Monterey, Thursday 14th of August
Today was the first appearance of most of the Pebble Beach
entered car at the Pebble Beach Tour d´Elegance. Traditionally
held the Thursday before the Concours the cars had to prove that
they actually drive more than just on the field and over the ramp.
Starting at the Pebble Beach Lodge the convoy is driving through
the forest of the 17-Miles drive to enter the back roads to Laguna
Seca where the cars can drive a lap at the famous race track
including the corkscrew. Soon after the cars entered the best part
of the tour down highway No.1 to the turning point at Big Sur; for
some reasons the cars in two groups were spread out very much
today and rarely a group of cars were coming together leaving
more time to look after every single car.
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Thanks to the stickers at the front the passed by visitors could
identify every single car from the list as given at the start. Several
Ferrari 250 TR took part on the tour giving an impression what to
expect on the coming Sunday when the Pontoon fendered cars
will be lined up in front of the Pacific. Other classes including
several Ruxtons and Tatra, especially 16 out of 19 surviving
Ruxton will be seen at the lawn making this a highlight. Every
visitor usually has his favourite on the Tour for the Best of Show of
the main event but this year the decision will not be easy.
Featured coachbuilder Darrin&Fernandez is presented by two rare
Hispano Suiza once delivered to the Rothschild family, his and
hers are brought over by Rob Lee from Nevada, another highlight
is the Talbot-Lago T150 C-SS Pourtout Coupé that just finished a
several years restoration.
After returning to the Lodge the owners and passengers had the
chance to take a closer look at the cars on auction at
Gooding&Company. Again official auction house of the concours
the tent of David Gooding and his team is just around the corner
on the grounds of Pebble Beach. Among the many cars there are
again several highlights, even when the once featured Porsche
917K was withdrawn. Top of the cars are the Ferrari 250 GT SWB
California Spider, the Helle Nice Bugatti T35, the McLaren F1 and
especially the Alfa Romeo Tipo 256 Sportiva.
The first of the big auctions in the area was held at the Quail
Lodge were Bonhams sold the 10 featured lots from the Maranello
Rosso Collection. Presented in an own tent during the preview
many rumours were on the 250 GTO that was intended to get a
new world record for a car on auction. After the bidding on this lot
climbed fast to 30 Million Dollar it took several small bids to get to
the final bidding of 34.65 Million hammer price. Although this is
short of the 50 Million high estimate one has to keep in mind that
it crashed two times and killed its first owner only a month after
its delivery at Montlhery. Rebuild in period it belonged to the
Maranello Rosso Collection for the last 50 years and was one of
the last cars Violati drove before he passed away. At the end the
price was not as hyped before but still an impressive result with a
record that might be not broken to soon, most certain not during
this Monterey week although several cars are well in the Millions.
Tomorrow will see the Quail Motorsport Gathering, one of the
main events of the week; all those who did not get a ticket or who
are more interested in seeing the cars being driven will spent their
day at Laguna Seca for the practice sessions for the races at the
weekend.
In the evening RM will join in Bonhams in the Auction marathon of
the weekend with Gooding following on Saturday.
Report & Images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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