I went to south Florida in February this year to attend Cavallino and try to win an elusive Platinum Award for this green Ferrari 330 GTC. You may remember this car from the last couple of years meeting the owner, inspecting the car, agreeing to prepare the car for Cavallino, and showing it last year. We missed the mark by a thin margin, spent the last year correcting the final faults, and this year tried one last time to get it across the line!

Cavallino, which was held at the Breakers in Palm Beach Florida for over 30 years moved to a new venue, The Boca Raton, an hour drive down the intercoastal waterway along the Atlantic. The Breakers was renovating and Canossa, the owner of Cavallino signed a three year contract with The Boca Raton, a private resort and golf course.

As with any new venue, there was a lot of teething pains. I tried my best to be patient and understanding the volunteers were as much in the dark on the new layout as I was, but hopefully they will get better with years to come.

There were 6 330 GTCs in our class, which was the largest single model collection of Vintage Ferraris than any other class. Even though cars are judged individually, having such good examples in a row made showing the green 330 that much harder. I believe the strong turn out belongs largely to Clete Gardenhour, a judge and owner of a GTC. Many years ago, Clete showed his personal GTC at a Ferrari show and won and award, but continued to correct the details on his car. The following year, he returned to receive a lower score and no award at all. His disgust was and is a common occurrence in showing a car at a Concours, but instead of simply complaining, Clete took it upon himself to create a concours guide specifically for Ferrari 330GTCs, and make it available to everyone. He tirelessly collected information, and confirmed the details with many restorers, owners, and historians. I was honored to be included as one of his resources, but this guide would not have been made without Clete’s dedication.

Other people have created guides for other models, but they are not nearly as thoroughly researched, updated, and referenced as Clete’s guide, so when I got the ribbon designating a win at Cavallino, not only did I have a long list of people to thank, I know it also came from a lot of hard work from the judges, restorers, and volunteers that put this show together.

Chas, the owner of this car couldn’t attend Cavallino this year due to the later date of the event over Valentine’s Day Weekend, but I did my best to show the car in his stead. I was so happy for the owner to have brought this car across the Platinum line. We started this journey with a nice car, but not up to Platinum Standards. I knew there were some every expensive repairs needed to make this car perfect, but I wanted to take a pragmatic approach towards winning. I took on the challenge collecting all the necessary points that we could correct, with an eye for the most return in points over cost. Platinum show judging has gotten so competitive, that often times only ground up restorations are the only way to win a Platinum, but I wanted to prove we could do it without that expense.

Our hard work and commitment paid off, and now Chas has a nice car and a Platinum award to be proud of. Thanks Everyone!

You can watch the Cavallino Experience in this YouTube video, and the story about the car that didn’t make the mark!