RIP Fred Simeone

Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum Facebook announcement
https://www.facebook.com/SimeoneAutomotiveMuseum/photos/a.205702870048/10159793959930049/



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Shelby Daytona Coupe (One of Six)


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Wow. I just visited the museum 3 weeks ago for the first time. They received a Delahaye that day which I imagine must be the last car Fred acquired for the collection. Does he have family that is interested in continuing the museum?
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profound loss. he understood preserving originality before most.

 

Devastating.

Sincere condolences to the Simeone family and Fred’s many friends.

 

Condolences to the Simeone family

 

Very sad news indeed. God bless his family and friends. Great car collector and doctor.

 

Fred was a great guy and a superior doctor. Saved a friend's life a number of years ago.

1st time I saw the collection it was still on South Street in a two story warehouse. I was early for our tour, and Fred was working in the shop. He asked me to help him move a car, it was the Bugatti. he steered, I carefully pushed after asking where to place my hands so as not to damage the remarkably thin skinned car. He laughed and pointed me at the rear wheels.

At that time he had just acquired the Daytona. It was in pieces all over the center of his shop.

Visited several times after that and was never disappointed by him or the collection.

He will be missed.

D

 

Very sad news. Fred was a friend. Truly a shock; a huge loss to his family and many friends (myself included), and the entire collector car community. Fred was a veritable fountain of knowledge, always willing to help and to listen. He was a huge help to me with my research over the years. As they say "tomorrow is promised to no one." But I really wasn't ready for this. RIP Fred.

 

When a group of us from FL visited his collection Fred was working in his office. He came down and welcomed anyone and everyone. What a generous and openly friendly gentleman. He will be missed by so many. Sad day.

 

the story behind the Shelby Daytona is fascinating.
the “incident” took place a few blocks from my childhood home.

 

I learned of Dr. Fred at the end of college when I was introduced to Simon Moore's seminal The Immortal 2.9 by a friend who was a customer of Chris Leydon's at the time and knew who Dr. Fred was.
Fast forward to 2016 and I was able to persuade another friend and his dad to let their '34 Nash go in the fall preservation auction at Fred's Museum.
Fred wound up purchasing it on behalf of his friend GB who has a museum of American Classics (and would subsequently purchase 4 more cars from them for restoration).
Through all of that, my friend became friends with Dr. Fred.
He and I talked recently about Dr. Fred's health so the news does not come as a surprise to me.
Still, his legacy looms so large that this is a real loss for anyone who was touched by his passion and generosity.
Rest In Peace.

 

I visited the museum on a trip to Philly some years ago and enjoyed it immensely. They brought the Cunningham, the Cobra Daytona and the Ford Mark II outside and ran them on their little paved area behind the museum. I sincerely hope the museum remains intact and open. RIP, Dr. Simeone.

 

Rest In Peace Fred. What a phenomenal guy.

I met him in 2012 or 13. The museum wasn’t yet open, but my friend called him and asked if he had a few minutes to show us around. He was so gracious, he let us wonder around for an hour then joined us to talk about some of the more significant race cars, and to trade stories. A very kind man, he will be missed.

 

The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum consists of 21 exhibits and 70 cars in the permanent collection.

Exhibits and collection
https://simeonemuseum.org/the-collection/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeone_Foundation_Automotive_Museum

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Fred was a good friend. He helped me when I wrote my 1st book about 12 years ago.
His collection of cars was exeptional. And best of all: he did not like cars that had been restored to Concourse condition rather than being preserved, in the real sense of the word.
He was a true enthusiast and woldwide respected.

Fred, wherever you are now - flat out, like always!
R.I.P. my friend!

 

I was so shocked to read this sad news last night...



Dr Fred Simeone was not only the most wonderfully well-qualified, hugely well-respected and extremely capable surgeon, he was a lifelong 'car guy' who somehow made the time - when not building and operating his medical practice - to become one of the top handful of all the great American connoisseur collectors of exceptional competition cars,and of automobilia, car catalogues etc etc etc.



What's more, his phenomenal attention to detail, insatiable appetite to learn, and absolutely formidable memory not only read and processed but - above all - retained an immense proportion of the information he collected not only about his own great cars, but also about almost anything ever built which had wheels, an engine, and which ran on road or race track.



Here in the UK we always knew him as 'Dr Fred', just a lovely, warm, engaging, friendly man and he and I spent some really good times together, most notably at the wonderful Connoisseurship Symposia organised by Miles Collier at his Collection museum in Naples, Florida - where year after year we both operated as members of the presenting faculty. I will now always regret never having made the opportunity to visit Dr Fred's counterpart Museum in Philadelphia.



Typical of the man was when we were discussing 'Grist Green' - the dark-maroon colour which had been popularised most notably by restorer Paul Grist as the 'proper' livery for pre-war racing Alfa Romeos. Dr Fred told me that he'd taken a lot of flak for having completed restoration of his ex-Hugh Hunter Alfa 8C-2900 by having it painted a flaring poster red. He explained it matched the original red shade found as his body specialists carefully explored the old panels' lower paint coats. I then told him about our own theory that the darker shades preferred by British restorers were based on a misinterpretation of paint shades as captured by contemporary orthochromatic black-and-white film stock, as opposed to more modern panchromatic film.



Ortho film - originated in the 1870s - was sensitised with silver halide crystals which were blue-sensitive. It tended to record blue skies as white but couldn't register red light, so anything coloured red would be resolved once a negative was printed as black. Dr Fred grasped the notion instantly, then spread his huge hands - they were really big - and beamed "Hey Doug! That's perfect!"



"Listen, I'm Italian. Would an Italian racer worth his salt wanna be seen in a discreet, dark, maroon race car? No way! He'd wanna be in a bright red flaring race car - making a statement - Hey, look at me - I am Nuvolari! I am Campari! I am ***ioli! And YOU better believe it..."





Rest in peace Fred. My thoughts right now are with this entirely remarkable man's family and many, many friends throughout the worlds of medicine and competition motoring... Born an enthusiast, raised an enthusiast, lived his entire life as an enthusiast, and as one who sparked and nurtured matching enthusiasm in so very, very many.



DCN

 

How darned annoying it is to see a stupid piece of internet wokery (above) mutilating the perfectly respectable Italian racing superstar's name which is pronounced 'Phagioli' as ***ioli because in reality it begins with an 'F'. Dr Fred would have joined me in shared disgust!

DCN

 

Oh no! RIP

 

Been to the museum twice. I too wonder what will happen to it.

 

Re the NART book - do not despair. It should be completed, I would hope, in part as tribute to Dr Fred's long-time support and encouragement.

DCN