50 exotic and often rare sports cars, 1000 miles, great hotels, full assistance ( mechanics, loaners, luggage transferts, ... ), a great crew, .... is there a better way to spend 5 days ?  Well maybe, but if you are reading this, it probably means that you love cars and there is no better way...

For the past few years, Jean and Rich Taylor have organized time / speed / distance rallies mostly in their home New England region even tough they do invade the Texas Hill Country each fall... Starting in 2000, probably as a mean to escape the New England winter,  they added the Forza Amelia rally which starts right at the end of the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, an event which has grown to become the Pebble Beach of the east coast and attracts thousands of car enthusiasts and collector to Amelia Island, a small resort island just north of Jacksonville.

These are not speed rallies, which mean that you must respect all rules, speed limits and other annoyances and simply be on time... exactly on time as each second off your assigned time at each checkpoint costs you 1 point...  not much ? When you consider that experienced rallyists strive for perfect Zeros and usually end the rally with less than 2 points...  1 second means a lot eventhough these are relatively easy and relaxed events.. no hidden checkpoints means no strainious enroute calculations, no tricks in the route instructions, the point is to have a good time driving fun cars...

But beyond the fun, Vintage Rallies is a fund raiser for local charities in the states the rallies are held. Over the years, Jean and Rich Taylor have raised hundreds of thousand of dollars to help those who need help... and incidently have received Hemmings Motor News hobby person of the year award last year.

Two members of our club are participating in the 2001 Forza Amelia, Russel Glace in his XK140 MC FHC racer and Pascal Gademer in his 1972 E-type FHC.

Internet connections permitting, a daily log with many pictures will be uploaded every evening covering their progress.

Day One : On the field at Amelia
Day One : St Augustine, Daytona and Mount Dora
Day Two : Play time at Gainesville Raceway and Cedar Key
Day Three : Tarpon Springs and Howey-in-the-Hills
Day Four : back up to Amelia
Results

If you want to read and see more pictures, some real nice, check out Chuck Goolsbee log at http://www.goolsbee.org/toc.html. He's done a few of these with his father, in various cars, and some of the pictures are worth the detour !