Journal: 20 Of The World's Most Exceptional Cars At The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

20 Of The World’s Most Exceptional Cars At The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

By Michael Banovsky
August 22, 2016

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?

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NomadMac
NomadMac
7 years ago

Labels!

HitTheApex
HitTheApex
8 years ago

“Best in Show” is horribly subjective. The real crime is asking someone to choose between all of these stunners. Oof!

Bryan Dickerson
Bryan Dickerson
8 years ago

Photographer Scott, I’m looking at these shots expanded and the colors are really vibrant. Did you do something to help that or is it just a function of the overcast weather? Nicely done !

Bryan Dickerson
Bryan Dickerson
8 years ago

I’m with you Dustin..I think.
The P4 is just sooo sexy. But so is the early GT40. The early ones with the wire wheels are about as perfect as a car can be. All these others are fabulous too and it’d be great if they were labeled. I think there’s a Cisitalia in there and of course the BMW is stellar. I really want to know what the blue one with the incredibly voluptuous front fenders is.

CJ_Madson
CJ_Madson
6 years ago

The blue car in three of the photos? That one is a 1948 Delahaye 135 M Chapron Coupe. They had a class of Chapron-designed cars that year, all very easy on the eyes.

Joshua Seidenberg
Joshua Seidenberg
8 years ago

All of these cars are beautiful, though I admit I don’t know what they are? It would be helpful if at the bottom of your pics your could identify year/make/model for those of us that are less knowledgeable.

BDA
BDA
8 years ago

Don’t feel bad, Joshua. I didn’t recognize most of them either. I’m no expert on classic vintage cars, but I’m not completely ignorant of a lot of them. My guess is that the photographer or the person who posted them couldn’t recognize most of them either.

CJ_Madson
CJ_Madson
6 years ago

I’ll mention that the red #3 car is a 1965 Bizzarrini A3/C that won its class at Le Mans that year, and is owned by one of the best car people around, Bruce Meyer. I enjoyed watching the car arrive at PB in the morning and seeing Bruce jump out (well, sort of slide out) with a big smile. Petrolicious has a great new video of that car and Bruce which is well worth your time.

Bertram Wooster
Bertram Wooster
8 years ago

How many AMX/3s were there? I saw the bronze one on Thursday.

Dustin Rumburg
Dustin Rumburg
8 years ago

330 P4 #0856 gets my vote, not only is it in perfect condition for being the last original 330, but you can SEE the hammer marks made by the original smiths. It’s a truly gorgeous, well storied car.

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