Yoanna House Goes Local at the Concours D'Elegance

From our partners at TVJax, Fashion Gone Local and Yoanna House report from the annual Amelia Island Car Show. Check out the upscale (seriously upscale) doings one of the most exclusive events that Florida has to offer.

Published May 5, 2016 in Culture - MetroJacksonville.com

Fashion Gone Local was created by Yoanna House, Warren Skeels and Kathryn McAvoy
produced by TVJax.com
starring Yoanna House
edited by Marlon Smith and Chad Hendricks

The 20th addition Amelia was a record-setter and the star of Fashion Gone Local, Yoanna House was not only present, but actually working as part of the event itself. In fact half of the TVJax Crew were on hand for the festivities.

Sunday’s field was filled with rare, elegant and significant cars and many happy and excited people.

Yoanna was part of the retro fashion and style event that complemented the classic and vintage models of the show, and FGL got super local with the people who make one of the world's premier fine automobile events a reality!

Here are a few statistics from the 2016 event:

Sir Stirling Moss, OBE was the honoree for the original Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 1996. This year he returned to enthusiastically accept the invitation to be Amelia’s first double-honoree to help celebrate the 20th anniversary.

This year marked not only The Amelia’s 20th anniversary but the 60th anniversary of Sir Stirling’s record setting victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia, the one-thousand mile lap of Italy, racing Mercedes-Benz’s all-conquering 300 SLR sports/racer, the fabled #722.

On Sunday the concours field opened at 9:30 AM and by 9:35 the fairways were nearly filled to capacity. The word was out that, once again, the event had some, for lack of a better term, “non-traditional” classes and cars that are seldom -- make that “never” -- seen at a major international concours.

With 315 world class entries, the Amelia’s car selection committee made the judge‘s task complex and difficult with a field of breathtaking classics.

The 20th Amelia’s Concours d’Elegance went to the exquisite 1930 Cord L29 Brooks Stevens Speedster, owned by Ed and Judy Schoenthaler of Oak Brook, IL. This black and white classic was completely redesigned by renowned Wisconsin architect and car designer Stevens who acquired it in 1930.

Our unique Concours de Sport trophy went to The 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, owned by David Sydorick of Beverly Hills, CA thanks to its outstanding racing provenance and an impeccable restoration. The short chassis version of the “Two-Three” Spyder 8C was introduced in 1931 and won the Mille Miglia in 1932, 1933 and 1934 as well as the Spa 24-hour race in 1932. Alfa Romeo practically owned the Mille Miglia before the war and David’s restoration of Vittorio Jano’s masterpiece reminds us of those romantic days of European open road racing.

The head-count for The Amelia’s 20th anniversary weekend was over 32,000. When the votes for the People's Choice Award were totaled, Richard Gorman and Colleen Paige’s 1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III was the winner. A three-year restoration on this one of just 25 left-hand drive Cloud IIIs impressed pretty much all enthusiasts.

The organization is already planning for the 21st Amelia Concours. In 2016 they enter their third decade and continue to celebrate the automobile and the people who love cars for their beauty, power, speed, poise and their ability to entertain and transport us physically and emotionally.

photo by Toni Smailagic

This article can be found at: http://dev.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-may-yoanna-house-goes-local-at-the-concours-delegance