Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/575200
Nazarian blends modern ele- ments with antiques to create a look completely her own. 196 BAL HARBOUR Talbot-Lago Teardrop (by master coachbuilders Figoni et Falaschi) may be the most beautiful piece of auto sculpture that's ever been created." The First Time "My first car was a 1953 Chevy Bel Air, sierra gold with a cream interior. It was as pretty a thing as I could think of. I mowed a lot of lawns and took out a lot of trash to buy that." Wish List "I'd love a Williams-Renault (a championship Formula One car of the early 1990s). It literally requires three or four laptops to start it; it was the sharp end of a $200 million racing effort." Dr. Frederick Simeone is a retired neurosurgeon from Philadelphia, a former Harvard faculty member and neurosurgery professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Simeone has spent 50 years assembling his remarkable collection of racing sports cars, from Ferraris and Bugattis to Corvettes and Aston Martins. Playing Favorites "My favorite is the Alfa Romeo 2900B Mille Miglia Spyder. Driving it, you're one with the road. It has nostalgia, a great racing history and it's drop-dead gorgeous." Vintage, all the Way "I'm interested in vintage racing machines, the philosophy of competition. It's a great story of industrial evolution, the things that happen as a result of trying to win." Moving History "Passion number one is nostalgia, but there's also history, technology… cars that have changed the world. And while you can't do much with your modern car, unless you have a computer, with a classic you can really work on it." A Lesson in Mechanics "As a teenager, my dad bought me a very beat-up Alfa Romeo for a few hundred dollars, and left it to me to build it back up. He was a Philadelphia doctor who made $3 house calls, and we always had car books around the house. The Saturday Evening Post once ran a story on him, about crazy guys who restored cars for fun." The One that got Away "The 1929 Mercedes-Benz SSK is the fabulous car which I've never been able to get." Auto Exercise "An automobile that doesn't run has lost its soul to some extent. Every other Saturday we take the cars out on our three acres of blacktop for a Demonstration Day, and drive them spiritedly. People get to see them, hear them, even smell them. A car develops its character when it's in motion, and you don't want to leave that out." Advice for Amateurs "Do your homework. You wouldn't buy an expensive painting without knowing who painted it and who owned it; and an auction catalog is not the honest way to get that history. If a car has historical significance, there's a way to find that out firsthand." "An automobile that doesn't run has lost its soul to some extent. Drive them spiritedly." —Dr. Frederick Simeone