AMELIA ISLAND CONCOURS

The Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance experience: A story of what it is like to bring a Duesenberg to a Concours event and meet my hot rod heroes — The Rolling Bones. By Gram Spina:

My second semester at Pennsylvania College of Technology, where I was studying for my Vintage Automotive Restoration degree, was all about preparing a 1929
Duesenberg Model J Victoria for the March 2020 Amelia Island Concours. The plan was to complete a partial restoration, a freshening up of the Duesenberg owned by the Swaggart Automotive Museum (the oldest automotive museum in the country). The Swaggart Museum has a great relationship with Penn College and is supportive of any education that promotes the preservation of iconic classic cars — which is exactly what my college major was all about.

While I helped with various tasks through the early part of the semester, including
aiding my best friend Will Sullivan with the engine and mechanical work to get the
Duesenberg inline-8 tuned up, my main responsibility was to handle the documentary photography of our journey and post it on our social media platforms. As a future president of the Penn College Classic Cruisers Car Club, I loved the idea of preserving and sharing a behind-the-scenes look at what our unique automotive restoration major was teaching us to do.

As we loaded the Duesenberg into the enclosed trailer, we all felt extremely proud of what we had accomplished and the work we had completed on the car. We knew that we were most likely not going to win our class because so much of our competition on the field would reflect the typical million dollar restorations found at these concours events. But as you can see in my photos, the Duesenberg was very presentable and was in excellent running condition. We had barely finished within our deadline, and with spring break — and the event! — just around the corner, we strapped the Duesenberg into the trailer and packed our bags for an early morning set-off time.

With two of our professors as chaperones and drivers, a handful of other students and I set off from Williamsport, PA, for the long trip to Florida. Due to college policy, we were not allowed to cannonball our way to Florida and were forced to spread out the driving time which ended up making the trip feel less rushed and more enjoyable. We listened to 1990s grunge rock — my first exposure to groups like Alice In Chains — and now, whenever I hear those songs, I am instantly back in that moment, trailering a 1929 Duesenberg down the east coast to Amelia Island. The road trip went relatively smoothly: midnight dinners at Waffle Houses in the pouring rain, spotting abandoned classic cars rotting away in farmers' fields (wishing we could stop and buy them), and getting rolling photographs of the truck and trailer at night. On the morning of the last leg, I opened up my Instagram feed and saw something that suddenly made me want to get to our final destination without any further delay: The Rolling Bones hot rods were participating in the Concours rally drive. My friends can testify to this; I wanted to see those hot rods immediately.

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To explain why these hot rods mean so much to me, I will simply say: The Rolling
Bones book series by Ken Schmidt. We ordered The Rolling Bones books from the Rodders Journal website, and as soon as I opened the first page, I was blown away by the photography, locations, stories, and especially the hot rods. The book series had a huge influence on my chosen career path. I was ecstatic to possibly see these hot rods in person. Them Bones are incredible, and at the time that I saw the Instagram post, I had no idea if they were actually going to be on the field at the Amelia Island Concours on Sunday or if they were visiting for the cars and coffee event on Saturday (at the time we had no idea if we would make it in time for Saturday).

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Though we did arrive in time for Saturday events, the Bones were nowhere to be found. I was almost heartbroken because I thought, "No way they have their own class for the Sunday Concours." However, I was very wrong because they did, in fact, have their own class for the Concours event.

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Saturday evening my professor mentioned that he would put the Duesenberg on the lawn since cars were allowed to be parked on the show field overnight. My friend Adam and I did not get to ride in the Duesenberg while our professor drove into the field since our other friends beat us to it (we wanted to stand on the running board like the gangsters of days gone by, but we knew better than to follow through on that idea!). Forced to walk in through the gates, we were stopped by an event organizer who told us that we could not get inside. After showing our passes and student ID cards, we explained that we were students at Penn College and our professor needed us to adjust the carburetor on the Duesenberg (a little white lie), and the organizer finally let us in.

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The field was lightly covered in dew, and we immediately started getting distracted (on purpose). We saw the then brand-new and unreleased Corvette C8 and other mid- engine prototype Corvettes on display. While checking out the Corvettes, I saw my best friend Will doing the same. I asked him if our professor needed help setting up the Duesenberg, and he told us that we were all set and could wander around the grounds to check out some of the other cars. Before Will could finish his thought, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. A sign that read “The Rolling Bones." I literally ran over to The Rolling Bones hot rods, and my friends Adam and Will followed me.

My friends can testify to this: I got on my knees and cried tears of joy when I saw The Rolling Bones hot rods in person for the first time. I took as many photos as I could. We were on a short timeline, but if it had been up to me, I would have stayed with those cars all night. Soon, a small group of us would be back for dawn patrol early Sunday morning.

Three thirty A.M. wake up time, got dressed in my nice suit and tie, retrieved my fully charged camera battery, and tried not to wake up the rest of our group, who opted not to do the dawn patrol and planned to meet us at the concours after the gates opened to the public. The roads were empty during our short drive from the hotel to the Amelia Island golf course. Once we arrived, we found ourselves waiting in a short line of dedicated dawn patrol enthusiasts. Fast forward to getting inside the grounds, the thrill of seeing multiple iconic and historic cars at sunrise was incredible. I'll let my photos explain it better than I ever could.

The judges at Amelia do their thing early in the morning before the gates open to the public. My friend and mentor, Ed Justice Jr., was a judge for the 2020 event. My friendship with Ed deserves a story, but I will keep it short. Ed Justice Jr. is well-known within the West Coast world of automotive racing. He is the CEO of Justice Brothers, a company that makes performance racing oil additives and more and is a well-known automotive photographer and historian. The Nikon D300 I used for this event was a gift I received from Ed. Backtrack to some time before the Amelia Island Concours. Ed saw a photo I had taken of a model car on Instagram. He asked me what camera I used. I told him I used my iPhone, and Ed told me I was doing a great job and to keep it up. Later, Ed asked my parents if he could send me one of his Nikon D300 cameras. He may have seen his younger self within me, but that gift helped jumpstart my deep passion for photography. If you are ever in Duarte, California, you should visit the Justice Brothers automotive racing museum, which is full of iconic race cars, the category class that Ed judged for the 2020 Amelia Island Concours.

The Sunday concourse was incredible. I had the opportunity to meet Ken Schmidt and the rest of The Rolling Bones owners and builders. These cars are truly works of art, and the passion and dedication of their owners and builders is legendary. From the removal of the center door hinge to create a smoother flowing belt line design on the cars to their dedication to driving from upstate New York to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah every year to the books that document their journey and their mission, The Rolling Bones are in a class by themselves.

While admiring the red 1933 Ford Three Window Coupe, I overheard someone say something that made my heart sink: "Why are these rat rods here?" I politely approached the well-dressed man and said, "These are called hot rods, and I can show and explain why these cars matter." He agreed to listen and seemed happy to have someone share knowledge on these old, worn-out-looking cars. I showed him a photo on my phone of a stock 1933 Ford and then explained why the modifications were made — to sum it all up — they were made as a Sacrifice To The Gods Of Speed. After about five minutes, he must've liked what he heard from me because he asked if I owned the car, and I answered, "Nope, I don't, but I can introduce you to the team that built her." The guy agreed, and the Bones crew got a kick out of how much I knew about their hot rods. Later, Ken and the Bones team told me I was more than welcome to visit their shop (barn) in upstate New York anytime, and they also gave me a red shop rag with The Rolling Bones artwork printed in black ink.

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As predicted, the Duesenberg did not win our class, but we had an incredible time. On the drive back to the college campus, the world changed forever; the Covid 19 outbreak had begun, and the college announced that they were extending our spring break an extra week to let the virus die down. Thankfully, none of us caught a case of Covid on the trip, but once we got back to campus, I grabbed my computer from my dorm room and drove home to Long Island, NY. I never made it back to campus that semester. Our classes moved online, which was a very difficult task for the hands-on learning we had signed up for, but somehow we managed. The Amelia Island Concours was the last major car show for over a year, and we did not return to campus until Fall semester, under super strict lockdown protocols and even then way ahead of many other universities.

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There are many reasons why this trip is so clearly etched in my memory. It had
everything to do with The Rolling Bones, a lot to do with the world events that
followed, but above all, it opened my eyes to what my future could be and what type of opportunities within the scope of automotive photography I would like to pursue. I'm so glad I finally got to put it all down in writing to share with the world.