VINTAGE: Pebble Beach Shines In 60th Year

Automotive Lifestyle

VINTAGE: Pebble Beach Shines In 60th Year

Glorious array of rare collector cars brings motoring past into focus; 390-photo galleries.

Wouter Melissen | http://www.ultimatecarpage.com | Posted August 19, 2010 Pebble Beach, CA

Jaguar's 75th anniversary at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance was highlighted by a lineup of 12 of the 16 XKSS sports cars. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, established in 1950 and long since the most important even of its type, was held for the 60th time this year. The anniversary will be marked later this year, with the publication of the book that features all entrants and winners of the 60 events.

On the 18th fairway of the legendary golf course, the celebrations were limited to the display of three cars that had previously starred on the event's poster: a Pinin Farina Cadillac V16, one of the Alfa Romeo B.A.T.s and a Zagato Ferrari.

One of this year's Pebble Beach poster cars, a Ferrari 250 GT Zagato Coupe, greeted visitors at the Concours. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)

Featured on the 2010 poster were three 8C Alfa Romeo's in honor of the Italian manufacturer's centennial. Further manufacturers and anniversaries celebrated with separate classes included Pierce-Arrow, Coachwork by Ghia, Jaguar's 75th Anniversary, 50 years of the Ferrari 250 GT SWB and the Indianapolis 500 Centennial. A second motorcycle class was added this year, building on last year's success of the concours’ first-ever two-wheeler class.

Pebble Beach was kicked off with a traditional Tour d'Elegance on Thursday. We followed the Tour all the way down Highway 1 to Big Sur and were on the field together with the “dawn patrol” and left along with the last cars.

The result of our long day can be found in these photo galleries, the 80-shot Pebble Beach Tour and the 310-shot Pebble Beach Concours.

The entries for the Concours d'Elegance are usually a pretty well-kept secret. Much was already revealed early Thursday morning as the 170 participants of the Tour were rolled out of massive trucks at the Polo Field just north of the Pebble Beach Lodge. In recent years, Sunday's Best of Show also completed the Tour and usually stood out.

A 1902 Mercedes Simplex 28 hp Tourer, the oldest car at the Concours, charges along during the Tour d'Elegance. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)

One of this year's outstanding cars was Sam Mann's Duesenberg with a very rare and equally elegant Graber body. Another noteworthy participant was the resurrected Bugatti Type 57 S Atlantic, but more about that car later. The earliest car present and the oldest Mercedes still on the road was Arturo Keller's Simplex 28 hp Tourer. Amazingly, it also had completed the Pebble Beach Motoring Classic, a multi-day and multi-state tour running from Seattle to Pebble Beach.

Spread over three groups and headed by Sir Stirling Moss in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the participants took the familiar route along 17-Mile Drive through Tehama and Monterra estates and down Highway 1 to Big Sur. On the way back, the cars were parked on Ocean Avenue in Carmel while the drivers enjoyed lunch. This year, there were more spectators along the course than we had ever seen before.

One of America's most prolific automotive pioneers was George Norman Pierce. Under the Pierce name he started with (motorized) bicycles in the late 19th century, followed soon after by motor cars such as the Motorette, Stanhope and the Arrow. The latter became so popular that the company changed its name to Pierce-Arrow.

The Silver Arrow, considered to be the last of the great Pierce-Arrows, is owned by collector-car veteran Don Williams. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)

The cars built by George Norman Pierce were not only among the most expensive of their day but also featured many novel ideas, of which the fender-mounted headlights introduced in 1913 were the most famous. Pierce-Arrows were also the cars of choice for America's presidents. Still independent, the company flourished in the 1920s and survived one bankruptcy years later while under Studebaker ownership. Production finally did cease and the factory was closed in May of 1938.

Nearly 3,000 Pierce-Arrows are known to have survived, and quite a few of them have at one point graced the Pebble Beach lawn. In 1955, the great Phil Hill brought a 1931 vintage Model 41 and scored the very first Best of Show victory for a classic car. Still owned by the Hill family since the famed driver’s death, the car was one of the highlights of this year's Pierce-Arrow display. Another was Don Williams' mighty Silver Arrow, which was one of the last great Pierce-Arrows.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wouter Melissen

UltimateCarPage.com

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