Images in this article are editorial illustrations, not manufacturer, press or event photography.
On March 12, 1947, Enzo Ferrari fired up the first car to carry his name and took it for a test drive on the streets of Maranello. The 125 S didn’t have bodywork yet, just a chassis and a 1.5-liter V12 designed by Gioacchino Colombo. Two months later it led its first race, at Piacenza, until a fuel pump failed. Ferrari called it a “promising failure.” Within weeks, the car had won the Rome Grand Prix.
Eighty years on, that car’s descendants include hybrid hypercars and some of the most carefully documented machines in private hands. From February 19 to 21, the 2027 Palm Beach Cavallino Classic will mark Ferrari’s 80th anniversary at The Boca Raton in Boca Raton, Florida, with a 36th edition its organizers say will celebrate the marque’s full legacy.
The birthday is the hook. The better reason to pay attention is that Cavallino is one of the places where Ferrari history gets checked, scored and, on Saturday night, priced.
What’s confirmed for the 2027 Palm Beach Cavallino Classic
The event returns to The Boca Raton for a second year, after moving from The Breakers in Palm Beach, which has a multi-year renovation underway. Cavallino has announced a three-day program:
- Friday, February 19: the Tour d’Eleganza, a police-escorted drive on South Florida roads, open to any Ferrari and ending at The Boca Raton.
- Saturday, February 20: the Concorso d’Eleganza on the resort grounds, followed by Cavallino Night, with a gala dinner, the awards and the Cavallino Auction by RM Sotheby’s.
- Sunday, February 21: Classic & Sports Sunday at the private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, a lighter, multi-brand concours with a charity brunch.
Luigi Orlandini, Cavallino’s chairman and CEO, has promised an anniversary concours “unlike any other on the international stage.” That is the organizer’s ambition, and the field to back it up hasn’t been published. As of October 15, 2026, Cavallino has not released an entry list, featured cars, anniversary classes or auction lots. Owners are still submitting cars to its selection committee. For scale, the 2026 edition drew more than 360 automobiles across the weekend, according to Cavallino.
Eight decades, one lineage
Ferrari began as a racing team that sold road cars to pay for racing, and its history still reads that way. The 166 sports cars that won the Mille Miglia in 1948 and 1949 put the young company on the map. The 250 series of the 1950s and early ’60s, including the 1962 250 GTO, defined the front-engine V12 grand touring car. The 1980s brought the Testarossa and the twin-turbo F40, built to mark Ferrari’s 40th anniversary and launched a year before Enzo Ferrari’s death in 1988. In 2013, the LaFerrari brought hybrid power to the flagship, and its open-top version, the LaFerrari Aperta, marked the 70th.
That anniversary habit is worth noticing. Ferrari has a long record of marking milestones with special cars, but it hasn’t said what it plans for 80, and none of the models named here has been announced for Boca Raton.
What has changed is the judged field itself. Cavallino says Ferraris 10 years and older can be accepted for judging, and LaFerrari coupe production ended in January 2016, according to RM Sotheby’s. That makes Ferrari’s first hybrid hypercar old enough to apply. Eligibility is not entry: every car still needs approval from Cavallino’s selection committee, and none has been announced. A LaFerrari that is accepted would be scored under the same rules as a 1940s barchetta.
Why the judging matters
A concours can look like a beauty contest. At Cavallino, it works more like an audit. Cars are judged under guidelines from the International Advisory Council for the Preservation of the Ferrari Automobile (IAC/PFA), and only cars that are correct and unmodified are eligible. A car that scores at least 97 of 100 points earns a Platinum Award.
Because each car is scored on its own, several cars in a class can win Platinum. Best in Class and Best of Show are then chosen from the Platinum winners, and the Best of Show car is in line for the Peninsula Classics Best of the Best, which compares winners from major concours around the world. Ferrari Classiche certification isn’t required to enter and doesn’t affect the score, Cavallino says.
In practice, a Ferrari competes against its own original specification, not the car parked beside it. That’s how last year’s Preservation Award went to a 1981 400i, an often-overlooked V12 GT, on the same weekend Best of Show went to a 1956 410 Superamerica (Gran Turismo) and a 1948 166 MM Berlinetta (Competizione). Correctness, not price, is what’s being judged.
Where the lawn meets the saleroom
RM Sotheby’s returns with The Cavallino Auction on Saturday evening, February 20, a boutique live sale at The Boca Raton. RM describes it as a curated offering that includes Ferrari Classiche-certified and Cavallino Platinum Award-winning cars. Consignments are open, and no lots have been announced.
The 2026 debut showed how the two halves of the day connect. RM lists a 2015 LaFerrari, from that sale as sold for $5,230,000, and its catalogue description highlighted the car’s documentation, including the original window sticker and a Ferrari Classiche “Yellow Book.”
A Platinum Award does a different job. Documents like those establish where a car came from and that it is authentic; a Platinum Award records that expert judges found the car correct to its original specification on a given day. Neither sets a price, but both become part of the record a buyer weighs, which is why RM names Platinum winners among the cars it seeks for this sale. Documentation is often what turns a used car into a collectible one, a theme we explored in our look at the next collector-car boom.
Planning to go
At a glance: 2027 Palm Beach Cavallino Classic (prices as listed by Cavallino on October 15, 2026, and subject to change):
- Dates: Friday–Sunday, February 19–21, 2027
- Main venue: The Boca Raton, 501 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton, Florida
- General admission: $495, Saturday’s Concorso d’Eleganza only
- Cavallino Night (dinner, awards, auction): $1,190
- VIP (Saturday lounge plus Cavallino Night): $3,100
- Tour d’Eleganza (Ferrari owners): $2,200
- Classic & Sports Sunday: $1,095
- Patron (all weekend events): $7,800
- Young visitors: 14 and under free; under 18 get 50% off one general admission ticket
- Parking: general admission guests park off-site, with a free shuttle
Owners can propose a car to the selection committee. There’s no entry fee, but someone with the car must hold a ticket. Ferraris younger than 10 years can be shown for display only, and Sunday’s show is open to all makes.
What 80 years asks of the next generation
Ferrari built the cars. Owners, restorers, historians and judges are the reason so many of them still look the way they did when they left Maranello. Most of that work is unglamorous: a correct hose clamp, a chassis record, a decades-long chain of paperwork. It’s the community side of Ferrari ownership, the sense of belonging the brand has built around its cars, doing its most practical job.
Cavallino lets children 14 and under in for free, which reads as a bet on who will be doing that work next. In 1947, it took a small team to get the 125 S out the gate. Eighty years on, keeping its descendants correct still does.
