It seems like only yesterday that I wrote the article talking about the “miracle at The Bridge” and the story of how the Shamin Abas team managed to pull off an amazing show in the face of tropical storm Ophelia last year. Suffice it to say that The Bridge VII was one to remember.
Enter 2024 and the VIII edition of The Bridge at the Bridgehampton Golf Club – formerly the Bridgehampton Race Circuit. Over 300 wonderfully curated cars perfectly placed for what turned out to be a perfect end-of-summer afternoon on the grounds of this historic venue.
Have you ever wondered what the old race circuit used to look like? I found the image below on the Bridgehampton Racing Heritage Group website. If you care to learn a little bit of history about the former glory days of this track, I encourage you to visit their website. I think you will see the club and the show itself in a new light after you learn what this track meant for motorsport in the 50s and 60s.
Having read a little bit about the history of the track, I knew I had to capture the load-in and set-up of the cars. If you’re part of the first load-in wave you might get lucky enough to snap a quick shot of your car in front of the historically-preserved Chevron Bridge. As luck would have it, I was able to catch a gorgeous F40 and a beautiful SP3 as they made their way up the hill around what used to be Hansgen Turn and onto the straight away leading to the show field.
As is the case every year, there was an amazing assortment of vintage and new Ferrari vehicles on display. I do love the new offerings from Maranello, but I have to say that my favorite Ferrari this year was a 1955 410 Sport Spider (a prototype), which sold this past August during Monterey car week for just under $13 million dollars. There’s just something about an alloy body from the 1950s that was hammered out by hand yet looks to have been molded by modern technology. Unreal!
The rest of the show field looked amazing as well. As I walked through the grounds, I came upon the Lamborghini and Porsche displays. For those of you that know me, I have a very big soft spot for Lamborghini as it was the brand that epitomized what an exotic car should be when I was a kid. Naturally, the Countach and Diablo were the cars that I dreamt of the most and to this day I still remember what I felt when I saw my first Countach at a Mercedes-Benz dealer in Chicago (it was silver), and my first Diablo (a purple SE30) at the Chicago Auto Show in 1994. Crazy to think that 30 years later I’m fortunate to work around these machines on a near daily basis.
The Porsche selection was as plentiful as it was unique. For me, the Safari 911’s are very appealing. Maybe it has to do with their ruggedness and the can-go-anywhere feeling that the cars give off. Or maybe it’s just cool to see a 911 built to go off-road. But, I also love the classics, like the RS cars from 1973, and any Porsche wearing a rare color or PTS, like the metallic copper 911 pictured below.
Other cars that I found appealing were rarities like the Mercedes-Benz SLR Stirling Moss, 2 of the 8 Pagani Imola Roadsters ever built, and the Chiron Super Sport and Chiron Pur Sport featured on the cover of this article. I wish I could show you every photo of every car that was on display for this edition of The Bridge, but it’s just simply impossible.
The truth is, you have to experience The Bridge for yourself in order to fully understand its significance, as I did for the first time last year. The Bridge is unique, it is decadent, it is by invitation only. It is the only show I know where you can see virtually every car from a single high vantage point with a sunset to match. It has incredible hospitality and a roster of cars that would make The Quail jealous. I hope you are fortunate enough to experience it one day.
A big thank you goes out to Shamin, Kelly and Suzanne for their wonderful hospitality and for making me feel like I’ve been covering this event since the very beginning. It’s an event like no other and I feel super fortunate to have the opportunity to tell the story of The Bridge through my lens. See you next year!
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