Jekyll Island, left photo courtesy of Deremer Studios, LLC.
Thank you to Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum for opening up after hours for our group. The time outside under the beautiful lights and touring the incredible museum that tells the story of the Island was one that we will not soon forget.
Special thanks to the Hampton Inn & Suites Jekyll Island for providing a delicious breakfast for our group on Saturday and to Life is Good for offering a wonderful little memento of our trip to the entrants.
Hampton Inn & Suites, Deremer Studios, LLC
Life is Good
Acura’s new NSX in a very festive Santa-approved red. Photo courtesy of Deremer Studios, LLC
Last but not least, thanks to Deremer Studios, LLC., the official photographer of Jacksonville Car Culture.
Don’t worry if you missed this adventure, the Jacksonville Car Culture team is already planning the next one! Stay tuned to our social media channels or this website for details.
Happy Holidays, Chris, Abbi and the entire team at Jacksonville (First Coast Car Culture)
To view the Jacksonville Car Culture Jekyll Island Holiday Lights Cruise photo gallery visit:
The HSR (Historic Sportscar Racing, LLC) Classic 24 Hour is a yearly event open to cars that were raced from 1960 through 2013 at Daytona. This year’s event was held November 4-7, 2020, Deremer Studios, LLC , Jacksonville Car Culture’s official photographer, was on site to capture the magic.
From Deremer Studios, LLC:
Despite a global pandemic, HSR put on a safe and successful Classic 24 race at the iconic Daytona International Speedway. In addition to our photography from the event, we brought along our old trusty tripod and a second camera to capture hyperlapse video of the race. Here’s the final result:
View the 2020 HSR Classic 24 photo album on the Deremer Studios, LLC website at:
Racer, writer, broadcaster, entrepreneur and motivational speaker Lyn St. James is the Honoree of the 26 th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance scheduled for May 20-23, 2021.
Lyn’s life is a high speed motorsports adventure. Her racing career began in a Ford Pinto –her daily driver – in the 1970s and had its grand finale more than two decades later in a special commemorative ceremony on the “yard of bricks” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Lyn at the Indianapolis 500 in 1993. Photo courtesy of Lyn St. James.
Her first titles were a pair of regional south Florida road racing championships. She moved up quickly racing a Corvette at Sebring, Palm Beach and Daytona. A brave class victory in the punishing 1979 24 Hours of the Nurburgring racing an AMC Spirit AMX sponsored by BF Goodrich is an exotic and sometimes overlooked line on Lyn’s deep resume. By then corporate America liked what they were seeing and hearing from the racer from Willoughby, OH.
She graduated to the pro ranks in the 1980s as a Ford factory racer. In 1984 Autoweek magazine named her Rookie of the Year in IMSA’s GTO class. A year later she won IMSA’s Norelco Driver of the Year award. That was a very good year: an IMSA GTO victory came in August 1985 at Road America in the Lowenbrau Classic. A month later, on one of her favorite tracks, the full Grand Prix course at Watkins Glen, Lyn scored an unprecedented and still unequalled solo IMSA GTO class victory in the Serengeti Drivers New York 500 racing a Roush Mustang. The eighties also saw two class victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Lyn celebrates after winning the IMSA GTO class at the Serengeti Drivers New York 500 at Watkins Glen in 1985. Photo courtesy of Lyn St. James.
For Lyn the eighties were fast and productive. In 1988 she set a closed course speed record for women at 212.577 mph in a Bill Elliott-built Thunderbird. That was just one of 21 national and international speed records Lyn authored. She earned another page in the record books with an Indy 500 qualifying lap of 227.32 mph that stood as a record for women until Sarah Fisher’s lap of 229.675 mph qualifying for the 2002 “500.”
In 1989 she entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Ford-powered Spice. Another classic race course and even though her car retired on Sunday morning Lyn logged a lot of seat time. She returned to the classic French 24 Hours in 1991 with two-time World Sports Car Championship race winner Desiré Wilson and Cathy Muller, but their Cosworth-powered Spice prototype lasted just 47 laps. In 1990, Lyn earned yet another GTO class win in another famous classic endurance race, the 12 Hours of Sebring, with a Mercury Cougar XR-7.
Lyn gives a thumbs up after qualifying for the Indy 500 in 1992. Photo courtesy of Lyn St. James.
It was a visit to the Indy 500 with her mother in 1966 that revealed Lyn’s passion for motorsport. Her Indy 500 career began with a surprise test at Memphis Motorsports Park in a Dick Simon Racing Lola. Things began to move quickly. Lyn’s commercial, marketing and persuasive skills brought JCPenney to her Indy rookie program.
On Memorial Day 1992, Lyn raced her JCPenney sponsored Lola/Chevy — the Spirit of the American Woman — to eleventh place, becoming the first woman to win Indy’s prestigious Rookie of the Year award.
Even today she is quick to remind us that she still holds the record as Indy’s oldest Rookie of the Year winner. Eight years and seven Indy 500s later Lyn retired from Indy Car competition with career earnings of nearly $1.2 million.
Lyn St. James behind the wheel of the JCPenney sponsored Lola during the Indy 500. Photo courtesy of Lyn St. James.
Lyn’s strong entrepreneurial streak first emerged in an auto components business that fused with her passion for racing. Her ability to see and understand motorsport from the perspective of the cockpit and the boardroom has been a constant asset during her long tenure in and around motorsport. In 2010 those skills were honored by Automotive News as one of The Top 100 Women in the Automotive Industry. Sports Illustrated named her one of the “Top 100 Women Athletes of the Century.”
She has been a spokesperson for Ford, appeared in Rolex ads and is the founder of the Lyn St. James Foundation (a 501(c)(3) charitable organization) for the education, training and advancement of women in automotive fields. She has also served on the board of Kettering University, a top engineering school.
Lyn served as President of the Women’s Sports Foundation from 1990 to 1993. In 1994 Lyn was inducted to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame; Working Woman Magazine included her as one of the Top 350 Women Who Changed the World between 1976 and 1996. She’s been summoned to The White House for civic honors by three consecutive Presidents — Reagan, Bush and Clinton.
“Lyn has been an integral part of the racing community for years and followed in the steps of the likes of Elizabeth Junek, Janet Guthrie, and Lella Lombardi who won races, set records and broke barriers,” said Bill Warner, founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. “Lyn earned her stripes driving a wide variety of race cars starting in club racing with her daily driver, a Ford Pinto, and culminated with a successful career in Indy cars. Along the way, she shared long distance drives with some of the best drivers of the day. There is more than a quarter of a century of proof that she is the “real thing” behind the wheel.”
Jacksonville, FL – Announcing the special classes for the 26th Annual Amelia Concours d’Elegance, May 20-23, 2021.
1938 Hispano Suiza DuBonnet Xenia. Photo by Michael Furman.
Hispano-Suiza The fabled Spanish-Swiss grand marque remains the only car named for a king, Alfonso XIII of Spain, himself a Hispano enthusiast, who owned as many as 30. His enthusiasm for the marque and its reputation for exquisite engineering made it a favorite of royals, celebrities, heroes of all stripes and even a few literary characters who drove Hispanos across the pages of bestselling fiction when the need to project a sense of wealth and style was required. Every famous European coachbuilder of the custom body epoch dressed Hispanos. Their V-8 engines helped win the air war in WWI. That elegant engineering blood gave the cars that wore the “flying stork” mascot, as the sales brochure put it . . . “vitesse, securite, confort, silence, elegance.” It wasn’t hyperbole. Even today the reputation of Hispano-Suiza ranks it with the greatest, most respected and revered names at the pinnacle of the auto industry.
The Porsche 935. Photo courtesy of The Brumos Collection.
Porsche 935 “The Racers’ Concours” honors and celebrates the 45th anniversary of the long-lived, fire-belching 200-plus mph Porsche 935 turbos that once ruled international endurance racing. The 935 was the backbone of international endurance racing for nearly a decade and owned championship titles from Daytona to Le Mans and back. Its popularity remains so potent that nearly five decades after its debut Porsche is creating 77 tribute cars to the 935/78 Moby Dick Le Mans racer based on the 911 GT2 RS.
1977 Chevrolet Corvette Supervette. Photo courtesy of Canepa Motorsport.
Chevy Thunder Truly the “heartbeat of America” from Indy, Sebring, Daytona, Le Mans, Pro Stock, Can-Am, Trans-Am, club racers, Sprint Cars, Baja & Desert racers, IROC, F5000, Swamp Buggies, Dune Buggies, Hot-Rods, Kit Cars and even to off-shore powerboats, Chevy’s small blocks, big-blocks and pure racing engines set records, crushed competitors and dominated practically every type of motorsport for well over half a century. Chevy’s small block V-8 of 1955 was the elegantly simple engineering masterpiece that inspired hot rodders and race car builders alike. Chevy small block power even sat on the front row of the Indy 500 (1981), outran the fabled Offys on dirt tracks, ruled NASCAR’s high banks, short tracks and road courses, won the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and owned the Can-Am (at one point winning 33 races in a row).
Chevy Thunder is the soundtrack of NHRA Pro Stock competition winning the championship 24 times, more than any other manufacturer. Its impact on American culture even extends to popular music; in 1962 the Beach Boys composed a song commemorating the power of Chevy’s big block Turbo-Thrust V-8 entitled, appropriately, “409.” Specifically songwriter Gary Usher’s “ . . . 4-speed, dual-quad, positraction four-oh-nine!” Since its first V-8 in 1917, Chevy V-8 power has touched practically every facet of American life towing trailers, delivering groceries or taking the likes of McLaren, Scarab, Lola, Chaparral, Eagle, Corvette and Camaro to scores of racing victories and championships; some Chevy V-8s even replaced those legendary Italian V-12s in American sports car racing.
Ferrari 275 GTB. Photo Courtesy of Peter Harholdt.
Ferrari 275 GTB It’s hard to imagine a tougher automotive act to follow than Ferrari’s landmark 250 GTs. From the mid-fifties to the immortal GTO of 1962, Ferrari 250 GTs set the standard, won the races and were the fast moving targets of every GT builder from Los Angeles to Coventry to Stuttgart. Unveiled in Paris in 1964 the 275 GTB became Ferrari’s first GT to fit modern alloy wheels and wear independent suspension at each corner. It proved itself in June 1965 with the Belgian racing yellow #24 275 GTB/C finishing third overall and eclipsing the Le Mans distance record of every previous class-winning GTO.
The 275 won Le Mans’ GT class again in 1966 and 1967. Easily the most famous 275 GTB — one of just ten NART Spiders built — was Steve McQueen’s signature ride in the 1968 double academy award nominated film The Thomas Crown Affair.
The 1909 Columbia Electric. Photo courtesy of Hyman LTD.
It’s Electric The Amelia’s “It’s Electric” Class showcases the development of the electric car from the beginning of the automotive age when it was a viable alternative to steam and internal combustion automotive power. Fast evolving highway and road infrastructure and the rise of the petroleum industry eased the electric car aside turning its advantages and strengths into liabilities. Times and technologies have changed. So have the mission and operational envelope of the automobile and its place in society. Fast evolving technologies and acute civic awareness of environmental trends stand poised to return the electric car to mainstream motoring life well beyond its original duty as short range urban transportation
1970 Dodge Charger R/T. Photo Courtesy of Peter Harholdt.
1970s Muscle Cars Purely American, the Muscle Car brought horsepower to the people with low monthly payments and practically unlimited brute force. Every manufacturer from Chevrolet to Ford, from Buick to Dodge offered an alternative and competitor to the Pontiac GTO, the car that started it all in the mid-sixties. The peak of the Muscle Car Era was 1970, just before emission laws and the fuel crisis hobbled Detroit’s horsepower warriors. Amelia 2021 will host a special display class from the renowned Wellborn Musclecar Museum in Alexander City, AL including a Muscle Car from every manufacturer that played Detroit’s high stakes high horsepower game at the overpowered breed’s showroom apogee in 1970.
1989 Ferrari F40. Photo by Deremer Studios LLC/Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.
Supercars of the 80s and 90s While the term “supercar” dates back to 1920, the descriptor is often associated with the debut of the mid-engine Lamborghini Miura in 1966. The rules to play the supercar game were simple: big exotic engines between the driver and the rear wheels and a body shape that echoed Le Mans prototype contours: the wilder the better. Enter the Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari F40, Bugatti EB110, Jaguar XJR-15 and the Ferrari F50.
Over time the term “supercar” expanded to describe an elite group of sports cars that stand apart in terms of design, performance, technology and price. For 2021, The Amelia will gather some of the world’s most iconic supercars of the 1980s and 1990s onto the main showfield.
Shadow DN4. Photo courtesy of Peter Harholdt.
Shadow In 1970, the wildest year of Can-Am competition, everybody seemed to have a better, wilder or weirder idea. None more so than a radical, bizarre, unloved and evil handling little doorstop of a race car spawning a family that would claim the Can-Am Championship, deliver a future World Champion his first F1 victory and compete at the top level of Grand Prix racing. Don Nichols, Shadow Cars chief and a genuine international man of mystery, loved the Shadow radio serials and named his cars and team accordingly. The 2021 Amelia Concours will feature a special Shadow class including the bizarre and radical AVS — Advanced Vehicle Systems — Shadow Mk 1 of 1970, the 1974 Can-Am champion DN4 and Alan Jones’ 1977 Austrian Grand Prix winner, the Shadow DN8A. Shadow designers were an all-star team with world class credentials and imaginations: Trevor Harris, Peter Bryant and Tony Southgate drew the sinister shapes that were instantly recognizable as Shadows, right down to the team’s famous cloaked spy logo.
