Brandes Elitch on Lancias at Concorso Italiano 2011

The first of three featured cars selected from Concorso Italiano is this Lancia Flaminia Berlina. It was one of Batista Pininfarina's favorite designs; simple, elegant, refined and very attractive. Photo by Petya Elitch.

By Brandes Elitch
Photos by Petya Elitch

Last year I wrote a historical retrospective of the Concorso, which you can find at (click here). This is a large show – about 850 cars were displayed this year. Even in Italy, you wouldn’t get close to a thousand collector cars in one venue. If you are an Italian car collector (and if not, why are you reading this?) the Concorso should be on your list of things to do before you are permanently flagged off the course, so to speak. I would like to feature three cars which I found compelling, a purely arbitrary selection, and give you an overview of the event.

As you know, this all started with the road races on the property surrounding the Lodge at Pebble Beach, known as the Del Monte Forest. To promote the event, a “concours d’elegance” was added, but in those early days, new cars were exhibited, and just about anyone who wanted to show an old car was admitted. After the inevitable crash on the course, the organizers banned road racing, and a new, purpose-built course was constructed about 20 minutes away, on the Monterey-Salinas highway, Route 68. The course was named “Laguna Seca.” For many years, what we now call the “Monterey Historics” consisted of the race on Saturday and the show on Sunday. While perhaps other people had this idea, it was Steve Earl who created, organized, and ran the historic racecar event, and built the business model used by everyone else these days. In 2010 the Sports Car Association of the Monterey Peninsula took control of the event, but Earl has his hands full managing another show, called “The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering,” which takes place on the Friday, the same day as the Concorso. And while it might theoretically be possible to attend both events the same day, the 3000 tickets to the Quail Lodge event sell out in the first day on the Internet, and they cost $400. If you were going to pay almost a grand for you and your significant other to attend a car show, you would not likely leave early. That brings up one of the most salient features of attending “Race Week,” – the cost. Just before driving to Carmel, I visited a friend in L.A. who has attended this event as long as I have, and has shown his Maserati 3500 at the Concorso. He said that they are not going this year, because, “You know, it costs $2000 to be there for the week, and for that we can spend 2 weeks in Amsterdam!” A ticket to the Concorso is $125, a Saturday track ticket is $70, and a ticket to Pebble Beach is $200. The Carmel area is one of the pricier tourist destinations in the country, and even the most “modest” accommodations have a 3 night minimum at $250 per night.

From the rear, the Flaminia Berlina was understated but influenced many other car designs. Photo by Petya Elitch.

The other salient feature of the week is the traffic. Carmel has one north south road, Route 1. You can take Rt. 68 east to Salinas and pick up Rt. 101, which is the main North-South highway. Carmel is a quaint little town, so quaint that nobody has an actual street address, and therefore to get your mail you have to physically go to the post office downtown, so you can only imagine the traffic flow through the narrow, winding streets. It’s bad enough in normal tourist season, but when you add 6 auctions, 8 different car shows, 4 rallies, and 3 art and memorabilia displays, well, it’s overwhelming. After seeing the 175 or so cars displayed in downtown Carmel on Thursday, my wife entered the “MEGO” stage, which means “my eyes glaze over.” When she found out that there would be 550 racecars at the track, she opted to visit the Monterey Aquarium instead, probably a good decision for her.

All Flaminia Berlinas had column shift but also had the rear transaxle of the Aurelia. Photo by Petya Elitch.

Having said that, I must say that the Concorso organizers did a superb job of traffic control. My photographer/wife took a while to get ready, so we didn’t arrive until around 10 am. I was gritting my teeth, but we found only a brief delay on Rt. 68 and no delay in parking once in the gate, which was pretty impressive. Last year’s show probably had a thousand cars on the field, and while it was slightly smaller now, the cars were spread out over a much bigger area, which made it easier to walk around. The day is choreographed, and you could spend most of the day in the stage area watching interviews and presentations. These included “best of marque” awards to ten different categories of Italian cars and motorcycles, a fashion show (!), and special presentations on Pantera and Bora (both 40 years old), the Ghibli (45 years old), and an F50 reunion with Ron Tonkin, plus interviews with Tom Tjarda and Valentino Balboni. One of the highlights was a special display of original, unrestored cars, which of course is the most exciting part of car collecting. There was also a “non-Italian corral,” which was full of German cars, and a small area with British cars, so there was a bit of everything. To answer your obvious question, no, it is not possible to see everything. Many of the cars were of very limited production, so it is unlikely you are going to see another one at the local “Show and Shine” at the Dairy Queen back home.

Guido Lanza, the owner of this Berlina, is a sedan guy and has been featured in VeloceToday in the past. Photo by Petya Elitch.

And this brings me to one of my favorite cars that is owned, coincidentally, by someone whose car I featured 2 years ago – Guido Lanza. I am a “sedan guy,” and his car is one of my favorites –a “barn find” Lancia Flaminia Berlina. It turns out that there is already a superb history of the car at another place I have profiled here: Ettins Moto, in Berkeley, owned by Jaan Hjorth. In fact, you can read about it at: http://www.eddinsmoto.com/id56.htm
Here is some perspective from the owner. The Flaminia replaced the Aurelia as the top of the line Lancia. The sedan was designed, but not built, by Pininfarina, based on the truly spectacular 1955 Florida prototype. About 3000 examples were made. Guido’s car is an early model, with 4 wipers on the back window (yes, 2 inside and 2 outside!) and drum brakes. The article at Eddins Moto shows the history of the car, and each successive owner has continued to restore it. Guido thinks he is the 5th owner. His father grew up in Milano, and when the car was new he dreamed that one day he would be successful and have one himself, so you see, dreams really do come true. The goal is restoring it was to turn it into an “impossible time warp car,” but it turned out that like many Italian cars (surprise) there were rust issues, which required body work and new paint, and then of course, an new interior. The biggest issue was rebuilding the transaxle. You can see pictures of the restoration at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27321085@N02/sets/72157616309578610/
This is a car that you would have trouble finding even in Italy. It is one of my dream cars, if I hit the Lotto. Here, the color, and particularly the interior, are just right, and really take your breath away. Guido was certainly the right person for this car.

Lanza's Alfa Romeo 1900 Berlina Primavera. Photo Brandes Elitch.

In my next article on the Concorso, I will feature two other cars that got my attention, and that you are not likely to see anywhere else.

Finally, I have to point out that artist Wallace Wyss wrote an outstanding article in the Concorso program, called, “Confessions of a (former) Barn Finder,” which was the most enjoyable thing I read during the Historics. Perhaps we can get a serialized version for Veloce Today….