The Concours d'Elegance at California's Pebble Beach is a show like nowhere else on earth, - part race, part display, and part pure show, says Jeremy Grant
Christina Allison is squeezed into the passenger seat of her late husband's blue Bugatti Type 37, a bullet-shaped racing car from 1927. As the former opera singer chats to vintage car enthusiasts from behind a roped-off area, clasping her wide-brimmed hat to prevent it flying off in the California breeze, a line of cars behind her moves slowly up the paddock.
"Divas don't drive, they are driven," she jokes, explaining why she is not at the wheel, leaving that task to a friend. "And Bugatti gives such good parties; you just throw the champagne in the back and you're away."
At last weekend's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance vintage vehicle show, there were many who agreed with Christina Allison. In spite of her husband's death, she was determined to complete the restoration of his Bugatti, and was rewarded with a prize in the pre-war European sports and racing category. Meanwhile, Michael Kadoorie, Hong Kong-based owner of the Peninsula hotels group, defied distance by having his 1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Penny Holmes Tourer shipped to California for the occasion.
Jay Leno, TV talk show host and owner of 80 vintage vehicles, was a judge at the show, while former racing drivers Sir Stirling Moss and Carroll Shelby lent some racing cachet to the scene.
All were united by one thing: a desire to see, and be seen in, some of the world's most illustrious vintage cars.
All told, 210 vehicles turned up at this year's event, from across the US and 14 other countries. One estimate put the combined value of the assembled Rolls-Royces, Deusenbergs, Delayahes and Hispano-Suizas at $200 million (about €160 million). This event is more than a fashion show for vintage car buffs. It is, many argue, the pre-eminent event of its kind in the automotive calendar.
"This is the Oscars of the car shows," says Rick Renner, managing director of Passport Transport, a firm specialising in moving rare and vintage vehicles around the world.
To many familiar with Goodwood, Britain's pre-eminent vintage car show, this is a brassy claim. In the US, too, there are other events that have long been top fixtures for the world's automotive elite: Amelia Island in Florida and Meadow Brook Hall in Michigan.
Yet Pebble Beach is more than another day of polished chrome fenders, exquisite coachwork and growling V12 engines.
The phenomenon loosely known as "Pebble Beach" is actually a collection of automotive events races, vehicle auctions (seven of them) and shows that grew out of the Pebble Beach Road Race and Concours that started in 1950. And although racing now takes place at the nearby Laguna Seca track notorious for the "Corkscrew", a series of treacherous bends it is this combination of racing, vintage vehicle displays and very wealthy enthusiasts that makes Pebble Beach, in the eyes of many, the best event of the lot.
"This is the pinnacle of display and quality of such vehicles," says Jochen Mass, the German Le Mans winner with Mercedes in 1989. "They seem to live in their natural environment, these cars, because there's a greater percentage of wealth in this part of the world than anywhere else."
Things kick off on the Wednesday before the Saturday concours with Motor Works, surely one of the most unusual parties in the world. About 1,000 of the world's wealthiest vehicle enthusiasts jet in to Monterey airport and gather in and around their Gulfstreams for cocktails.
It is a chance not only to set the tone for the next four days of automotive action, but also for the world's makers of private jets to sell their wares.
Day two is the Quail, an equally exclusive event that takes place on the landscaped grounds of Quail Lodge, a golfing retreat built in 1963 by golfer Edgar Haber and now owned by Kadoorie. The same day, a few miles away, is the Concorso Italiano, a display on the Black Horse golf course of vehicles of Italian origin and geared towards the public. This year it attracted 550 Ferraris, possibly the largest concentration of the cars ever seen.
Then, on Saturday, comes Laguna Seca, a day on which owners of some of the best-known racing cars of the first 65 years of the last century are zoomed around the track by their owners. This is where the next vital ingredient of Pebble Beach comes in, for Pebble Beach, the Quail and Laguna Seca are invitation-only events for participants.
Michael Gertner, a lawyer from Newport Beach, California, owns 10 vintage vehicles. After racing his 1927 Bugatti Type 37A at Laguna Seca - "I came in somewhere in the middle of the pack" - he is enjoying lunch in the Bentley hospitality suite at the Pebble Beach concours. "Basically they contact you and let you know if they want your car," he explains.
Indeed, many of the vehicles displayed and raced are well-known to the events' organisers, themselves automotive enthusiasts. Gordon McCall, a veteran Christie's motoring specialist who runs the Quail with Kadoorie, says: "I've been doing this for 30 years and most cars are a phone call away."
Standards are high. Jay Leno says that accusations sometimes fly at Pebble Beach between owners that some vehicles have been "over-restored" for example, that owners have used chrome over areas where the original vehicle would have used nickel. But Barry Meguiar, chief executive of Meguiar's, a leading US car care company, says: "You can't fool anybody here. If it's over-restored, you won't even get invited."
The same standards apply to the racing at Laguna Seca. Sir Stirling Moss leans close to make himself heard above the engine roar from a 1935 Alfa-Romeo 35-8C and a 1932 Chrysler Rigante as they sweep past the Rolex/Chrysler hospitality stand.
"They don't race nearly as aggressively as in Europe," he says. "It's very much gentleman's racing. If your car touches someone else's, you're disqualified for a year. It's really like a game of polo but with different sorts of horses."
Such a formula has, inevitably, attracted the attention of the world's leading luxury carmakers, such as Bentley. "There are more 'qualified buyers' probably per California square inch here than anywhere else," says John Crawford, Bentley's director of public relations for the Americas, of the Quail. The car maker spends most of its marketing budget for North America on events during Pebble Beach week. The Quail was the backdrop last week for the launch of the Bentley Arnage RL, a long wheel-based Arnage of which only 10 will be offered for sale in the US.
Pebble Beach's biggest challenge appears to be how to balance its exclusivity with its increasing popularity. This year, organisers raised the individual ticket price to $125 (about €100), yet the golf links were still swamped with patrons.
Meanwhile, Kadoorie and McCall are busy developing the Quail, an event that is resolutely for enthusiasts. "This is not a gate-driven event," says McCall, "It's a lifestyle event. We're going to keep this civilised; we're not interested in turning it into a country fair."
- Financial Times Service