Dr. Simeone (right) is seen with a motorcycle buff, Cook Neilson, in a Classic Motorcycle Show held at his museum in August of 2011. (Photo by David Back)

by Len Lear

The spirit of competition is the theme of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum, located along the industrial corridor behind the Phila. International Airport at 6825-31 Norwitch Drive. It was founded in 2008 by former chairman of neurosurgery at Pennsylvania Hospital and 81-year-old Chestnut Hill resident, Dr. Fred Simeone.

The museum was named the 2011 Museum of the Year by the International Historic Motoring Awards at a black tie ceremony in London, competing against major racing car museums in Europe. The panel featured judges Jay Leno, a racing sports cars enthusiast, vintage car racer and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, Pebble Beach chief judge Ed Gilbertson, five times Le Mans winner Derek Bell and Lady Susie Moss, wife of racing icon Sir Stirling Moss, among others.

But this Saturday, the automotive museum will switch gears and from 7 p.m. to midnight become the site (for the first time) of the Annual Fur Ball (the 21st), a fundraising event for the Morris Animal Refuge in center city, America’s first animal shelter. Guests will enjoy a mojito bar, lots of adorable puppies, live music and the chance to see lots of fabulous antique cars.

A walk through the museum is like a walk through the evolution of engineering in the 20th century. There is the 1909 American Underslung, originally raced from Philadelphia to Indianapolis. The chassis was slung under the front axles, unique for its time. Then there’s the 1966 Ford GT40 MKII that stands 40 inches tall from ground to roof, a car identical to the one that won Le Mans that year.

“If you think about our sensations,” said Simeone in an earlier interview with the Local, “speed is the one of the few new sensations the common man can enjoy.”

Dr. Simeone's collection of more than 60 racing cars spans seven decades. They are the actual racing cars, not replicas. Aside from the cars in its “Tribute to NASCAR” room, the museum’s youngest car is the 1975 Alfa Romeo 33-TT-12. “It was around the late 1970s that companies started to build cars specifically for races that could not be bought (by the everyday consumer),” said Harry Hurst of the Foundation.

Chestnut Hill neurosurgeon Dr. Fred Simeone, driving his yellow duPont Le Mans Speedster, one of his more than 60 antique cars, demonstrated what Le Mans in the 1920s might have looked like. The photo was taken last May 28. (Photo by Andrew Taylor)

Simeone’s collection is a tribute to cars that could have been bought by consumers at the time, and it thus ends in the 1970s. The museum boasts the nation's largest collection of Alfa Romeos, the premier racing sports car in the 1930s.

People come from all over the world to see the cars because the races where these cars come from — Le Mans, Mille Miglia, Nurburgring, etc. — are more of a cultural phenomenon in Europe than in the U.S. Le Mans, held each year since 1923, is a 24-hour jaunt through the countryside of France, and is the world’s oldest sports car endurance race. It routinely draws up to 400,000 people.

Visitors come to the museum to see the first of the six 1964 Cobra Daytona Coupes ever built. The 1937 Supercharged Cord. The 1926 Bugatti Type 35. The 1953 Jaguar C-Type. Or, maybe it is to see the 1956 Maserati 300S.

Simeone likens himself to Albert Barnes, the legendary Philadelphian whose art collection includes works by Renoir, Matisse and Picasso. Like Barnes, Simeone was raised in Kensington, and he began collecting racing cars before they were cultural icons.

It’s something he started doing with his father, Dr. Anthony Simeone, whose first racing car purchase was a 1949 Alfa Romeo. Four of the cars at the museum were acquired by Fred's father. And like his father, a physician, Simeone entered the medical field and became a neurosurgeon. He went to Thomas Edison High School, studied at Temple, went to its medical school and then to the Mayo Clinic for his residency, which he completed in 1963.

He worked at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for two years before moving to Harvard as a faculty member from 1966 to 1969. He then came back to Pennsylvania Hospital to serve as chairman of neurosurgery of the hospital until he retired in 2008. He moved to Chestnut Hill in 1996 and founded the museum in 2008, moving his stunning collection from a two-story garage off South Street to its current three-acre location.

Dr. Simeone is seen with a Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe, an American sports-coupé related to the AC Cobra roadster and the first of the six 1964 Daytona Cobra Coupes ever built. It was built for auto racing, specifically to take on Ferrari and its 250 GTO.

Simeone created the non-profit Simeone Foundation to increase awareness about the rich history of the cars and to provide a living example of how competition can lead to great advances.

Regarding his decision to become a medical doctor, the car collector explained, “I wanted to make a difference.” He insists that at one point during the 1980s, he was doing more operations than any neurosurgeon in the nation, almost 1,000 a year. Two of his most prominent patients were former mayor Richardson Dilworth and former Phillies centerfielder, Lenny Dykstra. He has penned more than 10 medical books. In 2011, he also published a 384-page account of his vision for the museum, “The Spirit of Competition.”

Most of the cars in his collection have competed in the world’s premier sport racing events. One of the cars, a 1963 Corvette Grand Sport, was raced by Newtown Square's Roger Penske, owner of one of the all-time wining car racing teams.

For more information about the museum, visit www.simeonemuseum.org or call 215-365-7233. For more information about the Fur Ball, call 215-735-3256 or visit www.morrisanimalrefuge.org.