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For two decades in October, a celebration of the automobile takes over downtown Lakeland, Florida. The spectacle is called the MidFlorida Auto Show & Lake Mirror Concours, which acts as a supporting event to the famed Amelia Island Concours. Most years, the streets are closed and lined with cars of all makes and models, and the lakefront park is ringed with high-end concours machines.
The street party turned garage gathering didn’t have quite the same vibe as years past, but there was still a strong turnout of Blue Oval hardware…
This year, however, Tropical Storm Nestor had other plans. The storm brought heavy rains and a tornado to town, which had event organizers scrambling to come up with a rainy-day strategy for the event held from October 18-20, 2019. That compromise was to bring the show display under cover of two downtown parking structures.
We popped in on Saturday morning and the weather was clearing but spotty, so the cover was certainly welcome for those with pristine show machines. The street party turned garage gathering didn’t have quite the same vibe as years past, but there was still a strong turnout of Blue Oval hardware, and we picked out a fistful of favorites, which we will run through below.
For more shots, check out the gallery below, and if you happen to be in Central Florida next October, put this show on your radar. It gets support from the likes of Carlisle Events and National Parts Depot, and the weather should be better next year.
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1995 Mustang Convertible
The SN-95 is ripe for a nostalgic renaissance, and this Laser Red 1995 convertible is a prime example. Co-owned by John Urshin and Lori Lynn Lagana, it pumps out 500 horsepower courtesy of a ProCharged 331-cube stroker engine supported by a full exhaust and more.
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1970 Mach 1
Standing alone in the concours section, this numbers-matching Mach 1 was a beauty. One of just 1,962 built with Medium Blue Metallic paint, it still has the original 351 Cleveland under the hood. Even cooler, owner Dana Cheatham still holds the original build sheets and invoice.
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2016 Shelby GT-H
This is one rare S550. One of only 16 executive versions of the 171 total 2016 Shelby GT-H built for the Hertz rental car company, Richard Shick’s ride is clearly special. What’s under the hood makes it extra special. With a ROUSH Performance TVS supercharger under the hood, it produces 727 horsepower. That would make for one heck of a rental car, but the president of Hertz owned it before Richard took the wheel.
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1991 Mustang LX
You just can’t go wrong with a Fox Mustang coupe, and this clean LX could have been prowling the mean streets looking just like this back in the early ’90s. Owned by Dave Langston for the past seven years, this coupe is powered by a 347 stroker backed by a five-speed manual transmission and a 3.73-geared 8.8 rear.
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1970 Boss 302
Like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, Michael Reed’s Boss 302 glowed in the garage. A survivor, it is one of 832 examples sprayed in Grabber Orange. It competed in the Muscle Car category and definitely looked the part.
