Authority© the Concours to More Than $19 Million Over Time
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8 Volume 39 Number 17 - 308 August 2014 Ferrari wins Best of Show at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours By Tom Meadows For the first time in 46 years, a postwar car won ry before Shirley bought it. After a full restoration, he the Best of Show at Pebble Beach. For the cognoscenti first showed the car at the Pebble Beach Concours in this was a great occasion as well, since the winner was 1998. It won its class on that occasion, but did not go a Ferrari 375 MM and also the first Ferrari to win Best further. The final result on Sunday was dramatically of Show. different. The crowd cheered wildly Sunday when Jon Shir- After being used on numerous tours and rallies, ley’s 1954 Ferrari 375 MM Scaglietti Coupe was named the car was recently restored once more, with a focus Best of Show at the 64th annual Pebble Beach Con- on originality, incorporating new research. For exam- cours d’Elegance. The last postwar car to be named ple, leather seats were returned to their original vinyl. Best of Show was a 1964 Maserati Mistral Coupé, “The styling is very special, but I love the engine, I love which topped contenders back in 1968. to drive the car,” said Shirley. “It’s a very powerful car. Jon Shirley, of Medina, Wash., is the former pres- It’s a race car underneath; it’s four and one-half liters. ident of Microsoft and had previously won his class in And it’s a great deal of fun.” 2008 with a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Ber- When asked about the significance of the win by his linetta. Shirley acquired his winning Ferrari back in postwar car, Shirley said, “I just hope it means that some 1995. The car had been in pieces for a quarter centu- more will have the chance to do the same thing. There are some wonderful coachbuilt postwar cars, and I think Mea Culpa the owners should bring them here and try for the Best. I’ve won Best of Show at other events before, but this was I guess I’ve been lucky. I haven’t made too really a special thrill to do it here with this car.” many mistakes during the last year. Unfortunate- To be eligible to win Best of Show – the event’s ly the last issue Vol. 39 No. 17 had two. top award – a car must first win its class. In the past Generally the author provides the photos and only Shirley’s car had taken the first in class and the Luigi when photos are provided from a different source do Chinetti award at the 1998 Concours. The car competed they get credit. “Car Culture Abroad” should have the this year in the Ferrari Grand Touring class, going up last two photos credited to Chris Williams. against six other touring cars built from 1951 to 1967. Even worse, “The Continuing Saga, 0384 AM” Pebble Beach Chairman Sandra Button commented: correctly listed Bonhams 1793 Ltd., as the selling “This is a road-going Ferrari, and it has had quite the auction house. My comments incorrectly name famous life having been designed by Sergio Scaglietti Gooding & Co. as the selling auction house. for Roberto Rossellini. Its design was also trend-set- We apologize for the misinformation. ting. So it is fitting that this is our first postwar winner in many years.” The The 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance show- cased 216 cars and motorcycles, 35 of which came from Ferrari outside of the United States. It also raised $1,677,445 Market for charity, bringing total charitable donations from Authority© the Concours to more than $19 million over time. Page 2 - 30 August 2014 It wasn’t Massini. I was embarrassed to say the least, but it wasn’t the last mistake I’d make all week. Monterey Car Week – Ferrari reigns So we moved on – and I was bit more hesitant to say supreme hello to people I thought I knew! Outside, we saw Reliable Carriers and Horseless By Carbon McCoy Carriages unloading cars that would be auctioned later in the week. We spotted an underground parking garage Monterey, a quiet, foggy peninsula, whose nick- so we wandered down the ramp until we were met by a names include California’s “First” City, and the Lan- security guard. The parking lot Barney Fife wasn’t at all guage Capital of the World, is richer in history than one swayed by our claims of representing the press, and told might imagine. Monterey wears the following badges us to turn around and head back up to the street. That of honor: the city with California’s first theater; the was mistake No. 2. city with California’s first public building, California’s We decided we’d revisit these goings on the follow- first city with a public library, the first publicly funded ing morning, so we headed over to Ocean Avenue in Car- school, the first printing press, and the first newspa- mel. All the relevant places are within 15-20 minutes of per. Despite all of its firsts, Monterey has settled into a each other during Monterey Car Week, so a quick shoot quaint little town. over to Ocean Avenue rewarded us with Ferraris from But for one week each year – Monterey Car Week – every era casually parked on the street. the slow, quiet, molasses-paced Peninsula is barraged Like when we were kids, we would have to occasion- by the hustle and bustle of all of America’s big cities: ally step out of the street to let traffic go by; but just like New York, New Jersey, Miami, Los Angeles, Cleveland, in our youth, once the street was clear, someone would Louisville, Las Vegas, Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, shout, “Game on!” and we’d return to our positions.. Dallas, and many places outside of the country. Throngs We left Carmel and headed to Pebble Beach where of international melting pots converge on central Cali- we checked out the parking lot of the Spanish Bay Hotel. fornia’s coast wreaking havoc on its quietude. The Spanish Bay is a luxurious hotel whose parking lot Traffic thickens, the amount of cars increases expo- is always rife with good car spotting – and the valet area nentially, and the road jewelry is unlike any other. Your is even better! A green P1, a new Lamborghini Huracan, average day offers Zagato-bodied 575Ms parked on the and two yellow 458 Speciales were a great start! street, LaFerraris cruising down Ocean Avenue, and ev- We soon left the Spanish Bay to peruse the polo erything from Dinos and Daytonas to matte black 458 grounds. Obsessive? Maybe. But I have a prancing horse Spiders and 250 GT Spyder Californias literally every tattooed on my chest, so scouring a polo field in the moon- which way you can look. And that’s just the beginning. light, peering into open trailers, is tame for me. So off So where does it begin? When and where and how we went, hopping fences, tripping on uneven ground, and does it all start? Once you’re in Monterey – in the thick stumbling around in the dark, hoping to find that one of it – where do you go and what do you do first? The truck whose rear doors were absent-mindedly left open. right answer is there is no right answer. Crazy, huh? I mean, seriously, what kind of adults But my cohorts and I tried to abide by the schedule go skulking around a huge field at night, empty except so graciously listed in the Ferrari Market Letter’s com- for scores of trailers, and absolutely no lights? I under- ing events section. So the first thing we did was head to stand that kind of behavior is out of the norm; some downtown Monterey where RM Auctions had cars-to-be might even label me crazy. auctioned on display. The lobby, as ornate as it is, was That night, in the Peninsula’s pitch blackness, be- just overwhelmingly outdone by the presence of a 250 fore the marine layer crept in, we found a trailer whose LM S/N 6045, 275 GTB/4s – red S/N 10621 and black rear hatch was open. Beyond the dangling, rusty, paint- S/N 10063 – a 400 Superamerica S/N 4113 SA, a former chipped door latches, were two loading levels, with Michael Schumacher Formula One car S/N 198, and a enough space for five or six cars. But there were only stunning white-walled 250 Europa S/N 0305 EU. three. The two cars on the top level were covered, and their contours resembled those of the new California T. The car on the bottom, completely uncovered, and waiting to be unloaded was the new 458 Speciale Spider S/N 205298! Even in the black night, its NART livery was clear as day: white with a blue stripe, full black Al- cantara, yellow stitching, gray seat centers, new black wheels and yellow calipers. That, my friends, was just day one of Monterey Car Week. And none of the events had even officially began and I’d already seen one of the week’s highlights – a highlight about which many wouldn’t even know, let alone which they’d even be privy. So without further adieu, let’s get down to how the week unfolded. Everything you just read occurred on Tuesday. On We eventually made our way through the road jew- Wednesday, my team and I tried to get a jump start on elry, but by then it was too late to get ahold of press the day.