The search for rare or interesting automobiles to profile for Vintage Road & Racecar has a few obvious starting points. Concours, especially ones like Amelia Island and Hilton Head, can yield a great variety of cars that are appropriate for this magazine, especially knowing that most, if not all of the cars, are driven onto the field. That means, with the owner’s permission, driving impressions and car-to-car photography, important pieces of a profile, are possible.
Museums are the second good starting point, but you have to find a museum whose cars are drivable. It’s not likely that you can convince the curator of the Smithsonian Museum of American History to take their 1903 Winton out of its exhibit and allow a journalist to drive it around the National Mall. Sometimes, though, a bit of serendipity helps. An item about a Panhard Dynamic drew my attention to the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum (www.tbauto.org) and resulted in a visit. Subsequent visits have resulted in profiles of several of their interesting automobiles for the magazine. Not only are their cars drivable, but they are all interesting. They are interesting because of the philosophy behind the creation of the museum. Here is how they introduce the museum in their “About Us” page on the website:
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