Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Photos

9:00 am on Thursday, Portola Road, Pebble Beach. That’s where start the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance and also the first occasion to discover a part of the field of cars that will be aligned on the 18th fairway the following Sunday. As OSCA was a featured make this year, this MT4 1500 Morelli Spider is among the entrants. It has been restored in its 1954 Carrera Panamericana colors.

One of the best places to see the cars is along the US 1 that goes south to Big Sur. This MT4, which resides now in Israel, is the only remaining of three built with the in-board headlights. It competed successfully in period in many West Coast races including the Torrey Pines and the Pebble Beach Road Races.

There was a ‘Postwar Custom Citroën’ class composed mainly of different examples of the famed DS. The DS 19 model, with sedan body, was launched in 1955 and built until 1962. This example of the first series, from 1959, exemplifies the pure and timeless design of the DS.

In 1965, Citroën introduced the DS 21 with an enlarged engine. French coachbuilder Henri Chapron used this model to offer a coupé version called ‘Le Léman’, of the name of the Swiss lake. Only 27 of these coupés were built.

The same Henri Chapron was subcontracted by Citroën to convert unfinished DS Saloons into Cabriolets. Although assembled by Chapron, they were called ‘cabriolet usine’. This is a 1967 example.

Another class was for the ‘Motor Cars of the Raj’, illustrating the cars of the Indian maharajas. This 97-year-old Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost only has 3,000 miles on its odometer!

This 1921 Fiat 501 S Corsa is not really the car you expect to be owned by a Maharaja but it was part of the collection of the Maharaja of Patiala who owned up to 44 Rolls-Royces, married 10 times and had 88 children!

Another class was for the New York coachbuilder Rollston which built around 700 bodies in twenty years. This is the only known Minerva, a 1931 Type AL, with American coachwork.

This interesting Fiat 1400 Vignale Cabriolet was designed by Giovanni Michelotti and bodied by Vignale for the 1952 Turin Motor Show. After being bought by a Californian customer, the Fiat was later driven by Kirk Douglas in the movie ‘The Racers’.

Only 33 Siata 208S with a Motto spyder body were built and only one won a SCCA Sports Car Championship. This is the car, chassis 513, that earn many trophies from 1960 to 1962 with Linton, Diffenderfer and Erlbeck.

6:20 am on Sunday. The first car is entering the lawn and it is the 1946 Fiat 1100 C Frua Barchetta. This is the first car designed and built by Pietro Frua for his Carrozzeria Frua. This is a recent Mille Miglia and Villa d’Este participant.

The cars of the featured classes are aligned along the Ocean before spectators invade the place. Here a 1963 Citroën DS 19 Chapron Concorde Coupé owned by the Mullin Collection. Only 38 of these were built.

Also from the Mullin Museum, the 1965 DS 19 Chapron Majesty Saloon, one of 27 built. In comparison with the DS 19 saloon, the Majesty provided increased headroom for the rear passengers and greater interior space as well as many exclusive features.

Alongside the Citroën DSs, the Citroën class presented a special SM bodied in cabriolet by Chapron. Called ‘Mylord’ it was presented at the 1971 Paris Auto Show and only seven were built, the cost of the car being more than twice the price of the factory SM coupé.

A later evolution of the OSCA MT4 was the TN, for Tipo Nuovo. This is one of the three streamlined spiders built by Morelli. It was campaigned in Europe and South America by Alejandro de Tomaso and his wife Isabelle Haskell from 1957 to 1959.

This unique streamlined body is due to the Dutch coachbuilder Pennock and clothes one of the 36 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport chassis. It was the last body built by the Dutch company before it closed its doors in 1952.

This car is the last and longest Duesenberg ever built. The body comes from Rollson, the reorganized coachbuilder formerly known as Rollston, and built on one of the left-over chassis after the Duesenberg closing in 1937. The car was completed in 1940.

There was also a small Scarab class consisting of these three cars. At left, a Mk I, the first Scarab to be finished and raced throughout 1958. In the middle, a 1958 Mk II from the Collier Collection, powered by the 339ci Chevy V8, the last of the Scarab sports racers. At right is the second sports racers built, a Mk II, this model being RHD, most convenient for the driver as most of the turns on race tracks are right hand turns.

Presented by Pininfarina at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show, the Modulo was, and was to remain, a styling exercise based on Ferrari’s 512 S racing chassis. But its new owner decided to make it roadworthy. Seeing this UFO-like object going on the ramp was a special moment.

The Modulo has no doors and, instead, it is the windscreen that slides forward to allow access to passengers.

Many thought that this spectacular 1937 Cadillac Series 90 Hartmann Cabriolet was a possible Best of Show. It wasn’t, although it was a first in the ‘American Classic Open’ class. Carrosserie Hartmann from Lausanne, Switzerland, created this body for a wealthy Swiss playboy.

The coveted award finally went to the 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta of David & Ginny Sydorick from Beverly Hills, California.

After the revealing of the Best of Show, it was time to run over to the now-deserted golf course to take some shots of the remaining cars before they left. Here the 1938 Peugeot 402 Darl’mat Roadster, designed by George Paulin and bodied by Marcel Pourtout. This car has been in California for a long time and has been recently restored.

The new Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa appeared at the 1956 Monza Supercortemaggiore race driven by Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn and they won. This car, 0600MD TR, was that first Testa Rossa. It was later rebodied with pontoon-fenders that it still has today.

This small Siata 300BC Bertone was first owned by amateur race driver John Bentley. He raced the car in 1954, including at the Sebring 12 hours. The next owners raced it extensively throughout the 1950s. Its home is now in Belgium.

This famous OSCA MT4 competed in the 1951 Mille Miglia (2nd in class) with Franco Bordoni. Then, OSCA factory driver Giulio Cabianca earned 22 victories in 2 years with it. The car went later to the US where it raced between 1953 and 1956 with in particular a third in class at Sebring in 1954.

Coming from Japan, this OSCA MT4 is one of the first to be fitted with the 1450 cc engine. It had a long racing career in North America, being raced at San Francisco, Seattle, Stockton, Santa Rosa.

Five OSCA 2000 S Frua Spiders were built and this is the second one. It was raced in Italy in period, including the Giro di Sicilia and the Mille Miglia, before starting a second career in the United States. It was later equipped with an experimental 2.5-liter Grand Prix engine which is still with the car.

This 1959 OSCA S273 is an ex-Cunningham team entrant at the 1960 12 Hours of Sebring where it was co-driven by Denise McCluggage and Marianne Windridge. At the time, the car was powered by a tiny 750 cc 4-cylinder, later replaced by a larger 860 cc.

Being the first 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta, the awarded car was been presented at the 1937 Paris Auto Salon, then at the 1937 Milan Auto Show and at the 1938 Berlin Motor Show. The current owner has now restored the car to this latest specification.