Monterey, 16th of August, 2017

After spending the day at the first Concours yesterday the Wednesday heated up with countless opportunities to spend the day. Beside the start of the major auction previews both in Carmel with the ladies concours and at Pacific Grove with the little car show there were numerous places to be and one had to be very selective with his time. We started early in the morning with the auction preview of the official auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours, Gooding & Company. While the workers outside prepared the start bow of tomorrows tour and the first cars were unloaded at the nearby parking for the transporter Gooding & Company opened their door for the first time this auction week to invite potential clients, media and guests to have a look at their offering of cars. Although the auction prices have settled in the last year the offering of high value cars seems to be higher than ever and Gooding alone has about 30 cars in the region of 1 million dollar of more. One of their star lots, the Ferrari 275 GTB/C greeted the visitors already at the entrance where the bidder’s registration is located. Restored by the late Wayne Obry the car is presented in Silver as raced in Mugello 1966.

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Entering the tent the first car to be seen was the bright yellow Mercedes-Benz S-Type with his 6-cylinder supercharged engine and the Gläser body. Walking the tents one could see a wide selection ranging for the pre-war racers from Maserati and Alfa Romeo on both sides as well as modern Porsche 911 that are so sought after in the last months. Star lot is without doubt the 917K with the Gulf livery famous from the movie Le Mans with Steve McQueen where it was used before stored for years in a Paris barn. A few years ago the car was intended to be sold at the same venue but was withdrawn due to an uncertain history. Today it is known that the car was only used for testing and draws its attention from the movie. Still a genuine 917K in the most legendary colours the car has an estimate well in the two-figure millions.

After looking over the Gooding cars one could have a direct comparison with the offering at RM Sotheby´s. Unlike the American auction house the Canadian one is located in the city centre at the Portola Plaza in the hotel with the same name. In the previous years the auction was held in the ball room where the top lots were also presented beside the line-up in the lobby but with still ongoing construction RM had to move to a tent located at the park behind the hotel. Still a separate room in the hotel was reserved for the Ferrari collection on sale offering a sea of red with a few exceptions as the Silver 250 GT SWB or the green 410 Superamerica.

Walking outside into the tent again a strong offering of Ferrari was seen with the 121 LM, the famous Uovo and the 500/735 Mondial. It is not uncommon that the Ferrari are the star lots but this year the show is dominated by a superb selection of Aston Martin including the probably most beautiful race car of the late 1950s, the Aston Martin DBR1. Chassis DBR1/1 was used by no other than Stirling Moss winning on the Nuerburgring helping to win the Sportscar Championship in 1959 for the British marque. With the Le Mans winner changing hands a few years back in private this Aston might become the most expensive Aston ever sold at auction and most likely the most expensive lot of the auction week by all auction houses. But this was not the only Aston on offer as one could easily set up a nice collection with an original Ulster, the DB4GT Prototype as well as the Aston Martin Group C car, the AMR1.

After leaving the Monterey city centre the usual traffic on the car week led to a time consuming drive to the nearby airport to join the McCall jet centre party. One of the social highlights this is a typical American cocktail party that starts no later than 5pm but dries out latest at 9pm when the visitors are standing in line at the valet parking to get to dinner or home. The party once again gave a mix of cars and planes set up at the aviation centre with a selection of drinks to keep people entertained chatting about cars and everything else.
Tomorrow the Tour d´Elegance once again leads down to Big Sur and to Carmel where the cars can be seen by everyone that did not get a ticket for Sunday. Looking at the entry list this promises to become an epic edition of the concours with no less than 4 Ferrari classes, several Isotta Fraschini and other exotic machinery. One can hope that many of the cars take the scenic road along the Pacific.


Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de


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