Pebble Beach, 18th of August
The Monterey Car Week is history! Today the long and action
packed week with countless events ranging from racing at Laguna
Seca, no less than 5 auctions, parties to concours found an end
with the much awaited highlight, the prestigious Pebble Beach
Concours d´Elegance. Started more than 60 years ago the
Concours attracted more and more events over the years but is
still the main event of the week.
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Again almost 250 cars entered in the concours plus many cars
on exhibition only (like the Alfa Romeo 8C armada that will start
its tour on Monday) were set up early in the morning at the 18th
green of the renowned golf course. They were awaited by
countless early visitors who arrived at the Pebble Beach Lodge
well before sunrise to welcome the first entrants on the field at 6
am. During the next hours the cars are set up on their well
planned spot sorted by class and guided by the countless
volunteers in the golf carts. After one week of sunshine (what is
rare for this time of the year in the Monterey Bay area) today the
weather was as expected by the experienced concours visitors
with fog in the morning and sparingly sunshine over the day. It
was also easy to see that the field filled earlier with visitors than
the years before as it seemed already packed at 7 am when it
was not even open to the public.
No less than 31 classes represented the last century of
automotive innovations, design and elegance. Some classes are
the more regular ones that one knows from other events but also
special classes that change from year to year. As in several other
events this year Aston Martin celebrated their centenary and
Lamborghini their 50th Year with a class of its own.
The Aston Martin class included the first and the last built DB3S
with chassis number 1 as a factory race car and chassis number
120 in coupé specification as the last customer car. In addition to
the DB3S also a rare DBR2 and a DB2/4 with Bertone coachwork
was seen plus an Ulster Le Mans team car brought over by Nick
Mason.
Featured coachbuilder this year was VanVooren with a line-up of
several Hispano-Suiza who were some of the favourites for the
Best of Show. In addition more than 2 dozen Alfa Romeo 8C were
lined up at the end of the 18th hole before leaving to their tour
through the Rocky Mountains the next day.
At the end of a long day the judges awarded the Packard 1108
Twelve Best of Show, the same car that already won the
Concours in St. John the year before. After the very successful
auctions the days before this award given to a car restored by the
restoration department of RM rounded up a memorable weekend
for the Canadian company giving Joseph and Margie Cassini their
second victory after 2004.
The final curtain of the Monterey Car Week fell with the
concluding sale of Gooding&Company near the lodge. The sale
proved once more that top quality cars are best sold during the
Monterey events as not just the Bugatti T57 SC Atalante went for
about 8 Million Dollar hammer price but also the second highlight
of the evening, the Ferrari 250 GT Competizione at 6.5 Million.
For today we have our final preview gallery of the day with more
detailed galleries for all the events on the Monterey Peninsula
following the next days.
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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