Built in 1937 as a Grand Prix race car, this Delahaye remained hidden in the French countryside during WWII. In 1946, it received this spectacular body by Franay and was shown at the 1946 Paris Motor Show. It was one of the favorite for the Best of Show award.
Story and Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
2015 Pebble Beach Tour & Concours d’Elegance: Click to ENLARGE
The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance had its 65th edition this year. It marks the end of the Monterey week and is for many people the most awaited event. For photographers, it is also the most exhausting day of the week because one must be at 6 am on the fairway to have a chance to take some clean shots before the crowd invades the golf course.
In addition, is better to stay late as some of the owners park their cars along the shore to be pictured in front of the Pacific Ocean.
But it is worth waiting, because the morning and the evening were sunny, whereas it was mainly foggy in the previous years.
In the afternoon, the first three awarded cars of each class are called to the ramp to receive their prize. With 29 classes this year, that it takes at least three hours before the Best of Show award is unveiled!
This year, the featured marques and classes were DuPont, Designs by Carrozzeria Touring, Ferrari (with four different classes), Mercury Customs, Pope and Postwar Cunninghams.
Here are a few of my favorites:
The Best of Show award finally went to the more classic 1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A cabriolet by Carrosserie Worblaufen, owned by Jim Patterson, Louisville, Kentucky. It was first shown at the 1932 Geneva Auto Show and now resides in the US since 2014.
Three days before Sunday’s Concours, the Tour d’Elegance is the occasion to have a first glimpse of the entrants. As every year, it is a Mercedes 300 SL which leads the convoy with Sir Stirling Moss on board, this time driven by ex-F1 driver Jochen Mass.
Just after the start, the participants are driving in front of the Lodge at Pebble Beach. Here is one of the three Fiat Abarth 1000 Bialbero GT entered by Briggs Cunningham at the Sebring 3-Hour Race in 1962, driven to 1st place by Bruce McLaren.
This Ferrari 250 GT LWB California is one of nine alloy bodied LWB California. 5th overall at Le Mans in 1959 with Grossman and Tavano, 1451 GT also counts many successes in SCCA events in 1959 and 1960.
One of the 21 Maserati A6G 2000 coupé with Zagato body. These cars were lightweight cars designed for racing in Italy often driven by wealthy gentlemen drivers.
The Tour is now heading south to Big Sur. This is a chance to photography the cars with some spectacular backdrops along the US1. Here is one of the most original Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Touring Spider of 1931, with original body and instruments.
The Delahaye 135MS Coupé Aérodynamique was built by Pourtout for the 1946 Paris Auto Salon. It was inspired by the designs of Georges Paulin who worked with Pourtout before WWII, during which Paulin was tragically killed by the Nazis.
Although very similar to the Ferrari 212 Inter bodied by Vignale, this car is the first 250 Europa, shown alongside the new 375 America at the 1953 Paris Auto Show. It is only the 3rd time this car has been shown in public.
Perfect place to drive a Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina Cabriolet Series I. The 2nd owner of this car was Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti whose son, Luigi “Coco” Chinetti Jr, used it on his honeymoon.
After lunch at Carmel, the cars are coming back to Pebble Beach to be refurbished for Sunday’s Concours. Here a 1953 Chrysler Ghia Special.
Porsche cars are not usual on VT, as this 550RS Spyder that one of its owner, Swiss racing driver and engineer Michael May, fitted with an adjustable aerodynamic wing, surely one of the first wings to appear on a racing car.
Italian collector Corrado Lopresto is a regular at Pebble Beach. This time he was entering this unique 1935 Lancia Augusta Farina Coupé, designed by Mario Revelli di Beaumont and bodied by Stabilimenti Farina for a Countess from Como.
This tiny car is a one-off Fiat Stanguellini presented at the Turin and Geneva Salons in 1957. The design is from Franco Scaglione and it was built by Bertone in collaboration with Stanguellini. It resides in Argentina since more than 55 years.
On Sunday is the Concours d’Elegance and for many enthusiasts, is the most awaited day of the Monterey week. This year, the spectators were lucky to have sun all day long, which is rare on the Monterey Peninsula.
Cunningham cars were among the makes highlighted during the Concours. The C-5R Roadster, nicknamed “The Smilling Shark”, was part of the 1953 effort of Briggs Cunningham to score the first All-American win at Le Mans. Driven by Fitch and Walters, the car finished 3rd overall.
Designs by Carrozzeria Touring was one of the special classes this year and the Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport “Flying Star” Spider was clearly the star of its class. Built especially for the 1931 Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance, it is one of the most emblematic designs from Touring.
The Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 also received Touring bodies like on this 8C 2900B Spider of 1938, first delivered in England through Alfa’s British importer, Thompson & Taylor of Brooklands. After the war, it was once owned by Luigi Chinetti.
This Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 was first built with a Super Sport Spyder Corsa body and entered in races in Italy like the 1940 Mille Miglia. It is in 1941 that its second owner removed the Spyder Corsa body and commissioned this Touring coupé body instead.
Once part of the collection of Italian collector Mario Righini for a long time, this well preserved one-off Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Boano Coupé was shown at the 1955 Turin Motor Show. It is similar to the Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM of Argentinian president Juan Peron, also bodied by Boano and of which the body has been lost.
Entered in the Ferrari Grand Touring class, the 195 Inter Ghia Coupé is just one of the 35 Ferraris bodied by Ghia. 0101 S was exhibited at the 1950 Turin Motor Show and later exported to the United States in the late 1950s. It is now owned by a Belgian collector.
The Ferrari 400 Superamerica 2207SA is the prototype Superfast II, shown at the 1960 Turin Motor Show. It then has been rebodied many times, as Superfast III, Superfast IV and now again as Superfast II for the first time since 1960.
This Ferrari 250 LM, of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, is a piece of history as it is the last Ferrari to win the overall classification at Le Mans, 50 years ago, with Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt. It was part of the Ferrari Preservation class.
Yet another 250 LM that took part to Le Mans in 1965. Entered by Scuderia Filipinetti, the car finished 6th overall with a duo of Swiss drivers.
Driven by Mike Hawthorn for the Scuderia Ferrari team in the 1953 Mille Miglia, this Ferrari 250 MM Vignale spyder (0288 MM) went back to Brescia last May to take part to the 2015 reenactment of the famous Italian race.
What a responsibility for this young lady, to fire up the 250 MM engine under the eyes of the Pebble Beach Judges!
Everybody recalls the sale of the Baillon collection last February during the Retromobile show in Paris. This 250 GT California, 2935 GT, was the star of the sale as it went for $18.5 million.
This 1956 Maserati A6G 2000 Frua Coupé was also part of the Baillon collection and was stored in a garage, alongside the previous California, somewhat preserved from the elements, on the contrary of the other cars of the collection.
One of the 14 Supersonic bodies to be mounted on the Fiat 8V chassis, this car was first sold in the U.S. to Lou Fageol who added these US style bumpers, entered the car in the 1955 Pebble Beach Concours and won its class. Sixty years later, it won again!
Seen in public for the first time since the 1954 New York Auto Show, this Abarth 205A 1100 Sport is thought to be from Giovanni Michelotti, influenced by the work of Virgil Exner and Giovanni Savonuzzi. It was first shown at the 1953 Turin Motor Show.
This car is known as the “Shark-Nose Graham”. It is one of a few 1938 Model 97 to be bodied by Saoutchik. Sold to a French client, it served as a service car for a French General in Algiers during WWII.
The complete designation of this 1932 Rolls-Royce is Phantom II Continental Figoni & Falaschi Pillarless Berline. Built for the Prince of Nepal, it is the sole Rolls-Royce to be bodied by the famous French coachbuilder.
Commissioned by the French Government as a gift for the wedding of the Shah of Iran, this 1939 Bugatti Type 57C received a body made by Vanvooren of Paris, a supercharged engine and many advanced features.
A stunning collection of automobiles! It is amazing to see how well the Pebble Beach show challenges owners and restorers of these incredible finds to restore to such a high degree. Each year the challenge is met by these investors, and appreciators with the best of the best. Thanks for including a little more of the story of each of these cars- that is the real history of rolling art, and most interesting. I expect even more incredible finds to surface in the coming years, as money looses its value, these limited production cars will only increase in value, and respect for what they represent.