Article in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/automobiles/22DEMO.html?_r=1&nl=automobiles&emc=wheelsema4
ON a Saturday afternoon some 75 years after it finished fourth at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a weathered green MG K3 Magnette huffed to life, pushing out tiny clouds of gray exhaust. Many cameras in the crowd of onlookers were pointed at the MG as it took a spin around a three-acre patch of asphalt behind the Simeone Foundation Museum here.
This was no concours d’élégance, where long rows of stately classics typically sit in silent repose on manicured lawns. Kevin Kelly, the museum’s curator, nudged the MG to about 40 miles an hour, its narrow tires squealing around the corners.
Even though the car was merely gamboling around orange traffic cones, it was possible to imagine it in an actual race. When Mr. Kelly parked the MG after a 10-minute run, applause broke out.
“A beautiful thing, isn’t it?” Frederick A. Simeone, the 73-year-old neurosurgeon and museum founder who was serving as master of ceremonies, said to the crowd.
Last year, Dr. Simeone opened the museum in a former engine manufacturing plant near the Philadelphia airport to display his collection of more than 60 sports cars — to celebrate the spirit of competition, as he says.
Earlier this year, Dr. Simeone decided that part of the joy of owning these cars would be showing them — in motion — to the public. So on the fourth Saturday of each month the museum holds Demonstration Days.
Starting and driving valuable classics is a rarity at an automobile museum, but Dr. Simeone said it was an important part of the museum’s purpose.
“If you have a clock museum, you want the clocks to work,” he said.
Many of the cars in the museum are drivable. Dr. Simeone sat behind the wheel of a spotless sky-blue 1933 Squire, the first of only seven built, and guided it around the temporary track. That car, too, received a round of applause at the end of its run.
Before he bought the engine manufacturing plant, Dr. Simeone kept his collection in a nondescript garage in downtown Philadelphia. He could show the cars to visitors, but it was virtually impossible to go for a drive.
“You can go into a museum and see things behind glass that are untouchable, or you can read about them, but these cars were designed for a purpose — to race them and to drive them,” Mr. Kelly, the curator, said.
Wade Epler had driven from Lancaster, Pa., to see the demonstration. “My favorite term is that it’s rolling sculpture — this is what these cars really are,” he said. “This is about seeing these cars in their environment.”
Mr. Epler came to see a handsome green 1931 Bentley with a 4.5-liter supercharged engine. But the clutch gave out as Mr. Kelly was preparing the car, so the demonstration was limited to starting the engine so the gathered buffs could hear the distinctive Bentley burble, the authoritative putt-putt of the engine.
Keeping the cars running is no small challenge. Dr. Simeone said that some of the cars acquired for the collection had sat so long with fuel in them that the gas tanks corroded. The museum uses aviation gasoline in the cars that are started because it is more stable than regular pump gas.
Dr. Simeone’s collection includes a red 1975 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 TT 12 racecar that still cranks out 550 horsepower. But it would be hard to show off the car at a Demonstration Day because it was meant to be shifted into second gear at about 70 miles an hour — the museum’s lot is not large enough to go that fast.
But they go fast enough. Finished with his drive of the two-seat Squire, Dr. Simeone parked the car, propped open the hood and let the crowd inch in for a closer view. Among the Squire’s unusual features — one that also offers a history lesson — is a single unit that combines the functions of the starter motor and the generator, more than half a century before hybrid cars adopted a similar design.
The next Demonstration Day, scheduled for Nov. 28, will include a 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe and a 1966 Ford GT40 Mk II from the museum’s collection; the cars were chosen in an e-mail survey.
Admission to the Demonstration Days is included with the museum’s regular admission price of $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $8 for children over 8. The museum plans to hold the demonstrations year-round, but visitors are advised to check the schedule on the museum’s Web site, simeonemuseum.org.