The 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Best of Show winner: a 1937 Horch 853 Sport Cabriolet, owned by Robert Lee of Sparks, Nevada.
It’s not often Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld have to take a backseat. But when it comes to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the cars are the real stars.
The annual event is not only considered the most elegant classic car show in the world, but it serves as an anchor for a long weekend celebration of the automobile that offers something for literally every car fan. At the nearby Laguna Seca race track, scores of classic race cars, some a century old, come back to life. The weekend’s newest event, the Le Mons Concours, turns snob appeal on its head, offering up some of the worst cars to hit the road in recent decades.
Leaving aside the odd 1970s AMC Pacer, “Pebble Beach,” as it’s often called, brings to California’s Monterey Peninsula an assortment of the world’s rarest and most sought after vehicles. That includes the rare pre-War 1937 Horch 853 Sport Cabriolet, owned by Robert Lee, of Sparks, Nevada, who captured Best-in-Show honors at the Concours d’Elegance.
“Almost everybody picked us as the winner,” said the elated collector, as he was handed his trophy. In a rare, twin victory, Lee also took top honors at the Quail Lodge’s smaller Concours, held the Friday before the Pebble Beach event.
Though he's captured top honors in years past, comic and collector Jerry Seinfeld had to settle for runner-up status, this year, with his 1970 Porsche 908 race car.
While Lee might have made it look easy, the reality of the Concours is another matter entirely, emphasized Ed Hermann, the actor, automotive aficionado and announcer at Pebble Beach. “The road to best-in-show is a long and arduous one and many of the past winners have literally spent years preparing.”
Lee, in fact, took five years to prepare his Horch – a forerunner of today’s Audi brand – for the Concours. And the last six days, he recalled, was a 24-hour marathon getting all the final details down right.
Bentley scored a coup, the Concours allowing it to unveil the all-new Mulsanne sedan on the winner's ramp. Later, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jay Leno joined Bentley CEO Franz-Josef Paefgen for a charity auction.
Judgment day at the Concours d’Elegance is a challenging and sometimes devastating affair. Though judges no longer will penalize a car for having a blade of grass stuck in a wheel, they nonetheless will take off points for flaws that mere mortals might never even notice.
“I’d better open up the bonnet. I think there could be a spot of oil,” fretted Peter Briggs, who’d brought his 1922 Bentley to the show from his home in Western Australia. Yet despite the pressure, Briggs has made the Concours seven times, over the years. “We love coming,” he said, adding that he’s likely to be back with other parts of his collection.
No show is tougher on its entrants, which is why owners spend years restoring a car, then search for the most minor, last minute problem, like a bit of dirt on a chromed running board.
Capturing a win isn’t cheap. While few entrants will openly discuss what they’ve invested, insiders say a ground-up restoration can cost as much as $5 million for the truly rare automobile, where body work and old componentry must be recreated from scratch. That’s why it often takes a Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld or Yves Saint Laurent – all past winners – to fund such grand projects.
But the payoff can more than make up for the expense, adding millions to the price a winning car will command when it’s eventually sold off.
A small spot of oil can make the difference between a winner and a runner-up.
The Concours “game” is a challenging one, and not just on the 19th green of the legendary Pebble Beach Golf Course, where this annual event is held. There’s a growing list of Concourses around the world, from Ville d’Este, Italy to Australia. So organizers often go hunting to ensure they bring the best of the breed to the Monterey Peninsula.
Briggs’ car is an example of why spectators will also turn up from all over the world. His 1922 Bentley marked the British maker’s first entry into the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race. (While it lost, Bentley soon went on to capture an unprecedented string of victories during the endurance race.)
Organizers staged a rare honor, creating a special class to celebrate the 80th birthday of the legendary race driver Sir Stirling Moss.
In fact, there were nearly a score of Bentleys on display – including the 8-Litre saloon car owned by W.O. Bentley, himself – to mark the brand’s 90th anniversary. The automaker, now owned by Volkswagen, pulled off an incredible coup. While many automakers display new products on the lawns outside the Concours itself, Bentley was given the chance to unveil its all-new Mulsanne sedan on the same ramp normally used for best-in-show honors.
But Pebble Beach organizers have been striving to keep the show fresh, in recent years, by just occasionally breaking with tradition. They occasionally invite a class of hot rods to the greens, and this year offered up the first-ever collection of classic motorcycles to enter the Concours.
For those who prefer to see their automobiles in action, there's three days of racing during the Monterey Historics, at the Laguna Seca Race Track.
For those who prepare to see their automobiles in action, there’s the nearby Laguna Seca race track, which stages the annual Historics, three days of racing in which you’re likely to see just about anything on the challenging course.
Make that anyone, as well. While plenty of owners will take the wheel of their Porsches, Ferraris, Mustangs and McLarens, others will invite celebrity drivers, such as the legendary Sir Stirling Moss, who took laps in some of the cars that he campaigned to victory during a long professional career.
Officially, Historics organizers set down some tough rules designed to ensure the minimum number of wrecks and injuries during the weekend of racing, but “Everyone is out there driving as hard as they can,” insisted one owner, as he made final preparations to his car.
Can't afford a ticket to the Concours d'Elegance? No problem. Everywhere you go on the Montery Peninsula, you'll find something to stare at over Pebble Beach weekend, including the Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Bugatti and Bentley caught here outside the Inn at Spanish Bay.
Even if you can’t afford a ticket to one of the weekend’s pricey events, there’s plenty to see. In the horseshoe-shaped parking lot at the Inn at Spanish Bay, where many participants spend the weekend, a visitor could spot perhaps $20 million in new and classic cars, from a $2.4 million Bugatti Veyron Super Sport to a restored but regularly used Ferrari California.
No wonder the Monterey Peninsula becomes a mecca for automotive aficionados every August.