One of the last Triumphs built in this body shape was this TR-250 Surrey Top
A 1933 Harley-Davidson with package-truck sidecar among the many and various cars at the show | Jim McCraw photos
The setting was as familiar as Pebble Beach, Meadow Brook, or St. John’s. A car show on a beautiful golf course on a sunny Sunday afternoon. But this wasn’t one of the big ones. Instead, this was a local annual car show held at the beautiful Mission Inn & Resort in the tiny community of Howey-In-The-Hills, Florida, the American town with more hyphens in its name than any other.
On the gently rolling hills of the golf course were about 150 show cars, surrounded on all sides by new car displays from local dealerships.
We were impressed within the first few minutes with the quality and variety that this relatively unknown show was able to pull from all over Florida, and with the quality of the show trophies and special awards. Nothing second-class here.
We saw not a single Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg, or Packard on the field, but that was perfectly okay with us, because we’d already been to Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Amelia Island during the winter car show season.
This one was more of a show for regular folks. There were plenty of regular folks on hand to enjoy the machinery, and a wandering announcer with a portable microphone brought the crowd closer to the machinery with a series of owner and celebrity interviews, and the weather was Florida perfect.
Porsche 911 GT2 Evo, one of only 11 ever built, ready to race
A Dodge Challenger fitted with the Plymouth Superbird parts kit
In Spring, our thoughts turn to ’64 Alfa Giulia Spider Veloces
The Porsche 962 that won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1989!
A baby blue Deuce with ribbed bumper, dog dishes and trim rings. Delish!
It doesn’t look much like a sports car icon, but this Sprite really is
Placard says this trailer and ’62 Vette have driven 90,000 miles in 48 states
What if a Beetle mated with a ’40 Ford coupe. All steel bodywork!
Someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to make a Corvette Grand Sport
We know it’s not a real Porsche, but we loved the details on this one
The Watney-Stilton Special, a Wolseley-powered ’49 MG TC race car
Beautifully detailed Deuce 5-window with wicked chrome headers
If we owned this ’52 MG TD, it wouldn’t be sitting here on the grass
Sydney Allard would be proud of this Caddy-powered repro J2X
The oldest and classiest car on the field was this 1937 Rolls
One of Chuck Beck’s reproduction Speedsters with VW parts
Chevrolet built these Corvair-based Rampside pickups in 1962-3.
“Dad, that looks like that car from that movie about the future.”
Austin-Healey 100 with green wire wheels and Brooklands windscreens
Mystery roadster marked as a Bentley, powered by a Bentley engine
One of the last Triumphs built in this body shape was this TR-250 Surrey Top
This is the Ferrari 246 Dino that won the Cannonball in 1975
You don’t see too many of these ultraquick, ultrafast Moslers at shows
We’d not seen this color on a Mustang since April, 1964
Supercharged Chevy-powered ’34 Ford pickup to offset the imported cars
This red-on-red ’57 Thunderbird had a mysterious personalized plate
The other Pantera, this one a rare GT5 version with fat fenders
The only ’61 Chevy Impala wagon like in in the entire world. Cool!
One of two de Tomaso Panteras on the field in bright Italian red
Jim McCraw has been writing about cars, motorcycles, design, technology, car people and racing for 50 years, in such publications as Hot Rod Deluxe, Super Chevy, Muscle Mustangs, Road & Track, Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Penthouse, Winding Road, The Mercedes-Benz Star, AutoWeek, The New York Times, and a number of European publications. He was executive editor of Motor Trend, editor of Hot Rod and Super Stock. He co-holds the record for the drive from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Key West, Florida, 96:22, and has run in major events such as the Mille Miglia Storica in Italy, Goodwood, the California Mille, the Colorado Grand, the New England 1000, Forza Mille, and four One Lap Of America competitions He owns a pristine Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan.
