FESTIVALS OF SPEED
Ritz Carlton, Orlando, FL
October 12, 2008
Story Colum Wood | Photos Chris Grosser & Colum Wood
Making the streets of Monaco look bad is what Joe Sabatini does best. As the organizer for the Festivals of Speed, he managed to gather a collection of the most outrageously impressive vehicles we have ever seen and display them on the lawns of the Ritz Carlton Orlando Grand Lakes Resort in Orlando, FL. Of note were three Bugatti Veyrons and seven Rolls-Royce Phantoms, two of which were Drophead Coupés – one in eye searing yellow with matching yellow leather interior, black wheels and carbon fiber accents. We don’t know what the custom detail work cost, but we do know you must have an awful lot of dough to convince Rolls-Royce to make a car like this.
Sabatini also managed to gather practically every high-end dealership in town and get them to display their very best. Bentley and BMW of Orlando were in attendance as was one of the local Ferrari/Maserati dealerships.
Something that really helped make this Festivals of Speed a special event was the inclusion of slightly less exotic models, including Porsche Carreras, Corvettes and Nissan GT-Rs. A local BMW club was also on-hand with plenty of M-models from over the past several decades.
As always MLE was on site handling out magazines and showing off a few of the nicest looking modified cars in the south-east. At the MLE booth were the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and Lamborghini Gallardo of RSC Tuning. And next to them sat a stunning RENNtech-tuned 2009 SL65. (It’s nice to have friends like these guys).
