The Best in Show awards at the 24th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, Florida, USA have gone to a 1957 Ferrari 335 S and a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahn-Kurier. The prestigious Amelia Island event always awards two best in shows, one for the best sporting car and one for the most elegant car. We hope you’ve worked out which is which, but just in case, the Best in Show Concours de Sport Trophy went to the Ferrari, owned by Cavallino Investments, and the Best in Show Concours d’Elegance Trophy was given to the Mercedes-Benz, owned by The Keller Collection.
The 335 S was a Scuderia Ferrari Factory team car, which started life as a 290 MM, and was then upgraded to a 315 S and finally a 335 S. During 1956-57 (when Ferrari won the World Sportscar Championship) it participated in major races including Sebring, Le Mans, Mille Miglia, and 1000km events at the Nürburgring and in Caracas, driven by such greats as Juan Manuel Fangio, Phil Hill, Olivier Gendebien, Alfonzo De Portago, W. Graf Berghe von Trips, Peter Collins, Maurice Trintignant, Mike Hawthorn, Luigi Musso, Stirling Moss and Gaston Andrey.
The Mercedes-Benz comes of a time when aerodynamics was a new science. When the “Autobahnen Kurierwagen 8-Zylinder Kompressor Typ 500” debuted at the 1934 Berlin motor show only one model existed and brochures explained that it was designed for high-speeds on the German autobahns. It was claimed that the high winds at those speeds gave the car its defining shape.
Images courtesy of Deremer Studios and Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance
