Ferrari Ends Pre-war Domination of Pebble’s Best of Show

Jon Shirley and the Ferrari brave the traditional confetti shower as they pull over the ramp to take Best of Show at Pebble Beach. Credit: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

By Michael T. Lynch

The biggest story of the week of automotive events on the Monterey Peninsula was Jon Shirley’s 375 MM Scaglietti Coupe winning Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It was the first ever win for a Ferrari.

In 1955, Phil Hill won Best of Show with a 1931 Pierce-Arrow 41 LeBaron Convertible Town Cabriolet he had restored. (Hill also won the race with a Ferrari 750 Monza.) The Pierce began a string of pre-World War II Pebble Beach winners that continued until this year, the lone exception being a Maserati Mistral in 1968.

Topping the charts have been Bugatti and Mercedes-Benz with nine and seven wins each. As the years passed, the question of whether a post-war car would ever win Pebble Beach again was hotly debated. No one seemed to know why, although the situation may have been influenced by the Classic Car Club of America which, when the Concours began, only recognized one post-war car as being a classic, the Lincoln Continental.

But the debate is over; the road to this year’s post-war Best of Show at Pebble Beach began in August 1954 when the Italian film director, Roberto Rossellini bought a 375 MM Pinin Farina roadster from Ferrari. The car was originally intended for Luigi Chinetti, the American Ferrari importer. He had sold similar cars to Bill Spear and Jim Kimberly which saw great success, but Rossellini took precedence. However, Rossellini then crashed the car into a palm tree and it was sent to Scaglietti to be rebodied. Scaglietti told of finding nuts from the palm in the car. He also said that Rossellini wanted something resembling a 300 SL Mercedes and it took almost a year to create the result that was requested. Certainly the tumblehome and meeting of the rear light with the rear deck are redolent of Mercedes Chief Engineer Rudi Uhlenhaut’s personal 300 SLR coupe. Scaglietti’s final effort was a stunning creation on the 375 racing chassis, s/n 0402 AM.

Rossellini owned another Ferrari 375 Coupe, this one by Pinin Farina. Here he and Ingrid Bergman admire s/n 0456 AM at the Paris Salon in 1954. He supposedly ordered the car as a gift to Bergman, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Credit: Pininfarina

Despite the fact that Rossellini’s wife, Ingrid Bergman, no longer cared for fast cars, Rossellini evidently liked the Scaglietti coupe because he kept it for ten years. With its 330 horsepower single-cam V-12 and racing suspension, it must have been quite a driver. Bergman was quoted as saying, ”Earlier I went to see his new Ferrari. It is a monster that does over three hundred kilometers an hour. I told him it looked like a flying saucer and it does. I sat in it for a moment and I put my fingers on the wheel in the sign of the cross like we do on the forehead of the children when they go to bed. I am sure Roberto does not know the effect it has on me when he roars off in one of these monsters.” *

(Speaking of wives, Scaglietti used to tell the story of delivering the car to Rossellini at a hotel. The film maker came to the door in the nude, and there was someone other than Ingrid Bergman in the room with him.)

The 375 during its Green Period. Note missing front and side grilles. Credit: Ed Niles

By 1964, Rossellini had left Bergman and taken up with a young Indian woman, Sonali Senroy, whom he later married. According to their son, Gill Rossellini, Sonali, unlike Bergman, enjoyed Rossellini’s Ferrari. In a 1999 interview with VeloceToday Publisher Peter Vack, Gill said, “Meanwhile, father is in Paris riding mother around in the Ferrari (0402), and finds another reason to love my mother. That he can push the Ferrari to the limit and my mother enjoys it. The Indian aristocratic woman from Bengal doesn’t get scared shitless like Anna Magnani or Ingrid Bergman.”

The 375 MM after being returned to Palermo from Naples. Credit: Ed Niles

Rossellini’s career was in decline and he had trouble finding financing for his films. Rossellini sold the car to Sicilian Mario Savona in July 1964 and used the funds to create a made-for-TV movie, The Rise to Power of Louis XIV, a historic drama highly praised by critics and emblematic of his later work.

After being returned to Palermo, the car still has Rossellini’s Roma registration plates. Note also the aftermarket steering wheel. Credit: Ed Niles

A year after Savona’s purchase, the car was stolen. It was recovered in a garage in Naples, now painted green. Savona took it home, had the engine redone and drove the car until 1970. When it was time to sell, Savona offered the car to the factory for their collection, but Ferrari wasn’t interested. They directed him to Pierre Bardinon, perhaps the most important Ferrari collector of his day. Bardinon passed on the car, which went to a friend of his in Paris, Charles Robert in 1970.

The picture that launched Mark Ketcham’s search for the Rossellini 375 coupe.

In 1990, Ferrari hunter Mark Ketcham was leafing through Fitzgerald and Merritt’s classic Ferrari tome and came across a picture of 0402 and wondered where it was. Working through Italian registrations documents, he found Savona in Palermo and was pointed to Charles Robert. The car was in a Paris basement and by 1995, Ketcham’s timing was right. Robert had suffered some business reversals and was willing to part with the car. It went to Ketcham’s client, Jon Shirley, a noted vintage racer and collector. While in Paris, Ketcham remembers saying to Jon, “If there’s ever a post-war Ferrari to win Best of Show at Pebble Beach, this is it.”

Charles Robert and Jon Shirley (right) pose with the Scaglietti coupe in Robert's underground garage in suburban Paris, 1995. Credit: Mark Ketcham

An incomplete restoration had been performed, but many details were far from original. The car was silver again but the upholstery was black, not the original red. The engine was apart, scattered in two shops. A three year restoration commenced at Pete Lovely Racing (now Dennison International Motorsports). Some parts were missing and had to be made. In other cases, the team got lucky – tail lights and front turn signals were the same used on Lancias. The car made its post-restoration debut at the Ferrari Club of America’s International Concours in Toronto where it won Best of Show.

The Shirley 375 is seen on the Louis Vuitton Classic Serenissima Run. Credit: Etienne-images

The car’s next stop on the circuit was the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1998. 0402 won the Scaglietti Coachwork Class and the Luigi Chinetti Memorial Award signifying the best Ferrari on the field. My interviews indicated that the car was also nominated for Best of Show, but by less than 20% of the voting judges. That was enough to budge the needle, but hardly an indication that a post-war car would win in the near future.

Another in a long line of trophies for 0402, Best of Show at Villa d’Este in 2007. Credit: Concorso Eleganza Villa d’Este

Shirley’s Ferrari continued on to the Bagatelle Concours and the Louis Vuitton Classic, winning Best of Show at both. Another Best of Show was achieved at Ferrari’s 60th Anniversary Celebration. Shirley continued to show and drive the car in events like the Serenissima Run through the Alps.

After dozens of shows and rallies over the years, Shirley decided to restore the car again. Despite the car garnering 100 points at Pebble in 1998, Jon continued to consult with experts and several non-original details were discovered and corrected including the leather upholstery which was vinyl in period. With the car closer than ever to original, it was entered at Pebble Beach this year.

Few thought the post-war jinx would be lifted, and most insiders were surprised when the Ferrari was lined up at the end of the day with three other nominees for Best of Show; Robert and Anne Lee’s 1934 Hispano-Suiza J12 Fernandez et Darrin Coupé de Ville; Frank and Milli Ricciardelli’s 1934 Packard Twelve Dietrich Convertible Victoria and Lord Bamford’s 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Vanvooren Sports Cabriolet. If the wags were surprised when the Ferrari was nominated, they were astounded when the Ferrari 375 was the last called to go over the ramp. It had finally happened; a post-war car had won for the first time since 1968 and Ferrari had its inaugural victory in the hallowed event.

The 375 Scaglietti Coupe poses with its Pebble Beach Best of Show Trophy. Pescadero Point is in the background. Credit: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

The car was a deserving winner – a Ferrari with a racing chassis and engine and an exceptional coachbuilt body. Jon Shirley has been a remarkable steward of his cars, bringing them back to period specification and then sharing them with the public at concours, racing and touring events. He has long supported the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, is a former winner there (Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B in 2008) and is known for his philanthropy. Jon is emblematic of those who inhabit the higher reaches of the collector car world. Besides winning the Ferrari Grand Touring Class, the car also took the Strother MacMinn Most Elegant Sports Car Award and the Art Center College of Design Award.

Few expected this outcome, but many felt it was time. I only wish that Sergio Scaglietti had survived to see it. I doubt that we’ll wait 46 years for another post-war winner, but the question remains, when will it happen again? One thing is for sure. We can look forward to seeing more very special post-war cars at Pebble Beach in the future.