Collector, Museum Founder Dr. Fred Simeone Has Passed Away at 86

• Simeone started with four cars stored in a garage in Philadelphia and grew his collection to 80 cars known as the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum.

• The cars are mostly racing greats from the pre- and post-war era, including two pre-war Alfa Romeo 6Cs, three 8Cs, a Ferrari 250 GT Interim Berlinetta, and numerous Aston Martins.

• After a few laps during Demo Days at the museum, the cars would park in front of the crowds and Simeone would give a talk on each one.

Dr. Fred Simeone, a well-respected neurosurgeon in his native Philadelphia who amassed one of the world’s great automotive collections over a lifetime of car enthusiasm and who founded a great museum to share it all with the public, has passed away at the age of 86.

Simeone was the chief of neurosurgery at Pennsylvania Hospital for 25 years. He retired in 2008 and founded the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum to share with the public his collection of cars and his knowledge and enthusiasm about them.

Simeone inherited both his love of cars and a small collection from his father, who was also a medical doctor. His father’s collection of just four cars stored in a garage in Philadelphia grew to the 80-car fleet that now occupies the museum at 6825 Norwitch Dr. Despite the passing of its founder, the museum remains open and will stay open under the guidance of a strong board of directors and an endowment from Dr. Simeone.

The cars are mostly racing greats, including two pre-war Alfa Romeo 6Cs, three 8Cs, a Ferrari 250 GT Interim Berlinetta, numerous Aston Martins, a brace of Stutz, and the blue and green psychadelic Porsche 917.

The collection is unique in its approach to the cars in it.

“He made a point of collecting good, original cars that were in as good a condition as possible,” said friend and museum advocate Harry Hurst, who helped found the museum. “While many collections try to restore cars to their earliest perfection, Dr. Simeone took the totally opposite approach—he tried to maintain them in their original racing condition.”