Since 2004, Cars for the Cure has hosted their annual exotic and luxury car show in Lake Mary, FL to benefit the American Lung Association. Every year, the show has displayed countless exotics not often available to the general public. Free to spectators, this annual fundraiser allows them to get up close and admire the fine craftsmanship of the cars displayed and is any automotive enthusiasts dream.

On display this year were some of the finest supercars the world has to offer. From your standard Ferrari 360 Spyder, to a one-off Bugatti Veyron Sang Bleu with a bleu carbon fiber and polished aluminum finish worth over $3 million, these cars made even the nicest Mustang look like a Yugo.  Such a hit, this special edition Veyron seemed to even overshadow the recently debuted Lamborghini Aventador and McLaren MP4-12C displayed only six feet away.

As this show continues to grow year after year, it has become a favorite drawing spectators from all over the state. All we can say is, we can’t wait to see what Cars for the Cure has to offer in 2013.

Quickly approaching is an automotive gearheads’ dream, the Festivals of Speed Orlando. Held on the grounds of the beautiful Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes Resort Hotel, the Festivals of Speed Orlando is a weekend-long mega event with fast cars, friendly people, and great memories. From a Friday night Jet Port Reception Party, to a Saturday golf tournament and wine connoisseurs’ dinner, to the Sunday Motorsports Collection and Luxury Lifestyle Display, the FOS has everything you want. Make your way to Orlando, Florida from October 7-9, 2011 and don’t forget your camera!

Exotics and Luxury has been given the following information and media images for direct release. Check out the Festivals of Speed website for all up-to-date information and scheduling, and hundreds of images from past events. And click the link below for a chance to win the Festivals of Speed Orlando VIP Experience!

FESTIVALS OF SPEED ORLANDO VIP EXPERIENCE

The winner of the Festivals of Speed VIP Experience will receive:
•       Two night stay at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes
•       Two (2) tickets to the Luxury Lifestyle Jet Port Reception
•       Two (2) tickets to the Wine Connoisseur’s Dinner
•       Two (2) tickets to the Louis XIII de Remy Martin Tasting
•       Two (2) VIP tickets to the 6th Annual Festivals of Speed at the
Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes

Contest ends 9.16.2011 so enter now!

With the newly formed Cars & Coffee monthly car meets in Sarasota, Florida Exotics & Luxury has become a sponsoring partner for the events. We are helping get the word out to people from surrounding areas in hopes that this new get-together becomes a success. If you are unaware of what a Cars & Coffee event is you might want to check one out sometime. They are monthly automotive get-togethers where car owners and enthusiasts gather in the morning to chat about their cars and enjoy some snacks and refreshments. There are different styles of C&C meets depending on where the location is. Generally they are comprised of more high dollar cars, but every make and model is welcome.

The Sarasota Cars & Coffee asks that guests bring in a few canned food donations as they have partnered up with the local All Faiths Food Bank and all donations will benefit the less fortunate in the community. Suncoast Porsche has been kind enough to open their doors and provide their facility and parking lot as the host location.

Our professional photographer, Peter Tromboni, has his hand in this event as well and will be providing fantastic images for Exotics & Luxury and many other forms of media outlets. If you ever make it to beautiful Sarasota, Florida we suggest that you check out their very own Cars & Coffee. Meets are held on the first Saturday of every month from 8-10am at Suncoast Porsche on US 41, and as you can see from Peter’s photos below they’re all rain or shine.

The 8th Annual Celebration Exotic Car Festival was held during a course of 4 days and raised approximately $180,000 for children with life threatening medical conditions. The weekend’s events include two thrilling days at Sebring International Raceway, where Ferrari Challenge cars take to the track for intense battles, a Concours style exotic car show in Downtown Celebration, Florida, a Jet Port Reception party at a private airport hangar, and a 111 mile Road Rally and lunch at Disney World’s Beach Club Resort.

The Celebration Exotic Car Festival is growing each and every year and since it’s inception in 2004 the event has raised over $600,000 for charity organizations. The event attracts some of the world’s rarest automobiles, movie cars, celebrities and famous chefs, and attendees have the opportunity to get up close and personal with everyone involved.

The two trackdays at Sebring are always fun. It’s very exciting to see “normal” cars out there flying around the corners and the Ferrari Challenge cars trading paint during a high energy 25 minute Ferrari Club Racing Association (FCRA) race around the famous 3.7 mile 12-Hour circuit. Anyone can register to track their car and passengers are even allowed to go out for some fun, so long as they sign a waiver and are wearing the proper equipment. Even our pro photographer Peter Tromboni had the opportunity to ride along for 4 laps in his dream car, a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale. He told Exotics & Luxury that was the most incredible thing he’s ever done. Way to go, Peter!

Saturday morning is the car show with full judging and an awards ceremony. Over 250 exotic, movie, and race cars are on display for a free-of-charge show open to the public. This year drew over 125 Ferraris and many more smiles from people of all ages. The class winners have the pleasure of driving their cars onto the red carpet in front of thousands of guests and receive award trophies from Chris “Shooter McGavin” McDonald and Carl “Apollo Creed” Weathers.

The Jet Port Reception party on Saturday night, held inside a private airport hangar, is as good as it gets.  Guests are treated to an amazing display of show cars out front and stunning airplanes in the sky. Many of the areas top restaurants and chefs are on hand providing food and drink in a very nice fashion. An aerialist show wows guests with high-flying acts and colorful lights, and the auction raised over $116,000, all for charity.

Sunday morning had participants meet back in Downtown Celebration for a quick breakfast and drivers’ meeting then it was off to the streets for the first half of a 111 mile Road Rally. Passengers were given a directions booklet with clues to look for along the way. A quick halfway break at a small pastry shop was a refreshing pit stop and drivers were then directed to hit the road again for the second half, finishing up at Disney’s Beach Club Resort for a catered lunch overlooking Disney’s BoardWalk and beautiful Crescent Lake.

For more information on how you can enter your car in the 2012 Celebration Exotic Car Festival or how you can make a monetary contribution to the charity organizations associated with the CECF please visit the official Celebration Exotic Car Festival website.

This great article was sponsored by Gumtree.co.za, South Africa’s premier classifieds

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Each and every year the Florida born Festivals of Speed gets bigger and bigger. 2011 saw the addition of the new Mansion Inn location alongside the three traditional locations of Miami, Orlando, and St. Petersburg. Festivals of Speed President Joe Sabatini puts on amazing weekends with rare supercars, private jets, custom motorcycles, and fine yachts. The final day of the Festivals of Speed is always the Luxury Lifestyle Motorsports Display which features everything from the fastest car on the planet, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, to a 1957 Ferrari 500 TRC. We sent our photographer Peter Tromboni to St. Petersburg, Florida to capture some images of the show.

Exotics & Luxury highly recommends checking out the Festivals of Speed if you get the chance. Friday night Jet Port Reception parties, private test drives of exotic cars, Saturday golf tournaments and poker runs, and Sunday Concours events; It’s all amazing.

Please visit the Festivals of Speed website for more information of upcoming events, locations, and dates.

Festivals of Speed | Luxury Lifestyle Weekends

Held on the beautiful grounds of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida the 16th Annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance was every bit as amazing as previous years. Exotics & Luxury was on hand all weekend where we got to see some of the most rare and exclusive cars in the world. Show stoppers such as the brand new Bugatti Veyron SS, Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, the last production built Shelby Cobra 427, and a collection of Bobby Rahal’s retired race cars had onlookers drooling at the mulit-millions of dollars sitting on the 10th and 18th greens. Our very own Peter Tromboni has provided you with these fantastic images from the 2011 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

Saturday morning saw the cars lining up on the grass of St. Armand’s Circle for the main event. The Concours attracts thousands of spectators from around the Gulf Coast to see some spectacular automobiles. Lamborghini’s legendary test pilot, Mr. Valentino Balboni, was on hand to sign autographs and pose for photos with his fans. Mr. Balboni also assisted in handing out the trophies for the winning cars.

Sunday morning was the final day of the Sarasota Exotic Car Fest but may have been the best day yet. Registered drivers partook in a 97.6 mile Road Rally that had them take their stunning exotic cars east of Interstate 75 for a thrilling ride. The rally concluded with brunch at The Concession Golf Club and a group photo of all the cars parked outside.

For information on the Sarasota Exotic Car Fest and the Child Protection Center, Inc please visit the SECF website here.

And take at look at Peter’s personal website for all his latest photography work: Peter Tromboni Photography

Written by Kerry Stratton

I’ve been attending car related events my entire life be it car shows, races, runs or whatever nothing can stand up to my newest love the standing mile. These events appeal to the reason why anybody becomes a car guy (or girl)… going [very] fast! In the last few years I’ve attended a few of these types of events and this one made them all look like a walk in the park

Chris and I decided to head to the Dade-Collier Airstrip in Ochoppee, Florida literally at the last minute, planning our day as we were in the car driving in fact. If you’ve never heard of Ochoppee I don’t blame you this small unincorporated area of Collier county with a population of under 100 is known only for having the worlds smallest post office; in early March however unbeknown to the rest of the world it held host to some of the fastest cars in the world.

Out of the entire lineup, two cars stood out; one being the 1800hp twin-turbo Ford GT built by Performance Power Racing and the other being Eddie Bello’s infamous 993 Turbo. Both cars were gunning for world records and both accomplished their goals; 253 MPH in the Ford GT (the overall standing mile world record) and 232+ MPH in the Porsche (911 standing mile world record). Check out the pictures and video below.

Shout-outs to the guys from Heffner Performance and Juan from TurboWax!

Links

• Top Gun Run
• Heffner Performance
• Chris Grosser Photography

Recent Articles:

• Aston Martin DBS – Andrew Goodman Photography
• Palm Beach Supercar Experience 2010
• Pictorial: Sebring Winter Testing 2010
• Pictorial: Miami International Boat Show 2010

Written by Kerry Stratton

The 2010 inaugural event for Palm Beach Supercar Experience (formerly Supercar Weekend) beat the weather and went off without a hitch. This years collaboration definitely took the Supercar event concept to the next level. Building on the last four years, this event truly brought together the best of the best in rare and exotic vehicles on the beautiful newly restored West Palm Beach waterfront. Read after the break for further coverage and photos!

While the weather didn’t play nice all day (intermittent sunshine and free afternoon carwash), it didn’t stop the crowd from enjoying the show. Well over 100 cars were in attendance…everything from tuned Camaros to a Ferrari F50; which was all boss, but the definite show-stopper was the yet-to-be released Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing.  The first Mercedes designed in-house by AMG is absolutely stunning and pictures do it very little justice. It’s quite deserving of the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 cover. I can’t wait to see it on the road! And with the initial specs, the eventual Black Series will be phenomenal. How do you make a great car better? Simple. Lose some weight.

Another eye-catcher was the all-electric zero-to-sixty in 3.7-seconds Tesla Roadster Sport; I’ve been interested in these cars since they came out and have been patiently awaiting their representation in Florida. Customers who were very patient in taking delivery of their Roadsters made out well; they had the opportunity to upgrade to the much improved Sport. Come to find out, Tesla now has a dealership open not far from Miami that we will most definitely be paying a visit to in the near future. We were one of the lucky few allowed to sit in the car this weekend so I’m thinking a test drive is in order!

Other highlights included multiple Murcielago SVs (a sick Matte Black LP640 spotted @City Place), a Ferrari FXX and a couple Spyker C8s.

If you’ve never been to this event, you really should check it out either at one of the two other dates this year (in New Orleans and the Hamptons) or on the flip side at the 2011 Palm Beach Supercar Experience. With all the new cars expected to drop between now and then, it should definitely be on every enthusiasts’ calendar.

(There are more pictures to come!)

Links:

• Kerry Stratton on Flickr
• Blake Simon on Flickr
• Brian Lee Tull on Flickr
• The Supercar Experience
• Lamborghini Miami

Recent Articles:

• Pictorial: Sebring Winter Testing 2010
• Pictorial: Miami International Boat Show 2010
• Preview: Palm Beach Supercar Experience February 26-28, 2010
• Cars On Fifth – Naples, Florida – Feb. 6, 2010

Written by Kerry Stratton

Our very own Chris Grosser spent last weekend at the winter testing session for the American Le Mans series at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida. Chris is currently on vacation but wanted to share his pictures. Which will be included below the break.

Links:

• American Le Mans Series
• Chris Grosser Photography

Recent Articles:

• Pictorial: Miami International Boat Show 2010
• Preview: Palm Beach Supercar Experience February 26-28, 2010
• Cars On Fifth – Naples, Florida – Feb. 6, 2010
• Introducing the MP4-12C