Photography by Tim Scott
It’s a world unto itself, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Each judging class is chosen to include entrant vehicles that have made an impact on the automobile in one way or another, and it’s not strange to see cars you won’t anywhere else—like the Best In Show winner, a 1936 Lancia Astura by Pinin Farina.
Over the course of the event, the process of elimination is as follows: cars are lined up by class and judged on the Pebble Beach Golf Links’ 18th fairway, and whittled down to a class winner. Each of those is driven to the resort lodge, given an award—and judged again to earn, maybe, Best In Show.
The Astura packs a V8 engine up front, rear-wheel-drive, and coachwork from Pinin Farina; it was one of the grand touring, ultra-high end sporting cars that struggled to find buyers during the ’30s. Completed examples, however, were some of the most impressively finished cars ever, something this particular Astura was a testament to.
It had to beat out both a 1938 Delahaye 165 Cabriolet by Figoni & Falaschi and a 1931 Stutz DV-32 LeBaron Convertible by Victoria; neither were exactly push-overs. Which of these cars would you have awarded with Best In Show?
