By Donald Wittkowski
Matthew Gabriel paused for a moment while trying to estimate the value of all of the 122 exotic, luxury and vintage cars gracing the grounds of the Ocean City Tabernacle on Saturday.
Certainly, it was in the millions, he acknowledged. Then, he set his sights higher, guessing that it was in the tens of millions. Finally, he settled on around $100 million.
Gabriel, a 19-year-old college student who organizes the annual Ocean City Cars & Coffee Show, smiled when that staggering amount of money registered in his mind.
But who’s counting?
What was really important was that auto buffs got a chance to marvel over some of the rarest, fastest and most gorgeous cars on the planet – and perhaps dream that someday they would be sitting behind the wheel as their owner.
Danny Paolillo, 16, of Holmdel, Monmouth County, and his friend, Phillip Yurgin, 17, of Mullica Hill, Gloucester County, took plenty of time to admire a 2014 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series with gullwing doors. The car’s estimated value is between $500,000 and $600,000.
“If there’s one car in the world that I could have, this would be it,” Yurgin said. “It is so cool. I think it looks sleek, especially in black.”
Paolillo said his dream car is a Ferrari 250 GTO, a stunning piece of automotive history produced by the famed Italian auto maker in the 1960s. One of them sold for $38 million during a California auction in 2014.
With no Ferrari 250 GTOs to be found at the Cars & Coffee Show, Paolillo said he would gladly settle for the Mercedes SLS AMG.
“This car is extremely exclusive and extremely expensive,” he said. “You usually don’t see the Black Series. It’s extremely rare.”
Gabriel, who has organized the Cars & Coffee Show for three years, noted it is one of the few places where ultra-exotic autos such as Black Series Mercedes-Benzes, Ferraris and Lamborghinis are on public display.
“It’s stuff that you don’t get to see every day,” he said.
For the record, Gabriel, a sophomore majoring in entrepreneurship at High Point University in North Carolina, drives a 2017 Ford F-250.
“I just picked it up,” he said of the black truck.
Relying on social media to promote the show, Gabriel was able to summon car owners from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Maryland to come to Ocean City on Saturday.
Lining the Ocean City Tabernacle grounds was a striking collection of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Mercedes-Benzes, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Porsches, Maseratis, Corvettes and other high-end cars.
Another highlight of the show was the lineup of vintage cars, including a 1934 Packard convertible owned by Dick Jones, a 78-year-old retired banker who lives in Naples, Fla., and has a summer home on Ocean City’s bayfront.
Resplendent in a lush Washington blue color scheme and beige leather interior, the Packard has all of its original parts except for the engine, Jones said.
He bought it, fully restored, in 2009 for $99,000.
“I’m a banker. I don’t like to get my hands dirty,” Jones joked of leaving the restoration work to someone else.
Jones recently sold another vintage car he owned, a 1931 Ford Model A convertible. Along with the Packard, he has a 1939 Ford Deluxe convertible.
His previous home in Florida had only enough garage space for his Deluxe convertible and a golf cart. So, he decided to buy a new home in Naples – one that has a big enough garage to accommodate his Packard, too.
Now that’s a man who really loves his car.
