Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance INSIDER Spring 2021

PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE®

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Celebrating the Life & Legacy of the Automobile | Spring 2021

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PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE®

INSIDER Celebrating the Life & Legacy of the Automobile | Spring 2021

A 1937 Bugatti Type 57C formerly owned by the Shah of Iran heads down Highway 1.

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CHAIRMAN'S LETTER

22 OUR BEST OF SHOW WINNERS

Celebrating the 1980s

For the Love of Cars

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PRESERVATION ISN’T BRAIN SURGERY

28 TRADITIONS: DASHING

DASH PLAQUES Excerpted from a piece by Nicholas Foulkes

An Interview with Dr. Fred Simeone

By Kate Constantin

32 YOUR CONCOURS MEMORIES

12 MY PERSPECTIVE

Strada e Corsa owner Lennart Schouwenburg shares car memories and desires

14 TALES FROM LA CARRERA

Cars that Caught Your Eye & Captured Your Heart

46 THE LAMBORGHINI

PANAMERICANA

The Adventures of El Gordo y El Flaco

COUNTACH TURNS 50

Announcing a New 2021 Feature

By Richard DeLuna & Dennis Varni

On the Cover The 1954 Ferrari 735 S Monza Scaglietti Spyder of Tom Peck garners the Enzo Ferrari Trophy in addition to a class award at the 2019 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance (Dima Barsky Photography).

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PUBLISHER Pebble Beach Company EDITOR IN CHIEF Sandra Button EDITORS Quinn Button & Kandace Hawkinson DESIGN Nicole Doré & Don Scheer at Madden Media CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS & PHOTO ARCHIVES Contributing Photographers & Photo Archives: Pebble Beach Company Lagorio Archives with particular thanks for the work of photographer Julian P. Graham and William C. Brooks; Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Archives; Diane Brandon, Bob Brown, Steve Burton, Bob Cole, Brett Crannell, Richard DeLuna and Dennis Varni, Butch Dennison, Jeff Field, Michael Furman, Steven A. Gann, Ron Kimball, Kimball Studios, Carl F. W. Larson, Al McEwan, Mercedes-Benz USA, Bill Paullus, Paul Pollock, Douglas Sandberg, Tony Salazar, Lennart Schouwenburg, Simeone Museum, Matt Stone, M. Thompson, Jim Utaski, Henriëtte and Gert Jan Van der Meij, Nic Waller, and Wallace Wyss.

We also thank Simon F. Moore for a photo of Tom Price in our December Insider.

Pebble Beach®, Pebble Beach Resorts®, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance®, Pebble Beach® Automotive Week, Pebble Beach Golf Links®, The Lodge at Pebble Beach™, The Inn at Spanish Bay™, Spanish Bay®, 17-Mile Drive®, The Lone Cypress™, Stillwater Cove™, and their respective underlying logo designs and distinct images, are trademarks, service marks and trade dress of Pebble Beach Company.

Copyright © 2021 Pebble Beach Company. All rights reserved.

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN Bugattis and postwar singularities like the 1967 Gyro-X. In fact one reader, Carl F. W. Larson, named all of these and many more!

Remembering great times: Sandra Button with her daughter Sonja, Edward Herrmann, and Glenn Mounger on the awards ramp of the 2003 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

I often talk about driving the cars we love, but lately I’ve been thinking about how the cars we love drive us. This is not a reference to self-driving technology; it’s a nod to the fact that what we love often determines what we do.

This past Valentine’s Day was a time of introspection for me, a time to think deeply about everyone and all that I love—and how that love has shaped me and the course of my days.

The “who” was easy: my daughter Sonja was born on that holiday, so she tops any Valentine list. Martin, my parents, and the rest of my family are also priorities for me. And then, quickly, a host of friends come to mind.

Martin and many of our friends come from the car world, of course. Cars are the things—the “what”—that we love, and much of our lives revolve around them. But more importantly they come with the “who” we love—our car tribe of friends.

Cars can supply a jolt of excitement or inspiration when needed, or they can serve as steady balance or calming balm in our day-to-day lives. As you will read in this Insider, cars were initially a source of therapy for Dr. Fred Simeone. That’s how his magnificent collection got started—in a garage across from the hospital where he faced the intense demands and stress of his work as a neurosurgeon. Turn a few pages further in this issue and you can witness the escapades of Dennis Varni and Dick DeLuna on the Carrera Panamericana, then decide for yourself whether that venture sounds fun or frightening.

When we invited you, our readers, to share your favorite Pebble Beach Concours memories, many of you talked of course about your favorite cars—everything from an antique Henriod and early Silver Ghosts, to classic Duesenbergs and

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But you also talked about what your love of cars drove you to do. At age 16, unbeknownst to his parents, Bill Penny hopped a series of buses to get from his home in Eugene, Oregon, to Pebble Beach. John Ehle adamantly refused to miss our lineup of Ferrari GTOs even though he was ill; he arrived on foot and left via ambulance. And after the Concours, having fallen in love with a specific car here, more than one of you went in search of a similar model. Having seen what was possible, Christian Philippsen even started another Concours — not to mention the many subsequent events and competitions that he has founded to further a love of cars among enthusiasts worldwide.

Despite all that we lost this past year, cars are still with us.

And many of us have been able to tinker with our cars—or go for a drive. For these things, I’m truly grateful.

But for so many of us, cars are a shared passion, a primary source of connection. And we miss gathering together. I can’t wait until my calendar is filled once again with not only cars, but car events and car people. A virtual gathering is not the same as seeing cars in person or talking about cars with car people in the presence of — cars!

Kicking tires is kicking tires after all.

At this point I’ve written “Pebble Beach Concours” in bold on the 15th day of August in my 2021 Calendar, and I hope you have too. I can’t wait to see you there.

Join me, for the love of cars.

Warmly,

Sandra Button Chairman #DriveOn2021

Another sweet memory: Sandra’s daughter, Sonja, enjoying the ocean view from The Beach Club in 1998.

U N M I SUTNA BALB Y ASST OTNOMNA R TM M IK S TA AK LY A I N.A R T I N. TIK HSAI SB ILI S SY D B XB U N MT I SH TA AD ST ON X M A R T I N. THIS IS DBX

PRESERVATION ISN’T BRAIN SURGERY

An Interview with Dr. Fred Simeone

BY KAT E CON STAN T IN

Fred Simeone comes from rather humble beginnings. His father — the son of an Italian immigrant — was a General Practitioner in a Philadelphia row house and loved the cars he spotted in the street. Fred — now a famous neurosurgeon and curator of an internationally renowned car collection — both extends and celebrates his father’s passions.

But Dr. Simeone Jr. doesn’t just collect cars. He collects only the rarest and most important automobiles from a century of worldwide competition. There are more than 65 prestigious automobiles gathered under the roof of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia — an 88,000-square-foot temple that honors man’s competitive spirit in motor racing.

Recently recognized by The Classic Car Trust as the most important car collector in the world, Fred is charmingly humble and is initially reluctant to be interviewed. But at 82

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years of age, he soon warms to his subject and proves to be informed, knowledgeable, and very entertaining.

We begin our conversation in the conference room above the museum, an area filled with car memorabilia. . . .

Kate Constantin: How did a young neurosurgeon start collecting cars?

Fred Simeone: Neurosurgery is stressful, and cars were my therapy. When I was a kid my dad made cars important to me — he’d point them out in the street, and I’d run over to investigate. Years later, collecting cars began as a hobby. I would read magazines and books, and I started to make a list of really important racing sports cars. I would write each car on a white magnet to stick on the fridge, such as a Le Mans Alfa, a Ferrari Testa Rossa, and a Ford GT40. It was my “refrigerated” wish list, a constant reminder of what I didn’t have.

Many of the museum’s cars are exhibited against a backdrop of famous race circuits, like these Le Mans-style pits, to celebrate “The Spirit of Competition.”

How did a wish list become a reality?

At my wedding, a rather drunk “savant” came over to me and said, “Well, son, you’re 39 years old and making good money.

What will you invest in: stocks, bonds, oil?” I told him I didn’t know anything about stocks, bonds, or oil, so he asked me what I did know about. “Neurosurgery and cars,” I told him.

His response changed my life: “You better invest in cars then!”

I began to collect the cars I had on my fridge magnets. When I saw the right car, I wouldn’t negotiate — I’d say, “I’ll take it!”

I kept them in a garage across from the hospital; it was cold and dark and smelled of gas, but I would pop across the road in my scrubs between procedures and tinker with my cars. At that time, I was the busiest neurosurgeon on record, with 1,000 cases a year (the average is 225), and I needed a distraction.

The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum concentrates on the spirit of competition. Why?

As you know, whenever two men get together there is competition; it’s in our DNA — we’re warriors. Evolution is the story of the winners; that’s why we aren’t crawling around on our knuckles. We are hard-wired to compete, and in this modern world we must find an outlet for that innate need.

Auto-racing is a natural expression of the desire to compete and win. Cars must be faster, smoother, safer, and sometimes prettier to win, and I collect winners. It’s survival of the fittest.

The winners deserve preservation, which is the primary goal of our collection.

There are so many winners — what are your criteria for a car to be worthy of the Simeone Museum?

I’m very particular. The automobile is the perfect focus for STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. It used to be STEM but thank God the academics added Art to the mix. The automobile has it all,

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The curator of the automotive section at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Robert Brewer, gave Fred Simeone his first introduction to collecting.

and the museum tells the story of its evolution in motorsport.

So, for me to accept a car, it has to be as original as possible: original chassis, body, and hopefully engine. If a race car’s engine was switched out “in period” for another correct engine, that’s acceptable. If it’s changed outside of its period — that’s not acceptable. For example, the 1956 Maserati 300S, chassis 3077, came in with the wrong engine. I had to buy a whole different car to get engine number 3077, but now our car has the correct engine and body.

In 2019 you were ranked first in the list of the “top 100 classic car collectors in the world” by The (Liechtenstein-based) Classic Car Trust. What were the criteria for this award?

After a detailed study of 100 car collections, TCCT based its results on the historical value of the automobiles and the contribution the collection has made to society. Their website states that we were singled out for “the heritage of the museum and our ambition and public activities to preserve and promote automotive history.” This award is very important to us and we feel very honored to be in such great and prestigious company!

You also have one of the most respected automobile libraries in the world. How did that start?

When I was 15, I went to the Free Library of Philadelphia and requested a meeting with the curator of the Automotive Section. He was a busy man, so I told him that I could go around to all the dealerships for him and request two brochures of each model — one copy for his library archives and another for me. So, he gave me a hand-written card as an official request from the library. That’s how I started my own archives. Here we have brochures, blueprints, preliminary drawings and designs, posters, presentation boxes, thousands of photographs, and books dating back over 125 years. Some

Shown in a dirt-covered hill climb diorama — still covered in mud — this very original Vauxhall 30/98 Type E Velox Tourer had been laid up for two decades before it was acquired by the museum in 1988.

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unique collections are here. I have the sales brochures of seventeen hundred different marques that were one-off cars you’ve probably never heard of. (He gingerly pulls out a file with a single brochure inside.) This is the “Badger,” made in 1910: one year, one brochure. This may be the only evidence that the Badger ever existed! Then we have the full collection of every marque you have heard of.

(From the library, we descend into the museum — a cavernous facility with many carefully constructed vignettes, designed to represent the era and contemporaneous environment of each automobile. We wander past the Pre-World War I racing section and pause at the side of the Brooklands racetrack in England — the clock turns back to 1938.)

Why did you choose to depict Brooklands?

This is the British section and Brooklands is very important; this heavily banked oval course was the reason that sports car racing survived in England with such fervor, although it was a dangerous sport. Clive Dunfee died at Brooklands,

In the late 1930s, swarms of BMW 328s raced at the Nürburgring. Two examples, one from 1937 and one from 1939, make up a display of unrestored German sports cars.

went straight over the top — absolutely tragic! This 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider is the only Castagna-bodied spider in existence. It was the fastest, most powerful, best-handling car of its time, and in 1938, Guy Templer topped 135 mph in the car at Brooklands — it took guts to do that.

(Next, we come to a steep, muddied hillside with an unpainted Vauxhall 30/98 Type E Velox Tourer sitting atop.)

Did this car compete in the hill climbs?

Indeed, it did. Equally important to the British scene were the Hill Climb Trials. Cars competing in these events were sometimes required to carry three passengers as well as the driver, to prove that the automobile could make the incline with the family on board. This rare Vauxhall 30/98 Velox was Britain’s first four-passenger tourer to top 100 mph. It was the typical kind of car that you bought your son for graduation from Eton. A notable competitor in Hill Climbs, the engine’s power output was 90 bhp with the “bloody thump” of a powerful 4.5-liter engine with four inline cylinders.

(We cross the hall and are immediately transported from Britain to the American Racing section circa 1963.)

In 1964, CSX2287 was the first of six Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupes built.

The Daytona Cobra is one of the most important cars in the collection, being the first car to be invited into the National Historic Vehicle Registry.

It looks like we’ve crossed the Atlantic to Watkins Glen. . . .

Now, this car is important: the 1963 Corvette Grand Sport.

Corvette really wanted to race their cars, but after the tragedy at Le Mans in 1955, General Motors, as well as other major car manufacturers, didn’t want to get involved in racing.

Secretly, the “father of the Corvette,” Zora Arkus-Duntov, and a small group of Chevrolet engineers built five of these Grand Sports to compete with the Ford-engined Shelby Cobras and the fastest Ferraris. When the top brass at GM found out about the project, they wanted to destroy the cars, so Roger Penske, one of the developers, snuck this car, #002, out of the workshop and sold it to his friend George Wintersteen, who raced it successfully. It has a gigantic V-8, 7-liter engine with well over 425 hp, and weighs 1,000 pounds less than the standard Corvette. This car remains unchanged since 1963.

(We approach a scene set at the Bonneville Salt Flats, home of many land-speed records in the ’50s and ’60s, and stop to admire a blue 1964 Cobra Daytona.)

This 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza and this 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900A Spider both competed in the Mille Miglia in the 1930s.

Talking of the inimitable Cobra…

This is one of six cars built by Carroll Shelby to beat the Ferrari GTO — which it did for the 1965 International Championship for GT Manufacturers. It went on to set 23 speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, with a top speed of 183 mph. This is the first car listed in the National Historical Vehicle Registry. It was once owned by Phil Spector, but he couldn’t handle it, and it went into storage for over 30 years.

It is in its original condition and even has the original tires.

We do switch them out though, whenever we drive it on our Demonstration Days.

You have a track outside for your Demonstration Days. What happens at those events?

Well, history is very important, but it can be dry and boring.

Interest in these cars is waning; however, every two weeks on a Saturday we run our cars outside on the track, and we get several hundred people showing up. It’s really fun, with the cacophony of big engines and the intoxicating smell: the Bugattis run on Castor oil and it is like ambrosia! We open all the bonnets, and everyone crowds around to look inside. It’s the best way to excite younger people when the median age of our museum attendees is 50. We also run summer camps where kids come and study racing and automotive theory in our STEAM program. It’s very popular!

The museum’s very original 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa (chassis 0710) was purchased in trade for three vintage Bentleys — a Blower and two Speed Sixes.

As we move into the German Section, I see you have two identical 1937 BMW 328 race cars here. Why so?

In the late 1930s, BMW came along with the sporty 328 with a 2-liter, straight-six motor, which took first place in the 1940 Mille Miglia. This scene is the Nürburgring in 1938 (Fred indicates a huge backdrop photograph of the start line), and you can see all the 328s lined up. I bought our first BMW 328 many years ago; it was totally original, exactly as you see it today. Then in a 50-year-old registry I found the owner of another unrestored 328 in Massachusetts and I contacted him. Amazingly, he still had the car in storage in original condition but was reluctant to sell it because he was afraid a buyer would restore it. Then he saw my BMW 328 here in the museum and was confident I wouldn’t put it into restoration.

He was an older gentleman with a strong sense of history, and he told me, “I know you’ll do right by it!” And so, we have two! Now, let’s drive south to Italy!

(We walk a short distance into a beautiful hand-painted landscape — and we’re at the Mille Miglia in the ’30s.)

This is a superb Alfa Romeo 8C. How did you acquire this car?

In 1970, I was reading a copy of Road & Track from 1952 and I noticed a sentence that talked about a 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900A that raced in Argentina — one of three cars built with the 2.9-liter, 8-cylinder engine and untouchable for speed. The

The Porsche 917-043 “Hippie Car” finished second at Le Mans in 1970 and heads an amazing lineup of other Le Mans cars covering several decades.

Jim Clark driving for the Scottish Border Reivers race team at Goodwood in the Sussex Trophy in April 1961. Simeone swapped an Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B long chassis roadster for this well raced Aston Martin.

“AUTO-RACING IS A NATURAL EXPRESSION OF THE NEED TO COMPETE AND WIN. . . .

IT’S SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. THE WINNERS DESERVE PRESERVATION, WHICH IS THE PRIMARY GOAL OF OUR COLLECTION.” —F R ED SI M EO N E

Three of the museum’s most prized cars: the 1936 Bugatti 57G “Tank,” the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia Spider, and the 1952 Cunningham C-4R Roadster.

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The museum’s Bugatti Type 57G was the winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1937, driven by Robert Benoist and Jean-Pierre Wimille.

John Fitch in the Cunningham C-4R after winning the 4-Hour race at the Turner Air Force Base in Albany, Georgia, in 1952.

article named the driver, and as it happened, I had a friend in Buenos Aires. I called him and he managed to track down the car, which was stored in a garage and was covered in pigeon droppings. I flew down to see it — I have a photograph! There was no engine because it had been removed for a rebuild.

So, we asked the owner where the engine was, and he said, “Carlos has it.” Off we go to see Carlos, and there it is, dismantled, but all complete in wooden boxes. We bought the car, purchased the engine, and shipped them to the USA. The car is insanely rare; only two still exist, and this one came in second in the Mille Miglia in 1937, driven by Nino Farina and Giuseppe Meazza. I later drove the car in the 1991 Mille with my friend David George. What a thrill!

Now this is another ultra-rare example, the 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C Monza. With its supercharged 165 bhp engine, it came in second in the 1933 Mille Miglia, driven by Count Castelbarco and Franco Cortese. The night before the race, it was damaged in a fire, and the team worked through the night to get it ready for the race next day. During the preservation work we found some burn damage on some parts. The Count sent this open-wheel Monza to Carrozzeria Zagato, who created this exquisite design with sweeping fenders so that it could qualify as a sports car for the race. Even the battery box received two purely aesthetic protrusions to make it flow. The Italians were all about the aesthetic.

(We leave Italy and wander through various scenes featuring a 1924 Lancia Lambda, then to Sebring for a 1953 Jaguar C-type, and a 1956 D-type. There is a superb 1938 Jaguar SS-100, a 1948 Talbot-Lago . . . and the list goes on. Fred pauses in the Le Mans exhibit in front of a green 1934 MG K3 Magnette.)

Tell me about the Magnette, the small yet mighty MG. This may be the most important MG sports racing car ever built. It has a relatively small engine, only 1.1 liters, but

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supercharged, and it came in 4th overall at Le Mans in 1934.

At the Mille Miglia that same year, two K3s came in first and second in their class — amazing feats for such small cars!

Only 33 of these cars were built, and when I found this one, I knew it was originally a Le Mans car because although it had only one bonnet strap, it still had the mountings for two straps, as was required for Le Mans qualification. The Italians aspired to beauty and performance when they built cars, but no one could afford them. The Brits were pragmatic, and their cars were affordable. I think that speaks to the differing personalities of the nationalities — and maybe explains the difference in their cuisine, too!

(We continue our walk through the aisles, past a 1933 Alfa 8C Le Mans, a 1936 Aston Martin Le Mans, 1938 Peugeot Darl’mat Le Mans, and a 1936 Delahaye 135S/175S, and pause before a 1954 Ferrari 375 MM.) You mentioned that this Ferrari is one of your favorites. Why? There was a dramatic change once the Italians began to dominate the racing scene. The menacing front end of this Ferrari 375 MM lets you know it is aggressive and intent on winning. However, mixed with the aerodynamics and big V-12, 4.5-liter engine is the beauty of sensuous Italian design.

Look at the 1956 Maserati 300S, allegedly Stirling Moss’s favorite car, with a super-powerful 3-liter, 6-cylinder engine.

It has a transaxle design and is very lightweight, probably the most maneuverable of all postwar race cars. This car was owned by Jean Behra and raced at Le Mans in 1956 and 1957.

And then there is the 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, the “Red Head,” so named for the color of its cam covers. This was the dominant race car from 1958 through 1962, and this actual car competed in the 1000 km Buenos Aires, the Sebring 12 Hours, and later in various West Coast events driven by Richie Ginther. Look at that — it’s like a female form. Some call it

“erotic” because if you crouch down it has the curves of long legs and thighs. The most common comment I get about this car is that it is sensual. You know there is something in the human thalamus that loves curves. The Italians understand this and work at the design until they get it right, complete with the sculptural bodyline to increase airflow to the brakes.

As time is running out, Fred marches me past a dozen more race cars to la pièce de résistance — the Winner’s Circle.

Flanked by checkered flag drapes, five of the world’s most important race cars surround us.

How did you choose the cars you wanted for the Winner’s Circle?

This is, quite possibly, but not necessarily, my favorite car in the collection. The Aston Martin is drop-dead gorgeous.

People wonder why I traded a long chassis Alfa for this, but this Aston Martin is one of only four ever built to be raced by the factory, and it is a winner. Stirling Moss took the checkered flag at the Nürburgring in 1958 with this Aston Martin, and it went on to finish third at Le Mans in 1960, driven

by Jim Clark and Roy Salvadori. It is a superb car and very important.

Period-correct originality is a constant theme in the collection. What is your opinion on preservation and conservation versus restoration?

These cars are race winners from around the world. This car, the 1936 Bugatti 57G “Tank,” is one of three built and the only survivor. It won every race it entered, including the 1937

If I place in your hand the pistol that John Wilkes Booth used in 1865 to shoot Abraham Lincoln, with its worn handle and aged bluing, would you want to restore it to make it look and feel new? No, of course you wouldn’t. If you did, you would destroy forever the gun’s “ BY CONSERVING THESE AMAZING MOTORCARS “material reality.”

AND PROTECTING THEM IN THE COLLECTION, WE ARE PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF OUR SPECIES. I THINK WE ARE THE LAST GENERATION TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS — IT IS OUR DUTY.” — F R ED SI M EO N E Le Mans 24 Hours, and set many land-speed records, including several that were only beaten by our Daytona Cobra many years later! It was called the “Tank” because it was so avant-garde, and the press didn’t know how else to describe it. It was a fearsome beast! Mr. Bugatti had this car in his museum, and when the Germans invaded France, he buried it in a crypt in Bordeaux. After the liberation, he brought it back and had his workers hammer out the damage.

That’s why we will hunt to find the original engine, seats, or paperwork for a car, unrestored and “unimproved.” If you cannot acquire the original, then period-correct is next best. If you sit in our 1934 MG K3, you can smell its age, feel where the pedal is worn, and see the repaired fender-bender it acquired in 1934.

The car’s history is imprinted on every surface. Restoration has its place, but the whole concept of “better than original” is ridiculous — sacrilege! And don’t even get me started about “reclassification” and re-stamping cars to make them “original.” If Picasso’s great-grandson created a painting, is it a Picasso just because it was painted by someone with the same name in the same house? I think not.

Fred walks past a 1927 Mercedes-Benz Sportwagen (winner of the Nürburgring Grand Prix in 1927), a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B MM (winner of the 1938 Mille Miglia), a 1952 Cunningham C-4R (Class Winner and third overall at Le Mans in 1954), and pauses before a 1958 Aston Martin DBR1.

Once a car is restored, its material reality is lost forever. By conserving these amazing motorcars and protecting them in the collection, we are preserving the history of our species. I think we are the last generation to be able to do this — it is our duty.

This 1938 Mille Miglia-winning Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Spider was acquired by Simeone in the early ’80s and is one of his favorite cars in the collection.

Cars in the Lives of Pebble Beach Insiders

Strada e Corsa’s 1953 Siata 208S Motto Spyder heads down Highway 1 in 2018.

LENNART SCHOUWENBURG MY PERSPECTIVE

Collector, restorer and owner of Strada e Corsa, The Netherlands

Why cars? When I was a one-day-old baby, my dad took my mom and me home from the hospital. The wicker basket in which I was sleeping was stored just behind the seats of the Alfa Romeo 1750 Roundtail Spider. Forty years later we still own the car and run it regularly. There was no escape from the beauty of cars and engines in my dad’s garage. We grew up among competition Ferraris like the 250 SWB, the 340 America Le Mans Touring Coupe, several 275 GTB/Cs and many more. When my brother Jurriaan was 14 years old, my father gave him his Lancia Aurelia B20 Gran Turismo Series 4 to start a complete restoration. Since then we have owned and enjoyed that car for more than 25 years. Even when quite young, we understood the beauty and importance of the great Italian classic.

If you could go back in time, what historic automotive event or person would you want to see and why? I wish I had witnessed Nicola Larini’s German Touring Car Masters (DTM) win when he destroyed the massive opposition of the Mercedes-Benz and BMW teams at the Nürburgring in 1993. He was nicknamed the “New Nuvolari,” referring to Tazio Nuvolari’s all-time greatest race, when he took his obsolete 8-cylinder Alfa Romeo to victory at the Nürburgring in July 1935. In an unequal battle in his first race at the Ring,

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Strada e Corsa’s 1952 Fiat 1100E Zagato Berlinetta passes before The Lodge at Pebble Beach in 2016.

Nuvolari defeated a horde of German high-tech Auto Union and Mercedes race cars. And 58 years later, Nicola Larini repeated the incredible performance. Owning “Number 8”—the actual Alfa Romeo V6 Q4 DTM that took Larini to victory—only adds to my wish that I were physically present that day in 1993.

What Pebble Beach Concours moment do you remember most? On several occasions we have entered or supported an Italian sports car at Pebble Beach, and every time we were thrilled. We are always delighted to face the comments and questions from the die-hard experts, and consequently, it’s often a great learning experience.

Winning our class with the Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic (owned

by Marc Behaegel) in 2015 was the most memorable moment, because that car had also won at the Pebble Beach Concours exactly 60 years earlier (in 1955), and bringing it back to its old glory was a true labor of love!

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1952 race winner Karl Kling resting on his Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, which was fitted with front steel bars after a vulture shattered the windshield.

» TA L E S F R O M

Richard DeLuna and Dennis Varni (above) raced as El Gordo y El Flaco, Mexican cartoon characters modeled on Laurel and Hardy, driving this Lincoln Capri in a recent edition of La Carrera Panamericana.

(right) This Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Freccia d'Oro raced in the very first Carrera Panamericana and placed 8th, driven by Felice Bonetto and Bruno Bonini.

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A 1951 Lancia Aurelia B20 GT Series 1 entered by Giovanni Bracco in 1951

y EL

FLACO

La Carrera Panamericana The Appeal

DENNIS VARNI

The Carrera Panamericana is a not-for-the-faint-of-heart border-to-border sports car race that covers over 2,000 unpredictable miles in Mexico. It takes about a week to complete and has a reputation for being very dangerous. For some reason, this appealed to me, and I decided the Carrera Panamericana might be “fun” to try. I needed a copartner who could be a mechanic, a driver, and a navigator, and I immediately thought of Richard DeLuna. Neither of us knew much about the race other than that it was no foofoo deal; it was a very serious race. And so we set forth on our biggest adventure to date: the Carrera Panamericana.

A Ferrari 250 Monza Scaglietti Spyder entered by Franco Cornacchia and Enrico Peruchini in 1954.

Operation Blow Up RICHARD DeLUNA

In 1991, when Dennis brought up the idea of doing the Carrera Panamericana he was given a 1955 Lincoln by a friend of his. I had a shop in San Mateo near my car collection, so Dennis decided to drive the Lincoln up to my shop as fast as he could, trying to blow up the car on the way. We were going to take the motor out anyway and we wanted to see how much the car could handle.

So he drove it as fast as he could. Water was pouring out of the car, it was overheating—but he made it to San Mateo and the damn car was still running!

With a few modifications—NASCAR-style suspension, running gear, newly built engine, transmission, roll cage, and semi-gutted interior—the “Stinkin’ Lincoln,” as we lovingly named it, would serve us well in Mexico.

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First, A Bit of History DENNIS VARNI

The Carrera Panamericana was created in 1950 as an international event to celebrate the completion of the Mexican section of the Pan-American Highway. Racers from all over the globe and from all varieties of motorsport turned out.

Interestingly, this was the same year the Pebble Beach Road Races and Concours d’Elegance started, and the first formal feature at the Concours, in 1953, was a special display of Carrera Panamericana winners. The forthcoming 70th Pebble Beach Concours will also pay tribute to the race.

The first race began in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across the border from El Paso, Texas, and finished in Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chiapas, on the Guatemala-Mexico border. It ran for six days in a row, traversing elevations from 328 to 10,482 feet above sea level.

The Carrera Panamericana was repeated the following year, and quickly earned a reputation for being one of the most dangerous races of any type in the world. Cars of the period were designed for high speed with little thought for safety, drivers were reckless, and the long stage sections covered during the race were difficult to maintain, making it possible for crashes to linger for hours before being noticed. Within the first five years of the Carrera Panamericana 27 people died, giving it one of the highest mortality rates per race in the history of motorsports. For this reason, the race was canceled in 1955.

Despite its short initial run, the race had significant influence.

Porsche has paid tribute to the race on two different occasions: first, when they used the name Carrera for a line of their prestigious road cars, and again in 2009, when they named a four-door touring car the Panamera. Similarly, watchmaker Tag Heuer introduced a sports watch model called the “Carrera Panamericana” in tribute to the race. Jack Heuer said he drew inspiration from its romance, speed and danger.

The Carrera Panamericana attracted several famous participants. Stock car racers like Bill France Sr. drove alongside famous hot rodders like Mickey Thompson. Open wheel Indy car racer Jerry Unser drove the same Mexican roads as Formula 1 Champion Phil Hill. Even Carroll Shelby, the creator of the Shelby Cobra, was slated to race but he broke his arm while practicing for the 1954 event.

It was this mystique and legacy that brought about the revival of the Carrera Panamericana in 1988. Pedro Dávila and Eduardo de León Camargo organized a seven-day, 2,000-mile route tracing some of the original course. Eighty cars were to compete in ten classes, sorted by age and authenticity; virtually any car with a classic body shell was eligible.

Despite the classic car exteriors, the underpinnings looked more like NASCAR entries. Vehicles were often created especially for the race and included tuned V8 engines and nonstandard brake

Left: The route of the Carrera Panamericana varies each year, traversing much of Mexico and ranging from sea level to over 10,000 feet in elevation.

Right: Thus Ferrari 250 MM, now owned by Nick Mason, placed 7th overall in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana.

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Left: Piero Taruffi and Isidoro Ceroli drove this Alfa Romeo to 4th overall in the first Carrera Panamericana.

Right: The authors show their comedic style while at work on their engine.

It was this mystique and legacy that brought about the revival of the

Carrera Panamericana in 1988. and coolant upgrades. Several safety procedures were also put into place: cars now were required to have roll bars, fuel tanks were reinforced, and drivers were restrained with five-point seat belts. Despite these changes, the organizers managed to rekindle the excitement and passion of the original race. The secret ingredient was the atmosphere, which was a combination of the warmth of the Mexican people and the humility of the drivers in the face of an unforgiving route. This was, of course, no commemorative parade—the Carrera Panamericana, both old and new, was a real race with challenging stages and speeds approaching 160 mph. The enthusiasm for this new adventure was both resounding and immediate.

Maiden Voyage RICHARD DeLUNA

San Jose Ford gave us a brand new 20-foot box truck on loan under the slight misconception that we might be good ongoing clients. Dennis casually told them that we were going to drive it around for a while and test it out. “We might even go into Mexico,” he mentioned. Evidently Dennis is one persuasive guy because they agreed.

We ended up welding a winch inside of the truck. We put brackets up to hold all of this “go juice” that we needed and, ultimately, with these 20-foot ramps, we pulled the Lincoln right inside of this truck. So here we had a 4,000-pound car sitting in the back of this loaner box truck with all of our equipment. Then we made the stupidest decision two Italian guys could make: we let our mechanics fly down to Mexico, first class, while we drove the truck from San Jose, California, to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, where the race started. It took us seven days to get there!

It was nighttime when we neared the Mexican border.

Fatigued and hungry, we exited the freeway, looking for a hotel, but we were soon stopped by the police—not just one police car but several. These guys were serious. They lit up the truck with floodlights and as a half dozen of them rushed up on either side of the truck, they ordered us to keep both hands on the steering wheel. They thought we had illegal immigrants in the back of the truck! Once they saw the car they became much friendlier; they even led us down to a motel. This was our first year and, as Dennis likes to say, “It was boot camp!”

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And We’re Off DENNIS VARNI

Day one of our first race and we had only gone about 50 miles, dodging and center punching enormous potholes. We needed some fuel for the car and ourselves, so we pulled into this run-down gas station, gassed up, checked under the hood, grabbed some “said” hot dogs and quickly got back into the race. We were going about 50 mph, when the hood flew up and smacked into the windshield, completely shattering the glass. We had nearly 2,050 miles to go and no front windshield. We decided to kick out all of the glass and get ourselves a couple of pairs of goggles at the next little town.

We even drilled holes in our helmets and secured motorcycle visors to help keep the wind at bay. At the end of the race, the inside of the back windshield was lined with dead bugs—but we made it to the end!

El Gordo y El Flaco RICHARD DeLUNA

Every car that races in the Carrera Panamericana has a name or a theme. While trying to come up with something clever, we learned that one of the more famous cartoons in Mexico was called El Gordo y El Flaco, a Mexican version of Laurel and Hardy. Dennis weighed a bit more at that time so he became “El Gordo” and I became “El Flaco” and we had the name “El Gordo y El Flaco” painted on the back of the Lincoln.

The locals were very excited about how we were representing the Mexican culture. We had two outside speakers on the car, so one of the Mexican radio stations produced a tape for us to play.

People would line the streets and, as we drove by, they could hear ranchera music with lyrics that translated to “Here come our friends from the United States, El Gordo and El Flaco!”

Senator Varni RICHARD DELUNA

Each night the organizers hosted an elaborate ceremony where they would distribute the standings and starting points for the next day. We always wanted to hurry and get back to work on the car. There was one ceremony in particular that was way out at a country club. When it ended, there were nearly 300 people vying for taxicabs.

I had a great idea! Dennis and I walked to the front of the line. There, I told Dennis to stand way behind me and look “official.” Then I told the cab driver in Spanish that this man behind me was a very important United States senator. “Please do not speak to him or look at him,” I commanded. As the cab drove away, we waved and smiled to all of our buddies who were still standing around waiting for cabs.

We would pull gags like this all of the time. The racing was a lot of fun and it was a lot of work, but we really had a ball. We just had a great time!

It’s like driving up Pikes Peak, but the city inside is like being in Spain, with quaint narrow streets and hidden alleyways.

Left: The authors pass through Guadalajara during the 1994 Carrera Panamericana Right: The Mercedes-Benz racing team at the 1952 Carrera Panamerican: Herrmann Lang, Erwin Grupp, Karl Klink and Hans Klenk drove 300 SL Coupes, and John Fitch and Eugen Geiger had a roadster.

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Left: One of the most famous Porsches ever built, this 1954 Porsche 550 1500 RS Spyder was driven by Hans Herrmann to 1st in class and 3rd overall at the 1954 Carrera Panamericana Right: This Porsche 356 Super driven by Manfredo Lippmann did not finish the 1953 Carrera Panamericana, but it was immortalized in a model.

The Curse of the Pretty Dresses DENNIS VARNI

One year, we had a problem and our starter went out.

That really meant that the day was going to be a complete loss. We took the car to what appeared to be a tin shack, and there we had the starter replaced—and the guy ended up putting a Kellogg’s box around the armature so that it would be insulated. It actually worked, so we jumped in the car and took off.

We were going along and trying to make up for lost time when—BOOM!—the clutch went out. So we said, “That’s enough.” We pulled into the next little town, pretty defeated. We were figuring we would just go get drunk somewhere but then we stumbled upon this pit. Literally.

It was a pit dug into the ground. The “lighting” consisted of two wires and a lightbulb. While one of the three wandering pit bulls sniffed at my shoe, Richard started explaining in detail in Spanish just what we needed. This one-sided conversation went on for some time before the gentleman, in perfect English, said, “Do you want me to pull the clutch out?” I wasn’t sure if Richard was going to kill him or kiss him. We went and had lunch at the local hotel, and by the time we got back the car was fixed.

It turned out that this town made nothing but these darling dresses for little girls. I bought three dresses despite the fact that none of my daughters were married or had children at that time. When my daughter ended up having two boys, she said that by buying those dresses I had jinxed her from having a girl.

Finding Hidden Treasures RICHARD DeLUNA

While the concept of running the Carrera Panamericana across Mexico has stayed firm, the course has changed over time. There have been many different stages and stops all across the country, and the race itself has flipped direction from north to south and from south to north. We have seen every last corner of Mexico, but we both agree that our favorite spot is a little town called Zacatecas. It’s a historical town on top of a hill in North-Central Mexico. It is also called con rostro de cantera rosa y corazón de plata, which means “face of pink stone and heart of silver.” Many of the buildings are made of pink stone and Zacatecas is at the foot of one of the greatest silver mines in the world.

To get to the town you have to race up over Cerro de la Bufa. It’s like driving up Pikes Peak, but the city inside is like being in Spain, with quaint narrow streets and hidden alleyways. In the middle of the plaza there’s an antique bullring that has now become a hotel. It is just spectacular.

Just south of the main plaza is this cathedral, which is located over the ruins of pre-Hispanic temples. If you go to see it in the late afternoon, the pink stone of the cathedral looks as if it is glowing. It is a stunning sight.

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R.E.S.P.E.C.T DENNIS VARNI

Ultimately, we ran the race for nine years together. There were only two of the nine years when we didn’t finish the race—and we even won our class in 1999! We used to say, in the mornings, that we were not going to hurt ourselves and we weren’t going to hurt the car. The attrition rate on this race is something like 40 percent, so simply finishing the race is a challenge in itself. The established drivers would often say, “Here come the wannabees” with respect to the rookies that would come down ill-prepared. They were almost always in way over their heads and ended up driving over a cliff or running into the side of a mountain.

The Carrera Panamericana is a race deserving of respect: respect for the environment, the roads, the cars, the speeds.

There are 100 participants at the starting line and far fewer at the end. Just to tell you how dangerous it is, in 2012, three people died during the race. We saw a Jaguar go airborne in front of us, and two participants in a Morgan went right over a cliff.

This Is War

RICHARD DeLUNA

At one point, we were going down the road and we came upon this Italian couple in an Alfa Romeo. They were zipping along, but we had much more power. We were flying down the hill, honking this big air horn, trying to get them to move out of the way so we could pass. Then, we came into a turn

The Carrera Panamericana is a race deserving of respect: respect for the environment, the roads, the cars, the speeds. too fast and I lost control of the car. We did a complete 360, passing the Alfa in the process. Onlookers were snapping photos as the hood of the Italian couple’s Alfa was face to face with the hood of our Lincoln. Later in the day, the driver of that Alfa approached us, visibly shaken and yelling that we could have killed him and his wife. I tried to apologize, but he kept hollering in English as well as Italian. I finally snapped, “Well, we are bigger and faster, and you better move next time.” Then Dennis leaned out the window and exclaimed, “This is war!” It took a few wildflower bouquets and a whole lot of Windex (that we used to clean their windshield time and again) for us to become friends again.

Racing in Its Purest Form DENNIS VARNI

When the race is over, every driver is physically and mentally drained. Crossing over the border, getting on the plane and going home is almost as sweet a feeling as it is when you cross the finish line. We missed a plane one time in Dallas coming home. The flight attendant checking people in said, “The plane is leaving, but there will be another one here in five hours.” We just said, “No problem,” and we both sat down and immediately fell asleep. “Wake us when the plane is here, will ya?” We both have done races throughout the United States and Europe, and the Carrera Panamericana is, in our opinions, the best race in the world—and the purest form of racing that there is. Anticipation and knee-jerk reaction are the skills most needed when you are driving 160 mph and you come upon a donkey crossing a road or a broken-down bus blocking your path. There is no way to study ahead. Just react and drive. We went full out because that is what we always do.

Maybe we just didn’t know any better, but we sure enjoyed ourselves along the way.

The winner of the 1954 race (at left), a Ferrari 375 Plus Pinin Farina Roadster driven by Umberto Maglioli, went on to win its class at the 1986 Pebble Beach Concours.

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At the 1985 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, all six Bugatti Royales were gathered together for the first time ever. On Concours Sunday, they were showcased on the practice putting green in front of The Lodge at Pebble Beach (as shown at left). Previously, they posed for photos on The Lodge lawn (shown below).

OUR BEST OF SHOW WINNERS: The 1980s In the 1980s, the Pebble Beach Concours gained worldwide recognition for its neverbefore-imagined displays, such as the first gathering of all six Bugatti Royales in 1985 and the trio of Alfa Romeo B.A.T.s in 1989.

The competition for Best of Show was increasingly stiff too.

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1980 BEST OF SHOW 1933 Duesenberg SJ Rollston Arlington Torpedo Sedan SHOWN BY J. B. NETHERCUTT, SYLMAR, CALIFORNIA

This Duesenberg was built for the 1933–34 Century of Progress Exhibition, better known as the Chicago World’s Fair. At a time when most Americans were counting their pennies and many new cars cost less than three hundred dollars, the official price of this Duesenberg was listed as twenty thousand dollars. So fairgoers soon nicknamed the car “Twenty Grand.”

Noted designer Gordon Buehrig drafted the initial design for the body of this Duesenberg and Rollston of New York built it. The platinum metallic paint on the exterior, complemented by matching leather roof and gray cloth interior, was a real showstopper.

1980 Best of Show

1981 Best of Show

It was Shreve Archer who purportedly paid full price for the car and became its first owner. Thereafter, the car was in the D. Cameron Peck and the Ben F. Johnson Collections, and over the years, it was painted black and modernized. J. B. Nethercutt purchased the car in the late seventies and restored it to its original condition.

The restored car was first shown by Nethercutt at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival in 1979 and it took the top award. It won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1980. It also earned one hundred points at the Grand Classic of the Classic Car Club of America.

1982 Best of Show

In the late eighties the car was selected to be exhibited in Essen, Germany, as one of “The Ten Most Beautiful Cars in the World.” It has pride of place in The Nethercutt Collection, and it continues to be shown by the family today.

a tire dealer hailing from Islington, Ontario, Canada, and the win by his Duesenberg marked the first time Best of Show went to an entry from outside of the United States.

1981 BEST OF SHOW

First purchased by a partner of the Standard Oil Company, the car continues to travel the world; in recent decades it is believed to have resided in several different European countries.

1929 Duesenberg J Murphy Convertible Coupé SHOWN BY TERRY RADEY

When this Model J (J-219) was named Best of Show, Duesenberg surpassed Packard as the American marque with the most wins at Pebble Beach — a title retained by Duesenberg to this day. The car’s win also underscored the expanding reach of the Pebble Beach Concours; the event was beginning to draw cars from not only more US states but from England, Germany, France, Japan and Australia. Radey was

1982 BEST OF SHOW 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Special Roadster SHOWN BY THOMAS & GERD PERKINS

The Mercedes-Benz 500K, introduced at the 1934 Berlin Automobile Show, was said to be capable of speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. It had an 8-cylinder, 5-liter engine that produced 100 horsepower normally and 160 horsepower

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1984 Best of Show 1983 Best of Show

1983 BEST OF SHOW 1930 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A SS Castagna Special Sports Torpedo SHOWN BY IRWIN GINSBERG, M.D.

1985 Best of Show

with engaged supercharger. It also featured independent suspension, a four-speed gearbox, and hydraulic brakes with Bosch vacuum servo.

This new model soon captured the eye of English sports car enthusiast Arthur Gore, who initially ordered this 500K with the full complement of accessories, including seven headlights and five airhorns. The car was one of very few cars exported to the United Kingdom, so it was fitted with right-hand drive.

The car eventually passed to Thomas and Gerd Perkins of Belvedere, California, who restored it and exhibited it at the 1982 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, ultimately taking Best of Show.

Perkins, who was instrumental in both the computer revolution and the biotech industry, sold the car in the fall of 1988, and Robert M. Lee of Reno, Nevada, bought it soon thereafter. It still resides in the Lee collection, where it is road-tested regularly and receives ongoing maintenance to keep it running well.

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Eleven fine examples of the marque Isotta Fraschini pulled onto the lawn of The Lodge at Pebble Beach in 1983, the year the marque was featured at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. This particular 1930 Isotta Fraschini, exhibited

by Dr. Irwin Ginsberg of Buffalo, New York, won the featured class. Moreover, it earned the marque its first Best of Show at Pebble Beach.

“My heart almost stopped,” said Ginsberg later. “It was the ultimate dream.”

Manufactured in Milan from 1900 through 1950, Isotta Fraschini quickly became a favorite with celebrities and royalty, but it was the introduction of the Tipo 8 that garnered greater sales for the marque. The early version of this eightcylinder, 5.9-liter engine, introduced between 1919 and 1921, had a rather modest output of 75 to 80 bhp at 2200 rpm. But the 7.4-liter Tipo 8A, introduced in 1924, increased the output to 110 to 120 bhp at 2400 rpm. It also had a stouter chassis, larger brake drums with vacuum-servo assistance, and rode on larger section tires. Spinto and then Super Spinto versions with higher compression ratios and other tuning devices were introduced later. It was said that a short chassis 8A SS with sporting body could exceed 100 mph, and indeed one such car with a torpedo body finished admirably, in sixth place, in the very first Mille Miglia.

This particular Tipo 8A SS bears a rare (one of just two) Castagna dual-cowl torpedo body—a design displayed by Castagna at the 1933 Paris Auto Salon, and one of just two such cars known to exist today.

The car was first owned by Mr. Penn of the Lucky Strike Company, and Ginsberg purchased the car from his estate.

General William Lyon of Newport Beach, California, purchased the car in June 1985, and it remains with the William Lyon family to this day.

1984 BEST OF SHOW 1929 Cunningham Series V5410 All Weather Cabriolet SHOWN BY MR. & MRS. KENNETH VAUGHN

James Cunningham & Company, of Rochester, New York, began to build automobiles in 1907 and continued into the early 1930s. The firm was one of the first to install a V-8 engine in an American car, in 1916, and thereafter it was often referred to as the American Rolls-Royce.

When this 1929 Cunningham All Weather Cabriolet (V5410) was shown at the Pebble Beach Concours in 1984, it was owned by Ken Vaughn. In the early 1970s, Vaughn had partnered with racing great Phil Hill to establish Hill and Vaugh, which quickly garnered a reputation as one of the top restoration shops in the country. The two men worked together to restore Ken’s Cunningham for Pebble Beach.

1985 BEST OF SHOW 1939 Bugatti Type 57 Saoutchik Cabriolet

It was the 35th celebration of the Pebble Beach Concours, in 1985, that brought the event more widespread recognition as the top collector car event in the world. Bugatti was featured, and thirty gorgeous creations of Ettore and Jean Bugatti pulled onto the show field—including the first-ever gathering of all six Bugatti Royales.

At the end of the festivities, it was this Type 57 with Cabriolet body by Saoutchik, shown by Jack Becronis, that garnered the top prize. “There were tears in his eyes,” Jack’s wife Christina Becronis later recalled.

This Bugatti is now in the Robert M. Lee Collection.

1986 BEST OF SHOW 1936 Mercedes-Benz 500K Special Roadster SHOWN BY ARTURO KELLER

On its centennial anniversary in 1986, Mercedes-Benz was the featured marque at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and a special display of 500K and 540K models posed on the front lawn of The Lodge. Appropriately, a 500K celebrating its golden anniversary took the show’s top award.

That 1936 Mercedes-Benz 500K Special Roadster is owned

by Arturo Keller of Petaluma, California, who is one of the most respected collectors of the marque.

SHOWN BY JACK BECRONIS

1986 Best of Show

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The car previously resided in several private collections and it was in good shape when Mr. Keller acquired it. Nonetheless he had the car restored from the ground up, desiring it to be its very best self.

When the car was judged at the 1986 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, it was indeed deemed to be the best.

What could be better than the best? Mr. Keller went home from Pebble Beach with more than Best of Show. He had actually brought six Mercedes-Benz cars to the 1986 Concours, and he went home with six awards. In addition to the show’s top award, his cars earned a special award for best Mercedes, two First in Class awards, and two Second in Class awards.

1987 BEST OF SHOW 1928 Minerva Type AF Hibbard & Darrin Transformable Town Car SHOWN BY THOMAS LESTER

Minerva Moters, a Belgian firm, first manufactured safety bicycles in the late 1800s, expanding to motorcycles and light cars at the turn of the century. In 1908, it purchased a worldwide license to produce Charles Yale Knight’s nearly silent double-sleeve valve engine, and its creations quickly moved to the top of the luxury market, becoming the choice of elites and film stars and royals the world over.

This Type AF is equipped with a 30CV, 5.3-liter, six-cylinder sleeve valve engine, and it bears a Transformable Town Car body built by Hibbard & Darrin and perhaps slightly customized by Paul Ostruk, who was the Minerva agent and distributor in both New York and Paris by the late 1920s. The car has both Hibbard & Darrin and Ostruk badging.

After several early owners, inventor and industrialist Thomas Lester acquired this car in 1985 and restored it for the 1987 Pebble Beach Concours, where it garnered the top award.

The car was acquired by Jack Boyd Smith Jr. in 2016, and he worked with LaVine Restorations to fully restore it again for the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours, where it won its class.

1988 BEST OF SHOW 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Spider SHOWN BY JOHN MOZART

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1987 Best of Show

The Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B, introduced in 1937, is said to be the progenitor of the postwar Grand Touring coupé. A luxury passenger car with superior speed and handling, it certainly marks “the pinnacle of Alfadom,” as one writer has aptly stated.

The engine is essentially the 2.9-litre eight-cylinder supercharged Tipo B that made the marque Alfa Romeo unbeatable in key races of the 1930s. The chassis is a boxed frame with a wheelbase of 2.75 meters, independent suspension, and huge hydraulic brakes. This fabulous first example of the model has chassis 412014, engine 422014, and a body by Touring.

McClure Halley of Brooklyn, New York, placed the initial order for this car, requesting special instruments, chrome wheels, and details like engraved moldings. Not content simply to wait for his order to be filled, Halley went to Bologna and stayed in a hotel near the factory for two months, making certain that the car was built exactly to his specifications.

An early photograph records the car’s debut at the Milan Motor Show, and it already has its New York license plates in place.

Richard Paine of Bar Harbor, Maine, acquired the car in the late 1960s, and John Mozart acquired the car from him in the early 1980s.

Mozart undertook the car’s restoration with the help of Mike Hemus, and it was perhaps the car’s intricately engraved moldings that caused the two men the most angst. The process and the instruments used by the factory to do the original engravings could not be determined. Hemus had to use gun engraving tools and techniques to reproduce them and it was more than a struggle to attain a correct and consistent width and depth.

The restored car was named Best of Show at the 1988 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and it has won a

number of additional awards at other events. Moreover, Mozart has driven the car over 10,000 miles—“through rain, snow, ice, everything.”

Dave Holls, former Director of Design at General Motors who served for years as Chief Honorary Judge at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, once said of this Alfa, “If I could have only one car in the world, that would be the car I’d want to have.”

1989 BEST OF SHOW

Louis Renault was the first of its kind. And in 1912, Henri’s son Jean-Henri created the first “skiff,” which debuted on a Panhard 20HP built for René de Knyff. This design met with great acclaim and remained popular for well over a decade.

This Hispano-Suiza H6B Labourdette Skiff was restored, with the help of Phil Hill and Ken Vaughn, and shown at the 1989 Pebble Beach Concours by Robert L. Meyer of King City, California.

The car now resides in the Keller Collection.

1922 Hispano-Suiza H6B Labourdette Skiff SHOWN BY ROBERT L. MEYER

This win marked the second overall victory at Pebble Beach for the marque of Hispano-Suiza. Like the preceding Hispano winner, the chassis was a 1922 Model H6B, and it bears a fantastic polished metal and wood skiff body created by Labourdette.

The French carriage-building firm of Labourdette dated back to the mid-1800s and was one of the first to create bodies for automobiles. A closed body that Henri Labourdette designed in 1899 for

1989 Best of Show

1988 Best of Show

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Traditions: Dash Plaques

DASHING DASH PLAQUES EXCERPTED FROM A PIECE

BY NICHOLAS FOULKES

Nature, we are told, abhors a vacuum, and so it would appear does the dashboard. Back at the dawn of motoring, when the automobile was still known as the horseless carriage, the dashboard was a veritable prairie of timber, so spacious that it could almost bring on an attack of agoraphobia. “Dashboards were very much bigger—a wooden plank the width of the car,” said automotive antiques expert Tony Gosnell. “And the instrument cluster was very small, just a few brass instruments around the steering column.”

To the Edwardian driver, for whom Less is More minimalist chic had yet to be invented, this was a shortcoming that had to be addressed. The empty dashboard was an invitation to accessorize that early motorists accepted with relish. The naked dashboard needed to be clothed, and there was clothing aplenty. Dunhill, for instance, called such items “motorites” and became famous for its upside-down dashboard clock, which, so it is said, was inverted to protect the mechanism from the inclement British weather.

In search of some road-going bijouterie, the style-conscious Continental motorist turned to his jeweler for help. It has to be remembered that car ownership was a prerogative of the social elite, and given that a car represented a hefty investment, it would have been a shame to skimp on dashboard decoration.

The result was a flowering of a unique art form that was part automotive and part ornamental: the dashboard plaque.

The zenith of their popularity was between the two world wars, after which the use of dashboard plaques declined with the advent of mass production and the crowding of the fascia with all manner of instruments and devices.

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But it seems there is a growing revival of interest in the contemporary use of dash plaques, and some of the most sought-after plaques in modern motoring are those now made for entries in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

In the early years of the Concours, back in the 1950s, class winners received mention of their win on simple metal strips, like those placed on trophies, suitable for mounting on dash, door, or glove compartment. And in the 1960s, all entries received metal strips noting their participation. In 1970, the event, temporarily renamed the Gwenn Graham Concours to honor its early organizer, issued a commemorative grille badge. But then such Pebble Beach Concours plaques and badges were discontinued for decades.

It was Glenn Mounger, working with then-Co-Chairmen Lorin Tryon and Jules “J.” Heumann and Executive Director Sandra Button, who sought to bring the dash plaque back, in much more elegant form, in the early 1990s.

“Every year for years I would go to the Hershey swap meet with a group of guys and we would compare found treasures over dinner,” recalls Mounger, who went on to serve as Chairman of the Pebble Beach Concours. “One year, I showed off some dash plaques I had found, and Lorin said, ‘You know, I really wish we could find a source for great dash plaques for Pebble.’ He said he had tried a couple times, as recently as 1988, and had been disappointed. And I took that as a challenge.

“A while later, at a trade show, I noticed a vendor that made belt buckles depicting intricate hunting and fishing and outdoor scenes. So I introduced myself, bought one of the

DECADES OF DASH PLAQUES

It was Glenn Mounger working with then Co-Chairmen Lorin Tryon and Jules “J” Heumann and Executive Director Sandra Button, who sought to bring the dash plaque back, in much more elegant form, in the early 1990s.

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Traditions: Dash Plaques buckles, and showed it to Lorin. He got excited about it, and he agreed to let me take on the project.”

Glenn not only produced the 1994 dash plaque, a miniature reproduction of the Concours program cover for that year, he also paid for it. “I didn’t want the Concours to spend money on the plaques if they weren’t a success,” he says. “But they were well received. We made the decision to do a limited amount of them and to number them. And now people look forward to them and collect them.”

Although intended for the car, these dash plaques were often retained by individuals as mementoes when a car changed hands—and the Concours eventually recognized and gave in to that, sometimes offering dash plaques to judges and other key participants in addition to entrants. At the same time, wanting something to remain with that winning cars, the Concours reinstituted small car badges, much like the original 1950s and 1960s offerings.

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Top left: Our 2010 Pebble Beach Concours dash plaque, with deep blue and purple hues, celebrated Pierce-Arrow.

Top Right: Our 2008 dash plaque, which included Pebble Beach Company’s Lone Cypress logo, celebrated the Cadillac V-16.

Abovet: In 2011, the White Knights of Mercedes-Benz pulled onto both our show field and our dash plaque.

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CARS THAT CAUGHT YOUR EYE AND

CAPTURED YOUR HEART We invited you to send us your memories of the Pebble Beach Concours, and a great many of you responded with your favorite stories and photographs — so many that we are spreading your memories across several of our Insider issues. We focus here on the cars that have captivated and inspired you. We treasure each of your memories as a part of our own story, and we want to make room for as many as we can! Thanks to our partnership with WeatherTech, we will also be sharing a series of video shorts related to Insider Moments.

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Left: Bob Cole rejoices when his Kline-Duesenberg receives the 1990 Pebble Beach Cup. Below: As a 16-year-old Bill Penny walked out onto The Lodge balcony in time to witness the win by "Twenty Grand," the Nethercutt's 1933 Duesenberg SJ Rollston Arlington Torpedo Sedan.

well-dressed individuals pushing the then-79-year-old race car past The Lodge and into place. It is perhaps needless to note the car won no awards on that occasion.

It was a different story the following year when the KlineDuesenberg raced at the Monterey Historics where I finished third out of 27 competitors in my race group and was awarded the Best Prewar Car. I was then invited to again enter the car at The Concours the following day where it won the prestigious Pebble Beach Cup.

GOOD FRIENDS LEND A HAND BOB COLE OF WOODSIDE, CA LO N G T I M E P E B B L E B E AC H C O N C O U R S E N T R A N T, J U D G E , & LO R I N T RYO N AWA R D W I N N E R

I have many wonderful memories from my years as an entrant and judge for The Concours, including two dating back to 1989 and involving one of my cars. I had accepted an invitation to display my 1910 Kline-Duesenberg Board Track Racer in the Competition Class, hoping the restoration of the car would be completed in time. As the event date approached, there were still a few loose ends to finish, but the car had to be at Pebble Beach in time for the event.

Shortly after the car arrived at Pebble Beach, we unloaded the Kline-Duesenberg and moved it to the front of The Lodge from which we planned drive it to our display location. However, try as we might, the car would not start. The only way to get it to our assigned display area was to push it into place. I had no choice but to enlist the help of volunteers to apply the muscle to move the car. Fortunately, four of my friends stepped forward to help me: THE Carroll Shelby, Victor Gauntlet (then President of Aston Martin), Curley Welch, and Bob Potts. It must have been quite a scene to watch this small group of

A MISADVENTURE NOW OFTEN REPEATED B I L L P E N N Y, E N T H U S I A S T

The first Pebble Beach Concours I attended was the 30th annual affair, in August 1980. I was 16 years old, living at home of course, in Eugene, Oregon, and I had read in my Road & Track magazine that there was this magical place called Monterey, in California, where people would sell their homes to drive the car they lusted after! (The historic races at the Laguna Seca track were to include the participation of some Ferrari GTOs, which would sometimes sell for as much as $100,000 apiece!) This was a place that I just had to see…and I had never been to California before.

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So I told my mother, who would have never allowed such foolishness, that I was hopping on a Trailways bus for a short trip over to the coast to stay in our family beach cabin for the weekend. I followed through with this ruse. But when I made it to the coast, I switched to a Greyhound bus that would travel down the 101 Highway to San Francisco and then on to Monterey, all without my mother’s knowledge!

Shortly after boarding the Greyhound bus late at night, I realized I had made a terrible mistake; I had misread the schedule. The bus was making stop after stop, moving very slowly, covering only about 25 to 30 miles an hour. So what I thought would be a 12-hour trip to San Francisco would actually take a full day.

By the time I made it to Monterey it was late Saturday afternoon, and I had missed the historic races (the races were then only on Saturday, followed by the car show on Sunday). I also found, along with the other bus riders (since the Monterey Greyhound stop was a full night layover), that there wasn’t a single hotel room in town. To find a hotel room back in those dark times, one had to make call after call from a payphone, armed with a stack of quarters (or were they dimes back then?), using the Yellow Pages provided in the booth—as long as someone before you hadn’t ripped out all the hotel listings!

I finally found a room in Salinas that was being used by the hotel as a sort of storage room. While it was a proper hotel room, there were three couches stacked in one corner and six television sets in another.

Early the following morning, I took a taxi from Salinas to the front doors of The Lodge, I paid the exorbitant admission price of, I believe, $20, and walked onto the Concours show field.

I saw a lot of new and wonderful things that day. I was introduced to a new make I hadn’t heard of before, the Hispano-Suiza. But truth-be-told I had little affinity for the older prewar cars on the field. So I cruised the parking lots. I saw my first Lamborghini Countach (a BIG deal to a 16-yearold) and Jerry Weigart’s Vector.

At a certain point in the afternoon, I walked through the front doors of The Lodge, across the foyer, and out onto the balcony (because in those relaxed times no one told me, a 16-year-old traveling alone, that I couldn’t!). From there, I watched the entire awards ceremony—which finished with J. B.Nethercutt’s 1933 Duesenberg SJ “20 Grand” Arlington Torpedo Sedan by Rollston, winning Best of Show.

Since then, I have returned to Pebble Beach for 30 of the last 40 intervening events, and I expect to continue to do so until I am no longer able.

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TEN THOUSAND MEMORIES C A R L F. W. L A R S O N , P H D MEMBER AACA, CCCA, HCCA, RROC, VMCCA, SAH

I will never be an exhibitor at Pebble Beach (the only CCCA classic I own is a totally original 1947 Chrysler Crown Imperial 8-passenger sedan sold new in Beverly Hills), but I have attended 19 shows, and although it is challenging, I spend the entire day photographing cars. I now have over 10,000 slides from the Concours.

I grew up on a dairy farm in central Minnesota, and in 1950 at age 10, I began buying Mechanix Illustrated, Motor Trend and other car magazines, all of which I still have. In these magazines, I was amazed to discover photos and articles about antiques and classics, and my fascination with these cars grew over time. Seeing photos of James Melton’s 1907 Rolls-Royce in the early 1950s sparked my life-long interest in Rolls-Royce motor cars. Getting to see that very car at Pebble Beach was a thrill of a lifetime.

To me, Pebble Beach is a fabulous festival of fantastic cars from all over the world. Having acquired a collection of thousands of books on automotive history and also subscribing to over 25

Left: This 1907 Rolls-Royce 40/50 HP Silver Ghost Barker Tourer (chassis 60565), once owned by James Melton, ignited Carl Larson's passion for cars when he was a young boy, so he was excited to see it in person at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours.

Below: Carl has had the opportunity to exchange greetings with a Maharaja and to witness cars such as the 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Thrupp & Maberly All Weather known as the "Star of India" owned by Yuvraj Saheb Mandhatasinh Jadeja of Rajkot, as well as one of just three 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrows in existence.

Opposite: He has captured over 10,000 photographic memories of his time here, featuring cars ranging from an early 1900 Skene Currier Runabout to postwar custom delights like the 1952 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV Hooper Sedanca de Ville once owned by Aga Khan III.

historic auto magazines, I read about rare cars from all over the world. At Pebble Beach, I get to see the actual cars. What a thrill to see the original 1907 Silver Ghost, the Major Bowes 1937 Chrysler CW, the 1902 Napier, the 1909 Blitzen Benz, the 1933 Napier-Railton, the 1907 Itala Peking to Paris, the Father Divine Duesenberg, the 1947 Daimler Green Goddess, the 1910 Brooke Swan Car, the 1885 Daimler Reitwagon, and a vast number of other spectacular cars—even Woodrow Wilson’s Pierce-Arrow.

Where else would I see so many Bugattis, Delages, Delahayes, Hispano-Suizas, Isotta Fraschinis, Mercedes-Benzes, Voisins as well as fabulous Duesenbergs, Packards and more. I love to see former Harrah cars (I visited the original Harrah Collection 9 times), and of course any Keller and Nethercutt cars. Seeing the Preservation Class, with cars like the 1897 Henriod, the 1902 Thomas, the 1910 Daimler, the 1911 Oldsmobile Limited, and the 1940 Duesenberg, is also a real treat.

What Pebble Beach does so extraordinarily well are the special groupings of rare cars—the Bentleys, Tuckers, duPonts, Tatras, Ruxtons, London to Brighton Veterans, Motorama concept cars, cars from India and many more. I had the opportunity to visit briefly with the Maharaja of Jodhpur. What a thrill!

The fantasy world of the cars in my books and magazines becomes real at Pebble Beach. How can I forget seeing for real the lineup of Best of Show Cars in 2000, the 1907 Chadwick,

the 1910 Speedwell Town Car, the 1900 Skene, the 1902 Toledo (like the first car in my Minnesota home town), the 1920 Mercer Limousine, the 1931 Mercer, the 1932 Bucciali, the 1911 Marmon Wasp, the 1921 Duesenberg Bender Coupe (the first production Duesenberg), Mrs. Chrysler’s 1937 Chrysler Town Car, the 1938 Saoutchik Graham, the 1960 DiDia, the 1967 Gyro-X, and the two Hong Qi cars from China.

Seeing any Rolls-Royce is always a great delight, but a highlight came in 2004 when I saw not only the original Silver Ghost, but two Phantom IVs, including the one owned

by Princess Margaret (growing up, I thought I should marry her to get that car). Another high point was finally seeing the Aga Khan’s 1952 Phantom IV Sedanca DeVille—all the way from Romania. I had wanted to see that car for over 60 years, having read about it in The Autocar while on the farm in Minnesota in the 1950s, and in 2015 I finally did, thanks to Pebble Beach. And in 2011 both of the two 1907 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts originally sold new in the United States were side by side. What a day that was!

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I could go on and on, naming hundreds of fantastic cars that were exciting to see from very early Mercedes to postwar continuations of classic marques, but one last story will have to suffice. In 2009 I finally got to see the 1934 Cadillac V16 Convertible Sedan that spent some years in the 1950s in Dickinson, North Dakota, where I taught and continue to live. I helped the Seattle owner secure information on its life in North Dakota and interviewed a man who worked on it during that time. So I had a small part in providing some background for a Pebble Beach car.

look at my 10,000 slides and remember the fabulous festival of fantastic cars that is Pebble Beach.

All of the 19 shows I’ve seen have been unbelievably exciting.

Each show has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see stunning cars. Thanks to all for such amazing memories.

Aside from this 1934 Cadillac V16, Pebble Beach-type cars do not exist in western North Dakota. However, I chaired a car show in the North Dakota Badlands for 40 years, and we made it a policy to especially invite very rare cars to be a special exhibit at our show, and we have been very fortunate to secure 12 different cars that have been shown at Pebble Beach, ranging from the 1911 Oldsmobile Limited brought from Detroit by General Motors to the 1935 Duesenberg Town Car designed for Mae West. So we have been able to introduce western North Dakota collectors to a bit of the Pebble Beach experience.

One final point: In 1991, our local car club hosted Millard Newman and his Transcontinental Tour, and he told me about his 1907 RollsRoyce Silver Ghost (with the earliest serial number), which he was bringing from England to show at Pebble Beach. Our first time at Pebble Beach was 1991. What a thrill it was to see that car there!

At the age of 81, I know that my days of attending Pebble Beach in person will be ending at some point, but my memories will remain for the rest of my life, and I can always

Christian Philippsen's 1926 Bentley 3 Litre takes Second in Class.

THE INFLUENCE OF PEBBLE BEACH CHRISTIAN PHILIPPSEN, LO N G T I M E P E B B L E B E A C H C O N C O U R S H O N O R A RY J U D G E

I first attended the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1984. I had read about the event, probably in Road & Track, and it was a fantastic experience—one so special that I decided to return the following year. I expected to be disappointed after a first impression that had been so strong but, again, I was amazed! That is when, together with a couple of enthusiasts, I started thinking about organizing a concours in Paris, where I lived at the time.

In September 1988, “Automobiles Classiques à Bagatelle,” the name inspired by the little jewel of a garden with beautiful rose beds located on the west side of the City of Lights hosting the event, reintroduced the concours d’elegance in Europe where the concept was born in the early days of motoring.

"The Corvette Rondine in 2008 was a great treat. A clean, one-of-a-kind design that has aged very well."

— M. THOMPSON, ENTHUSIAST

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It was an immense success! International recognition followed thanks to an exchange of winners with Pebble Beach. The automobile named Best of Show at Pebble Beach was displayed in Paris, and ours, in California. Jules Heumann and Lorin Tryon, the co-chairmen of Pebble Beach, were invited to judge with us, and they reciprocated. So 2019 was my 30th year of judging!

I never expected my daughter to develop an interest in cars, but I was hopeful one of my two grandsons might catch the bug. I took them with me to the Concours several times.

In 2015, the judge was to be judged. For the first time, I entered a car in the Concours—a 1926 Bentley 3 Litre— and we finished second in class. The boys will never forget being on the ramp. Within minutes, pictures were posted on Instagram. The future will tell if their lives will be influenced

by Pebble Beach as much as mine has been…

THAT ONE PARTICULAR CAR PA U L P O L LO C K ( PA U L @ W E B - C A R S . C O M ) JOURNALIST

The Best of Show is always the highlight of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The award goes to the car that is somehow above all the others—for that particular year.

This begs an interesting question: Which car would be the best of the best? In other words, of all the Best of Show winners, which one stands out? The answer could be debated for hours—and wouldn’t that be fun?

I’ve been attending the Pebble Beach Concours for 30 years.

And to me, the absolute best of the best would have to be the 1998 winner: the 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Corsica Roadster (chassis 75793) owned by John Mozart.

Why do I think that? Just look at it, I say. The car is nothing less than a sculpture on wheels.

Perhaps my enthusiasm is the result of my preference for cars with long hoods and minimal, two-seat passenger areas.

And convertibles.

The original owner was Col. G. M. Giles, a British Colonel who commissioned Corsica, a London custom coachbuilder, to build the body on Bugatti chassis 57593 (engine 41S). His brother Eric was responsible for the styling. The silver spear, which starts at the front of the passenger area and ends at the top of the radiator is a definite strong point. It serves to connect the other chrome bits, such as the wire wheels. It also superbly integrates and highlights the classic Bugatti grille.

Some have criticized the windshield for being too high in the center and too low at the ends, but to me it works perfectly.

Can it be topped? One should never say never, but at this point, it appears doubtful.

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John Mozart hoists the Best of Show Trophy overhead after his 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Corsica Roadster's 1998 win.

A SHAH’S DELIGHT WA L L A C E W Y S S , A U T H O R & A R T I S T

Of the forty or so Pebble Beach Concours that I’ve been to, I’d like to tell the story of one car that sticks indelibly in my memory—the Bugatti Type 57 whose first owner was the Shah of Iran. It is a car that has been shown at Pebble Beach on several occasions, most recently in 2015.

It rises above all the others I’ve seen at Pebble because now that I’m a fine artist—a career I took up after leaving the magazine world—I look at things differently. Artists judge on aesthetics.

The car in question may have a flawed engine or transmission design but we like it because it’s beautiful. It qualifies for all those words that so few modern cars do: poise, stance, ambiance.

And as a historian I like it because it has what moviemakers call a good “back story.” Its gestation was a bit odd. It was built on a 1937 Bugatti Type 57C chassis (57808) but is often listed as a 1939 car because it was given to the Shah of Iran as a wedding present by the country of France in 1939. The Shah, then mere Royal prince, was next in line to take over the throne whilst Europe was on the downslide toward World War II, and each country wanted to do something memorable. All the combatants knew they would need oil during the war!

France asked the future Shah what he wanted as a wedding gift, and he named a Delahaye 165 with Figoni et Falaschi coachwork that he had seen at the Paris Auto Show—but by

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1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C Speciale Teardrop Coupe nominated for Best of Show and Won First in Class at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance The Talbot-Lago belongs to the Academy of Art University Auto Collection.

Photo: Randy Tunnell/Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

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Journalist and artist Wallace Wyss gives highest praise to the Bugatti Type 57C Vanvooren Cabriolet created as a wedding gift for the Shaw of Iran.

the time he conveyed that to the French government, that car had been sold. You would think they would go to the new owner and say, “Your country wants that car back.” But, no, they told the Shah, “Not to worry, we will replicate that body on another chassis.” Vanvooren built it with full front spats (fender skirts). This full skirting is the epitome of Streamline Moderne movement, where everything was made to be aerodynamic (even pencil sharpeners!) To me these skirts are a nice complement to the aero shape in general, but the car’s crowning achievement is its retractable windscreen.

I wish I could say the Shah and his wife lived happily ever after, tooling about in their wedding car, but he divorced her because she couldn’t produce a male heir and that’s a problem if you’re a hereditary ruler. After divorcing that wife, the Shah married another and the car was banished to the Royal Hunting Department (also the Royal garage), where at some point the Bugatti engine broke and a Cadillac V8 was installed. You can bet the last thing the new Queen wanted to see was the wedding car of her hubby’s former wife, so eventually it was sold, I’m told, for a mere $275.

Coincidentally, at Pebble I met a Dutch motoring dealer who told me he was the buyer, and handily he had pictures of the car on a street in Holland where it looked a lot less grand without its wheel well spats.

The car came to America, was reunited with a Bugatti engine and eventually was restored. Oscar Davis owned it for a time.

Then it was bought at auction by Robert E. Petersen, founder of a magazine empire that included Motor Trend, as the pride of his collection. And it’s still in the museum bearing his name.

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When I finally decided to do a painting of this car, I chose to do a night scene, envisioning the Shah (in a “poor boy” cap) cruising through the streets of Paris. I don’t in fact know if his first wife ever let him that far off the leash, but I can’t think of another car more suitable for the Paris night life before the war.

And so it is. If ever there was one car that epitomizes the role of the classic car in society and the role of Pebble Beach in highlighting them, it is this one representing Streamline Moderne, n’est ce pas?

A RECURRING DREAM (CAR) JOHN EHLE, ENTHUSIAST

I remember very well my first visit to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It was 1980, I was 10 years old, and I was on a “boys trip” with my dad and older brother. The experience would completely validate that I was a full-on car person; it probably screwed me up for life! It was a very different experience back then, because the show field fit entirely on The Lodge lawn and within the right rough along the 18th fairway. The golf course stayed open during the show, and golfers played up the 18th with these spectacular cars parked alongside (I did play up during the Concours one year, which was nerve-racking for a slicer)!

Our next visit, in 1984, really did me in, and was notable for several reasons. Chief among them: Ferrari was the honored marque, triggering an historic collection of Ferraris for the show and the Monterey Historic Races. In retrospect, there’s one car from that Concours that keeps reappearing to me—in person, not just in my mind’s eye. In 2015, I had some work done on one of my cars, and during its stay at the shop it was a garagemate of the Ferrari 375 Plus Cabriolet. I remembered seeing it before, at a different car show, and it was an honor to have my “lowly” Alfa occupying the same garage as such a significant Ferrari. After that encounter, I realized that the 375 was prominently featured in the 1988 book Fantastic Ferraris by Antoine Prunet and Peter Vann, a copy of which I received for Christmas the year it was published.

And I’ve just come across a photograph of that very Ferrari taken by me at the 1984 Pebble Beach Concours. Apparently the Ferrari 375 Plus Cabriolet caught my eye at age 14, just as it did at age 45!

One of the things I love about this car is that it’s been in the same ownership since 1980 (it was as of 2015, anyway), and that it has been driven and enjoyed rather than being rendered a static display. I don’t know where I’ll come across the car next, but I feel it is inevitable that I will.

John Ehle first photographed this Ferrari 375 Plus Cabriolet (left) at the 1984 Pebble Beach Concours, and he continues to cross paths with it. Above: Ehle refused to miss our 2011 lineup of Ferrari GTOs even though he was ill.

That 1984 show was the first of 31 consecutive Pebble Beach Concours I would attend. The streak was broken in 2015 because our second child was born four days after the Concours that year—no traveling for us to get to that one. The streak resumed in 2016 and will continue this year and for many years to come.

myself to go, despite the still-unsettled condition of my stomach. The year now has an asterisk because although I made it onto the show field— and in sports parlance that counts as a “start—I didn’t “finish.” Not long after I arrived, I passed out in front of a Ferrari GTO (I couldn’t tell you which one) and agreed to be taken out via ambulance to an emergency room. So I offer this tip: While an ambulance is the fastest and most efficient way to exit the Concours, it’s also, by far, the most expensive way, and the least advisable.

One year in my 31-Concours streak must be listed with an asterisk. In 2011, I had a bout of food poisoning the night before the Concours. Not wanting to miss the show, particularly with a featured class of Ferrari GTOs, I forced

Missing Monterey Car Week and the Pebble Beach Concours due to the pandemic left one of the biggest holes in my last year (I was crawling the walls that whole week). I look forward to returning to the Concours in 2021 (fingers crossed)!

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When Jim Utaski (at right below) shared his Siata 208S Motto Spyder (left) with enthusiasts at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours, he invited its previous owner, Fred Celce (at center below), to join him. Jim's grandson Colby (at left below) was also on hand. And the car won its class and took home the ArtCenter College of Design Award!

A SEARCH FOR A SIATA LEADS TO A FRIENDSHIP J I M U TA S K I ONGOING PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS ENTRANT

As I drove my 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Convertible onto the fairway of the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours, I saw a car I had never seen before and thought it was strikingly beautiful.

Further, it was in my class of Postwar Sports Cars. It was David B. Smith’s 1953 Siata 208 CS Farina Spyder CS 058.

I remember taking my family over to see it with the assured comment, “This is beautiful and it will win the class.” It actually did better: it not only won the class, it was a nominee to win Best of Show—high praise for a postwar car.

In short, I fell in love and felt I had to have a Siata.

I learned the car I had seen was a one-of-one, but other Siata Spyders were potentially available as 35 were built. The chase was on, and I talked to a lot of Siata 208S owners whose cars were not for sale. Eventually, one Siata 208S came up at auction, and I was able to acquire BS 535 post-auction from Walter Eisenstark, a well-known Siata enthusiast.

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earliest owner, and that was a journey. The prior owner knew only 535’s ownership history starting from 1968. Californiabased Siata historian John De Boer and I worked with the due diligence to discover Fred’s name. Then I called Fred about his old car and the friendship began.

Fred told me he received the Siata as a high school graduation present, and he kept it through college, Air Force pilot training and fighter gunnery school, and ensuing assignments in New Mexico and England.

“It is a truly magnificent machine,” said Fred. “It looks gorgeous, sounds magnificent, and drives exquisitely. The car was a wonderful entrée to many places and people, and it even got me a summer job. I drove it to a sports car dealership in Portland, Maine. After idolizing the car, the folks there asked me what they could do for me. I replied, ʻI’m looking for a job.’ They responded, ‘Well, we’ve really hired all our summer help, but I’m sure we can find something for you.’ It was the car that did it.”

So 535 made a return cross-country trip from New Jersey to Epifani Restorations in California to perfect its authenticity.

Fred now spends his summers in Maine and Massachusetts, so I asked if he’d be interested in meeting me in Princeton, and we agreed to a time and date at our local airport. Fred arrived in a beautiful single-seat silver sport aircraft, with a sliding canopy, that looked like a hot airplane from World War II—the P51 Mustang.

I was slack-jawed. Fred said he had traded in a race car for an airplane. His aviation experience has been plentiful; he eventually joined TWA and became an international pilot for long hauls.

You may wonder how I came to have a relationship with the car’s first major owner, Fred Celce. First, I had to find the

No doubt one of the unusual benefits of the Classic Car hobby is that you get to meet so many interesting and entertaining people.

Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider

While viewing cars at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours, then-24-year-old Chris Oglesbee was "stopped dead in his tracks" by this 1932 Bugatti Type 41 "Royale" Binder Coupé de Ville.

but commanded such a presence as it wafted through the crowd.

A ROYALE ENCOUNTER C H R I S O G L E S B E E O F T W I N FA L L S , I D , ENTHUSIAST

I’m just an average Joe from Southern Idaho, but I’ve been absolutely car obsessed for as long as anyone can remember.

In 2009, at the ripe old age of 24, I decided I wanted to attend THE car show of car shows, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Bugattis were to be featured and they are far and away my favorite, so I made the decision to attend. No one I knew, not even car guys, had any idea of what this show is and what it means, nor what most of the marques are that are shown at this event. And no one could understand why I’d pay so much for a ticket to a car show. I think the tickets were $150 back then, plus there was the cost of a hotel in the area, not to mention the drive there, food, etc. This was a lot of money for me then, but I didn’t care. My cousin and I planned out a trip that hit a few other attractions along the way, and off we went.

That’s the part that most people don’t understand. For some people, cars are just purely an appliance, A to B and back. For some, they are a hobby that consumes time and money to go faster, look better, be more impressive. For a lucky few of us though, they are a true passion and an actual obsession.

Events like the Concours d’Elegance reinforce that passion, I may have been a lowly 24-year-old Chevy parts guy from Idaho, but no one there cared, even amongst some of the wealthiest and most noteworthy people in the world. Everyone was there for the spectacle of it, and to appreciate the art that is the automobile. I’ve been to nearly every car museum and several car events all over this side of the country, but nothing compares to stepping onto that 18th fairway that crisp August morning. It’s seared so deeply into my memory that I will never forget it. As ticket prices for the event continue to climb yearly, I doubt I’ll ever be fortunate enough to justify a return trip, but rest assured I consider myself extremely lucky to have been able to attend at least once.

Just the walk down to the show field was amazing, with all the cars set up at the various manufacturers’ tents, an entire circle of parked Veyrons, The Lodge, the concept car field…

It had us in awe. Then we hit the show field, and I think I ran my poor little digital camera battery dead within the first half.

The big W.O.-era Bentleys, the row of Type 35s, the general feeling and aura on that fairway… It was all unforgettable.

Then I saw it: a Type 41 “Royale.” It stopped me dead in my tracks. I can still remember that sensation 11 years later. The Royale is one of my favorite cars just due to it’s sheer size and opulence—not to mention the stories behind them all and the fact that the six still survive, having weathered the Depression, World War II, and 70 years (at that time) of everything else thrown at them. And suddenly a Royale was right in front of me. The emotion that came over me was that of such awe and wonderment that it caused my eyes to water. I’ll never forget that feeling. The icing on the cake was when they drove it through the field so someone could arrive on the stage in it. It was so smooth and quiet

H E N R I Ë T T E & G E R T J A N VA N D E R M E I J , M C W C A R R O S S E R I E E N WA G E N B O U W, THE NETHERLANDS

Pebble Beach 2018. After four years of intensive work, we have been able to restore this beautiful 1936 Mercedes 540K and are grateful to join the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

And on Sunday morning… tension ebbs away… First in Class.

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HIGH POINTS FROM A MULTITUDE OF MEMORIES M AT T S T O N E A U T O M OT I V E W R I T E R / P H OT O G R A P H E R A N D PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS CHIEF CLASS JUDGE

Thanks so much for the invite to recall highlights of so many wonderful PBCdE weekends. In spite of my tender age, I’ve been attending Pebble Beach since the late 1970s—first with a girlfriend, then with my late father, then with a friend, then with a fiancée now wife.

My first look at the show field, when I walked onto it for the very first time? It absolutely took my breath away—and still does. My first look at the awards ramp, the resort, the ocean from The Lodge, all of it? Automotive, event, and locational overload, of which I’ll never tire.

In the early days, it took very little special or advance planning to lay out picnic blankets and low chairs in the first or second row right up in front of the ramp. The best seats in the house.

If you look back at many photos of previous class and Best of Show winners over the years, you can see (a much younger) me and my guest sitting on a blanket in the front row. Wowzers.

Cars and moments? Nearly too many to name.

• Certainly seeing Ralph Lauren’s Count Trossi MercedesBenz win Best of Show. If Darth Vader and Batman had shared a car in the ’30s, this would have been it.

• The sight of the Nethercutt’s Duesenberg “Twenty Grand” up on the ramp remains an all-time favorite car and memory that time will never dull.

Matt Stone has served among our class judges for 24 years.

• Ditto seeing all three of the Alfa Romeo B.A.T.s up on the ramp together, and all of the Bugatti Royales in one remarkable place at one remarkable time.

• The Ford GT/ GT40 year.

• John Shirley’s Ferrari taking a most memorable postwar Best of Show.

• Spotting Clint Eastwood, Doris Day, Sir Jackie Stewart and the comparable Phil Hill—all in one place at one time.

• Introducing myself to, and talking photography with, my idol Ansel Adams.

• Becoming—and remaining—a OB Judge, now for 24 years.

There are countless others. These are just a few highpoints.

THE CARS ARE GREAT, THE WHOLE IS GREATER STEVE WEIL, ENTHUSIAST

Although I have been a vintage car collector since age 16, my first Pebble Beach Concours was 2019, celebrating 100 years of Bentley. As a 1936 Bentley 4¼ owner, it was a spectacular year for me to make my inaugural visit. Choosing a favorite car is impossible. It is the same as a museum vs a specific work of art: the sum is greater than the parts.

Our 2019 Zagato display drew the eye of Steve Weil. Zagato made his mark styling early Alfa Romeos.

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Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider

But I would like to give special mention to the Zagato cars, which left me blown away.

Janice Feldman crosses Bixby Bridge in her prized Cisitalia 202 SC during the 2018 Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance.

A PRIZED CISITALIA JANICE FELDMAN, ENTHUSIAST

I came home from the hospital where I was born . . . in a race car. I seriously think the sound of the engine imprinted on me before my precious mother’s voice.

I loved design from when I was very young, and we always had the best—the latest and greatest—cool cars when I was growing up.

My late and dear friends Ben and Fran Rose had an amazing collection of prewar racers, including the famous 1927 Type 35 Grand Prix once owned and driven by a true woman pioneer of race car driving, Helle Nice. And I once spent the night sleeping in that Bugatti in the Roses’ famous car pavilion in Highland Park, Illinois.

As excited as I was to be in that car, I kept my eyes open all night long, spying on the Cisitalia 202 “sleeping” next to the Bugatti.

Ben explained to me about Piero Dusio and his passion for racing, as well the design and engineering of the most original of postwar racers, The Cisitalia 202. The car was not only rare, but it was also so stunning and original—as well as a great model of industrial design and performance. It was the only car that had been selected to be in the permanent collection of MOMA in NYC.

I loved the idea of something so modern and yet so technical; it was a revolutionary hand-built object and a masterpiece painting all at the same time. I knew then that I would seek to find the perfect specimen of this special and exclusive car, the Cisitalia 202, a design so many others have followed.

I began my search of more than 25 years and eventually found a special 202 SC Vignale Cabriolet, often called a Spyder in Italian sporting vernacular. My Cisitalia was created in 1947, following the massive devastation at the end of World War II in Italy. Dusio raced on, eventually with this car, to Argentina and back to America. . . . Hard to imagine this was the time that some of the most important paintings of Jackson Pollock were created.

I was captivated by the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance when I first attended in 1978. And in the years thereafter, my interest and enthusiasm for the world’s premier celebration of the automobile grew.

It was unforgettable to present the result of my long search for the perfect Cisitalia and the ten-year restoration project of chassis #054, built in Torino in 1947, to the viewers at the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. And I was further honored while there to receive the 2018 ArtCenter College of Design Award for design excellence for this special automobile.

Now I’ve even written a book about this car, its history and its restoration journey, called A Cisitalia of Many Continents.

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Announcing the Lamborghini Countach Class

A 1976 Lamborghini Countach LP400 owned by A. Shammas placed Second in Class at the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours.

The same Countach takes to our show field at dawn.

Richard Solomon’s 1977 Countach LP400 was shown here in 2008.

Join Us in Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the

LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH 46

Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider

The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the Lamborghini Countach.

The initial concept car, designated simply as the LP500 and showcasing the daring new wedge design, debuted at the 1971 Geneva Auto Show. Production prototypes emerged in 1973, and production was underway by 1974 and continued to 1990.

We are inviting some of the most notable examples of the Countach to join us at the 2021 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and we hope you will be on hand to celebrate them!

HURACÁN STO. BASED ON A TRUE STORY.

The fuel consumption and emissions data is in the type approval stage

lamborghini.com Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider

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