The Simeone Museum is an incredible place when you consider that virtually everything in it belongs to one dude, Dr. Fred Simeone. Not one to just allow everything to sit and collect dust, Simeone puts on a couple of “demonstration” days each year where he pulls out some of the coolest stuff in the collection and beats on it in front of the public. It just so happens that out own Joe Grippo is a member of said public and he was there to take in the most recent of these events a couple weeks back!

Joe says it best in his own words:

A few times a year Dr. Fred Simeone pulls some treasures from his museum and gives them some exercise on his back lot. He calls these Demo Days and the public is invited to come and see these wonderful peices of machinery in action as they were meant to be viewed. On this sweltering day in Philadelphia the good doctor chose to feature American V8’s to the delight of the healthy but sweaty crowd. After Dr. Simeone gave a short and informative lecture on the history and back story of the cars, which was wisely moved indoors due to the soaring temps, we then moved outside for some action. Some prime examples were chosen from his collection to demonstrate for us. How about a 427 Ford powered GT40 MkII, an early Hemi motivated Cunningham, an Allard with a sweet Caddy and Roger Penske’s 1 of 5 Grand Sport Corvettes (Serial #002) with a Traco built aluminum 427 Chevy. It’s also 1 of 2 made into a roadster. Yeah, not too shabby!

After the Demos, we are able to get up close and personnel with the cars and we took full advantage. Lots of detail shots. While there, of course we had to go through the museum once again, stopping to pay homage to the GT40 MkIV, the Porsche 917, the Aston Martins, the Maseratis, the Bugattis, all the Ferraris and of course The Daytona Coupe.
Thanks to Dr. Fred Simeone and his staff for another unforgettable day.

Neato Gallery: Demonstration Day at the Simeone Museum – Philadelphia, PA