C/D's 10 Favorite Cars from the 2015 Pebble Beach Concours – Feature – Car and Driver
The Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance seemed somehow more intense than ever this year, with row upon row of jaw-dropping classics, teeming crowds that gathered even before the gates officially opened to the public, and a searing morning sun instead of the usual mist off the bay. Taking home the official Best of Show trophy was this 1924 Isotta Fraschini. It was undeniably grandiose and exactly the kind of machine you’d expect to win Pebble Beach, but we felt compelled to come up with our own picks. And so C/D’s five on-the-ground editors each picked two, presented here in alphabetical order—would you have give any of them the nod over the undeniably impressive Isotta?
1938 Alfa-Romeo Spider Corsa 2300B MM Touring-style Spider Corsa
“If it looks fast, it is fast” was a common maxim in the early days of the auto industry, and it certainly applied at Carrozzeria Touring. And it most definitely applies to this Touring-style, Spider-bodied Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 B Mille Miglia. It’s actually a Spider Corsa. Of course it is: Look at the numbers hand-painted on the fenders.
1938 Alfa-Romeo Spider Corsa 2300B MM Touring-style Spider Corsa
’38 was the last year of the 2300 series, and this competition-oriented unit is one of the flat-out killer examples of the run we’ve come across. Which is saying something, considering the number of perfectly beautiful Alfas of the mid-1930s. Pierre F. Mellinger brought this over from Crans Montana, Switzerland. We like to think that he regularly drives his Spider Corsa the 206 miles to Brescia, then bombs down to Rome and back before he heads home. If it were yours, wouldn’t you? —Davey G. Johnson
1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Touring Coupe
The stunning 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Touring Coupe was one of seven Carrozzeria Touring–bodied Alfa Romeos on the Pebble lawn this year, and once we laid eyes on the gorgeous coupe, it immediately became one of our favorite cars there. It's eminently elegant and tastefully restrained, with its cab-rearward proportions and simple bodywork doing the talking.
1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Touring Coupe
The butterfly hood is particularly sweet, providing a very nice view of its immaculate engine bay. If you see a little bit of Porsche 356 in the front end, you’re not alone, but don’t forget that this sleek coupe predated Ferry’s miniscule masterpiece by nearly a decade. This car took home the Mille Miglia Prewar Trophy and won its class, which featured Touring-designed cars. —Steve Siler
1953 Ferrari 340 Mexico Vignale Berlinetta
You gotta love an old race machine grumpy about idling in a line of traffic longer than its name. Bystanders were treated to an authentic classic-race-car overheating experience, as this Ferrari 340 Mexico Vignale Berlinetta took to Pebble Beach’s grass during Dawn Patrol (when all Concours entrants are required to move under their own power to their display spaces) spewing steam.
1953 Ferrari 340 Mexico Vignale Berlinetta
This Ferrari gave the grueling Carrera Panamericana endurance race its all in both 1952 and 1953, but failed to finish either time, the latter attempt with Phil Hill and Richie Ginther behind the wheel. The vertical inlets in its doors are unique to the Mexico Ferraris, and are meant to channel cooling air to the rear brakes. It might have needed a little extra cooling up front on this day, but we think it just needed a little high-rpm exercise. —Alexander Stoklosa
1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Scaglietti Berlinetta Gurney/Yates
Imagine a Ferrari dealer loaning a rare and expensive sports car to a couple of yahoos of ill repute, who strapped in, fired up, and hurtled nonstop from New York City to Redondo Beach, California, in 35 hours and 54 minutes. It’s not exactly what you’d call a sanctioned racing victory, but it’s what Dan Gurney and our own Brock Yates did in 1971, driving this exact Ferrari Daytona. And apparently that’s enough of a racing heritage to earn a spot in the Ferrari Competition category at Pebble Beach. Naturally, it made our list of favorites.
1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Scaglietti Berlinetta Gurney/Yates
The V-12 Daytona appeared in nearly the same condition as it ran the Cannonball, with Yates and Gurney’s names and a smattering of sponsor decals plastered on the side. Not included were the bread, cheese, peanuts, Hershey bars, Gatorade, and vitamin C tablets that fueled the duo’s dash, omissions that doubtless led the Concours judges to knock off a few points. Yates and Gurney probably wouldn’t mind—they never seemed like sticklers for the rules. —Robert Sorokanich
P1050230
Cars wearing wild, one-off custom coachwork are staples of Pebble Beach, and one of the best examples this year was this Fiat. The design is by Franco Scaglione, while the build is credited to Bertone with an assist from Automobili Stanguellini.
1957 Fiat Stanguellini Bertone Spider
With its wraparound windshield, side coves, and pointy, canted fins, this little roadster—a star of both the Turin and Geneva motor shows in its debut year—packs a lot of ’50s wow into a small package. —Joe Lorio
1938 Graham Model 97 Saoutchik Convertible
This white and green 1938 Graham is nothing short of an art-deco masterpiece. The forward lean of all front end elements, and the chrome appears to have been applied at 150 miles per hour.
1938 Graham Model 97 Saoutchik Convertible
The coolest feature of all, however, is the complex rear-hinged door. This was a real crowd-pleaser, one that pleased us more than almost every other car at this year’s Concours d’Élégance. This particular car took second in the American Classic Open class. —Steve Siler
1931 Invicta LS Carbodies Coupé
Part of the fun of coming to Pebble Beach is discovering cars you’ve never heard of before. For us, that was the case with Invicta, a British sports-car make that produced its first car in 1924, and built only about 1000 cars overall.
1931 Invicta LS Carbodies Coupé
The 2015 Montagu of Beaulieu Trophy winner, this 1931 model’s underslung chassis gave it exquisite proportions, and the elegant Carbodies coachwork was the factory standard offering. We also dig the fact that this Invicta (one of three at Pebble Beach this year) has had only two owners since 1945, and is claimed to be driven on a “near daily” basis. —Joe Lorio
1951 Mercury 1CM Bob Hirohata Custom Coupe
A member of the special Mercury Custom class at this year's Pebble Beach event—which this car won, in addition to the Dean Batchelor Trophy—this coupe has all kinds of counterculture swagger. Of course, rebel sleds like this one are as much a part of the coachbuilt tradition as the priceless prewar phaetons with which it shared the lawn at this year’s Concours d’Élégance. And no chop-top Merc embodies that more than the Hirohata coupe.
1951 Mercury 1CM Bob Hirohata Custom Coupe
Built in 1952 by the Barris brothers, Bob Hirohata’s 1951 Mercury codified the kustom traditions that hot rodders still revere today. Its low, sleek proportions are delicate and sinister, and despite massive modifications to nearly every inch, the result looks so natural, a stock Mercury seems gawky by comparison. Sprung from the hands of twenty-something greasers in 1950s L.A., the Hirohata Merc doesn’t have the provenance of the Bugattis, Delahayes, and Rolls-Royces traditionally associated with Pebble Beach. But it matches them all in sheer elegance, with just enough hot-rod sneer to ruffle feathers among some of the straw-hat crowd. —Robert Sorokanich
1934 Packard 1107 Twelve Convertible Victoria
There’s a moment when you’re walking down the field and a car just hits you. And it’s often not the car you would expect. There’s nothing zany or Italian about Laura and Jack B. Smith's ’34 Packard. It holds no speed records. It was not originally owned by a descendant of the Sun King’s bucket boy. Its René Lalique hood ornament appears on three other cars at this year’s show alone.
1934 Packard 1107 Twelve Convertible Victoria
There’s a moment when you’re walking down the field and a car just hits you. And it’s often not the car you would expect. There’s nothing zany or Italian about Laura and Jack B. Smith's ’34 Packard. It holds no speed records. It was not originally owned by a descendant of the Sun King’s bucket boy. Its René Lalique hood ornament appears on three other cars at this year’s show alone.
1955 Porsche 550RS Spyder
Holy mother of wing! Not only is this ’55 Porsche 550 concours-ready in presentation, it also has one of the most glorious wings ever fitted to any race car this side of a Chaparral. It was delivered new to Swiss race driver Walter Riggenberg in March 1955 and subsequently competed at Montelhéry and Le Mans.
1955 Porsche 550RS Spyder
The wing, which was added later in its history, is literally a giant airfoil, and we’d love to know what might happen to occupants’ hats at speed; would they be sucked right off thanks to the low-pressure area the wing presumably creates on its underside? Who knows, but there’s no question this is no ordinary 550 Spyder, and it showed it by taking second in class among Postwar Racing cars. —Alexander Stoklosa
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