Cars in the Lives of Pebble Beach Insiders
David Sydorick stands beside his Best of Show– winning 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta at the edge of Carmel Bay.
DAVID SYDORICK MY PERSPECTIVE
Why cars? I was born with the speed gene, and as a boy I wanted only the best roller bearing wheels for my downhill gravity racer. When I moved on to go-carts, mine was powered by a Harley-Davidson, 74-cubic-inch Flathead Twin, with the gearbox, the dropped front axle, and hydraulic “juice” brakes in the rear — it was really easy to hurt yourself! Once I was legally mobile, it was a ’58 Chevy Impala, then a ’57 T-Bird. At college I had Austin Healeys and old Jaguar E-types, then later the Italian Mille Miglia cars came along. Then, of course, it was time for Pebble Beach. Why cars? It was never really a question! If you could go back in time, what historic automotive event or person would you want to see and why? When I owned the early Ferrari 166 Spyder Corsa (002C), I asked Phil Hill to join me in the car to do the Mille Miglia in 1997, and he said yes — subject to him doing all the driving! Although I agreed, I thought I would at least get in a few minutes at the end of each day — that never happened, but I still enjoyed three days shoulder to shoulder with the ex-world champion! From the first moment we arrived, you could hear the crowd calling out to him “FEEL FEEL FEEL!” At Modena our stop was at the Scaglietti parking lot where all the Ferrari factory people were waiting to see Phil, aka Feel. It was a touching reunion to watch as I cleaned the windshield! We eventually finished, covered in exhaust fumes, and later the famous Belgian driver Olivier Gendebien joined us at the
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Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider
Ginny and David Sydorick at the moment of their Alfa's triumph.
awards ceremony. What a lifetime experience for me. Years later, as Phil became ill and knew he was losing his voice, he called his friends. I still have that call on my voicemail and I listen to it often. What Pebble Beach Concours moment do you remember most? Winning the Pebble Beach Concours is not an easy club to join. You never know what will show up on Sunday morning — or even whether your car will start or what the judges will consider elegant that day. As Ginny and I sat in the 2.9 Alfa along with the other two finalists, and I was nervously burning the clutch, we got the nod to go up for the Best of Show award. So I drove to the center of the ramp and shut the car off — and then, and only then, I knew we had it. That was the moment!
