Amelia Island concours

16th Annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance To Celebrate A Century of Chevy

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Auctions

The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance will hold its 6th annual event March 11-13, 2011 at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island. This year's event will celebrate 100 years of Chevrolet and will include an appearance of the 1955 Biscayne, considered one of Harley Earl's most intriguing designs. The concept vehicle will be on hand courtesy of Joe Bortz of the Bortz Auto Collection in Highland Park, Illinois.

The Biscayne was a four-passenger car with a pillar-less hard top design complete with suicide doors, indented side panels, and "Stratospheric" windshield. Swivel front seats allowed the front passengers easy exit from the low-slung car and front and rear ashtrays and lighters were located on the driveshaft tunnel between the passengers. The Biscayne was produced for the popular Motorama shows of the 50s, which were sponsored coast-to-coast by the automotive manufacturer and to showcase a forward-thinking approach to automotive styling and production. All of the Motorama cars were built by hand and most had no engine, electrics or interiors. The Biscayne featured a fiberglass body.

"This is one of the really rare concept cars that luckily survived after the Motorama shows ended," says Bill Warner, Amelia Founder and Chairman. "One of the unique features of the Biscayne was that it was a motor car – meaning it had full running gear and was not a 'push mobile' like so many of the Motorama cars."

Tags: Amelia Island, Amelia Island concours, Amelia Island Concours dElegance, chevrolet biscayne, ChevroletVolt, chevy biscayne

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Gooding & Co Taking a Passel of Pininfarinas to Amelia Island

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Auctions

The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance takes place next weekend, and the ever-growing list of showcase vehicles now includes six classic cars styled by Pininfarina. The wares, offered by Gooding & Company, comprise the obligatory Ferraris including a 1965 500 Superfast Coupe once owned by Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Its price is expected to climb as high as $1 million.

The two surprises, though, are international efforts from the Nash-Kelvinator dating from the mid-fifties. A silver and burgundy 1953 Nash Healey Roadster combined Nash Ambassador running gear with a Healey body from England that was then restyled by Pininfarina. It's auction ceiling is thought to be $325,000.

Then there's the 1956 Nash Rambler "Palm Beach" Coupe Special. Another cross-Atlantic collaboration, this one put a Nash Rambler running gear under a bespoke body designed by the Italian house. It is a one-of-one prototype, fully funtional, designed to be a "cutting-edge sports car with the running gear of the Rambler." And that makes perfect sense, because everybody's got a Ferrari, but nothing screams "I'm Hot!" like the little green guy above, right? Have $900,000 at the ready if you want to take it home...

Gallery: 1956 Nash Rambler Palm Beach Coupe Special

Tags: Amelia Island, Amelia Island concours, ferrari, Gooding and Company, gooding co, gooding company, Nash

Luxury Resorts are still Struggling from AIG Effect

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

The "AIG effect" is still affecting the luxury resort industry.

Indeed, businesses started toning down lavish corporate events after American International Group, the insurance giant, was widely criticized for holding a conference at a luxury resort days after it received a cash infusion from Congress in 2008.

Many resorts that have a heavy dependence on group business are still struggling. The latest victim is Amelia Island Plantation. Last week, the 1,350-acre luxury enclave overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in northeast Florida filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The resort is very dependent on its group business, which has dropped precipitously over the past year, according to Richard Goldman, its chief marketing officer. "More than half of our business is from corporate groups that hold conferences here," says Goldman. "The AIG effect has basically scared off folks -- even businesses that could afford to have meetings -- who are afraid to hold conferences at resorts."

The company will operate as "business as usual" during the reorganization and an investor group, comprised of Amelia Island Plantation residents and club members, has already collected to aid the resort.

Amelia Island Plantation isn't the only hospitality company struggling during the recession. In Scottsdale, Ariz., the W Hotel recently staved off foreclosure and the InterContinental Montelucia Resort, also in Scottsdale, faced possible foreclosure earlier in the year. The Tropicana Las Vegas casino and the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas emerged from bankruptcy this year.

This week, Citigroup reached a tentative agreement to sell the very same resort that started the whole mess in the first place. The St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, Ca., made headlines last year when it hosted a group of AIG executives at a retreat just days after the government bailout of the company. Citigroup seized the St. Regis from its owners last summer, after they failed to make payments on the bank's $70 million loan on the property.