MODA Miami 2024

The Amelia Island's Concours d'Elegance has been my annual getaway for the past five years. After my first year in attendance, a group of friends and I established a sort of unofficial tradition of gathering here every spring for a long weekend of automotive indulgence.

As we're all humans with our own things going on in our own lives, our group this year was a little fragmented, not unlike the events at Amelia Island themselves, as the show has undergone a recent change in ownership. Amelia continues to deliver the same level of excitement, allure, and exquisite quality they've been known for, albeit at a higher price, with heightened security, and arguably different priorities for what this event intends to accomplish.

However, those changes have also inspired exciting new events like MODA Miami, and with all of this happening at once, the solution for many of us was simple; check out both. After five years of exploring every little nook, cranny, and corner of the Island with my friends during Concours, I had a strategy to streamline my experience during my literal 24 hours there. Most of my time was spent at Gooding & Co., enjoying their lovely brunch on Friday morning, made all the better by the fact that I got in for free thanks to my good memory. I'm really fortunate that I found a way to explore both events without feeling like my time at Amelia Island was too compromised. I'm also thrilled to see how many of my other friends have since attended The Amelia for their first time. I won't take credit for inspiring you guys to go, but it does feel like passing the torch in a way.

We Are Curated and R.M. Sotheby's both have a large & well-recognized presence in the realm of collector cars, and while they've generally occupied different spaces within this realm, MODA Miami showed us just how well they work together. For this event's inaugural year, the hosts brought out some immensely heavy hitters, including several former Pebble Beach Concours winners, a rich collection of youngtimer exotics, and an amazing assembly of Miami's local automotive flavor.

Years of experience with exploring large-scale automotive events made diving into the first year of MODA all the more exciting. It felt as if we knew exactly where to be and how to go about being there, despite never having been here before. That latent sense of familiarity paired with the thrill of being in an environment that was indeed new and uncharted made for a very special weekend indeed. The best part? Before, after, and in between all of the officially scheduled events for MODA, you're still in Miami, a perfect backdrop of wealth, whimsy, and indulgence befitting of an event like this. I haven't really gotten to explore this city as an adult, but I'm looking forward to making this an annual getaway.

I think this counts as the first proper road trip I've done, wherein every stop was an intended destination with someone to visit or something to do. Unless MODA Miami grows into something bigger, which I do hope it does, I may well double dip next year's Florida trip too.