★ The Amelia

01Pourquoi c'est important

The Amelia sets the tone for the collector-car year in North America. Coming in early March, it is the first major auction of the season and the first read on where the market stands, months before Monterey confirms or contradicts it. Hagerty, which bought the event in 2021, is also the largest collector-car insurer and valuation publisher in the United States, so the week doubles as the company's own annual showcase.

In our reading, its more interesting quality is generational. By pairing a strict prewar concours with RADwood and Cars and Caffeine on the same site in the same week, The Amelia does more than any comparable event to bring younger owners into the same field as the traditional collecting world — and the fact that a free Sunday morning gathering now draws crowds comparable to the ticketed show says something about where the hobby is going.

02La semaine environnante

Amelia Island is a thirteen-mile barrier island with one main road, and concours week is its busiest of the year. Fernandina Beach, the Victorian town at the north end, fills with visiting cars and its Centre Street bars and restaurants run at capacity from Thursday. The Ritz-Carlton and the Omni Amelia Island Resort function as the two hubs; the auction tent, the seminars and the shops sit between the hotel and the golf course. Traffic on Amelia Island Parkway backs up in the mornings but the island never reaches Monterey levels of congestion, which is much of its appeal.

Sunday morning belongs to Cars and Caffeine, which is free and open and by some measures the best-attended element of the week.

03Quand arriver

Arrive Thursday and leave Monday, or Friday to Sunday if the week has to be short. Thursday is auction preview and seminars, Friday is the road tour and the first auction session, Saturday is the concours, and Sunday is Cars and Caffeine and departures. Saturday alone is workable as a day trip from Jacksonville.

04Où séjourner

The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island is adjacent to the show field and is where the event's center of gravity sits; the Omni Amelia Island Resort, a few miles south, is the other large property and hosts its own week events. Fernandina Beach, at the island's northern end, has small inns and rentals in a walkable historic town with the best restaurants and the liveliest evenings, and is about fifteen minutes from the concours. Jacksonville, forty-five minutes away, has plentiful hotel rooms at ordinary prices and is a reasonable base for anyone attending only the Saturday.

05Accès et hospitalité

Concours admission is sold to the public in advance through the organizer, with the show field open through the Saturday. The auction is free to preview for ticket holders; bidding requires registration with Broad Arrow. Seminars and the road tour are ticketed separately or included in higher tiers, and Cars and Caffeine on the Sunday is free. Showing a car at the concours is by invitation following application. Hagerty members receive access to certain elements of the week. The organizer publishes tiers through its ticketing page; we did not verify current prices and quote none.

06Où se déroule l'activité sociale

Centre Street in Fernandina Beach is the public heart of the week — bars, seafood restaurants and a harbor front, all walkable, all busy from Thursday evening. On the island's south end the Ritz-Carlton lobby bar and terrace and the Omni's restaurants carry the collecting and trade crowd. The auction tent is the most sociable indoor space of the week and costs little to enter. The Sunday Cars and Caffeine is a genuine public gathering in a hotel parking area and is where the broadest cross-section of the week's attendees ends up.

07Comment s'y rendre

08Informations pratiques

09Historique

Bill Warner, a photographer and motorsport writer from Jacksonville, founded the concours in 1996 after enthusiasts in northeast Florida pressed for a Florida equivalent of Pebble Beach. The first show, on 6 April 1996, had 163 cars and about 2,200 people. It grew steadily on the strength of Warner's connections in racing, which is why the honoree tradition — Stirling Moss, Richard Petty and Carroll Shelby among them — became the event's signature and why the field has always carried more competition cars than most concours.

Hagerty acquired the event in 2021 and reshaped it, moving the concours from Sunday to Saturday, adding the Sunday morning Cars and Caffeine, folding in its own RADwood and Ride and Drive programs, and bringing the auction in-house through Broad Arrow. The date briefly moved to May in 2021 because of the pandemic before returning to March. Cumulative charitable giving passed $3.5 million during the Warner era; attendance reached about 32,000 in 2015.

10Qui s'y trouve

American collectors, a high proportion of them from the Southeast and the Northeast escaping winter; racing drivers past and present, drawn by the honoree tradition; Hagerty members and staff; auction consignors and bidders; specialist restorers and dealers; and a large, notably younger enthusiast crowd for RADwood and Cars and Caffeine. The mix is more domestic and less international than Pebble Beach or Villa d'Este.