15 minute read
Pebble Beach
Carnuts to Carmel
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Story and photos by Cam Hutchins
My first trip to Carmel for Car Week was in 1983 when my parents took my younger brother Jeff and myself to the historic races at Laguna Seca. Back then, the Big Block Cobras only raced on Sunday so we gave up the chance to see the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in favour of seeing 427 Cobras and GT-40s battle it out on the fabled Corkscrew turn up at the top of the track.
For the next four years, I drove down Banzai-style at a maximum speed of 55 mph or 90 km/h, to go to the races and camp on the track. I went in 1990 with my wife when Allard was the featured marque and one of my High School teachers, Mr. Carlson, was there racing his Allard. I got invited by John Carlson to go to the 2006 Pebble Beach Concours d Elegance to cover it for the National Association of Automobile Clubs of Canada and also cover the Historic Races for Patrick Stewart’s Magazine “Western Driver”.
The road trips started up again with my family tagging along in 2010 and I have been lucky enough to continue doing it to this day. A lot has changed since then and the Concours does not have to compete with my love of the races, as you can see the cars race and qualify from Wednesday to Saturday and then Sunday they do a hill climb up to the Corkscrew. Although previously I often would get up at 4am to head to Pebble Beach and then leave at 11am to head back to the track to shoot the Sunday races.
What has not changed is my love of road trips. This year I convinced Loren Cocking, who had previously competed in the Peking to Paris Rally with Jenny Mah, to share the driving, and help me with interviews of many of the cool Carnuts we would meet. I dubbed our trip the “Carnuts to Carmel” with t-shirts designed with a knockoff of the Peking to Paris logo and a map of the original race layout when they raced near Pebble Beach on the fabled 17 Mile Drive.
Loren will tell you how tough the Peking to Paris rally was, but my plans were to wear him out completely with car event after car event for a solid week. We left Sunday and drove through the night to get to the California Car Museum at Sacramento, Monday morning. We then drove through traffic to Carmel and camped there just blocks away from the gated
1957 Ghia Chrysler Superdart. A team effort between Chrysler’s star designer Virgil Exner and Ghia of Turin, shown at the 1957 Turin Auto Show. The 00-hp 92 Hemi-powered show car has been lovingly cared for and driven only 9,000 miles, and is shown in its original unrestored state.
We drove straight up to Canepa Motorsports for their Open House. Bruce Canepa’s business prepares many race cars for owners who want to race vintage cars but in no way have the ability to maintain a high-powered very valuable Vintage race car. Many were only built to last one season....not decades of racing. Canepa Motorsports also sells high-end cars, has a museum upstairs with amazing cars, some missing as they are at the track, and has a huge restoration and maintenance facility. For one week a year you are welcome to walk through the shop and get close to the best of the best in the car world. We stood next to an original flat 12 bare block from a Porsche 917.
During “Car Week” in Carmel, there are almost 30 car events. On top of what I have already mentioned, we went to Retro Auto, Concorso Italiano, Coffee and Cars, Broad Arrow auctions, Concours du Lemons, RM Auction, Gooding Auction Preview, The Little Car Show, Classic Motorsports Kick-off Car Show and Cruise, and by camping on the track, we saw four days of racing. The rest of the week was similar with getting up early and seeing killer cars, but Sunday morning is the epitome of a Carnut doing Carnutty things. We got up at 4am and stealthily took apart our tent and drove from our campsite at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, to the mayhem awaiting us trying to park at Pebble Beach.
Each year, a few classes of cars are featured at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Sometimes, the fabled front row by the ocean is split between two featured car classes or types. Sometimes Coachbuilders, sometimes Marques. This year the oceanside row featured Lincolns and the cars that raced at the fabled 24 Hours of Le Mans. 2022 was the 100th anniversary of the first running of Le Mans, and Le Mans is very prominent as the movie Ford V. Ferrari is still fresh in many Carnuts’ minds.
The actual winning cars from 1966 and 1967 were there, the 1966 Ford GT40 P/1046 Mk II driven by Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren, and Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt’s 1967 Ford GT40 J-5 Mk IV. The two Cadillacs that American playboy millionaire (before the magazine Playboy had been invented) Briggs Cunningham campaigned were there. Both were based on 1950 Series 61 Cadillacs, one as a Stock-bodied racecar and one as a highly modified Streamlined roadster. The French officials and press dubbed the streamlined car “The Monster” or “Le Monstre” and the stock bodied car, “Petit Pataud” or “Little Clumsy One” in English.
My two favourite Jaguars were there, the C-type and D-type. The 1953 Jaguar lightweight C-type won Le Mans outright in 1953, the first time the average speed was set at 100 mph. The D-type Jaguar was built in 1955 but won Le Mans in 1956. “Old Number 2” the 1930 Bentley Speed Six Vanden Plas tourer had come in second in the 1930 Le Mans, finishing right behind its sister car, “Old Number 1”.
Another car shown for the first time at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance after being lost for 80 years is the 1937 BMW 328 NSKK. A recent “forensic” restoration by its current owner showed the glory of this car, that was part of a three-car team that placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in their class at both the “Mille Miglia type” replacement race held in Libya, and Le Mans in 1937.
We arrived on the Show grounds at Pebble Beach and took our place to watch the most amazing cars in the world drive onto the 18th Fairway of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The very cool thing about this year’s 71st running of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, was the number of Canadians that participate as owners and restorers. RX Autoworks again was on hand with an amazing 1955 Maserati A6GCS Frua Spyder that they had just finished up a full restoration on. Rob Fram from RX got to drive the car in the Tour d’Elegance on the Thursday prior to the show weekend. The cars from the Concours drive part ways down the 1967 Ford GT0 J-5 Mk IV Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt won Le Mans in this car, now owned by the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
197 BMW 28 NSKK on the fabled “Beach Row.”
1955 Maserati A6GCS Frua Spyder.
The first Cobra Team Race car to win a race and driven by Shelby Driver Dave MacDonald, now freshly restored. Owned by a gold miner’s son, a Major, a Professor and then Captain John Dart of Ladner BC, who this Dusenberg for more than 50 years before it was sold at auction in 2008 for over $1.6 million USD.
The 195 Lincoln K Brunn Non-Collapsible Cabriolet once owned by a Canadian burlesque dancer was found in a barn in Ontario in the late ‘60s.
coast of California south of Carmel and they gain extra points in case of a tie in the judging. This is one of the highlights of the week!
The other cars I found as significant “Canadian Content” were either restored by Canadians, or owned by Canadians. Or picked because, for whatever reason, the owners chose to include in the “Car Guide” that informs guests about the cars, that they were driven or tested in Canada, as is the case with the Ford GT designed to take on Le Mans in 2016.
In no particular order, I will start with one of the most significant cars that any Carnut can come across and try not to drool. The very first Shelby AC Cobra has been seen many times and was actually in the Shelby Museum at Las Vegas, but maybe a more important Cobra is the 1963 Shelby Cobra Team Race Car, owned and restored by Peter Klutt of Legendary Motorcar Company Ltd, Halton Hills, Ontario. The car was recently finished and a real treat was for Rich MacDonald, the son of legendary Shelby driver Dave MacDonald, to see the car restored, for the first time, at Pebble Beach.
According to the “Field or Car Guide” provided by the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, “this 1963 Factory Team Shelby Cobra (CSX2026) was built at Shelby to full competition specifications. It was
first raced by Dave MacDonald at Riverside in 1963 and it won. This is the first Cobra ever to win a race, the first Cobra to win an SCCA championship, in 1963, and the first Cobra to win a USRRC race overall, which helped secure the championship in 1963. In total, CSX2026 won eleven races during 1963 and 1964.”
“It was housed for a while at the Shelby American Collection in Boulder, Colorado, and the current owner has restored the car back to its exact original specifications as it appeared on the track in Riverside.” Another truly significant Canadian car was John Dart’s 1929 Duesenberg J LeBaron Dual Cowl Phaeton, now owned by Tony & Jonna Ficco, Wheatridge, Colorado. Only three Duesenbergs were sold new in Canada. I remember seeing this car for the first time at the Steamworks Concours d’Elegance in Gastown, Vancouver in the early 2000’s. This car has only had six owners since new, not counting dealers or brokers.
It was originally bought for the son of a gold mining millionaire for $18,000 in 1930 as his wedding present. Then it went to Billy Van Horne, who was the grandson of William Cornelius Van Horne, the driving force behind the first cross-Canada railway. Upon Billy Van Horne’s death it was acquired by Professor Raymond Boyer, who was
eventually charged with being a spy. Being a professor of chemistry at McGill University, he had worked on a super-explosive known as “R.D.X.”. When he was convicted of espionage, he gave the car to his son, Major Guy Boyer, who drove it for six years before selling it to Captain John Dart.
Dart was a millionaire miner, an heir, a Professor, a Major and a Captain, not wanting to reduce the provenance of this amazing car to an episode of Gilligan’s Island, but facts are facts. Captain Dart grew up not far from the Duesenberg factory, and finally was able to buy the car he had been dreaming of since he was a child. He bought the car in 1951 for $1,000, but the car had some body damage and a restoration was needed. But he did not know it would take 50 years!
The car retains its original chassis, engine, and coachwork and the final restoration was done by Sherry Classic Autos of Ontario. Its first American owners acquired the car in 2008. Tony & Jonna Ficco drive and show the car regularly and this is the second time at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
Not a miner or a professor, but it was a Canadian burlesque dancer who owned a 1935 Lincoln K Brunn Non-Collapsible Cabriolet. Only 13
were built and one was delivered new to the President of the Philippines, but only three are thought to exist today. This car’s history is unknown until its ownership by the Canadian burlesque dancer/actress and its subsequent discovery in a Pembroke, Ontario barn. Now owned by Nicholas & Shelley Schorsch, of Newport, Rhode Island.
Also not their first time at Pebble Beach was David Cohen of Vancouver, BC with his 1934 Bugatti Type 57 Graber Roadster, which was in the special class for Graber-bodied cars. Cohen’s Bugatti is thought to be the first Type 57 chassis bodied by the Swiss Coachbuilder Graber.
Graber had built bodies for many of the world’s best car makers including in alphabetical order Alvis, Aston Martin, Bentley, Bugatti, Duesenberg, Lagonda, Packard, and Rolls-Royce. Producing an estimated 800 coachbuilds, Graber was a feature marque at this year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The winning car of the event was not a Graber-bodied car, but a stunning 1932 Duesenberg J Figoni Sports Torpedo. To be fair, everyone who saw the Figoni Duesy commented this is going to be the winner.
The oldest “Canadian Content” this year was the 1908 ALCO 60 HP Touring owned by Brad Balun of Oshawa, Ontario. The only one still existing, it has a 60-horsepower T-head six-cylinder engine with a four-speed transmission and chain-driven rear axle. ALCO’s were built by the American Locomotive Company, and one with an identical chassis to this car won the Vanderbilt Cup, in 1909 and 1910. According to the “field guide”, the leather, lamps, instruments, and upholstery are all original.
Originally owned by a Canadian is the 1952 Aston Martin DB2 Drophead Coupe, now owned by David Martin, of Santa Monica, California. One of only 100 DB2 Drophead Coupes and 10 left-hand drive models,
it was sold new to Herbert Turner Matson of Victoria, BC who was a newspaper publisher. It has been restored to its original paint colour and interior and sports a vintage BC licence plate. The 1949 Lancia Aprilia Ghia Supergioiello Coupe owned by Nigel Churcher of Toronto, Ontario, had originally started its life a show car when brand new and on the stand at the 1949 Geneva Auto Show. The name of the model of this car, the Supergioiello, is Italian for “Super Jewel”, and the coach builder Carrozzeria Ghia produced three cars on three different chassis – an Alfa Romeo 2500 chassis, a Ferrari chassis and this Lancia Aprilia chassis.
The 1938 Steyr 220 Glaser Roadster is one of only six 220’s to wear the coachworks from Dresden-based coachbuilder Glaser. It was an Austrian-built car and the company is now partners with the Canadian company, Magna International as the subsidiary Magna Steyr, a contractor building cars for Daimler, BMW and Tata Motors. This car also was featured at the 2014 Crescent Beach Concours d’Elegance.
The last of the Canadian Content is definitely not the least important car, but with a small part of being Canadian. The 2016 Ford GT Multimatic Coupe was tested first on a Canadian track and played an important
role in Ford winning the GT class at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. This car was an early test car to make sure Ford would be competitive at Le Mans. From its first test on track to the Le Mans race was only 395 days. It is now painted in the same livery as the winning car and used by Ford for promotional events.
Next year’s 72nd Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance will be held on August 20, 2023, but make sure you are there Thursday August 17th for the Tour d’Elegance, August 16th for Canepa’s Open House and August 15th at the California Auto Museum….I forgot, the weekend before Pebble Beach there is a pre-reunion at the race track, so maybe next year, head down to the Bonneville Salt Flats a week-and-a-half early for Speed Week. See the 75th year that Speed Week has run at the Bonneville Salt Flats, August 5th to 11th, then drive to Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca and camp on the track for the Pre-Reunion, August 12th and 13th, then do all the car events of Car Week before the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. A truly epic Carnut Odyssey!
Owned by Vancouver’s David Cohen for almost two decades and is believed to be the first Bugatti Type 57 bodied by Graber of Switzerland.
Owned by Peter Boyle of Covington Ohio, this 198 Steyr 220 Glaser-bodied roadster was seen at the 201 Crescent Beach Concours d’Elegance in Surrey, BC.
Built by Ford and Multimatic in just over a year to compete at the 2016 2 Hours of Le Mans in the GT Class.
A 1952 Aston Martin DB2 Drophead Coupe sold new in Victoria BC and one of only 10 built as left-hand drive.
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