Join us for a tour through one of the finest car shows in the country as we spotlight the machines that stopped us cold.
Florida's Amelia Island plays host each year to the Amelia Concours d'Elegance, held in 2026 on Saturday, March 7. The oceanfront setting makes a stunning stage for a gathering that spans everything from exotic modern supercars to immaculate prewar classics. We covered every inch of the grounds—breathing in that perfect mix of salt air and exhaust fumes—to find our favorites. These are the 10 cars we couldn't walk past.
This spotless orange 1934 LaSalle 350 belongs to John Gagliardi of Farmington, Connecticut. The 350 was a brief chapter in the history of the former GM subsidiary, and this is one of roughly 7000 examples produced that year. One memorable footnote: a LaSalle 350 served as the pace car for the 1934 Indianapolis 500.
Beyond the unmistakably 1950s pink paint, this Thunderbird caught our attention because it's the freshened-for-1957 version, which received a smoother front bumper and a wider grille. The standard engine in a 1957 Thunderbird was a 5.1-liter V-8 making 245 horsepower. This one is owned by Ed and Carole Blumenthal of Voorhees, New Jersey.
1965 marked the final production year for the Porsche 356, which already makes this car historically significant. But this particular example, owned by Maurice Kaspy of Montreal, Quebec, is even more special—it served with the Dutch police force. Look closely and you can spot the blue dome-shaped beacon mounted on the left front fender.
This rear-engined gem is a Renault R5 Turbo II, a homologation special developed to support the French manufacturer's rallying program. This late example is owned by Malcolm Davidow of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Its legend needs no elaboration.
Parked almost directly across from the Renault 5 Turbo was this Lancia Delta Integrale Evoluzione. The navy-blue-over-beige color combination is inspired. The Lancia Delta dominated the World Rally Championship during its competitive era and is widely regarded as one of the most successful rally cars ever built.
This compact sports car is a Kurtis 500S, built by racer and constructor Frank Kurtis—one of only around 30 ever made. Beneath its small hood lives a large Cadillac V-8, and given the car's diminutive proportions, it must be genuinely rapid. This one is owned by Dana and Patti Mecum (yes, that Mecum) of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin.
Joe Harmon of Davidson, North Carolina, brought his one-of-one Harmon Splinter—a car constructed from wood. No, you aren't misreading that. The Splinter began as Harmon's master's thesis project at North Carolina State University. It commands attention up close, and we weren't the only admirers: getting a clear photograph required waiting for the perpetual crowd to briefly thin.
On the subject of student projects, this is the Aether—a 3-D-printed sports car concept created by students in Savannah College of Art and Design's industrial design program. Every component has been printed from acrylic gel hardened by UV light.
Built on the Chiron platform but even rarer, the Bugatti Mistral is an open-top hypercar powered by a 1578-hp quad-turbo W-16 engine. In 2024, a Mistral set a top speed record of 282 mph. Encountering one in person, even at a standstill, is genuinely surreal.
The 2026 Amelia Concours paid tribute to racing driver Dario Franchitti, displaying a collection of the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner's competition cars. Now retired from racing, Franchitti remains deeply involved with cars in his role at Gordon Murray Automotive. Our senior features editor, Elana Scherr, had the rare pleasure of riding alongside Franchitti in the T.50 supercar back in 2024.
And then there was this: the GEM eLXD. This diminutive electric truck-cart isn't freeway-legal, but it's perfectly suited to resort and theme park duty. The city of Fernandina Beach, which hosts the Amelia Concours, operates one as a medic vehicle, allowing patrols without any exhaust to spoil the ocean air. It's not exactly a concours contender, but it's probably less rare than nearly everything else on the lawn today.
