PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE®
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Celebrating the Life & Legacy of the Automobile | December 2020
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PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE®
INSIDER Celebrating the Life & Legacy of the Automobile | December 2020 The 1948 Talbot-Lago T-26 Saoutchik Grand Sport Cabriolet of Peter and Merle Mullin at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours.
A closeup of Arturo and Deborah Keller and all their granddaughters in 1999.
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18 A TIME FOR FAMILY & FRIENDS
CHAIRMAN'S LETTER
The Magic of Cars at the Concours
24 YOUR CONCOURS MEMORIES
THE CAR FROM PARIS Talbot-Lago Grand Sport By Peter M. Larsen
Sharing Family Ties & Traditions
34 MEET OUR 2020-2021
10 MY PERSPECTIVE
By Arturo Keller
SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
Enthusiast David Sydorick shares his car memories
38 JOHN LAMM SCHOLARSHIPS ESTABLISHED
12 FATHER & DAUGHTER MEMORIES OF THE COLORADO GRAND
By Linsey Mounger & Glenn Mounger
On the Cover Arturo and Deborah Keller and their granddaughters cross the awards ramp in their 1938 Lagonda V12 Rapide, which garnered the Gwenn Graham Trophy for Most Elegant Convertible in 1999.
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PUBLISHER Pebble Beach Company EDITOR IN CHIEF Sandra Button EDITORS Quinn Button & Kandace Hawkinson DESIGN Nicole Doré & Don Scheer at Madden Media CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS & PHOTO ARCHIVES Pebble Beach Company Lagorio Archives with particular thanks for the work of photographer Julian P. Graham and William C. Brooks; Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Archives; Dr. Abel W. K. Arumugam, Bob Brown, Steve Burton, Michael Cattalani, Bob Dunsmore Photography, Mark Estes, Lisa Fisher, Gary Goeringer, Mark Greene, Peter Hageman, Andrew Heller, Yale Joel/ The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images, Kimball Studios, Peter M. Larsen Archive, McPherson College, Glenn Mounger, Linsey Mounger, Tom O'Neal, Emily Passey, Richard Plavetich, Tom Price, Andrew Soundarajan, Nic Waller, David Watson, Lisa Crawford Watson, John Waugh Photographic Images, Brent Webber, and Jason Wenig. We also thank Jeff Kinder for a 2012 photo of The Honorable Sir Michael Kadoorie in a previous newsletter. Pebble Beach®, Pebble Beach Resorts®, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance®, Pebble Beach® Automotive Week, Pebble Beach Golf Links®, The Lodge at Pebble Beach™, The Inn at Spanish Bay™, Spanish Bay®, 17-Mile Drive®, The Lone Cypress™, Stillwater Cove™, and their respective underlying logo designs and distinct images, are trademarks, service marks and trade dress of Pebble Beach Company. Copyright © 2020 Pebble Beach Company. All rights reserved.
LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN In trying times, it can be easy to forget the magic of cars — the way they draw us to them and to each other, the way they inspire us, even transmitting their energy to us. A good while back, nearly a year now in fact, I was in a hotel elevator when a man turned and asked to speak with me about the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. He seemed nervous and that set me slightly on edge, but conversations in elevators are often oddly strained, so we found a quiet alcove and he proceeded to tell me a bit about his life. His wife had died, and nothing made sense for a very long time. He was going through the motions, simply doing things out of habit, and that included attending our Concours. And it was there that the world clicked into focus again for him. At the Concours he realized that some things in this world — cars! — still gave him pleasure, and many people in this world shared his passion for them. And he realized he could continue on by focusing on those things and spending time with those people. My own life revolves around the concours; I even met my husband Martin through this event. Yet I am continually surprised by the deep impact it has on so many others— reaching well beyond our participants and people in attendance to the wider community of enthusiasts. We recently invited you to add your concours stories to the history of this event and share with others here in the Insider, and a great many of you responded — so many that we’ll be sharing your offerings over several forthcoming issues. In this issue, we’ve decided to focus first on concours stories tied to family. When I think about families at the concours, my mind turns first to images of Arturo and Deborah Keller crossing our ramp in cars packed to the brim (or top or tailfin) with children and grandchildren. Others too — the Atwells, the Passeys, the Hills and Hagemans to name a few — have done all they can to pass a love of cars down through the generations. And I’ve been here long enough to see many of those kids grow into true car enthusiasts. Tom Price recently shared an image of him and his wife Gwen crossing the ramp with their two young sons on their laps — and those sons, now fully grown, were standing next to me as we talked.
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Cars, and a passion for them, can be among the ties that bind us together. They embody our history, connecting us in the present and over time. Even the memory of a much-loved concours car can become a matter of family lore and legend. Time and again my staff responds to emails and calls from families trying to track down information and images of cars that were once, in some way, “a member of the family.” As you read through this issue of the Insider, I hope you discover anew some of the magic in cars. I also hope you will make plans to join us for our 70th Concours celebration on August 15, 2021. Sincerely, Sandra Button Chairman #DriveOn2021 P.S. At the start of this month, on Giving Tuesday, we announced the establishment of the John Lamm Scholarships, which you can read about in this issue. In this time of charitable giving, we hope you consider making a donation to support these scholarships or any of our concours charities. They are in great need this year.
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THE CAR FROM PARIS
TALBOT-LAGO
Grand Sport By Peter M. Larsen
The first Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport to receive a body was chassis 110101. The two-door coupé, built by Jacques Saoutchik, was the star of the 1948 Salon de l’Automobile in Paris. 4
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“I'M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP.” Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, 1950
Above: A rather dapper Anthony Lago in August 1937, two years after he took over Talbot. Left: Two or three of the flamboyant Saoutchik cabriolet-roadsters were built. Chassis 110120 is the only cabriolet that survives with its original coachwork, seen here at a Belgian Concours in the 1950s.
In the end, it was Anthony Lago, the astute businessman, who never paid full price for anything, who was forced to swallow his own medicine and sell out for a pittance when Henri Pigozzi of the French automaker Simca devoured what was left of Lago’s factory and company in the summer of 1958. Two years later, he died of heart failure. Lago was overweight, a smoker, and only 67 years old. For years, he had looked like a man ten years older: tired, ill, and worn out. It is no wonder — he had been fighting every day of his life to keep Talbot going since he finally took over the French company in June 1935.
It was a different man who arrived at the Talbot factory in Suresnes outside of Paris in 1933 having carefully constructed the absolute deal of his life with its British owners: a dapper Anglo-Italian gentleman with no money but some sophistication, full of energy and vision for the moribund company, which Owen Clegg, his predecessor, had managed into the ground. At the age of 40, Lago was an accomplished wheeler-dealer, who had worked very hard to get where he was, and from the very beginning, he had allowed nothing and no one to get in his way.
In the beginning, things had gone well. In spite of Lago having to pull the company out of the clutches of inept owners and near bankruptcy, as well as fend off hostile takeover attempts, not to mention the effects of the Great Depression, the years up to World War II had been reasonably good. But since 1939, there had been no windfalls, no strokes of luck, nor merely steady growth in which he could have taken comfort. Instead, there had been a world war, occupation, crippling government taxation, another bankruptcy, and a vicious circle of steady decline. The last years of his life had been bitter indeed, and selling out to Pigozzi for a handout broke his heart.
Born in Venice on March 28, 1893, he was christened Antonio Franco Lago. The family was upper-middle-class with both social and cultural pretensions. The Lagos soon moved north to Bergamo, where Antonio’s father managed the local civic theater. There, young Antonio grew up surrounded by people of letters and music. Lago flirted with the nascent Fascist party in his youth — an involvement that ended with a bang. He soon found that militancy had supplanted early idealism, and Lago criticized the movement publicly. Fascist Blackshirts began to hunt him, and this culminated in an incident shortly after the Armistice where Lago was attacked at gunpoint in a local café.
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They Look like nothing else.
Fortunately for him, the fascists shot the café proprietor first, and Lago was able to throw a hand grenade, which he not uncoincidentally was carrying in his pocket, making his escape in the ensuing melée. Lago fled to America, worked as an engineer for Pratt & Whitney, and later returned to London where he became an Isotta Fraschini dealer and acquired the European rights to the Wilson pre-selector gearbox — for which he deftly managed to pay nothing. He never set foot in Italy again. By late 1932, Automobiles Talbot S.A., which was owned by the British Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq combine (STD), was on the verge of bankruptcy. Lago presented himself to STD’s management as the “man to the rescue” and was sent from England for a few weeks to look over Talbot and make a report as to what could be done. Upon examination of the moribund Talbot factory, Lago found it in shambles. Chief engineer and fellow Italian Walter Becchia was on the verge of leaving, and the workers were uncaring and demoralized. The few cars being turned out were poorly put together. But beneath the dust and the cobwebs, Lago could see a plum ripe for the picking. After returning to England, instead of recommending liquidation, Lago suggested to STD that he be
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made managing director of Talbot in France for a two-year period with a put option to buy the factory at any time at its 1933 value. He returned to France in early 1933 to rake the coals out of the fire with a doozy of a contract in his back pocket that would hand everything over to him if he played his cards right. He did. In fact, the coals were raked out so ruthlessly that Lago ended up owning the company without paying anyone anything. As payment, he simply assumed an old £500,000 debt that STD still owed the bank due to a loan taken in 1924 with the French factory as collateral. Imagine: not only had Lago become a carmaker without a centime to his name; through this deal he had just become STD’s biggest creditor, and this was all part of the plan. In 1936, he let Talbot go bankrupt in connection with the great strikes in France, thereby wiping out all debt. STD couldn’t call in its debt with the liquidators, as Lago was the first creditor in line. In the end, Lago obtained Talbot scot-free. While conducting these scurrilous financial dealings, he also set about transforming the company. The entire product line was redesigned by Joseph Figoni, powerful new six-cylinder single-cam 4-liter engines were introduced, and Lago’s Wilson
Opposite page: The 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Fastback Coupé by Figoni, owned by Robert Kudela, was a popular Best of Show Nominee in 2018. It also won the Vitesse ~ Elegance Trophy, having “zipped” along beautifully on the Tour d’Elegance. Left and below: Seen on the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance in 2017 and below at Le Mans in 1950, chassis 110105 raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1949 to 1953. Its first owner, the French driver André Chambas, ordered the sporty coupé body from the little-known coachbuilder Contamin-Besset.
pre-selector gearbox was slipped into the chassis. Then Lago went racing. Suddenly, Talbots were a hot commodity, and it is no exaggeration to say that the rest is history. When the chassis design for the T26 Grand Sport was laid down toward the end of World War II, it was Lago’s intention to produce a very exclusive road-going sports chassis for the carriage trade. A chassis that in its conception, feel, and driveability was as close as technically possible to his glorious Grand Prix cars. In that sense, it was not really a new design: the layout and most mechanical details from the prewar GP cars were retained. This meant that the Grand Sport was a true sports car rather than a grande routière such as a Delahaye or a Delage. The target group was a wealthy and very sporting clientele, which on the one hand wanted a fast daily driver, and on the other, would not be averse to entering various racing and rally events as a privateer. In retrospect, we know that even if the target group may have been there, the market certainly was not, as the rich had become careful about displaying their wealth in the austere postwar political climate. Market research, customer clinics, and scientifically targeted product development would have been totally alien concepts to a man like Anthony Lago. His thinking was much simpler: “I have developed, proved, and honed my chassis and engines in gruelling competition since before the War. I am now selling you a perfected road car chassis, which has much of the power, road holding, and strength of my Grand Prix racing machines. Surely, you must covet that and buy it!” They didn’t. Lago was flying by the seat of his pants, and this time his intuition failed him. For that we should all be thankful. Had he been “smarter” and taken a cooler and more distanced look at the new world surrounding
him in 1945 and 1946, the Grand Sport chassis would never have come into existence. The bare chassis made its debut at the Paris Salon in October 1947, and the first bodied cars were shown there the following year. As it turned out, production was extremely limited. In four years, from 1948 to 1952, Talbot produced a total of 32 documented GS chassis: 29 on the original short 2.65-meter wheelbase that was identical to that of the prewar racers, and three toward the end on a stretched 2.80-meter wheelbase. All were bodied by the crème de la crème of French coachbuilding. Saoutchik was the most prolific, but Grand Sports were also bodied by Chapron, Franay, Figoni, Dubos, Antem, and others. Exported chassis were bodied by Pennock in Holland, Van den Plas in Belgium, Graber in Switzerland, and Stabilimenti Farina in Italy. Some Grand Sports turned out to be quite competitive and were rallied and raced enthusiastically by their owners. Others were laden considerably with voluptuous bodies. These extravagant creations blunted performance somewhat, but their lascivious beauty more than compensated for these shortcomings. Owners and coachbuilders avidly entered these latter Grand Sports in many of the postwar concours d’elegance in France and abroad, often winning grand prizes for elegance. The cars still do so today whenever they are shown. They look like nothing else. They are remarkable. They draw crowds, and deservedly so.
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Left: The short-wheelbase Grand Sport chassis as introduced in 1947 was a prewar Grand Prix car in disguise. Below: Grand Sport chassis 110112, built in 1949 by the Parisian coachbuilder Antem, was a special order with full Grand Prix mechanicals and close to 300 hp. It was built for Marcel Paul-Cavallier, who had been on the Talbot board of directors since 1948.
Over the years, criticism has been levelled at the extreme shortness of wheelbase of the original Grand Sport chassis, coupled with the relatively tall powerplant, the large 18-inch wheels, and the massive 120-liter gas tank. The argument is that at only 2.65 meters, it complicated the work of the carrossier unnecessarily and resulted in bodies of dubious aesthetics. While it is true that stretching the chassis to 2.80 meters for the last cars was probably a concession (too little, too late) to the coachbuilders, in hindsight, this criticism misses the point. First, Anthony Lago wanted precise sports car handling, so the GS was conceived strictly as a two-seater. Second, since there was no money left in his destitute company to develop new mechanicals, Lago had to work around a heavy engine with prewar origins and a heavy gearbox, and still aim for relatively light weight. The car had to have a short chassis, which would be very fast on the road and competitive on the race circuits. And this combination he certainly achieved. The Wilson pre-selector gearbox was left unchanged, as it offered extremely fast shifting compared with standard gearboxes at the time. With its three large Zenith carburetors and aluminum cylinder head, the twin-cam 4.5-liter sixcylinder engine put out an impressive 190 hp. The chassis featured a transverse-leaf front suspension, and without a body it weighed in at 850 kilos, compared with 1,280 kilos for the standard Lago Record passenger car chassis, a savings of more than 400 kilos. This was enough to make the Grand Sport the fastest production chassis in the world — at least for a short while. In Anthony Lago’s mind, the chassis he presented to the world in 1947 was destined for the grand cru sportsman and chic Parisian society in equal measure. It was a grand gesture, the
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final flowering in France of the great tradition of the truly custom and profoundly bespoke motorcar. This chassis was one of the last expressions anywhere in the world of grand luxury in the true sense of that word. Not just grand luxury understood as the amount of leather, wood door-cappings, thick carpets, drinks cabinets, or other accoutrements provided to gratify the owner. The sybaritic nature of the Grand Sport lay in its outrageous exclusivity. It was something for the very, very few. Not just because of its price, which was stratospheric, or its limited practicality, which was irrelevant. The allure was the Grand Sport’s inherent good taste and rare appeal, which were not readily understood by the majority. Here was a car that was chic, ritzy, aristocratic, and sharp as a knife all at once. The Grand Sport chassis was a thing of grand luxury because it appealed to a genuinely sophisticated clientele, who could appreciate its pedigree and aesthetics. Grand luxury because of the truly unique hand-crafted bodies this chassis demanded. Grand luxury because of the elite gatherings on the racing and concours circuits to which this car gave admission, no questions asked. The Talbot-Lago Grand Sport was the embodiment of French haute couture in metal. It truly was The Car From Paris and just as truly the last of its kind. It is indisputable that after the War, Lago went from being a whirling dervish in business to an aging and obdurate
Above: Grand Sport chassis 110121 by Franay was first shown at the Paris Salon in 1949. For the car's third grille treatment in as many years, Marius Franay copied Ferrari 212 Inter chassis 0177E, which he had seen at the 1951 Paris Salon. Left: Chassis 110156, a two-door coupé built by Saoutchik in 1951 and owned by the Blackhawk Collection, is a former First in Class winner at Pebble Beach.
The Car from Paris
It truly was
and just as truly the last of its kind.
man, incapable of recognizing change and reacting properly to it. He and his tiny Talbot company remained alone and windswept in a bleak market with no corporate bankroll or government subsidy to keep him afloat. Yet he managed to manufacture these gorgeous and unique sports cars, run a racing department, and win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1950. With some truth, evil tongues could say that he didn’t know when to quit. It is a paradox, but there are only simple answers to the whys and the wherefores of Anthony Lago’s life. As is often the case, the motivations for greatness are banal and explanations pedestrian. It was a quest for glory, pure and simple, no questions asked, and no quarter expected. Lago was a man for whom the end always justified the means, no matter how devious. He was a hustler who burned with a passion equal to that of the greatest and most celebrated automobile constructors in history. A man who would not and could not accept defeat. A man who would get up, pick up the pieces, salvage what he could, and fight on in situations where others would simply have left the building. A man who was as single-minded as a young Ettore Bugatti or as committed as an Enzo Ferrari, a Carroll Shelby, a Giotto Bizzarrini, or any of the other legends whose lives and careers we continue to celebrate. Right: Each of the 36 Grand Sports was unique. This coupé is the only T26 chassis bodied by the coachbuilder Pennock in the Netherlands. It was ordered by amateur racing driver Maneer Reichmann, who specified several modifications suitable for rallying.
Anthony Lago was not merely a mechanic, an engineer, or a businessman; he was an artist, and his canvas was car making. As such he should be judged. However, like an aging Henry Ford, the downside was a sclerotic insistence in later years that times had not changed and that old solutions were still viable. And like a sclerosis, the disease disseminated itself slowly and insidiously into all things. The culmination, when Lago was eventually forced to sell out to Simca, was a meek disappearance like a blip on a screen. It was not fair, nor was it an even playing field. Being eaten by Henri Pigozzi did indeed break Lago’s heart, but he would have expected no pity. Lago knew the rules, never questioned them, and entered the game. He played it with elegance, beauty, and great style. The Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport is his swan song, his enduring legacy.
Cars in the Lives of Pebble Beach Insiders
David Sydorick stands beside his Best of Show– winning 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta at the edge of Carmel Bay.
DAVID SYDORICK MY PERSPECTIVE
Why cars? I was born with the speed gene, and as a boy I wanted only the best roller bearing wheels for my downhill gravity racer. When I moved on to go-carts, mine was powered by a Harley-Davidson, 74-cubic-inch Flathead Twin, with the gearbox, the dropped front axle, and hydraulic “juice” brakes in the rear — it was really easy to hurt yourself! Once I was legally mobile, it was a ’58 Chevy Impala, then a ’57 T-Bird. At college I had Austin Healeys and old Jaguar E-types, then later the Italian Mille Miglia cars came along. Then, of course, it was time for Pebble Beach. Why cars? It was never really a question! If you could go back in time, what historic automotive event or person would you want to see and why? When I owned the early Ferrari 166 Spyder Corsa (002C), I asked Phil Hill to join me in the car to do the Mille Miglia in 1997, and he said yes — subject to him doing all the driving! Although I agreed, I thought I would at least get in a few minutes at the end of each day — that never happened, but I still enjoyed three days shoulder to shoulder with the ex-world champion! From the first moment we arrived, you could hear the crowd calling out to him “FEEL FEEL FEEL!” At Modena our stop was at the Scaglietti parking lot where all the Ferrari factory people were waiting to see Phil, aka Feel. It was a touching reunion to watch as I cleaned the windshield! We eventually finished, covered in exhaust fumes, and later the famous Belgian driver Olivier Gendebien joined us at the
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Ginny and David Sydorick at the moment of their Alfa's triumph.
awards ceremony. What a lifetime experience for me. Years later, as Phil became ill and knew he was losing his voice, he called his friends. I still have that call on my voicemail and I listen to it often. What Pebble Beach Concours moment do you remember most? Winning the Pebble Beach Concours is not an easy club to join. You never know what will show up on Sunday morning — or even whether your car will start or what the judges will consider elegant that day. As Ginny and I sat in the 2.9 Alfa along with the other two finalists, and I was nervously burning the clutch, we got the nod to go up for the Best of Show award. So I drove to the center of the ramp and shut the car off — and then, and only then, I knew we had it. That was the moment!
HURACĂ N STO. BASED ON A TRUE STORY.
The fuel consumption and emissions data is in the type approval stage
lamborghini.com
By Linsey Mounger & Glenn Mounger
Glenn Mounger and Linsey Mounger at Snowmass Village on the final day of the rally.
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The Colorado Grand is an annual charity tour for sports and racing cars of distinction built before the end of the 1960s. Every September at the peak of the fallcolor season, approximately 85 cars are driven in this relaxed, non-competitive event, covering 1,000 miles through the Rockies over five days. Founded in 1989 by Englewood automotive enthusiast Bob Sutherland, the event is run with the cooperation of the Colorado State Patrol and the tour travels through many small towns of the Western Slope. Our former Concours Chairman and longtime Grand veteran Glenn Mounger teamed up with his daughter Linsey Mounger to tackle the route in 2019, and they talk about it here.
The Lancia Aurelia B24S is a popular choice of car for the Colorado Grand.
Glenn Mounger: You never know what kind of weather you’ll get — from glorious sunshine to rain or snow — so your car needs to be ready for anything. It’s always great to see so many of our Pebble Beach Concours friends as well as those we see every year at the Grand. In addition to the scenery and wonderful cars, the camaraderie is hard to beat. Linsey Mounger: I grew up with the car enthusiast culture. The 2004 Colorado Grand was the first event in which my sister Meaghan and I could drive. We participated in the Grand as a family that year with two cars: our 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina Cabriolet Series I and our 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing. My sister and I each got to drive that year, but this year was a special trip for Dad and me. As life gets more complicated and work gets in the way, opportunities like this are few and far between. Glenn: 2019 was the 31st anniversary of the Colorado Grand, and I have done probably 25 of them. I participated in my first Grand in 1991 when I was a co-driver in Knox Kershaw’s 1935 Duesenberg SJ Speedster (the “Mormon Meteor”) and, after driving that fabulous car through the Rockies, I was hooked on the event. The Duesenberg would go on to be awarded Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2007 with its current owner, Harry Yeaggy. Linsey: Last year we had initially planned to take our 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing Coupe. However, hoping to take full advantage of the beauty of the Rocky Mountains, Dad went on the hunt for an appropriate convertible car. Knox Kershaw at the wheel of his 1935 Duesenberg SJ "Mormon Meteor" Speedster in 1991 with Glenn as navigator.
Glenn: I had long admired the Lancia Aurelia B24S convertible and heard owners talk about how wonderful that car is for an event like the Grand. The good news was we had
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Sadly, breakdowns can occur even in the best prepared automobiles. Mike and Adam Dopudja of Vintage Racing Motors and Nate Lander of the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center offered much-needed mechanical assistance.
Left: Linsey en route to the beautiful snow-capped mountains surrounding Durango.
HERE’S SOME ADVICE IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH YOUR CHILDREN (OR THEY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOU): SPEND FOUR DAYS DRIVING A COLLECTOR CAR IN AN EVENT LIKE THE COLORADO GRAND. — Glenn Mounger
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The glorious countryside around Vail on day one.
the opportunity to buy one shortly before the event and I was able to complete the purchase while sitting in my room at Pebble Beach in August. The bad news was that we had only four weeks to ship the car to the Grand! Linsey: Dad was determined to get the car ready for the tour so he shipped it to Mike and Adam Dopudja of Vintage Racing Motors. Mike is one of the original founders of the Grand and knows how to prepare a car for just such an event. The car was — and is — beautiful. But, although well restored, it had sat unused for many years and needed to be properly sorted out for five days of serious driving. Mike and Adam had only three weeks before the car was to be picked up and that’s not a lot of time to prepare for an event as demanding as the Grand — especially since I knew that we were to be going up and down Independence Pass.
DAY ONE ➡ Vail to Paonia to Telluride Linsey: Incredibly, the Lancia made it to the start of the tour, and we were ready for the trip from Vail to Telluride. We have a family touring rule, which is that if our car is a convertible or an open car — the top stays down. As it turned out it was very cold, but when I got behind the wheel the Lancia performed really well and was everything we had hoped for. Shortly before lunch, we came to road construction and a backup of cars — and that’s when the fun began! While waiting in a line of cars, we realized our car would no longer
The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB of Mark Haddawy.
shift into gear without a terrible grinding noise from the transmission. Dad and I pushed the car to the side of the road, and fortunately, Mike and Adam — along with Nate Lander of the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center — were just a few minutes behind us. Glenn: Mike, Adam and Nate worked on the car for over two hours, lying in the gravel at the side of the road, and thankfully they were able to put enough band-aids on the hydraulic clutch system to get us back on the tour. With their help, we were able to make it to Telluride, but not surprisingly we were the last ones in for cocktail hour.
DAY TWO ➡ Telluride to Durango for Lunch Glenn: With Linsey driving, the car performed flawlessly. However, with the top down we hit the mother of all rain showers shortly before Durango. After the lunch stop in Durango, I took the wheel but after just one mile, sitting at a stoplight, the car once again failed to shift into gear. Linsey and I pushed it into the Durango High School parking lot and once again flagged down Mike, Adam and Nate. While sitting in the parking lot, police cars pulled in and we learned that the high school was on lockdown. Thankfully, we were told the threat was on the outside and it was a lock in and not a lock out. I’m still unsure whether we caused it! After another box of band-aids were applied to the clutch, we got back on the road to Telluride, and once again we did the cocktail “walk of shame” — the last ones in.
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Colin Feichtmeir and his co-driver Tim Nedom driving the 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Long Chassis Tourer.
DAY THREE ➡ Telluride to Gunnison to Snowmass Glenn: Full of optimism that our troubles were now behind us, we hopped into the car in the parking garage but this time were met with total clutch failure. It now appeared that all the band-aids had fallen off and the car was DOA. Thanks to the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, we were given a brandnew Mercedes-Benz AMG C63, and we sadly left the Lancia where it was. Although Linsey and I were disappointed, we could rest assured that we wouldn’t be the last ones in! At the cocktail hour we worked the bar with hat in hand and negotiated to finish the Grand on Day Four as passengers alongside friends in other cars.
DAY FOUR ➡ Snowmass to Salida to Vail Linsey: I hitched a ride with Paul Hageman and Hans Wurl in Hageman’s 1929 Bentley 4½ Litre Vanden Plas Tourer, and Dad rode with David Gooding in Scott and Joanie Kriens’ 1939 Alfa Romeo Tipo 256 Coupé. Glenn: It was a perfectly beautiful sunny day as the Alfa cruised effortlessly through the curves and altitude of Independence Pass. At the 12,095-foot summit we pulled over and met Colin Feichtmeir and his co-driver Tim Nedom driving the Kriens’ 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Long Chassis Tourer. After stopping to admire the views, Linsey was the first to leave the summit in the Hageman Bentley, followed by David and I, and Colin and Tim. Just before the lunch stop in Salida, our Alfa developed a misfire and started running a little rough, so we pulled over. One of the trouble trucks saw us and the mechanic assessed our problem as an ignition issue. We decided not to push our luck and waited for Paul and Colin to show up.
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The small town of Telluride hosted the Colorado Grand at the end of the first and second days.
Linsey: I realized that since Dad and David didn’t show up for lunch, they had probably broken down again. Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but since every car Dad sat in ended up on a trailer, one of the Colorado State Patrol Troopers secretly named him “The Curse” and asked him not to get within ten feet of his motorcycle! Glenn: When Paul in the Bentley and Colin in the Alfa showed up, we decided to quickly rearrange things. Linsey crawled into the cramped, shelf-like back seat of the Alfa 8C, and David Gooding and I squeezed into the back seat of the Bentley — along with a tool roll, fire extinguisher, coats and all the other things that seem to find their way into the back of a vintage car! Linsey: There was very little room in the back of the 8C Alfa and no protection from the wind, so I put on my coat and pulled the hood tight around my face. I noticed that Dad and David did the same in the Bentley. It was a crazy ride through the canyons and over the 12,126-foot Cottonwood Pass, but Paul and Hans made it fun and we had a great time. It was a different Grand since we didn’t finish in our own automobile, but I stand by our assertion that the Grand is better in an open car, and I’m glad we took the chance on the Lancia. By the end of the event I had managed to ride in five different cars on some incredible roads alongside my Dad and other good friends and fellow “Grand-ers.” It was an experience I will never forget! Glenn: Here’s some advice if you really want to know what’s happening with your children (or they want to know about you): Spend four days driving a collector car in an event like the Colorado Grand. You soon get past mundane questions, like how’s the job? and other small talk, and you are reminded how special your children really are.
Clockwise from top left: Paul Hageman and Hans Wurl in a 1929 Bentley 4½ Litre Vanden Plas Tourer; one of the many challenging bends encountered along the way; Snowmass Base Village at the end of day three; David Gooding in Scott and Joanie Kriens’ 1939 Alfa Romeo Tipo 256 Coupé; four-up in the 8C Alfa with Colin Feichtmeir happily behind the wheel.
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T H E P E B B L E B E AC H CO N CO U RS d ’ E L EGA N C E :
A TIME FOR
FAMILY & FRIENDS • By Artu ro Ke lle r • REPRINTED FROM OUR 50TH ANNIVERSARY BOOK •
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My first Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance was in 1979, and it was an important event for me. I live in Mexico, and in Mexico we do not have events like that, so it was completely new to me. To go for the first time and to see all those cars — such magnificent cars! — it was really, really impressive. Now I am a bit spoiled because I’ve been going to Pebble Beach for years. Fortunately, I’ve been able to go every year since 1979. Nothing has stopped me — no health problems, no family problems, no business problems. I have been lucky.
I collect cars for several reasons. The most important reason is that I love cars, I enjoy them very much. Another reason, just as valuable, is that I get to meet a lot of very interesting people who share my passion for cars. I think it is very important for a collector to be able to share his enthusiasm. I like to share my cars with all my friends, and I like to see and share their cars too. I think that’s why I like to go to the Pebble Beach Concours — because that’s a place where people share their enthusiasm for cars. Each year it’s exciting to see what new cars my friends are bringing, and it’s a pleasure to show them what I am bringing. We all want to win, of course, but in the end, if a friend wins, you feel happy for him. I think that’s quite important. The Concours is a gathering of friends who share the same passion. I have always loved cars. My father used to say that the only toys I ever wanted him to buy me were little toy cars. Together we would fix up those cars, putting on the wheels that came off, tightening up the loose pieces, touching up the scratched paint and so on. In 1949, with the help of my father, I bought my first car. It was not a collector car; it was a used 1937 Chevrolet. But I fixed it up. I painted it myself, I put in new upholstery, and I fixed
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everything. I feel I enjoyed this car as much or more than any other car I have owned, in spite of its humbleness. I promised myself that I wouldn’t sell that car until I was able to buy a new car. I was tempted to buy another used car, but I didn’t. I kept that car until I bought my first new car in 1953. That car was a beautiful, cherry-colored, two-door Chevrolet Bel Air. I’m known now for collecting Mercedes, but at that time I couldn’t afford a Mercedes. I could only look longingly at them. I used to go to the Mercedes-Benz dealership just to look at the cars; that was my weekend entertainment, my pastime. When the Carrera Panamericana races came to Mexico, I went to the road to see those races, and of course I was a fan of the Mercedes cars, the famous Gullwings that they were racing then. I just always liked them. I also liked what we called “the old cars.”
The Kellers' 1898 Benz Victoria Hugo Grun Cabriolet garners a second place ribbon at the 2003 Pebble Beach Concours.
When I was fifteen years old, I found a 1930 Duesenberg LaGrand Dual Cowl in an old car lot in Mexico. It was the only such car in Mexico. The owners kept it under a little tin roof, and they wanted 5,000 pesos for it. I used to go to see that car, though I didn’t have the 5,000 pesos. After I started working, I got together the 5,000 pesos and went to buy the car, but then they wanted 20,000 pesos. So, okay, I worked some more. After a few years, I went to buy the car with my 20,000 pesos, and then they wanted 50,000 pesos for it. A few years later, they advertised the car in the newspaper and they wanted half a million pesos! Then the car disappeared from Mexico altogether. Eventually it reappeared, already restored, in California. To make the story short, I finally bought the car, and it is now in my collection in The Pyramids.
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My “serious” collection started in 1966. That’s when I bought my first “collector car” — a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300S Coupé. At the time, I was taking a course in administration from the Harvard Business School in Mexico. A friend of mine who was also taking the course had this Mercedes-Benz 300S. I often asked him, “Would you like to sell it? Would you like to sell it?” And he said, “No, no, it’s not for sale, Arturo. Sorry.” But the course was a year long, and I was patient. One day, my friend arrived late to class. “What happened?” I asked. “Oh my car broke down,” he said. “I’m going to get rid of it.” I said, “Okay, I’ll buy it.” But he said, “No, I don’t want to sell it. I want to trade it for a new car.” Then, immediately, I bought a new 1966 Ford Galaxy and sent it to his office, and I took home the Mercedes 300S Coupé. And I’ve had that car ever since, and it, too, is in my collection. Soon after that, in 1970, I bought what was perhaps the only prewar Mercedes that was available in Mexico — a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 320. A friend offered to help me restore it. He said, “Arturo, we’re going to make this a hundred-point car.” At that time, I didn’t know what “a hundred points” meant. But my friend restored the car, we painted it a light yellow, and everybody was very, very happy with the car. Of course, when I went to Pebble Beach in 1979, I learned what a hundred points really meant. And I realized that my car — the car my friend thought and told me was a hundred points — was eighty-five at most. That same friend invited me to the first auction at Harrah’s in 1978. I went, and it was like being in a toy store. At that time, the cars were not so expensive, and on top of that, the exchange rate was very good for Mexico. So I bought several cars at the auction, among them a 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Convertible by Gangloff and a 1937 Hispano-Suiza K6 Convertible by Pourtout. At that time in Mexico, we were not allowed to import any cars — not old cars, not new cars, no cars at all. It was just impossible to bring cars into Mexico. Fortunately, I met a nice man who was restoring cars in Reno, Nevada. I took the cars to his place, and he restored and kept the cars for me until I built a place in California to keep them. That was the beginning of my collection. The Pyramids ranch was built around the cars, starting with a garage and a road so we could use and enjoy them. I was an entrant at the Pebble Beach Concours for the first time in 1983. I showed the Hispano-Suiza K6 Pourtout that year, which received Second in Class. I was really happy. The following year, in 1984, I showed my Murphy-bodied SSK, and
again, I got Second in Class. Again I was pleased. In 1985, I showed the Bugatti. And still again, I got second place. Then I said to myself, “No, I don’t want this. I have to work harder.” I hated to get another second place. I wanted to get first place. I was able to buy a beautiful Mercedes-Benz 500K Special Roadster that used to belong to a famous collector. It was in very good condition, but I decided to make it the best. A friend of mine recommended a restorer in California and also helped me with the restoration. We finished the car in time for the 1986 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. That year was a great year, as it was the one hundredth anniversary of Mercedes. I took a total of six Mercedes-Benz cars to the show. Deborah and all my children came with me, and each of us was in charge of one of the cars. Now we were really happy because the six cars brought home six prizes: two first places in different classes, two second places behind our own cars, a special award given for the Most Significant Mercedes, and Best of Show. What a wonderful day! More than we could ever dream of. Since that year, the Pebble Beach Concours has become a real family event for us. The whole family is always there. Nobody misses it. Right now [in the year 2000], there are eighteen of
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us: my wife Deborah, my four children with their spouses, eight granddaughters and me. We all ride in the cars. We go over the ramp together to accept the trophies if we get a prize. Now my children and Deborah are starting to show the cars themselves. The Pebble Beach Concours is a better gathering than Christmastime, because at Christmas the children also like to be with their spouses’ families. Pebble Beach is the one day that all the family is always together. One of the times we enjoy most at each Concours is early morning on the polo field when all the cars are unloaded from their trailers. We try to get to the polo field by six o’clock, and we watch the owners and their crews take the cars out one by one and start them. It’s like opening presents! I enjoy that very much, even though it’s very early. Of course, we have cars to get ready ourselves. Each year since 1983, we have been showing cars. Two or three cars. Every year I say to myself, “I’m going to take only one car this year,” because I want to enjoy more of the other cars, more of the people, more of the show. Well, maybe one car to be shown by me and one car to be shown by the children. . . .
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YO U R C O N C O U R S M E M O R I E S :
SHARING FAMILY TIES AND TRADITIONS We invited you to send us your memories of the Pebble Beach Concours, and a great many of you responded with your favorite stories and photographs — so many that we will be spreading your memories across several of our coming Insider issues. Thanks to our partnership with WeatherTech, we will also be sharing a series of video shorts related to Insider Moments. We treasure each of your memories as a part of our own story, and we want to make room for as many as we can!
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Left: Mark Green and his son Blake relish a moment together in a Jaguar competing in the Pebble Beach Concours years back. Below: For this year's virtual Dawn Patrol presented by Hagerty, the two men pose by their Porsche Turbo topped with their collection of Hagerty hats.
For this issue, we’re sharing some of your memories focused on families at the Concours. Many of you make this event an annual family gathering, passing your love of cars down through the generations, sharing and celebrating cherished family automotive treasures, and establishing special traditions and memories here. A few of you even mark family milestones, such as engagements. We hope cars and this Concours continue to bring you together — and bring you joy for years to come.
FATHER & SON GREET THE DAWN TOGETHER I’ve attended the Pebble Beach Concours for 30 years in a row — and many of those years my son Blake has joined me to share in the experiences. He first attended the Concours at the age of 6 and he’s been on the lawn with me 18 times. Being at Pebble Beach, in what is a mostly adult environment, has helped Blake develop the important skills of meeting people, asking about their lives and cars, and building friendships. He was once invited to a private party in The Lodge, unbeknownst to me, and I found him at a table with a group of women, sipping bubbly, and telling stories. That’s my boy!
One year, while looking at the cars being prepped on the Polo Field, Blake began talking to the owner of an old Jaguar C Type, and the owner invited Blake to ride with him in his car onto the Lodge lawn on Sunday morning. During that Dawn Patrol Blake had a huge smile on his face as he rode in between the rows of early risers in that beautiful Jaguar. I must say I was a bit jealous as that’s something I’ve never been able to do. The owner later invited me to sit in the car once it was parked and we got a remembrance photo of the event. Over the years we’ve collected all of Hagerty’s Dawn Patrol hats, and this year when Hagerty created its Virtual Dawn Patrol hat, Blake and I got together on the morning of what would have been the 2020 Pebble Beach Concours and took a photo of us with our Turbo topped with years of Hagerty hats. Thank you for all the wonderful memories and for the relationships built thanks to the Pebble Beach Concours. Blake and I look forward to continuing our father and son trip in the years to come. — MARK GREENE OF CARS YEAH
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A KISSEL AT THE HEART OF A FAMILY My grandfather, Preston Heller, courted my grandmother, Ruth Schulein, in a Kissel — I believe it was a Gold Bug — in the early or mid-1920s. They soon married, and my father, Preston “Pete” Heller Jr., was born in 1929. When my father decided to start collecting antique cars in the 1980s he decided to honor his father’s memory by collecting Kissels. He purchased a 1921 Kissel Gold Bug, plus two other Kissels that I believe were from 1925 and 1928 — one a cream and pistachio speedster and the other a red and black two-door sedan. My father passed away in 2013, and I chose to keep and restore the Gold Bug to honor his memory (and to continue to honor my grandfather, who died the year before I was born). I gave the car to Jason Wenig at The Creative Workshop with the hope of creating the greatest restored Kissel of any sort, which I believe we accomplished. In 2018 we won First in Class among Vintage Era Sporting Cars at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. I gathered my entire extended family at Pebble to participate in that wonderful moment in honor of my father. — ANDREW HELLER
A MEETING TO REMEMBER In 2011, our family attended Pebble Beach. To convince my sons, Mike (16 at the time) and Spencer (11), of the merits of attending, as they are not cars buffs like myself, I told them that celebrities might be in attendance, including Jay Leno, a huge favorite of theirs. Sure enough as we were walking around the cars, Jay was talking to an owner of one of the cars. When Jay saw the look of amazement on the boys faces, he graciously stopped what he was doing, acknowledged them, spoke for a few minutes and shook their hands. They were ecstatic! At dinner that night, we were reminiscing about the day, the cars, and meeting Jay Leno. And Spencer stated that he wished he would have kicked Jay. My wife and I were astounded: “You had such a great day, Jay was so nice, why would you say that?”
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Spencer said that he would always remember the day he met Jay Leno, and if he would have kicked Jay, Jay would have always remembered him, as well! We will always remember Pebble Beach and this story. — M I C H A E L C AT TA L A N I
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY It is hard to say which story is true and harder still to decide which one is better. We grew up understanding that in 1955 our father bought the car, a ’52 Austin Healey, from his cousin Chuck, for $1. Or maybe it was a ’53. Chuck was headed to Europe on active duty with the Navy and wouldn’t need the car for a while, but he didn’t want to part with it, so he sold it to Dad. Chuck called the transaction a rental instead of a sale, and agreed that very little money was exchanged, but believed it was more than a dollar. He also believed the car may have been a ’51. Dad said the car was a four-cylinder white convertible with black leather interior and a wide navy-blue stripe, edged with a narrow strip of gold on either side, which ran from bumper to grille. The engine and the brake drums, revealed through wire wheels, were painted a bright fetching red. Chuck agreed but said the car, which he bought from an assemblyman in Sacramento, began as a hazy, smoky blue. He bought it in ’54 and had it painted white by Stan Epps, who had an established paint shop in Oakland. He had the stripe added by Tommy “The Greek” Hrones, the “irrepressible master of the striping arts.” Chuck said it didn’t get any better than that. Dad liked to point out that when he loosened the big nuts on the windshield, he could bend it up, slide it forward, and let it slide down the hood. Pegs at the bottom slipped into holes, securing the windshield at a new rake, which meant the car could go faster with less pressure. And he made the most of that. “I gave it a try,” said Dad, “and from then on, I drove it that way. My eyes were right above the top of the windshield. This made my dark glasses and, of course, my cap, essential. The car also had a little echo bell, so even if it were just sitting there idling, it sounded good.”
The extended Heller clan gather around the classwinning 1921 Kissel 6-45 "Gold Bug" Speedster that was restored and shown at Pebble Beach to honor the memories of Preston Heller and Preston "Pete" Heller Jr.
Jay Leno (left) chats with enthusiasts just before the Cattalani boys catch his eye. Spencer (below) on the concept lawn. Thankfully Spencer Cattalani refrained from kicking Jay..
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Mr. & Mrs. F. H. Watson III (in the 1950s and more recently) and the Austin Healey they showed at Pebble Beach in 1956, which has long since become the subject of family lore.
It was that adjustable windshield, plus a louvered hood and two taillights, that confirmed for my brother David that the car was, in fact, a ’54 Austin Healey 100M. By all accounts, it was “spiffy.” Every morning, Mom dropped off Dad at Wells Fargo Bank and then drove the Austin Healey to Cragmont Elementary School in Berkeley, where she taught sixth grade. Both agreed it was a rather classy ride for a teacher, and the students seemed to think so, too, as they gathered round the car, hands behind their backs, “just looking.” Dad said that Mom at the wheel, with her dark glasses and blonde curls, was also “spiffy.” The first summer they had the car, Mom and Dad drove it to Pebble Beach and entered it in the sportscar class at the 7th annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, in 1956. “It was fun driving down to Pebble Beach,” Dad said. “I could drive it straight on windy roads, and it would hug the curves. We arrived at the Concours and were directed to our position near the 18th fairway. Then we got out our bottles of water and rags — no one could understand what we were doing — and washed the car right there.” Imagine. Then they pulled out chilled wine from the trunk and stood there, toasting the car and greeting people. Right next to their car was a brand-new Austin Healey, and people walked right by it to look at theirs.
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Perhaps it was the pinstriping. Maybe it was the wine. Just as they were leaving the green, someone backed into Dad’s car and nearly took off the grille. He drove all the way home with that “sore lip” then took the car to an established auto body shop in Berkeley to have the car repaired “just like new.” The following year, my older sister was born, and Dad reluctantly decided to let the little two-seater go in exchange for a “family Dodge.” So he gave the car back to Chuck and kept a little distance for a while until he could get over the loss. Cousin Chuck said he never saw the car again because my father sold it, with his permission, and wired him the proceeds. What we children lament is that we never got to see it. It’s really just figment of our imagination — or theirs. Except they had the photos to prove it. — L I S A C R AW F O R D WAT S O N
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Right: Emily Passey on the lap of her grandfather Jack. Her father, Bill, is driving. Below: In 1993, Tom and Gwen Price and their two young sons cross the awards ramp in their 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Mille Miglia Race Car.
Above: Paul Hageman and his father Peter at work as Class Judges on our competition field. Left: Knox and Jeila Kershaw with their daughter Jeila Martin in front of their 1933 Pierce-Arrow 1247 LeBaron Convertible Sedan
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Left: Mark Tuttle served among Class Judges at the Pebble Beach Concours for 26 years.
A FATHER SHARES HIS STORIES I have countless memories of coming to Pebble Beach every year of many with my father, Mark Tuttle, who served as a judge at the Concours for more than 25 years. My favorite thing was waking up at 5 a.m. on Concours morning — it was like Christmas for my Dad — to see all of the cars driving onto the lawn. We got our Dawn Patrol hat, our donut and our coffee — and then the stories about each car would start. Dad knew the history of almost every car that drove on. I loved every minute of those mornings — the smell of the exhaust, the sound of the engines, the camaraderie of all the car enthusiasts, and that very special time with my Dad. — LISA FISHER
FINDING SOME COMFORT IN CARS My lovely wife had passed on in July 2014 and I was feeling really rather low. My son who lives and works in San Francisco got tickets for the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours and insisted I come all the way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to take part in it.
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Avin and Dr. Abel W. K. Arumagam are all smiles as they attend the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours.
Both of us are car freaks. Actually, I taught him to appreciate lovely cars — and now he drives a classic 1997 Porsche 911 (993). When I arrived in SF, it was the Concours and only the Concours that we talked about till we left for Pebble Beach on that road that winds down the coast. We spent a lovely two days really soaking in the whole atmosphere and ambiance — from listening to Jay Leno speak at The Inn at Spanish Bay, attending the Concours d’Lemons and continuing all the way to the Grand Finale on the 18th fairway. It was indeed magical, and it did indeed raise my spirits. I hope to make it to the Concours in August 2021 if we can shake off this pandemic. Do stay safe. And God bless. — DR. ABEL W K ARUMUGAM
Left: Kathi Webber pauses on the show field of the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours. Below: Richard Plavetich and his wife, Susan Denton, are longtime attendees at the Pebble Beach Concours.
After we dropped our first child off at college in Costa Mesa, California, it worked to catch the Pebble Beach Concours on our way back home to Seattle. There were many emotions on that long drive for a mom and dad, but to experience the joy of the Concours with my spouse of more than 25 years was priceless. Can’t wait to do it again! — BRENT WEBBER
A SPRINGBOARD TO A WHOLE NEW LIFE It was 1987 and I was living in the Detroit area, getting my career started in the auto industry. As a young enthusiast, I had dreams of attending the Pebble Beach Concours, and I decided this was the year for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure to the West Coast for the event. My plan was to fly into San Diego and drive up Highway One to the show before returning home via San Francisco. On the plane West I was reading the Detroit Free Press and saw an ad for a job in an automotive design studio in Los Angeles. While driving through LA three days later, I stopped and inquired about the position, and landed the spot. Following an amazing weekend in Carmel, I flew home to Detroit to pack my belongings to start a new life. That first Pebble Beach trip opened up a whole new California experience for me where I met my wife, was enabled on an international car design career path, and was introduced to many of the hobby’s finest enthusiasts.
I have since assembled a modest collection of vintage cars of my own to participate in tours, rallies and concours—all due to that “one time” trip many years ago. Last year marked my 33rd consecutive pilgrimage to Pebble Beach. Looking forward to 2021! — R I C H A R D P L AV E T I C H , G E N E R A L MANAGER, NISSAN DESIGN AMERICA (RETIRED)
PEBBLE BEACH SPARKS A PASSION From 1953 through the fifties my Father took me and my two younger brothers to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Back then we could enjoy breakfast at The Lodge as we watched the cars pulled onto the lawn. My brother, Brewster, the artist of our family, would have been about 8 years old in the mid-fifties. That’s when he first spotted a Cord 810 on the lawn and was mesmerized. From then on, the 810-812 was his all-time, lifetime favorite automotive design. — LO G A N G R AY
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Traditions: Educational Partners & Scholarships
MEET OUR CURRENT
SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS We are proud to introduce the recipients of our Phil Hill Scholarships as well as our Jules “J.” & Sally Heumann Scholarship for the 2020–2021 academic year. Although many things are different this year, McPherson College has been in session and our scholarship students have been busy honing their automotive skills.
JULES “J.” & SALLY HEUMANN SCHOLAR Wyatt Miceli of Northern California A JUNIOR AT MCPHERSON COLLEGE
Wyatt Miceli considered only one option — a degree in automotive restoration from McPherson College — when he began to think about college. “I didn’t believe an ‘ordinary’ degree was worth my time,” he said. “I wanted to create a unique path that would excite me,
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challenge me, and allow me to gain valuable, hands-on field experience in the automotive industry simultaneously.” Wyatt says he doesn’t come from a “car family” — and he thinks that allows him to respect, enjoy, research, and scrutinize all marques more equally. “My goal is to be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of many, focused on gaining new knowledge, experience, and insight within the automotive arena,” he said. “The automotive world is extremely diverse and dense in content. While I am passionate about vintage automobiles, in order to remain relevant in today’s world, I strive to develop knowledge on numerous eras and aspects of vehicles.” Wyatt is part of the team of students working to restore the college’s 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300S Cabriolet with the goal of showing it at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. He committed nearly 1,500 hours this past year helping restore the car’s engine, transmission, front suspension, and similar drivetrain components, along with completing a significant amount of body and paint restoration. In keeping with his varied interests in the automotive world, Wyatt has also participated in many other organizations across campus. He is a member of the C.A.R.S. Club, the automotive restoration student organization at McPherson College. He has served as head judge for the college’s annual car show and
currently serves as co-chair of the event. He is a writing tutor. And he is training to get a real estate license for California.
she started looking for post-graduation options, Jackie found McPherson College.
“I truly have many interests, passions, and desires — and I am developing, chasing, and managing them all,” he said. “In the end, my passion for the automobile has always and will remain a constant source of interest and excitement throughout my life.”
There, Jackie serves as president of the C.A.R.S. Club, the automotive restoration student organization, and is a member of Rogue Writers, the creative writing club on campus. Naturally, she loves the fact that every automobile has a story to tell: “Classic car collectors are important because they preserve not only the vehicles, but the stories that are attached to them.”
PHIL HILL SCHOLAR
Jacqueline “Jackie” Gullion of Fremont, California A JUNIOR AT MCPHERSON COLLEGE
It was obvious from an early age that Jackie was going to find a way to work on cars. When her mom bought her fingernail polish, Jackie used it to paint her Hot Wheels. “I had a whole collection of Hot Wheels that I played with all the time,” she says. “Fast-forward to high school when my dad told me I had to figure out my future: I knew I really wanted to work on cars.” As a child, Jackie had attended car shows with her dad, who often showed his 1971 Chevy C/10. In high school, Jackie enrolled in an auto body painting and refinishing class, then convinced her dad to let her repaint that beloved car. When
She also enjoys the creativity that surrounds her in the auto industry. “I love rat rods!” she says. “The artistic brain [needed] to create a ratty rat rod is something you don’t get to see every day. Anything out of the ordinary and rare always grabs my attention.” While at McPherson, Jackie has continued to develop her skills in the area she first loved — paint — but she has also found a new passion. “Sanding is relaxing for me; I listen to music and become one with the work,” says Jackie. “I’ve also discovered my love of upholstery. Feeling the different types of materials, watching my hand guide it through the machine, hypnotized by the sound of the machine as it punctures each stitch — it all gives me an adrenaline rush.”
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Traditions: Educational Partners & Scholarships
This past summer, Jackie was an intern at Gladstone Auto Trim in Gladstone, Missouri, where she repaired vehicle seats and boat seats and helped make booths for restaurants. After college, she now hopes to pursue a career in upholstery and “create an impact on my community with positivity and joy.”
PHIL HILL SCHOLAR
Nate McLaughlin of Ticonderoga, New York A SENIOR AT MCPHERSON COLLEGE
Nate McLaughlin believes every car has a story to tell, and he wants to play a role in the story of many cars. That’s why he has been drawn to a career in automotive restoration. “Each car tells a story of the time it was built, who built it, and who ended up with the car,” Nate says. “Being part of a car’s history, whether you own and drive it every day or you work on bringing it back to life, is what I like most about cars.” The first car that sparked Nate’s interest was a Mustang that he purchased from his mom for one dollar. He began fixing it up and making it his own, but it wasn’t until he started restoring and painting cars with his grandfather that he discovered his passion. The first time he picked up a paint gun, Nate knew that he wanted a career working on cars: “Whether it’s a small hand-built aluminum bodied Porsche or a piece of Americana
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Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider
like a 1967 Camaro, you really get a feel for that time period as you work on these cars. It’s like nothing else.” In addition to the history, Nate is drawn to the car world because of the community there: “I think the most surprising thing about the car world is just how willing people are to give you a helping hand. There will always be someone to help you when you’re working on your car. Not to mention all of the forums and videos dedicated to sharing information about cars.” Through an internship at Vintage Car Works in Denver, Nate fell in love with Porsches — his dream car is now the 1974 prototype 922 RSR Turbo — and he now hopes to have a career contributing to the restoration of early air-cooled Porsches by doing concours-quality paint jobs. “I would love to work for a high-end restoration shop where I can continue to build my skills,” he said. For now, Nate keeps busy as a member of the C.A.R.S. Club on campus. An honor roll student, Nate also plays percussion in the McPherson College band, works in the admissions office and the advancement office, and is a resident assistant for the Student Life office.
PHIL HILL SCHOLAR
Dylan Riley of Lake Ozark, Missouri A SENIOR AT MCPHERSON COLLEGE
Dylan Riley can’t remember a time when he wasn’t interested in cars. He considers himself a hands-on learner with a real fascination about the history of cars. “I’m not only interested in learning how to properly restore antique automobiles, but I also want to know the history of where these cars come from and the stories behind them,” he says. Dylan’s interest in cars has developed over time. It started in his father’s garage, working on cars from the 1970s. “Where I grew up the big car shows were full of Camaros, Mustangs, and Chevelles, so that was all I really knew,” he says. “At McPherson College and through internships, I have been exposed to the more elegant and stylish classic automobiles and have really developed a love of Brass Era cars and early European sports cars. I look forward to learning even more about them.” While learning about these cars and growing to appreciate them, Dylan was surprised by the number of makes and models of cars he had never heard of before.
“I was blown away,” he says. “It was crazy to me to see how in the early 1900s everyone was throwing an engine onto something with wheels and calling it a car. Now there are only a handful of large companies that control the entire automobile industry.” At McPherson College, Dylan takes his academics seriously; he has been included on the honor role. He is also active in the student car club and is a member of the Model T build team. Dylan understands that cars serve as a tangible record of the past and wants to be part of maintaining and preserving them. His focus for now is on engines. “I am good with numbers and measurements, which is crucial for finding tolerances during a build,” he says. “Plus, once the build is finished, the feeling I get after putting in all that hard work to finally hear that engine fire up for the first time is like no other. It’s one of the coolest things.” He also loves driving different cars: “I love being able to feel how a car works and learn how each one may be different from the others. I love going fast — but cruising around in a prewar car can be just as exciting and sometimes feel just as dangerous.” As for his dream car? Dylan goes back to his roots — a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T.
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Traditions: Educational Partners & Scholarships
John Lamm had a career that spanned nearly 50 years, covering everything from new cars to classics, mainly for Road & Track. He served a stint in the Army and graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin before beginning his career with MotorTrend magazine in the late 1960s. In 1975, he moved to Road & Track where he remained for 37 years. He later contributed to Car and Driver and Automobile, and he wrote columns for Car Graphic in Japan and Wheels in Australia. John first attended the Pebble Beach Concours in 1974, and not once did he miss the event in the many years since then. Initially, he often walked the competition field alongside his mentor and close friend Phil Hill. He went on to serve among our judges for nearly a quarter century.
JOHN LAMM SCHOLARSHIPS ANNOUNCING THE
For Students in the Field of Automotive Communications
In memory of automotive journalist John Lamm, and in keeping with our mission to celebrate great cars long into the future, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is establishing the John Lamm Scholarships to support students in the field of automotive communications. These scholarships will complement the Phil Hill Scholarships and the Jules “J.” & Sally Heumann Scholarships, which the Pebble Beach Concours has already established to support students in the fields of automotive restoration and design.
The Pebble Beach Company Foundation, the primary charitable partner of the Concours, has agreed to act as the administrator for the John Lamm Scholarships. And, as with the Hill and Heumann Scholarships, the first John Lamm Scholarships will go to students at McPherson College in Kansas, where they have a program emphasizing Automotive Communications in addition to programs focused on Automotive Restoration Design, Technology and Management.
“In addition to creating and caring for great cars, we need people who can capture their stories and convey them to future generations,” said Concours Chairman Sandra Button. “That’s what John did so well for decades, with camera and pen and computer. He photographed and wrote about great cars — as well as the people who made history with them. He also did all he could to connect car people. He was both a communicator and a community builder. “In tribute to John, and in remembrance of the other automotive journalists we’ve lost in recent years (Denise McCluggage, Paul Ingrassia and Thos Bryant spring to mind immediately), we want to do all we can to encourage the car communicators of the future.”
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Some of John’s friends and colleagues, as well as Ford Motor Company, have already stepped forward with generous donations to help fund the John Lamm Scholarships, and we thank them. If you wish to join with us by honoring John in this manner, we invite your contribution, using our regular donation form. Please contact Sandra Button or Judith Ann Raible (at info@pebblebeachconcours.net) if you desire further information.
Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Insider
Above: John Lamm (right) talks with Paul Woudenberg, the longtime voice of the Concours, and Thos Bryant.
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