Pebble Beach, 16th of August, 2015
Sunday the Monterey car week (often called the Monterey
Madness) came to an end with the main event, the Concours
d’Elegance of Pebble Beach. During its 65 editions more and
more auctions, shows and parties joined in the fun but the
highlight always stayed the most prestigious concours in the
world, located at the 18th green of the famous Pebble Beach golf
course. Well before 6am the first spectators and press arrived
behind the lodge for the traditional coffee and donuts of Hagerty to
wait for the first cars to enter. After a full week of sun also the
concours was held on a full sunny day for the first time since
2004, and just like back then Ferrari was again featured marque
so not few had the impression that there really must be
something special about the creations of Enzo Ferrari. This year
Ferrari got 4 separate classes for the traditional grand touring and
competition cars as well as for the Ferrari raced at the old Pebble
Beach road course before the built of the nearby Laguna Seca
Raceway that hosted the alternative program this day with the
historic races of the Monterey Motorsport Reunion. The field of
the prancing horse was rounded off with an own preservation
class, a feature that becomes more and more important in the
contest of the restored vehicle. After making a sensation earlier
this year the preservation was unsurprisingly let by the 250 GT
SWB California Spyder of the Baillon Collection as sold for a
record price at the Paris Artcurial auction earlier this year.
But Ferrari was not the only featured marque, this year also
DuPont was lined up seaside with own classes for the Shelby
GT350 and the rare Cunningham cars in the field.
After the field was set up by the numerous volunteers the
international jury had to start their work in a very strong field and
after the first victory of a post-war car the year before the outcome
was far from being obvious as many great cars had a good
chance. With time the field started to fill with the crowd and with
rising temperatures over the lunch time the places under the few
trees giving shade became very popular, a contrast program to
the last year when the sun was rarely out. The paint was
gleaming in the sun and the detailers had plenty of work to keep
the dust from the surface on a dusty green that was tortured both
by the dry heat and the spectators.
At about 1:30 pm the judges were introduced and the numerous
class awards were given. As every year the break in the award
ceremony was bridged by an entertaining Jay Leno who did his
best to give away the prices of the raffle when usually the winners
are not present anymore.
After the raffle finally the special awards and Best of Show awards
were given. Three cars were lined up at the end of the ramp
including the two favourites, Delahaye 145 Franay Cabriolet of
previous winner Sam Mann and the Isotta Fraschini 8A of Jim
Patterson. After winning his first title with a white Delage it was
the black Isotta entering the stage with the traditional fireworks
giving RM again a very successful week winning the crown with
one of their restorations after achieving a record result in their
annual Monterey sale.
This also leads to the second part of the day when a lot of the
entrants and visitors head over to Gooding & Company for the last
sale of the week. Usually still under the impression of the
concours the sales rate on Sunday is always high and also today
Gooding achieved some outstanding results. One of the public
favourites and the most entertaining sale was certainly the Fiat
Eden Roc achieving an unbelievable price of 620k Dollar hammer.
Just a few lots later came the star of the evening and with 15.3
Mio $ plus commission the sale of the Ferrari 250 GT California
Spyder showed that the price for the Baillon cars was not far
away from the price of an “ordinary” car.
One might see some of the cars again next year but for many
Ferraristi the week in Monterey continues tomorrow with the
annual concours of the Ferrari Club of America held in Monterey
as well to conclude the Ferrari feature. Let’s hope the sun is with
all the Ferraristi as well but the temperatures could be a little bit
less to make the day on the field a little bit less exhausting.
Text & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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