Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance INSIDER Summer 2021

PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE®

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Celebrating the Life & Legacy of the Automobile | Summer 2021

MEETING HEROES & MAKING FRIENDS

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PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE®

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

Phil Hill stands beside the Ferrari 250 MM Vignale Spyder he drove to victory in the 1953 Pebble Beach Road Races.

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CHAIRMAN'S LETTER

40 HISTORIC TIES TO RACING

Meeting Heroes and Making Friends

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FIVE GREAT VISIONARIES

By Robert T. Devlin

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RESTORATION’S WORLD SERIES

Written by Paul Russell for our 50th Celebration

By Clare Hay

TO HOLLYWOOD

Musings from Our Master of Ceremonies

By Derek Hill

46 TRADITIONS

24 CRAIG DAVIS

Father of the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance

On Cars and Cravats Excerpted from a piece by Nicholas Foulkes

30 YOUR CONCOURS MEMORIES

The People who Bring Cars to Life

EDITOR IN CHIEF Sandra Button

DESIGN Nicole Doré & Don Scheer at Madden Media

44 FROM PEBBLE BEACH

PUBLISHER Pebble Beach Company

EDITORS Quinn Button & Kandace Hawkinson

42 MY PERSPECTIVE

16 OUR BEST OF SHOW WINNERS

Celebrating the 1990s

70th Celebration to Feature All Overall Pebble Beach Road Race Winners

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PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE®

INSIDER

TM

Celebrating the Life & Legacy of the Automobile | Summer 2021

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; Steve Burton, Sherman Chu, Mark Estes, Jeff Field, Alan Galbraith, Winston Goodfellow, Mark Guinther, Robb Hallock, Derek Hill, Michael Jackson, Ron Kimball/Kimball Studios, John Lamm, John Landstrom, Richard Lewis, John Livingstone, Robert Malke, Tom Matano, Alan W. McEwan, Howard Miereanu, Tom G. O’Neal, Bill Paullus, Paul Russell, Doug Sandberg, Nelson Thorpe, Bill Vargus, Alton Walker Archives, and Nic Waller 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.

On the Cover Sandra Button welcomes Ann Bothwell’s 1908 Benz 105 HP Prinz Heinrich Two Seat Race Car as it pulls onto our competition field in 2013.

MEETING HEROES & MAKING FRIENDS

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN Years of emails and phone calls, personal letters and visits ensued. Our exchanges were polite at first and then increasingly friendly. At a certain point, amidst one conversation, I told Ann how much I admired her grit and determination in keeping the Bothwell Collection together for decades after her husband Lindley died; I recognized that was no easy task. That seemed to spark something; I felt an openness I hadn’t felt previously.

I think we eventually bonded over a shared recognition of the strength in each other — a trait some might call “borderline stubbornness” or “shear doggedness.”

Sandra Button gladly awarded the 2013 Chairman’s Trophy to Ann Bothwell’s 1908 Benz.

When Ann’s Benz finally did pull onto our show field in 2013, I was elated. I felt that, together, we had triumphed. The car went on to win its class, and I presented it with the Chairman’s Trophy. And when you look at the photos from that day, you will see pure joy.

Hope and Anticipation: These two things guided me through the turmoil and uncertainty of the past fifteen months.

One photo of the Benz on our Awards Ramp hangs on my wall to this day.

Determination deserves a mention too.

Our coming 70th celebration has faced more than its share of difficulties and delays, and on many days, I have looked to that photo for inspiration. I have also reflected on other displays that took great effort. Government rules and regulations were major impediments when we first decided to invite Cars of the Maharajas to Pebble Beach, so we started on paperwork years in advance. Getting the Star of India was particularly difficult — and sweet. I am also reminded of the many obstacles faced by Lorin Tryon and Jules “J.” Heumann as they sought to mount their magnificent display of Bugatti Royales. Sometimes the greatest successes come from the greatest struggles.

Many of you have played a role in buoying my hopes and dreams and affirming our plans to move forward with the 70th Concours. And as that celebration draws near—at last—I want to say thank you. I can’t begin to express what your ongoing support has meant to this event and to me personally.

Even in more ordinary times, organizing the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance requires a good dose of tenacity. Many special classes and exhibits are often years in the making.

Getting one special car to our show field can sometimes take years too. . . .

I don’t recall what class we were planning when I first asked Ann Bothwell if she might be willing to share her 1908 Benz Prinz Heinrich Race Car with the enthusiasts at Pebble Beach, but her answer was a fast and firm “No.” And she repeated that “No” on my second and third — and fourth and fifth — inquiries.

“You can keep asking, but I will continue to say ‘No,’” Ann told me. And I told her, “You can continue to say no, but I will keep asking.”

I’m not certain why I got so attached to that Benz, but I did; it was near the top of my secret wish list of cars and exhibits that I want to see on the eighteenth fairway. A photo of it even served as my computer screensaver for a time!

I’ve also found both solace and inspiration in the many Concours memories that you have shared over this past year, memories of the great cars and great people who have made their way to Pebble Beach in the past and will soon again.

I cannot imagine all that I will be feeling when I see cars pull onto our show field once again this August. I think I may be reeling more than a bit, just trying to take it all in. Seeing the beauty, feeling the engines rumble, experiencing all of the emotions of that moment.

I hope you are there to stand by me, taking it all in.

Sandra Button Chairman #DriveOn2021

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Jules “J.” Heumann & Lorin Tryon

FIVE GREAT

Visionaries

Sandra Button

AT THE PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE

4 Phil Hill

Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider

Alton Walker

Alton Walker accepts the Second in Class ribbon from a Community Hospital volunteer at the 1961 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance for his 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Mulliner Sedanca de Ville.

ALTON WALKER 1904–1989

We are honored to celebrate five rare individuals who have each made hugely important contributions to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

BY ROBERT T. DEVLIN

One of the original founders and the first Chairman of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Alton Walker was an articulate individual with diverse interests ranging from aircraft and flying to automobiles. He was also the owner of Del Monte Aviation at the Monterey Airport, which in turn led to him establishing a car rental agency for the many VIPs that flew into the Monterey Peninsula in the early days. This led to Walker acquiring Antique, Vintage and Classic Era automobiles that were made available for rent to upscale individuals visiting the Peninsula. Thus, his automobile hobby was established. He owned a variety of great motorcars, including a 1904 Packard touring car, a 1915 Milburn Electric, numerous Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts as well as examples of all three Phantoms, and the first MG-TC sold in California by San Francisco-based British Motor Corporation dealer Kjell Qvale in 1948.

It was Walker who pushed to include antique and vintage cars alongside new cars at the Concours from its very start, sharing his own gems for nearly 30 years and winning Best of Show in 1962 with his 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost London to Edinburgh Tourer. Alton, his wife Elizabeth, and their two Cocker Spaniels always offered a warm welcome to this teenager, and I would happily assist Walker with grunt work, lying beneath many of his restoration projects. He was also kind enough to locate a 1929 Springfield Rolls-Royce Phantom I Ascot Brewster Phaeton for my father and me.

PHIL HILL 1927–2008 Phil Hill was a man for all seasons. He was the only person to win both the Pebble Beach Concours and Road Race in one year, capturing Best of Show with his 1931 Pierce-Arrow Le Baron Town Cabriolet — the first Classic Era car so awarded — and winning the rain-soaked Del Monte Trophy Race driving a Ferrari 750 Monza in 1955. He also won the Pebble Beach Road Races in 1950 and 1953, and another Best of Show in 1977. He was for many years the most senior judge at the Concours, serving for nearly 40 years.

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Left to right: Honorary Judges Sir Stirling Moss and Phil Hill at the 1995 Pebble Beach Concours; Lorin Tryon shakes hands with Jules “J.” Heumann in 1996 in celebration of their 25 years of service; Sandra Button presents the Chairman’s Trophy at the 2015 Pebble Beach Concours.

Hill’s interests were wide in scope, ranging from classical music — he loaded many recordings by original artists and composers into his Mason & Hamlin and Steinway reproducing pianos — to his racing exploits co-driving Ferraris, which led to three overall wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well as three wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

He exemplified the phrase “to win, you first have to finish,” and his smooth and consistent race driving brought about the desired results. Hill’s efforts behind the wheel culminated in 1961 when he drove a Ferrari 156 to become the only American-born World Champion Grand Prix driver.

Later, with partner Ken Vaughn, he cofounded the restoration establishment Hill and Vaughn, which quickly became world renowned for award-winning restorations.

Published after his death, “Inside Track” — a three-volume photo-biographical book by Doug Nye — gives Hill’s photography center stage. With his secondhand Leica M3, Hill recorded hundreds of historical images on full-color Kodachrome slide film with captions recounting the important events and races in his life.

LORIN TRYON 1927–1999 If any one person in the 1970s had comprehensive knowledge of the location or condition of various Classic Era 1925 to 1941 automobiles, it would be Lorin Tryon. He had his finger on the pulse of the classic car collector universe with a vast mental catalogue of original and restored vehicles worldwide.

Tryon later was named president of the substantial collection at the Blackhawk Museum, which further extended his reach into the most worthy automobiles built between 1945 and 1972, many of which were already in the collection.

In 1972, Tryon joined forces with Jules “J.” Heumann to co-chair the Pebble Beach Concours, dividing their responsibilities so that Tryon attracted the best automobiles

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to participate and Heumann laid them out on the show field, which eventually moved to encompass the whole of the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links. In addition, Heumann and Tryon initiated a major upgrade to the way the Concours was judged by instituting a two-tiered judging system in which teams of marque experts judged the class competition, and only class winners went on to compete for Best of Show.

A separate group of Honorary Judges focused on special awards. This system, under Heumann’s and Tryon’s guidance, transformed the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance into a world leader and established the new high standards for other international concours to follow.

JULES “J.” HEUMANN 1924–2017 A furniture designer and manufacturer at the Metropolitan Furniture Company with his brother Syl, J. was a hands-on, artistic man of considerable knowledge and charm. He had a lifelong love affair with the Hispano-Suiza automobile, owning and showing numerous examples of this French-built vehicle. J. personified the Concours movement, first showing his class-winning 1948 Jaguar Mark IV drophead coupé in 1958 and later his 1939 Bentley 4¼ Litre, which also won its class in 1963. His 1922 Hispano-Suiza Dual Cowl Phaeton was awarded Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1972.

Following an extended period in partnership with Lorin Tryon as co-chairs of the Peacock Gap Concours d’Elegance, J. stepped into the co-chair slot at the Pebble Beach Concours just in time to help save the show, which had taken a downturn in the late sixties. Between them, J. and Lorin set the high standard that other concours attempt to follow to this day.

It was Heumann’s connections around the world that really helped transform the Pebble Beach Concours into an internationally renowned event; they made possible the first and only gathering of all the Bugatti Type 41 Royales.

Left to right: J. Heumann and Lorin Tryon inspect the field at the 1993 Pebble Beach Concours; Sandra Button welcomes Chip Connor and Nick Mason in Chip’s 1928 Bentley 4½ Litre Birkin Blower Vanden Plas Le Mans Tourer to the 2019 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

J. was also a strong proponent of the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance, held each Thursday preceding the Concours.

Before the Tour’s inception in 1998, many of the Concours automobiles entered had little or no driving exposure, and the Tour helped restore the Concours automobiles to the standard of moving works of art.

SANDRA BUTTON Sandra Button, now Chairman of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, has been an innovator supreme. After joining Pebble Beach Company in 1985, she quickly became a member of the Concours Executive Committee. In 1989, she was elevated to the position of Director of Special Events at Pebble Beach, overseeing everything from golf and polo tournaments to the Concours. By this time, she was the company’s primary liaison to Concours Co-Chairmen Lorin Tryon and J. Heumann. She next suggested to the company that the Concours, like the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, needed its own full-time executive director and she chose to step into that role, relinquishing her other duties with Pebble Beach Company.

In 1997, she began to work with Lorin and J. on their succession plan, and at the end of the decade, when Lorin passed away and she and J. were left to carry on, Sandra was involved in adding both Glenn Mounger and Ed Gilbertson to the Concours Executive Committee. In 2002, she was named Co-Chairman of the Concours alongside Glenn Mounger, who had served in that position since 2000, supporting his efforts to further emphasize the importance of driving and preserving cars. And when Glenn stepped down in the Fall of 2005, Sandra became Chairman.

220 automobiles, making more room for judges to perform their duties and for spectators to view the entries, with the goal of allowing each automobile to be better celebrated. More recently she convinced Pebble Beach Company to allow the show field to expand to the 17th fairway. Throughout her tenure, Sandra has worked to elevate the Concours as a whole, initiating new events such as the Motoring Classic and venues like RetroAuto and the Forum, and adding a bit of pomp to the Concours awards ceremony. She has also recognized the need to record and preserve the Concours in photos and videos, archiving those historic moments for future generations.

Sandra now travels the world in search of owners with great automobiles, striving both to obtain the best possible cars for the Concours and to support and encourage growing communities of enthusiasts overseas in places such as India, China, the Middle East, and South America as well as Europe.

Sandra continues to expand Concours connections and sponsorships, both individual and corporate, to better support the Concours and raise funds for people in need. During her tenure as Chairman, over 20 million charitable dollars have been donated.

These five individuals — collectively — contributed hugely to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and set the pace in personal style. As visionaries, they were — and are — very special.

She soon established a formal Selection Committee, bringing more experts into the car selection and vetting process. She also reduced the entries from over 260 to a more manageable 200 to

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Written by Paul Russell for our 50th Celebration

restoration’s

Ralph Lauren and Paul Russell relax beside the 1930 Mercedes-Benz SSK “Count Trossi” Roadster that won our 1993 Best of Show trophy.

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Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider

world series Most people strolling through the extraordinary field of cars at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance can recall the moment in their lives when they caught the auto mania bug. I was first exposed to this bug through my father, who had worked his way up from machinist to head of engineering at a firm that produced papermaking machinery. We spent Saturdays together fixing stuff or building models and Pinewood Derby entries. Whenever we passed through the wealthy part of town, we would stop and peek in the windows of a certain garage that housed a Cord Beverly Sedan, with its airplanelike dashboard and outside exhaust pipes. The virus took firm hold of me shortly after I got that all-important driver’s license in 1967. I met a friend’s adventurous father, who built his own gliders and owned sports cars. In particular, he had a 1958 Bug-Eye Sprite. That was my first exposure to a car with the tremendous personality and the ability to actually go where you pointed it. That was my moment.

A few years later, I left college early and talked my way into a job as a mechanic trainee at an independent auto repair shop.

My father had previously confided to me that, despite his managerial success, he felt the greatest satisfaction while at work in the machine shop, where he could see the quality of his accomplishments. He stressed that doing a job well brings the greatest happiness. To my frustration, I soon discovered that the auto shop put a priority on the “quick and dirty” repair of street cars. Hoping that work on classic cars would be different, I joined the Dearborn Automobile Company, a small shop that concentrated on restoring 1950s MercedesBenz automobiles. Five years later, in 1978, Alex Dearborn decided to concentrate exclusively on automobile sales, and he sold the restoration portion of the business to me. While I credit my father with instilling my devotion to precision and craftsmanship, my mother was my entrepreneurial influence.

She encouraged me to jump into business at the age of twenty-

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A Mercedes-Benz wire wheel without wheel cover.

Ralph Lauren’s 1939 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic took top honors in 1990.

“THE FOCUS OF THE PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS IS PRIMARILY ON THE CARS AND SECONDARILY ON THE OWNERS. THAT’S AS IT SHOULD BE.” — Paul Russell

seven without any real business credentials, but also without any fear of failure.

I named my company the Gullwing Service Company, and I determined that it would do only the best work. I was intent on hiring the best possible people and providing them with an excellent working environment and the respect that good craftsmen deserve. Alex Finigan, David Twitchell, Janet Oliver and I were the nucleus of this little enterprise, situated initially in a three-bay garage.

On my first business trip, in August 1978, I headed for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. What an inspiration and an eye-opener for a young entrepreneur! I went home vowing to return someday as a participant, not just an observer.

I returned to Pebble Beach in 1986, when Mercedes-Benz was the featured marque, and I have not missed a year since, presenting clients’ restorations in many of those years.

Initially, I felt it was important for my company to concentrate on Mercedes-Benz automobiles of the fifties so we could offer expertise to our customers. But over the years, I’ve grown to understand that the restoration business is one of building relationships. We work on our clients’ behalf, doing the right

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A Mercedes-Benz wire wheel with wheel cover.

“YOU KNOW, PAUL, I THINK YOU WERE RIGHT. TAKE THE WHEEL COVERS OFF!” — Mr. Ralph Lauren

thing for their cars. Maintaining their faith in us is more important than specifying which marque we work on.

It was back in 1988 that Mr. Ralph Lauren, who had been a good client for some time, first asked us if we would take on a project outside of our normal specialty — that being the restoration of his Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic Coupé. Our collaboration with him on this restoration led to Best of Show honors at Pebble Beach in 1990. This, in turn, led to Mr. Lauren’s request that we restore his dramatic 1930 MercedesBenz “Count Trossi” SSK for the 1993 event.

The focus of the Pebble Beach Concours is primarily on the cars and secondarily on the owners. That’s as it should be.

There is no specific recognition for the restorers, but it is an extremely important event for us nonetheless; it is the World Series of the restoration business, and I love that aspect of it. Restoring cars made thirty to ninety years ago is an extremely unpredictable endeavor. Yet the date of the Pebble Beach Concours is fixed; it’s an inflexible deadline. Your best effort must be completed — all of the variables encountered along the way in a restoration must be dealt with — by that Sunday at 8 a.m. That can best be illustrated by relating our experiences in 1993.

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Ralph Lauren leaps for joy when the SSK takes the top prize in 1993.

Mr. Lauren had commissioned us to undertake the complete and authentic restoration of his SSK, whose body had been designed by its first owner, Count Carlo Felice Trossi. Mr. Lauren is an extremely busy man, and yet he stays involved with his projects as much as he possibly can. Ours is a true collaboration; we consult him often. During the summer of 1993, as restoration of the SSK neared completion, we sought his guidance on which of two possible wheel treatments he preferred. When the car was delivered from the factory to its first owner, its wire wheels were exposed, but full spunaluminum wheel covers are showing in a photograph taken of the car in Italy during its early years. Either configuration was in keeping with the history of the car.

We prepared a set of rudimentary disks, photographed the car with the disks covering the wheels on one side but not on the other, and sent the pictures to Mr. Lauren’s office. Of course, that wasn’t the same as seeing the car in person. On numerous occasions, Mr. Lauren made plans to come to our shop to see the car and make a final decision, but business conflicts forced him to cancel those plans. Ultimately, he left the decision up to me. I felt we should go with the wire wheels because they gave this substantial car a slightly lighter, sportier appearance and that was the way the car had appeared parked in front of Castello Trossi in a picture Count Trossi’s family had given to us.

Mr. Lauren saw the finished car for the first time at 7 a.m. on Saturday, just one day prior to the big event. It was a typical Monterey morning — quiet and misty. Mr. Lauren and I stood together and watched the car being unloaded from its enclosed car carrier. Then Mr. Lauren walked around the car, silently admiring our work, for about fifteen minutes. He seemed very pleased. He looked some more. Then finally, he spoke to me.

He said, “Well, where are the wheel covers?”

I explained my decision to him, but it was clear that he really wanted to see what the car would look like with wheel covers. I asked for a few hours to figure out what to do, and I wandered around the polo field looking at other cars. It was ludicrous, of course, to think that we might be able to find and borrow wheel covers that would actually fit the SSK. And so I finally decided to call my shop back in Massachusetts.

Fortunately, Frank Price, my body shop foreman, was there, and he agreed to box up the unfinished wheel covers that had been fabricated for the SSK, along with some metalworking tools, and get them on a plane to California. We hired a courier service to retrieve the package from the San Francisco airport, and they delivered it to our hotel in Monterey at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning.

We had previously removed the spare wheel from the SSK and brought it into our hotel room. And right there, we

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attacked the rough wheel covers with drills, metal files and polishing equipment. Each wheel cover had to be fitted to the wheel, a hole had to be cut for the valve stem and that hole had to be nicely finished. Then each wheel cover had to be given a consistent, spun-aluminum, satin finish and cleaned with a mild polish.

Needless to say, filing the edges of large aluminum disks in the wee hours of the morning created a bit of a stir. While I was out negotiating with the hotel’s maintenance engineer for a few additional tools, one of our hotel neighbors came over to see exactly what was going on. When the crew sheepishly explained what they were doing and why, he said, “Oh, that’s fine. I know what you’re going through. I’ve been there many times myself! Hearing this creaking that just went on and on and on, I really had to come over and see what was going on and shake the hand of the man with that kind of endurance.”

Eventually we relocated to a work area in the hotel kitchen, where we could finish our job without bothering the other guests. We were still there when the kitchen crew came in to cook muffins and pastries for breakfast — an unexpected benefit of our new workplace! All four wheel covers were finally finished to our satisfaction at 5:30 a.m., and after a quick hour of sleep, we headed back to the polo field to meet Mr. Lauren, his wife Ricky, and two of their children.

The SSK was out of the trailer, and we fitted the wheel covers to the wheels on one side and left the wire wheels showing on the other side. As is frequently the case on the morning of the Concours, people who really wanted to see the cars up close got to the polo field extremely early. A crowd quickly gathered around the SSK, and Mr. Lauren walked from one side of the car to the other, again and again, talking with his family and some of the onlookers. Everyone had an opinion about which way the car looked best. My crew and I looked on nervously.

When I checked my watch, it was already 7:45 a.m.! I told Mr. Lauren that we needed to make a decision and get down on the competition field. After a few additional very long

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Paul Russell, Ralph Lauren and Ricky Lauren in 1999.

As one of our Class Judges, Paul Russell appraises a 1956 Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa Scaglietti Spyder in 2018.

minutes, he said, “You know, Paul, I think you were right.

Take the wheel covers off!”

You might have expected some grumbling from the crew after their extraordinary effort to get the wheel covers done, but we were very satisfied. We had been presented with a seemingly impossible challenge, and we had met it. Our client had requested that we present all his options to him, and that’s simply what we did. Of course, it was especially satisfying to go on through the day’s events and to win Best of Show — our second such honor in collaboration with Mr. Lauren.

Here’s to finding sanctuary where you are.

2020 Lincoln Aviator Black Label Grand Touring model shown with available features.

Below: Arturo Keller’s 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Barker Touring Saloon makes its way down Cannery Row on the 1998 Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance.

Below right: Hot Rods took to the Concours competition field in the late 1990s.

In the early 1990s, the practice putting lawn (soon to be renamed the “Concept Lawn”) began to be a regular showcase for concepts and new cars.

OUR BEST OF SHOW WINNERS: The 1990s The 1990s were years of expansion for the Pebble Beach Concours—both on the field and off.

The competition field expanded from The Lodge lawn to the 18th fairway and witnessed

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1990s

the introduction of new classes for growing segments of the car hobby, including Hot Rods and microcars. Concours cars also took to the road with the creation of the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance, an event that added a driving component to Concours class scoring. And concepts appeared on the practice putting green.

Events surrounding the Concours, from auctions and expositions to single-marque shows, also began to expand in number.

1990 Best of Show

1990 BEST OF SHOW 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic SHOWN BY RALPH LAUREN

With a dramatic riveted seam scaling its top, the Bugatti Atlantic is one of the most recognizable creations in the collector car world. The original concept for the model, the Aérolithe, was designed by Ettore Bugatti’s son Jean and built on a shortened Bugatti Type 57 chassis. It debuted in 1935, and the Atlantics followed.

This Atlantic (chassis 57591), the last built, was originally delivered to British tennis player Richard B. Pope. Ensuing owners included Barrie Price, Anthony Bamford, and Tom Perkins, who shared the car at the 1985 Pebble Beach Concours when all six Bugatti Royales were showcased with two dozen additional Bugattis surrounding them. The car placed Third in Class and also garnered the Briggs Cunningham Trophy on that occasion.

Lauren purchased the Atlantic in 1986 and asked Paul Russell to restore it, opting to change its exterior color amidst the process. The car was originally a French racing blue, but Lauren felt it would look better in black—and his decision was rewarded when the car was named Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1990.

“Some might object to altering anything about such a rare car,” Lauren acknowledged in an essay he wrote for Art & Antiques a few months after the car’s win. “I sought to maintain the accuracy of the details of the body, the interior, and the engine, but to give the car a new sense of purity by making everything black.”

“It still takes my breath away every time I see it. . . . At age sixty it still looks as futuristic as ever.” The shape “is like no shape I’ve ever seen—the bold contours, the studded seam along the top. I sometimes think it belongs in a museum, but when it’s out on a racetrack it can still hit 110 mph.”

1991 BEST OF SHOW 1932 Chrysler CH Imperial Speedster SHOWN BY SAM & EMILY MANN

This 1932 Chrysler (chassis 7900470) is a one-off special created inhouse for Walter P. Chrysler himself.

The Speedster was likely penned by lead stylist Herb Weissinger, who also designed several other avant-garde Chrysler concepts, and rather than being constructed on the longer 146-inch CL Imperial platform, it was built on the shorter CH platform with 135-inch wheelbase.

In addition to its unique design, the car includes many experimental engineering features, including a high

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compression aluminum head boosting the output of the 385-cubic inch straight eight powerplant from 125 to 160 hp, a gas pedal–actuated starter with automatic stall restart, an automatic choke with a solenoidoperated gas dump valve for use if the engine flooded, a pendulum-actuated valve to disengage the clutch amidst a sudden stop, a high speed rear end, and a spare tire mounted on sliding rails for easy access.

The car passed from Walter P. Chrysler Sr. to Walter Jr., and then to Albert Nippert. Sam & Emily Mann acquired the car in 1988 and restored it in their own shop before showing it at the 1991 Pebble Beach Concours, where it took top honors.

The Manns have since garnered three more Best of Show trophies with three other cars—a Voisin and two Delages— tying them with William Harrah for the second-most wins at Pebble Beach.

1992 BEST OF SHOW 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Brewster Town Car SHOWN BY J. B. NETHERCUTT

Actress Constance Bennett first laid eyes on this Rolls-Royce at the New York Automobile Show of 1936. She immediately bought it and had it shipped to her home near Hollywood. It is said that Bennett paid approximately $17,000 for the car and then recouped that cost by renting the car to filmmakers. It had a substantial role in “The King and the Chorus Girl” starring Carole Lombard and appeared in several other films.

“It had quite a ‘movie career,’” wrote Bennett in a note to one of the car’s later owners. “For its ‘acting services’ it was a standing joke in Hollywood that the car received more salary than many players. Its salary was $250 a day with a minimum guarantee of three days.”

The car was certainly adept at changing roles. Chassis 69 WJ was an experimental chassis produced in 1930, and the factory kept it initially for more than a year. In 1931, complete with Trouville Town Car body, it was sent to a Mr. Fitkin of New York, but the car was rebodied by Brewster in 1935, prior to its appearance at the auto show in 1936.

Bennett’s ownership ended in the late forties—it is said that her husband lost it in a poker game in Oregon City, Oregon—

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1991 Best of Show

and the car passed from owner to owner, residing for a time in Oregon, Washington and Florida.

J. B. Nethercutt purchased the car in the late eighties and completely restored it. The intricate caning effect on the sides was recreated just as it was initially; each line was drawn by hand with a bead of paint, much as a decorator pipes frosting onto a cake. Even the runningboards are noteworthy; they were recreated of steam-bent mahogany.

The restored car debuted at the 1992 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, winning Best of Show. It has since garnered many awards and accolades at other shows, including Best of Shows at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance and the San Marino Motor Classic.

1993 BEST OF SHOW 1930 Mercedes-Benz SSK “Count Trossi” Roadster SHOWN BY RALPH LAUREN

Completed as the Great Depression took hold, the running chassis for this Mercedes-Benz SSK languished unsold until 1932 when Count Carlo Felice “Didi” Trossi, an Italian sportsman who was president and primary driver at Scuderia Ferrari, purchased it—complete with many SSKL race chassis features such as higher compression pistons and big elephant blower. According to his family, the Count personally sketched the lines for the body of this car and then commissioned little-known independent coachbuilder Willie White to build it to his specifications. The body was constructed of hand-hammered aluminum over oak frames without filler.

The Count sold and repurchased the car three times before 1949, when death forced him to part with it irrevocably. The SSK then went to Argentinian racer Ricardo Polledo, but the

1994 Best of Show 1993 Best of Show

d’Elegance and it appeared in the Moving Beauty exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The following year it won the Star of Excellence Trophy at the 1996 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

1994 BEST OF SHOW 1933 Duesenberg J Rollston Torpedo ConvertibleVictoria SHOWN BY TERENCE & MARY BETH ADDERLEY

1992 Best of Show

Péron government refused to allow him to import the car into that country so Polledo eventually sold the car to automotive dealer Charlie Stitch, and it passed thereafter to Carter Schaub, Ray Jones, Sir Anthony Bamford, and Tom Perkins.

Ralph Lauren bought the car from Perkins in 1988, and after it was restored with the guidance and craftsmanship of Paul Russell and Company, the car won Best of Show at the 1993 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

It’s “both gorgeous and monstrously powerful,” said Lauren.

“It’s a lot of car to handle.”

Famed Mercedes-Benz designer Bruno Sacco listed the car among his favorites. “It has a soul,” he said simply. “It’s different from other Mercedes—completely different—but it’s still a Mercedes and it’s good.”

In 1995, two years after its win at Pebble Beach, the SSK was named Best of Show at the Meadow Brook Hall Concours

This Duesenberg began its life in 1929 when it was delivered to Philadelphia, although its original owner is something of a mystery. A Chicago man bought the car a few years later, but its performance was an immediate disappointment. Driving home he detoured to Indianapolis to visit the Duesenberg Company, and factory mechanics quickly diagnosed the problem: about 2,000 pounds of armor plating had been added to the car.

While the car was at the factory, noted designer Gordon Buehrig sketched a unique new body for it—a torpedo convertible Victoria with unusually long doors and a disappearing top. The new owner asked the Rollston Company of New York to build this Buehrig body, and it was installed on the factory-refurbished chassis, with interior designed by J. Herbert Newport. The car was then redesignated as a 1933 model.

In ensuing decades the car remained in the Midwest, switching owners from time to time. In the 1960s then-owner William White of Libertyville, Illinois, took the car apart, intending to restore it, but he didn’t progress far. When Terence Adderley purchased the car in 1972, it was in pieces in piles and boxes—with more than a few parts in shops scattered across several states. Its full restoration under the eye of Bill Bizer finally began in 1988 and was completed in 1994.

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The car went on to win three Best of Show awards that summer; in addition to its win at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, it took the top award at the Meadow Brook Hall Concours d’Elegance and at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival. And the Adderleys continued to show the car for years.

1995 BEST OF SHOW 1931 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8B Viggo Jensen Cabriolet d’Orsay

1995 Best of Show

SHOWN BY W. K. HAINES

This 1931 Isotta Fraschini features a rare blend of Italian engineering and Danish design.

The marque Isotta Fraschini, manufactured in Milan’s via Monterosa from 1900 through 1950 and long a symbol of aristocratic dignity, introduced its famed Tipo 8—said to be the world’s first production straight-eight engine—between 1919 and 1921. The ultimate high performance version of this engine, the Tipo 8B, was catalogued in 1931. It is believed that just under thirty Tipo 8Bs were built, and only three examples are known to have survived to see the twenty-first century.

This example bears a singular body designed by Viggo Jensen and built by Dansk Karosseri-Fabrik of Copenhagen for the then Consul General of Denmark, Carl Glad. Though Isotta Fraschini officials categorize the body as a Cabriolet d’Orsay, it is actually a Sedanca de Ville with a fixed rear windscreen and wind-up windows.

This car was often used by Glad and other Danish officials and royalty—most notably Prince Henrik—for ceremonial parades and long-distance tours. It visited the Arctic Circle in 1939, and by the turn of the decade it was recognized throughout Scandinavia.

The car remained with the Glad family until 1968 when it was sold to their neighbor Erik Orth. The Orth family kept the car another two decades until W. K. Haines acquired it.

Restoration of the car began in 1991 and was completed in 1995 just prior to its appearance and win at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

The car went on to win at Louis Vuitton events in London and Paris and was exhibited at the Centre Internationale de l’Automobile in Paris.

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1996 BEST OF SHOW 1938 Delage D8-120 de Villars Cabriolet SHOWN BY SAM & EMILY MANN

René Dreyfus once called Delage and Delahaye “France’s two glamour-pusses,” and in the mid-thirties these two luscious marques merged. The last of the “Delahaye” Delages, model D8-120 first made its appearance in 1937. It had the independent suspension and hydraulic brakes introduced on previous models, but the engine size had increased to 4.7 litres and it had a Cotal electromagnetic four-speed gearbox.

This wonderfully flamboyant example of the model, reflecting the Art Deco era, was built in 1938 by de Villars, a French coachbuilder with strong American ties. Roland de Gaffenreid de Villars was the son-in-law of American billionaire Jay Gould, and it is said that Gould established him in business and continued to guide the shop through the years. By the late thirties, it was building some twenty-five luxury cars a year.

When this car was introduced at the last prewar Salon de l’Automobile in Paris, it was reportedly greeted with acclaim and quickly became the queen of the international concours circuit.

It was first owned by a M. de Montesquious and then by Armand Beressi, and one of those two men had the fenders cut down. It is possible that the guilty party felt the car was a bit too flamboyant. More likely, the fins were damaged in an accident and were too difficult and too expensive to repair, so they were severed. Later restoration efforts did uncover signs that such an accident had occurred.

1996 Best of Show

1997 Best of Show

The car was brought to the United States in 1957 by Otto Zipper.

Sam and Emily Mann purchased the car in 1993 and undertook its restoration themselves.

The car took the top award at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1996. It has also won Best of Show at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance, and the Concours d’Elegance of the Eastern United States, and it has earned other important awards at the Meadow Brook Hall Concours d’Elegance and the Louis Vuitton Classic in Rockefeller Center.

1997 BEST OF SHOW 1937 Talbot-Lago T150C Figoni & Falaschi Coupé SHOWN BY WILLIAM E. “CHIP” CONNOR II

The combined efforts of Talbot-Lago and Figoni & Falaschi resulted in many wondrous automotive creations, including the T150C model with goutte d’eau (teardrop) body.

Fourteen of these cars were created between 1937 and 1939, and thirteen survive to this day. Just four of the fourteen, including this T150C, have a notched back, making them rare indeed.

This Talbot-Lago, owned by William E. Connor, was the first car to win Best of Show at both the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Concours Automobile Classiques at Bagatelle. The latter accomplishment came first, after Connor’s initial restoration of the car. Remarkably, the car was completely re-restored for Pebble Beach.

“Pebble Beach is not about over-restoration and embellishment,” Connor told one reporter. “If anything, we had to de-embellish the Talbot. In addition to being about elegance, Pebble Beach is about historical accuracy and originality.”

Among other things, the motor was rebuilt, non-original parts were taken off the car, proper parts were sought out or created, proper pebble-grained leather replaced flamboyant ostrich skin on the interior, and the exterior was repainted from dark aubergine to the car’s original blue and silver.

After two years and 4,000 hours of work by restorer Bob Mosier, Connor felt the car was once again ready for a concours—ready specifically for Pebble Beach.

He was right; despite a close field, this teardrop came out on top in 1997.

1998 BEST OF SHOW 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Corsica Roadster SHOWN BY JOHN MOZART

This superb Bugatti was built initially for British Colonel G. M. Giles, who was one of the original founders of the Bugatti Owners Club and served as its Chairman.

Colonel Giles purchased this Type 57SC chassis (57593), took it home to England, and had Corsica of London build the body for it. In an early piece in Bugantics, he describes how crowds would gather around the car whenever it was parked, admiring all aspects of it, including its exotic allegator interior.

A later owner, Irwin Goldschmidt, apparently brought the car to the United States in the late 1950s, and Richard Paine

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1998 Best of Show

acquired it some years later. John Mozart acquired the car in the mid-1980s and put about 5,000 miles on it before beginning to restore it.

The restoration, done by Mike Hemus, focused simply on returning the car to its original state. “Great cars like this are what they are,” said Mozart. “You can’t embellish them.”

The Daimler marque—and the Double-Six model, in particular—has also been well recognized on the Concours competition field. Three Double-Sixes have taken the top award at Pebble Beach. The Nethercutts’ Double-Six Limousine won in 1970 and Robert M. Lee’s Corsica-bodied Drophead Coupé took top honors in 2006.

Perhaps the biggest task involved replicating the complex and repeated scraping pattern on the engine that was, in effect, the signature of its builder.

This massive Double-Six bears a Sport Saloon body designed

by H. R. Owens and built by Martin Walter for British film star Anna Neagle. It was named Best of Show at the 1999 Pebble Beach Concours when shown by George Lingenbrink and Charles Bronson.

The car was named Best of Show at the 1998 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It has also won key awards at the former Meadow Brook Hall Concours d’Elegance and other classic car events.

Among its many notable features are its low windscreen, large wire wheels, suicide rear doors, twin spares at the rear, and an elephant head mascot.

1999 BEST OF SHOW 1932 Daimler Double-Six Martin Walter Sport Saloon SHOWN BY GEORGE LINGENBRINK & CHARLES BRONSON

Today, the Daimler Company might be less well known than other early British luxury motor manufacturers, such as RollsRoyce or Bentley. But in its day, it was equally well regarded.

And, as a matter of fact, the Daimler Company predated them.

Daimler was awarded a royal warrant to provide motor cars to the royal family as early as 1902, and that continued well into the 1950s.

1999 Best of Show

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The 1949 Delahaye 135 M Guilloré Convertible owned by Bill Scheffler was once entered on the Monte Carlo Rallye Historique but seems equally “at-home” on the 70-mile Tour route along California’s beautiful coast.

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Craig Davis: Father of the

PEBBLE BEACH TOUR d’ELEGANCE The majority of this story has been excerpted from an article by George Donaldson that first appeared in Cypress Coast Living and Carmel Living magazines (our thanks to Len Ferace for giving us permission to use it). Additional excerpts are from a piece by Michael Lynch that first appeared in the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours program.

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Elad and Ronit Shraga in their 1949 OSCA MT4 Siluro, followed by their OSCA MT4, the unique Mille Miglia Spider, and the Ford GT40 Roadster Prototype driven by Max Girado.

T

he First Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance was held near The Beach Club in 1950 in conjunction with the first Pebble Beach Road Race, which took place a few blocks inland. The Concours soon moved next door to the lawn of The Lodge at Pebble Beach and the races eventually relocated to Laguna Seca and expanded to include several events spread over the year.

Then, for nearly five decades, the basic structure of the Concours d’Elegance remained much the same: on one Sunday in August some of the most graceful, beautiful and, well, elegant examples of the automotive arts were judged and displayed in that breathtaking location. In the late ’90s, however, a new wrinkle was added in the form of the Tour d’Elegance. And that event was the brainchild of one man, Craig Davis of Pebble Beach.

Davis has been an automobile enthusiast for most of his life.

He ran hot rods as a youth, and has owned many collectible cars, ranging from an early 1928 Bentley to a 1969 Iso Grifo, and including several classics (perhaps most notably, multiple Lagondas and Talbot-Lagos) and a wide variety of postwar

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sports cars. He has also been an entrant at the Pebble Beach Concours on more than 20 occasions since the mid-1980s and served for nearly two decades amongst its class judges.

“I had been involved with the Concours as a judge and then moved to Europe and lived there for a number of years,” Davis says. “While overseas, I noticed the emphasis was more on driving than on looking at them. I took part in some of the driving events there, including the Mille Miglia Retrospettiva, as well as the California Mille when I returned, and I wanted to see some kind of driving event linked to the Concours. . . .

“Some critics of the cars at Pebble Beach regarded them as ‘trailer queens’ because they were rarely, if ever, driven.”

To change that, Davis recommended the idea of a Tour to Concours organizers. The organizers, in turn, asked Davis to plan and oversee the event, which he did for years.

The concept was finalized as the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance, a leisurely drive tracing portions of 17-Mile Drive and Highway 1, and passing some of the area’s best-known scenery.

Shown crossing Bixby Bridge during the 2018 Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance, the “Wankaner Rolls-Royce,” a 1921 Silver Ghost with open touring body by James & Co., was originally ordered by the Maharana Amar Singhji of Wankaner, and it remains in the family.

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Davis said his intent for the Tour d’Elegance was threefold: 1. To give people who couldn’t go to the Concours itself a chance to see the cars out on the road—and “they’re probably more interesting out on the road.”

2. To address critiques who called the Concours cars “trailer queens”—“to show that they do in fact drive.”

3.

To be a potential tie-breaker in the Concours competition; “if there’s a tie between two cars in a class and one of them had participated in the tour and one had not, then the one that participated would be the winner.”

Davis says he knew the Tour was a success when an entrant told him, “I put more miles on my car during the Tour than in all my previous years of ownership. I’ve never had so much fun with the car.”

For his long contributions to the Concours and the Tour, Davis was awarded the 2005 Lorin Tryon Trophy, the only Concours award that is given to a person and not a car.

Now well beyond its 20th year, the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance has become a wildly popular event for both participants and the public. The automotive media agrees.

Automotive Blog wrote, “The Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance is probably the best bargain of all of Monterey Car Week’s lavish automotive festivities. Practically every gorgeous vehicle parking on the golf course on Sunday arrives for this morning journey around the Monterey Peninsula’s picturesque seaside roads. Making the whole affair even better, people actually get to hear these million-dollar (or more) machines roar. . . . It’s likely the best moving motoring museum that someone could ever witness.” And Autoweek said, “The annual Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance . . . is a Monterey car week must-see.”

Rolex has been a longtime sponsor, and additional sponsors include Mercedes-Benz, Hagerty, the FIVA (the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens) and the HVA (the Historic Vehicle Association).

The 2021 Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance presented by Rolex takes place on Thursday, August 12.

Top left: Tour d’Elegance founders (and fellow Lagonda owners) Craig and Bunne Davis are delighted to be passengers in Alan Tribe’s gorgeous Lagonda V12 Rapide.

Left: Concours Chairman Sandra Button and her husband Martin with their cream Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster — a favorite driving car from their collection.

Above: One of the stars of the Tour, and the car that was named Best of Show at the Concours three days later, the 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta owned by David and Ginny Sydorick.

Mark Guinther and Larry Crane talk cars while pausing beside Jim Farley’s Lancia Aurelia in 2019.

YO U R C O N C O U R S M E M O R I E S :

THE PEOPLE WHO BRING CARS TO LIFE We invited you to send us your memories of the Pebble Beach Concours, and we’re sharing them across several of our digital Insider magazines. Recent issues have focused on “Family Ties & Traditions” and “Cars that Caught Your Eye & Captured Your Heart.”

Here you tell us about the people who bring the Cars—and the Concours—to life. The Concours serves as both an annual reunion for cherished friends and it also offers the chance to meet some of the more famous car guys among us. As one enthusiast notes, “The cars are the stars, but the people behind them provide many of the best memories.” Thanks to our partnership with WeatherTech, we are also sharing a series of video shorts related to Concours moments.

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ONLY AT PEBBLE BEACH N E L S O N V. T H O R P E Longtime Pebble Beach Concours Class Judge I first attended the Pebble Beach Concours in 1966 as a fiveyear-old. I don’t remember the early years distinctly, but I do remember seeing my father’s 1929 Duesenberg Derham Phaeton parked where the award’s ramp is now and that must be a very early memory. I can’t report all of the many amazing things I’ve seen in the 52 Concours I have attended since then, but here are a few.

I remember what fun it was to drive our 1916 Duesenberg Race Car over the ramp for the first time in 1980. A few years later, in 1985, I was driving our Model J along 17-Mile Drive near the turn to The Lodge, when I spotted a Bugatti Royale through the open garage door of what turned out be Alton Walker’s home. Since I was in a Duesenberg, I thought I might be able to weasel my way into the garage for a better look, so I pulled into the driveway. I had never met Mr. Walker before but he was very friendly—and very happy to let us in for a closer look. And to my amazement, there was a second Royale next to the first one! He was providing shelter for both cars during their stay at Pebble Beach. It was a rare chance get to see them in detail up close and not behind the velvet ropes on the putting lawn where they were posed on Concours Sunday. Afterwards, we went on to The Lodge, and when I met a friend who still helps to put the show together today, I recounted breathlessly what I had just seen. He asked how I had known the Royales were there, and I noted the garage door was open. My friend paused and then said glumly, “We have asked him not to do that. . . .”

Another great memory dates to the 50th year of the Concours, when Jacques “Frenchy” Harquindeguy won Best of Show.

Frenchy was a larger-than-life figure, a tall man with a deep voice that had acquired a fine gravelly edge from years of smoking. As a young man, he had emigrated from his Basque home in the Pyrenees, and he had done well in the Janitorial Supply business in ensuing decades. This had allowed him to own a number of European Classics, most of which he worked on himself in his Walnut Creek, California, garage. A few years before the 50th show, one of Frenchy’s cars had won the Most Elegant Open Car Trophy, and as I was talking with him then, a young woman came up and introduced herself as a reporter from a local news outlet. She asked about the car and so forth and then she asked what he did to afford such cars, and he replied, “I clean toilets.” She laughed uncomfortably and then said, “No, really, what do you do?” “I actually clean toilets,” Frenchy said. She walked off in a huff. He turned to

Above: Nelson Thorpe exits the awards ramp in his family’s Duesenberg Derham Phaeton.

me and said, “Well I do!” Frenchy was a real straight shooter and was universally appreciated, so when he won Best of Show there were broad smiles on a lot faces. Later on, I went up to the Polo Field and found Frenchy in grubby overalls, chaining down his winning Delahaye in his trailer. “Frenchy,” I exclaimed in mock horror, “you are a Best-of-Show winner now, you have to have a team of guys do this for you.” His mirthful response was not suitable for family reading.

Pebble Beach gives one the chance to meet interesting people, some famous and some not. One year I was walking across the field wearing a vintage car-themed tie from Ralph Lauren’s Polo brand when I heard a voice off to my right say, “Hey, nice tie!” I looked over and it was Ralph Lauren. Only at Pebble.

REKINDLING OLD FRIENDSHIPS AND MAKING NEW ONES TO M M ATA N O, A K A M I ATA PA PA Car Designer, College Professor and Longtime Concours Honorary Judge I have experienced many memorable moments in the 35-plus years I have attended the Concours. The last 11 years as an Honorary Judge have given me another perspective as well.

The year all of the Ferrari 250 GTOs gathered along the ocean, or the gatherings of the Jaguar D-types, or the many

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Left: Tom Matano is introduced as one of our Honorary Judges.

Below: Tom Matano and Jules “J.” Heumann grab a golf cart to head up to the transporter lot to watch cars being prepped and polished.

cars shown here that have never been shown elsewhere have surprised us all.

But I also always look forward to seeing friends each year.

I’ve always enjoyed rekindling connections with old friends that I haven’t seen for many years, and I also to get to meet many interesting people and make new friends.

I will miss holding Sir Stirling Moss’s hand to help him down the steps to the Awards Ramp each year. It was such an honor to hold the hands that steered cars to so many victories.

But the best of all of my amazing memories involve time spent on a golf cart with Jules Heumann, former chairman of the Pebble Beach Concours, and my mentor. On Fridays, we would go up to the staging area to see cars that were being prepped for the show on Sunday morning. We would get off the cart and walk around, and I would learn from J. of a car’s long journey from its beginning to the prestige of being invited to the Pebble Beach Concours. He educated me on the unique features and interesting stories of the many cars up there. Then, on our way back down to The Lodge, we would talk about possible candidates for Best of Show and other awards. Our guesses weren’t always accurate, there

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were often more surprises on the day of the show . . . And that’s one of the reasons why the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is so special!

R.I.P. Sir Stirling Moss and J. Heumann

A KODAK MOMENT B I L L VA R G U S Enthusiast I want to share my favorite first moment on the 18th hole.

In 1978, I attended the 5th annual Monterey Historic Automobile Races while training as a Boom Operator at Castle Air Force Base in Merced, California, and I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Phil Hill after he lapped Laguna Seca Raceway in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR on loan from the Mercedes museum.

The following day I attended the 28th Annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and ran into the museum representative and two other people, including Mr. Hill. As it was early, we continued our discussion of the SLR’s technical innovations of

Below: Stirling Moss was a presence on our competition field for many years.

Stirling Moss’s 1958 Maserati rests near the 18th green.

the period, et cetera. I especially recall an in-depth discussion regarding the brake system. Then the Mercedes technical representative offered me a chance to try the SLR on for size.

Upon sitting in the cockpit, someone in the group noticed a Kodak 110 instamatic camera in my pocket and offered to take the attached picture.

A RACING GREAT ENJOYS HIS RACING GREAT ALAN GALBRAITH Head Gasket of the Concours d’Lemons As I was taking a picture of Sir Stirling Moss’s 1958 Maserati near the 18th green, I became aware of someone standing next to me, not wanting to get in the way. Once the shutter clicked I looked over, and down, to see Stirling Moss smiling up at me.

“She’s a beauty, yes?”

Sir Stirling then spent about 20 minutes telling me about the car and relating racing stories. There was no one else around apart from Concours entrants furiously cleaning their cars and

Bill Vargus enjoys the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR.

class hosts in golf carts rushing around in the chilly, damp morning air.

Only at Pebble Beach can moments like that happen.

SNAPSHOTS OF CONVERSATIONS MARK GUINTHER Enthusiast We all know that Pebble Beach is the place to go to see cars you’ll never see anywhere else again. But for me, and I’ve been attending pretty consistently since 1977, it’s all about the people.

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Left: Mark Guinther enjoys a conversation with Sir Stirling Moss.

I met Sir Stirling Moss in 2009, and he couldn’t have been more friendly and engaging. Another wonderful conversation was had with the New Zealand grand prix driver Howden Ganley, completely by accident, at the snack bar three years ago. And I also had a great time at the last Concours talking with Larry Crane about Lancias, particularly his B20 coupe, which was present and which he sold to John Lamm during their time at Road & Track magazine.

Great stuff greatly missed this past year.

Otis Chandler powers across The Lodge lawn in his 1911 Simplex 50 HP Holbrook Toy Tonneau in 2004.

CHARMED BY A CHANDLER C AT H E R I N E FA B E R Director of Sales & Marketing, Intercontinental: The Clement Monterey I wish I had an image to go with this, but a flashbulb memory will have to suffice. I particularly cherish my experiences at the Pebble Beach Concours during the late ’70s and up to the mid-’80s. Locals dressed mostly in white, in somewhat vintage fashion, and always sporting large and flattering hats.

It was remarkably easy to talk with the glitterati who were exhibiting their legendary, exotic and fascinating vehicles.

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I chatted with Otis Chandler, scion of the LA Times at one such Concours. I knew his son from visiting The Cate School in Carpinteria, and Mr. Chandler was friendly and approachable, despite those legendary movie star looks and a Gatsby-like air of belonging to a hopelessly glamorous social set. I’ve forgotten which car he was entering when I spoke with him but have never forgotten the way his kindness and charisma made me feel.

The cars are the stars, but the people behind them provide many of the best memories.

TALKING CARS ROBERT MALKE Show Host, Nostalgic Radio and Cars I have been attending the Pebble Beach Concours on and off since the mid-’80s as an avid car enthusiast. In 2010 I started hosting a live automotive and music-oriented radio show, Nostalgic Radio and Cars, based in Clearwater, Florida, and since then, I have made my yearly trek to the Concours in a media capacity.

Back in 2013 I had the good fortune to interview Nick Mason, legendary drummer for Pink Floyd, just before he drove his 1953 Ferrari 250 MM up to receive his award. We talked about his first car (“an Austin 7 Chummy purchased for 20 pounds”) and the cars he now wanted to purchase (“almost everything on this field today”) as well as his own collection of rare Ferraris and other unique cars — and he had a few things to say, both good and bad, about the whole concept of uniqueness.: “It’s a distraction talking about uniqueness.

The more unique the car might mean they weren’t that great.”

Being a car guy and musician myself, it was pretty inspiring.

After the interview, as we walked towards the awards ramp, we had a more casual conversation about music and the 50th Anniversary of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album.

He also commented on how much he enjoyed the stunning setting, with vintage sports and racing cars line up against the Pacific Ocean.

A FORTUITOUS TALK WITH PIERO FERRARI ROBERT PHILLIPS Entrant I would like to start my Pebble Beach story in 2000.

I had last raced my car, a 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial Scaglietti Spyder Series II, at the Bryar Motorsports Park in New Hampshire in 1968. With following Navy duty stations in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, a ship home-ported in Norfolk, Virginia, and eventually duty in Washington, DC, my time demands were such that the car basically sat in the corner of whatever garage we had until the summer of 2000, when we had a family discussion about “What are we going to do with that?” — meaning the dirty old race car taking up space in the garage. The conclusion was that it would be taken apart and put back together right.

Robert Malke (right) interviews his hero Nick Mason.

From the mid-eighties we had been spending time trying to fill in the bits of history of the car, so we had pretty good evidence about the original condition of the car, and having had it for so many years, little had been done to alter its original condition. So, little by little, we began the process of totally disassembling the car — and then bit-by-bit conserving and rebuilding it. I tackled the power train portion and enlisted the help of a good friend, David Carte, who happens to be the top Ferrari restorer around, to work on the car when he had spare time. As often happens in life with the best laid plans, a prostate cancer diagnosis and eventual radiation treatments took some time out of the process.

A longtime dear friend, Alan Boe, apparently became impatient with the slowness of the evolution and in early 2008 he submitted the car too be shown at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. At this point I must say that I knew of the Concours but had never attended it.

At the end of March 2008 I was shocked to receive word that the car had been accepted for the Pebble Beach Concours that August. And I was informed by other friends that if I did not make the show that year, I could forget about being invited in the future, so the pressure was on. The car bodywork was not complete nor painted, the motor and transaxle were still apart, and the braking system and electrical wiring harness still in disarray. I put my other jobs on hold and work began in earnest. By the end of June we had successfully bench-tested the motor, which had not been started for nearly 40 years.

David Carte and Craig Naff finished the body and paint work and helped with the reassembly of all the related bits and

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Robert Phillips wins both First in Class and the Enzo Ferrari Trophy with his 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial Scaglietti Spyder.

pieces. And at the end of July, with a great sigh of relief, the finished car was loaded on an interstate transporter headed West.

Against advice from other Ferrari friends, we decided to enter the Tour. The first several miles were driven easily, mainly in first gear with much coasting as we were behind a midtwenties vehicle. The trouble began as we started up a long incline. The car in front of us with a big heavy flywheel had no difficulty maintaining 4 or 5 miles per hour speed up the hill, but our competition Ferrari does not know how to move at that speed and soon the clutch displayed its displeasure by emitting clouds of acrid smoke — whereupon we pulled off the course and called for a flatbed transporter back to the Portola Road lot. I cannot say that we had not been forewarned about that possibility.

Early on show day in light fog (excuse me, Marine layer) we drove onto the display field and were directed to the M-2 Class parking area for the Competition Ferraris. Four other beautiful Ferraris were parked alongside, two with several uniformed mechanics in attendance. Based on extensive

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advice from David Smith, an early Pebble Beach Concours winner, I had prepared a briefing book for the judges, and it apparently contained enough of the right answers for I later learned that my score was 100 points! In other words, they could find nothing wrong with the car.

About midday, I noticed a small group of people looking at the cars and recognized Piero Ferrari amongst them. I approached him and asked whether he would like to hear about my car. For the next several minutes he looked at my presentation book and photos. As a student of body language, I found it interesting that at the beginning of our talk, his arms were crossed on his chest and by the end of our talk he was helping to turn the pages of the photo book.

A little later a gentleman showed up and asked that the car be moved up to the holding area. I asked what that meant and he replied that the car was going to receive a trophy. My goodness, first time here and we were going to get a trophy!

Unbelievable! Shortly afterward, my car and two other competition Ferraris were parked just before the awards ramp.

Below: Richard Lewis captures a Hispano-Suiza grille with his watercolors.

Bottom: Can you spot the reflection of Jay Leno?

Howard Miereanu’s wife Sandy poses in front of an REO, with Strother MacMinn in the background.

Then came the Miss America process. The gentleman with the French gendarme cap pointed to one of the three Ferraris in the holding area and it was not us. That car then drove onto the ramp for the Third in Class trophy. The man then pointed to the other car — and we suddenly realized that we were going to get the First in Class trophy! Somewhat in shock my ragtag group of friends helped push the car into motion (remember that I had an almost completely fried clutch from the aborted Tour) and we drove onto the ramp. The lovely young lady in the ’20s flapper outfit handed us the First in Class trophy and then stepped aside. And there stood Sandra Button with another trophy in her hands: the Enzo Ferrari Trophy for the best Ferrari on the field. At that point I pinched myself to see if this was a dream, and I expected that I would wake up back at the hotel, but no, it was real and unbelievable.

First time ever to the Pebble Beach Concours and the car is awarded the top two Ferrari trophies!

I found out later that the Enzo trophy award was decided by Jean Todt and Piero Ferrari, so the earlier on-the-field talk with Piero Ferrari looks like it was fortuitous.

An Epilogue: Since that day at the world’s top concours d’elegance, the car has attended 17 more shows, garnering 30 more trophies and six Best of Show awards. It was also featured on Jay Leno’s Garage and on Petrolicious. And in 2018 the car returned to Pebble Beach, where it was sold by Gooding & Company for a world record price of over $5 million after a single ownership of 58 years and two months.

I must say it was quite a ride!

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A LIFETIME OF LOVE AND CARS H OWA R D M I E R E A N U Former Car Designer In 1964 my wife, Sandy, and I attended the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance for the first time. Being a retired car designer from GM (1959–1963), I had first heard of this event while enrolled at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. One of my instructors, Strother MacMinn, who was also one of the judges at Pebble Beach, told me about this fantastic automobile show — but it was a number of years before I took that road trip with my wife driving north from L.A. To our surprise this was no ordinary “car show.” It was an eye-opening gathering of cream-of-the-crop cars from around the world. More than we could have ever imagined. We immediately fell in love with the entire event. In 1973 we vacationed in Carmel and took in the Concours with my three children. They loved it!

My wife and I attended and loved just about every Concours at Pebble Beach until she passed away in 2017. In 2019, I brought my brother, another car nut.

Each year it was incredible just thinking about the array of the world’s best automobiles we would see and the people that showed them. Then there were the judges, a few of whom I knew personally and worked with at GM and at ArtCenter.

Getting to the event a few days early to watch the cars on their Tour on Highway 1 was spectacular, and then viewing them on Ocean Avenue in Carmel and watching the faces of the hundreds of shoppers was fun, but the absolute best part of the concours was taking the time to look at each car, photograph it, and try to anticipate which would take Best of Show.

then I realized that some of the reflections made the overall painting more interesting. So by the third or fourth time I went to the Concours I started to be picky about getting the most interesting reflections.

Then my wife and I had twins and I had to take a few years off. But during the down time I viewed many of my photos I had taken and noticed that often two cars of the same make were next to each other. I thought this might make a fun theme for what I now call my “Fraternal Series.” Once I had this theme in mind, the next time I went to the Concours I went looking for very specific reflections. I was surprised how difficult it was to get two cars lined up in just the right way so the reflection was both obvious as to what the cars were and distorted enough to make it draw in the viewer. I have done about a dozen in the Fraternal series now. Most are 40” x 60” watercolors and take about 8 months to a year to complete.

I once asked Jay Leno to pose for me by one of the cars he was showing. More specifically, I asked him if I could photograph his reflection in the back of the head light on his car. He replied, “Isn’t my face distorted enough?” I got a nice shot of him with his wonderful smile reflecting in the chrome.

This was definitely one of my favorite moments in my 30 years of visits to the Concours.

So, my journey has been one of going from just seeing the cars to seeing all the reflections in the cars, whether they are other cars, or people or the great scenery. The story for me is usually the reflection now.

LEARNING TO SEE RICHARD LEWIS Artist I have been going to the Concours for about 30 years, missing only a few shows along the way due to conflicts with kids, like being born or going to university.

I had being doing watercolor paintings of cars for about five years when an architect I work with invited me to come to the Concours with him. Back then I was only interested in getting great pictures of the fantastic cars. As I painted from the pictures I started to notice reflections in the cars. At first I would actually try to avoid or eliminate the reflections. But

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Michael Jackson greets Jay Leno.

A SOMEWHAT SCENIC VIEW DAV E L AV I N

Below: John Landstrom shares one of his motorcycles with Jay Leno.

Enthusiast I was walking around the “Concours” a few years ago when I noticed we were just behind Jay Leno. At that moment his arms went out to stop us so several winners could roll through to be showcased. The ground on which we were standing slanted downhill, so for about three minutes I was looking through Jay’s armpit to watch the cars go by. Not a memory for him, I’m sure, but I’m talking about it now, so it obviously made a lasting impression on me.

A FINE SITE FOR A SPIN JOHN LANDSTROM Motorcycle Enthusiast & Entrant I have been an entrant at Pebble Beach Concours three times.

I take pride in the fact that three of my motorcycles have been displayed in what is the world’s best venue. Jay Leno took a spin on two of my bikes right in the middle of the big show.

I also rode in the Tour on three occasions. As a motorcycle restorer and historian, I feel winning an award at the Pebble Beach Concours was my finest moment. I only wish a motorcycle class would once again be a regular part of the Concours.

AN EXCHANGE OF NICKNAMES M I C H A E L JAC K S O N Enthusiast & Industry Representative Some 5 or 6 years ago, Brough Superior Motorcycles had a display booth under the pines about 500 yards up from the Pebble Beach Concours. Knowing that I’d previously worked in the USA and “spoke American,” Brough’s owner, an eccentric Englishman called Mark Upham, invited me to accompany his small team to Pebble Beach. From there we were due to go to the Bub Speed Trials at Bonneville Salt Flats the following week, to break an LSR Record or two. And to complete the final preparations for our motorcycles before those record attempts, Mr. Upham had arranged for us to spend three days at Jay Leno’s Garage in Burbank, California.

Amongst his extensive collection Mr. Leno owned a handful of exquisite Brough Superiors, which prompted his generous offer for us to make full use of his workshop facilities.

Meanwhile, back under the pine trees, on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Leno had advised he’d be calling by our booth, both to meet Mr. Upham for the first time, and to discuss the final logistics of our following week’s visit. By mid-afternoon, needless to say, the whole exhibition area was heaving with enthusiasts; everyone arriving to view the Concours cars — and there were several thousand people — was automatically channeled thru the exhibition hall, prior the quarter-mile stroll down to the ocean.

I was thus positioned outside, to spot Mr. Leno — not a difficult task — as he approached. Although I don’t possess a TV, I knew exactly what Mr. Leno looked like, from magazine images and so on. Of generous build, and wearing construction worker apparel, he’d surely be easy to see. And he was! Despite making relatively good progress towards the exhibition area, he was constantly stopped to answer questions/sign autographs etc, but, at the same time, was completely unfazed by these interruptions. Finally, I was in speaking distance. Clad in blazer and tie, and sporting a distinctive shiny Brough Superior lapel badge, I clearly contrasted with the surrounding throng. He raised an eyebrow, as it was obvious that I was specifically seeking him. “I’m one of the Brough gang,” said I, as we shook hands, “You must be Bob Hope!” Still totally unfazed, and quick as a flash, he smiled and said, “Well then, I guess you are Dick Cheney” [whom indeed I resemble]! And, quite deservedly, that’s how he continued to address me throughout our visits to his magnificent Garage.

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Pebble Beach Concours to Honor Its

HISTORIC TIES TO RACING

70TH CELEBRATION TO FEATURE ALL OVERALL PEBBLE BEACH ROAD RACE WINNERS Phil Hill was forced to start well behind the pack seventy years back when the first race for the Pebble Beach Cup took place on the residential roads above what is now The Lodge at Pebble Beach. The clutch on his Jaguar XK120 had locked in the engaged position in a preliminary competition, and when he pushed the starter button on this occasion a large lurch forward was expected. Instead, nothing happened — and a push start was required. Twenty-five laps later, as the evening fog began to mix with billowing dust and flying gravel, Hill crossed the finish line in first place.

The date on that first Pebble Beach Road Race was November 5, 1950.

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Amidst the racing, a small contingent of collector cars — participants in the first Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance — paraded down the start-finish straight.

“The Race itself was all so new,” Hill said years later. “We were driving through this forest, with just a bunch of snow fencing and hay bales lining the road. It was a real road race, and I hadn’t been in one before.” Hill would go on to win the World Drivers Championship just over a decade later.

Three more drivers and four more cars would record overall wins in the Pebble Beach Road Races before the tree-lined course proved to be too dangerous and a new circuit would

After winning the first Pebble Beach Road Race, Phil Hill could barely fit the tall trophy in the car.

Left to right: The Jaguar XK120 Phil Hill drove to victory in the first Pebble Beach Road Race; the Ferrari 750 Monza that won the last two Pebble Beach Road Races; the Allard J2 that Bill Pollack raced to wins here in 1951 and 1952.

be built to host them at Laguna Seca beginning in 1957. But the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which began in tandem with the races and has continued on long after them, will gather all five of the winning cars at its 70th celebration, which is scheduled for August 15, 2021.

“The history of the Pebble Beach Concours begins with the history of road racing on the West Coast of the United States, and we want to recognize that heritage when we come together for our 70th celebration,” said Concours Chairman Sandra Button. “We want to pay tribute to the people that founded this event and the cars that made their mark here.”

The overall winning cars of each of the annual Pebble Beach

Road Races will be displayed on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links, alongside many past Best of Show winners from the Concours.

As previously announced, additional features and special classes will pay tribute to early electric cars, those coachbuilt

by Pininfarina or powered by Miller, Porsche 917, Lamborghini Countach, Iso Rivolta, and Cars of the Carrera Panamericana.

For information or tickets to the 2021 Concours, or to make a donation to our Concours charities, please go to www.pebblebeachconcours.net.

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Cars in the Lives of Pebble Beach Insiders

Clare Hay was among our Forum presenters in 2015.

Below: This 1930 Bentley Speed Six Gurney Nutting Tourer shown

by William E. “Chip” Connor II would go onto win First in Class at the 2000 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

CLARE HAY MY PERSPECTIVE

Auto Historian & Author

Why cars? I’d rephrase that to “Why Bentleys?” Jane Austen described her art as painting on a two-inch-wide piece of ivory — I have my 3,000 or so vintage Bentleys, and that’s enough for one person. I’ve been asked to move outside my field, but I’d rather stick to my knitting. At school I had friends who got interested in cars; being out of step I went backwards in time. It was aircraft that first captured my imagination, partly because I was stuck in a boarding school and my holidays were book-ended by Heathrow, in the days of the British Overseas Airways Corporation. Like Snoopy I saw myself chasing the Red Baron in a Sopwith Camel, not realizing that Camels were often powered by a W.O. Bentley–designed BR1 rotary engine. A 3 Litre Bentley is as close as most of us will get to a Sopwith Camel, and there was one, Clive Gallop’s Vanden Plas Speed Model, pictured head on and full page in a book in the library imaginatively titled Cars Cars Cars. I confess, I cut out the page. Years later I fixed the brakes on that car and got to drive it. The twelve brief years of Bentley Motors were dramatic in the extreme, and the cars are, if you’ll forgive me, awesome.

If you could go back in time, what historic automotive event or person would you want to see and why? Easy. I’d take my digital SLR hidden in a Box Brownie with a huge memory card, and I’d like to be teleported into the west end of London on 26 July 1929. I’d start with a walk round, spotting Bentleys and discreetly photographing them, before buying that day’s Autocar in a news agent. Then to Gaffikin Wilkinson in Hanover Square — eight secondhand Bentleys for sale from a 1924 long chassis coupe to a nearly new 4½ Litre Vanden Plas

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Tourer at £350 to £950, and a range of new models; to H.M. Bentley in the old Bentley Motors’ showroom; to Kensington Moir & Strake, and to Jack Barclay just off the square in George Street — with more Bentleys than you could shake a stick at, all with registration numbers intact and coachwork in color not black and white — and all those lovely catalogues and advertising photographs would just disappear into my capacious bag. Up Great Portland Street to Jack Withers in Osnaburgh Street, then refuelling in a Lyons Cafe before the pièce de resistance, Bentley Motors’ showroom in Cork Street. I’d pretend to have no idea about cars while charming Arthur Longman out of every possible catalogue and photograph, Box Brownie whirring. Then a tram up the Edgware Road to lurk outside the works at Cricklewood, and the Vanden Plas’ works and the Bentley Service Department in Kingsbury. Then I’d go home and rewrite my books.

What Pebble Beach Concours moment do you remember most? The first year I went, around 2000, with Chip Connor’s Speed Six. Jay Leno came over and said hello. While we were talking people kept coming over and asking to have their photograph taken with him. Jay was endlessly patient and obliging, I stepped back each time to be out of shot. To put somebody else on the wrong end of the lens Jay suggested taking a photograph of me with the Bentley. So, I stood next to the Speed Six and smiled nicely for the camera. Jay looks up over the viewfinder and says, “Gee, you Brits are so wooden.” Acerbic, pithy, and entirely true, and I’ve cherished that moment ever since.

LEADING THE LUXURY MARKETPLACE SINCE 1985

Proud Participant of Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance (Displaying in the Concours Village)

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Musings from Our Master of Ceremonies

FROM PEBBLE BEACH TO HOLLYWOOD

By Derek Hill It was just a few years ago that the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance celebrated the 50th anniversary of Ford’s historic win at the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours, where the GT40 finally claimed its first victory and was trailed across the finish line by two other GT40s to make a clean sweep of the podium. I was at that Concours as Master of Ceremonies and experienced what has become one of my finest memories: I was on the awards ramp as the top three finishers of that historic race drove up and Edsel and Henry Ford III presented them with trophies. Even the late Dan Gurney, Ford’s polesitter at Le Mans that year, was in attendance, looking down from a balcony above as the whole moment played out.

Little did I know I would soon be asked to work on a major Hollywood film depicting this very story of Ford’s historic achievement! The Oscar-winning Ford v Ferrari film — portraying the story of Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby — has since swept through theaters around the world with a big buzz.

I was called on to be a stunt driver for the film, which turned out to be a job that lasted for over two and half months. When I say “stunt driver,” it should be in quotes because, really, I was hired to do what I know how to do well, and that is to drive race cars at high speeds — not risking serious injury in burning crash scenes as one might think of a stunt driver. My background in TV commercial work had put me on the radar with other precision stunt drivers, and when the film’s stunt coordinator, Robert Nagle, heard about me, he knew of my father’s involvement with Ford in the mid-60s and thought it would be terrific to hire me. In fact, a few of us on the film had fathers involved with Ford’s big push to win Le Mans, including Alex Gurney, Dan’s son, who actually had a part playing his father, and Jeff Bucknum, whose father, Ronnie, finished in third place in ’66. Who said there isn’t nepotism in Hollywood? But, actually, the three of us have extensive racing backgrounds. And for us, it was not only getting to work on an exciting big-budget Hollywood racing film but also stepping back into the footsteps of our fathers at such a potent time that made this special. There were days on the set when we were immersed in 1966, with hundreds of extras — all dressed in period garb — parading within a life-sized replica of the 1966 Le Mans pit lane.

I would start most days by putting on a vintage racing uniform and heading to the hair-and-makeup trailer where makeup

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artists would transform my look, complete with slicked back hair. Sometimes it was surreal, with Matt Damon or Christian Bale sitting in the chair next to me, getting the same treatment.

Then I would make my way over to the props department, which had boxes labeled for each individual stunt performer, complete with the correct helmet, goggles and whatever else might be a part of your look that day.

People have often asked me what the cars were like to drive.

Anyone who has ever been on a film set understands that things have to look right; they do not necessarily have to be absolutely accurate beneath the skin. So these cars were purpose-built for the movie with tube frames and fiberglass bodies. Later, in post-production, sound mixers went to great lengths to get the engine notes right, recording an actual GT40 and dubbing it over the sounds from our cars. The Oscar win for Best Sound Editing was well deserved. The wizardry of the art departments and the visual effects added innumerable layers to the final product to bring the realism of what was actually filmed to the big screen. It’s been hugely satisfying to see that audiences around the world came out to watch the film en masse; Hollywood proved that a historical racing story could, in fact, win big at the box office.

The whole experience puts a big-production event like the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance into perspective. In many respects the Concours is the polar opposite of what a Hollywood film is: it’s where the cars are the stars, and there is no acting involved! The beauty of the Pebble Beach Concours is that people go to great lengths to make sure the cars are as authentic and true to original as possible. It is the profound elegance of what these cars exuded from their beginnings, not only as premium automobiles, but as sculptural and mechanical works of art. Winning a First in Class or Best of Show is, in many ways, as big a feat as winning an Oscar. It is reflective of a community of passionate experts and industry leaders casting their ballot for what they recognize as the best of the best. It is such an honor to be a part of this show, which has a singular purpose — to recognize the most unique and celebrated cars, all the while being able to raise significant amounts for the Pebble Beach Company Foundation, which in turn does so much good for the surrounding community.

Whether seeking Best of Show or an Oscar, it’s the pursuit of excellence that is the primary driver for everyone involved.

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Traditions: On Cars & Cravats

Top Left: Freddie March always wore a Green and Blue Tartan scarf.

Left: March, with neck scarf, poses with his MG C-type after winning Brooklands’ Double-Twelve and British Driver of the Year in 1931.

Above: A selection of Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance ties.

Excerpted from a piece by Nicholas Foulkes I have to admit to nostalgia for the days when motor racing drivers wore ties, cravats and scarves and upheld the noble tradition of nattiness at the wheel. Mike Hawthorn was perhaps the last racer to cut a tremendous dash with his neckwear, donning a bow tie under his overalls. The right kind of neckwear plays an important part in the mythology of driving; the image of an early 20th century racer seems somehow incomplete unless the goggled figure hunched over the steering wheel has a silk scarf trailing like a pennant in the slipstream, like a flying ace in the open cockpit of a World War One fighter plane. Although, as the tragic example of the nearly decapitated danseuse Isadora Duncan shows, wearing a scarf while in those early motorcars was not without its dangers.

The famous pilot of the temperamental but blisteringly fast Blower Bentleys, Sir Henry Ralph Stanley “Tim” Birkin was characterized by his spotted blue silk scarf, which went rather well with his dashing good looks, casting him as something

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of a soulful-looking Errol Flynn. Birkin clung to his neckwear in the face of concerns about its safety. “That scarf was a constant source of controversy with his friends,” recalled fellow racer Sammy Davis, “because, like all its kind, it had a habit of fluttering loose behind his helmet and was then liable to blow suddenly across his goggles.”

Perhaps he thought it brought him luck. A talismanic silk scarf wrapped around the neck certainly did no harm to his contemporary, Freddie March, later the 9th Duke of Richmond and Gordon, who wore a scarf in the green, yellow and blue of the Gordon tartan when he won the Double Twelve at Brooklands in 1931. That scarf became his constant companion throughout his racing career . . . a sort of wearable copilot.

Opposite: Pebble Beach Concours ties, which were initially made to honor Concours judges, have become very collectible. Bow ties and scarves are also made for judges who prefer them.

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Traditions: On Cars & Cravats

Pebble Beach Concours ties often relate to a featured marque for the year.

Today of course motor racing attire is a matter of health and safety rather than dash and élan, but the retro-appeal of motoring-inspired neckwear remains strong, especially at high-end automotive gatherings.

According to one aficionado, some of the most sought-after ties are the limited edition ones made by Hermès for the Tour Auto (the five day event that used to be called the Tour de France). Another classic rally, the Mille Miglia, also has its own trophy neckwear.

To this roll call of elite auto event neckwear must be added the ties made for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The first such ties, made to distinguish and thank the Concours Judges, were created at the end of the 1970s by Robert Talbott, the men’s haberdasher and California’s answer to Hermes. Initially the tradition was a relatively informal one, but gradually, as their popularity grew, a pattern established itself; over the years the ties have come to reflect the featured marque, and each year since 1994 the ties have been formally dated, a feature that appeals to collectors.

“The intent for the ties was to have a memento of each Pebble Beach Concours for those without whom it would not be possible: the entrants, judges and officials,” explained

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Concours Chairman Jules “J.” Heumann a few years back. “It has continued to this day and they have become very desirable.”

Over time, these ties changed to reflect changing taste, primarily in tie width. In general, they started at a width of 3 inches, grew to 4 inches and then reached a happy medium of 3½ inches wide. The fabrics have changed over the years as well. At first there were simple two-tone designs woven into the fabric, such as radiator mascots or Pebble Beach icons.

Then the weaves began to be more complicated, utilizing several colors. Printed fabrics were used for a time, but then reverted back to fully woven, multicolored patterns—always in silk.

A few bow ties were made from the start, for those who preferred them. And as women joined the ranks of judges— and more women competed as entrants—scarves, too, were created for the Pebble Beach Concours.

“I have found increasing interest, but only on scarves with great graphics,” says Bonnie K. Singer, a dealer in vintage automobilia. “Buyers are about equally split between men buying the scarves to frame and hang (and occasionally to give as gifts), and women looking for a designer scarf to wear at automotive events or collect.”

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This 1939 Bentley 4 1/4 Litre Park Ward Drophead Coupé owned by Dr. Mark and Srinuan Sinning is picture perfect.