A museum containing a collection of some of the rarest and most significant racing sports cars in the world opened in Philadelphia, in June 2008.
The Simeone Foundation Museum is the creation of Grundy-insured neurosurgeon Dr. Frederick Simeone, who began acquiring the cars that make this incredible collection five decades ago.
The Simeone Foundation Museum is different from most other automotive collections in that the cars are used to tell a story – that competition and racing improves the breed.
This is not simply a display of racing cars; Dr. Simeone chose each car as an integral element in the story he wanted to tell: how the principles of evolution affect inanimate objects the same way it does living organisms.
Like Philadelphia’s famed Barnes Foundation collection of paintings, the Simeone Foundation is a personal collection, assembled over a long period of time, with a singular vision.
The central theme of the Simeone Foundation collection is “the spirit of competition.”
Recently, the Foundation released a 384-page hardbound book, The Spirit of Competition, which is the story behind the automotive museum, as told by Dr. Simeone.
Beginning at the dawn of the automotive age, the narrative shows how production cars, racing to show their superiority over other manufacturers, evolved in a few short decades to purpose-built, exotic platforms. In the process, this competitive spirit gave birth to engineering advancements that everyone takes for granted, today.
But even more, The Spirit of Competition is the story of how the teenage son of a physician in the working-class Philadelphia neighborhood of Port Richmond inherited his father’s love of automobiles and began to assemble one of the world’s greatest collections of racing sports cars— a collection that is now housed in a 75,000 square foot building, five minutes off Interstate 95, an easy day’s drive for more than 20 percent of the nation’s population.
Famous marques like Ferrari, Jaguar, Bentley, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo and Porsche are some of the automobiles represented in the collection. Many important American race cars are also displayed, including historic NASCAR racers
Cars of this caliber rarely come on the auction block; their acquisition is the result of thorough detective work, research and good luck. For the first time, Dr. Simeone relates the fascinating stories behind each of the members of his extraordinary collection.
All orders for The Spirit Of Competition that are made on the Simeone Foundation Web site will come with a signed, personalized letter of appreciation from Dr. Simeone, a one-year Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum Membership and two free tickets to the Museum.
For more information on ordering this book, please visit this link: Order Book; For Pete Vack’s review of The Spirit Of Competition in Veloce Today, go HERE.
The Simeone Foundation Museum is a 501c(3) non-profit dedicated to dedicated to showcasing the “spirit of competition” as the stimulus to technological evolution in safer automotive design and driving techniques.
The Simeone Foundation Museum is open Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Monday. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $8 for students. Children under 8 are admitted free.
The museum is located at 6825-31 Norwitch Drive, Philadelphia. Pa., 19153. For more information on the museum, call 215-365-SAFE (7233), or visit the Museum’s Web site.
Story by: Becky McLaughlin, Newsletter Editor www.grundy.com
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