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THE Best of Show trophy at the 62nd Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance was awarded to a 1928 Mercedes-Benz 680S, gray with maroon trim and custom body work by a famed Parisian coachbuilder.
The concours, considered the premier showcase for classic automobiles in the United States, hosted 220 entries — their eligibility meeting strict conditions — from 33 states and 15 countries. The winning Mercedes was selected from 28 class winners by a panel of expert judges.
Distinguished by its Torpedo body from the design studio of Jacques Saoutchik, the car is owned by Paul and Judy Andrews of White Settlement, Tex. The other nominees for Best of Show were a 1935 Duesenberg J Gurney-Nutting Speedster, a 1933 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Figoni Coupé and a 1931 Duesenberg J Derham Tourster.
It seemed a timely triumph for the Mercedes, as Saoutchik was this year’s featured coachbuilder. In addition to Saoutchik-bodied cars, the 2012 Pebble Beach concours highlighted cars of India’s maharajas; models from Mercer and Fiat and specialized machines like the Mercedes SL, sport customs and German motorcycles.
The concours began at 5 a.m. last Sunday on a chilly, damp and foggy day with the traditional parade of cars onto the 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach Golf Links. First-time visitors quickly learn that this is not a casual weekend car show: general admission tickets for the day, which include parking, cost $250 each.
The festivities wrapped up more than 12 hours later with a smoky barrage of fireworks and confetti that momentarily reduced visibility to zero as Mr. Andrews tried to drive his car to the presentation area to claim his prize.
Once the air cleared and congratulations were offered, Mr. Andrews was asked to tell the crowd what he thought was most compelling about his car.
“It’s the whole package,” he said. “There’s not a bad line on this car. It was the sports car, the high performance car of its era, and then Saoutchik gave it style and grace. It has power and it has beauty.”
Saoutchik produced seven unique Torpedo, or roadster-style, bodies for the Mercedes-Benz 680S chassis, each featuring the flamboyant designer’s liberal use of brightwork and styling accents. The car got its power from a supercharged 6.8-liter in-line 6-cylinder engine similar to those in the vaunted SSK models.
The Pebble Beach winner, according to the concours organizers, made its debut at the in January 1929, where it apparently caught the eye of Charles A. Levine, a successful businessman with a deep interest in aviation. Levine, who lost out in his quest for the $25,000 Orteig Prize (for the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris) to Charles Lindbergh 18 months earlier, wanted the car for his wife, Grace, who asked Saoutchik for an interior with lizard-skin upholstery.
Before Levine could take delivery, however, the stock market crashed and his fortune, amassed in dealing scrap metals — in part, from a contract with the War Department to dispose of spent shell casings — was wiped out. (He would later serve two prison terms for smuggling.)
The Mercedes-Benz, however, went on to a happier life after Levine’s claims to it were resolved. Frederick Bedford, a close friend of the Rockefeller family and a top executive in the Standard Oil conglomerate, bought the car for an “advantageous price.”
Bedford, whose daughter Lucie would marry Briggs S. Cunningham II, the racer of cars and yachts, drove the car regularly until his death in 1952. His family kept the vehicle 30 more years before restoring and selling it.
Also in 1952, Saoutchik handed control of the business to his son. Saoutchik died three years later at age 75.
Of special note was an award by the Classic Car Club of America to 102-year-old Margaret Dunning, who brought her 1930 Packard 740 roadster to the event from her home in Plymouth, Mich.
While the concours is the centerpiece of a weeklong celebration of classic cars on the Monterey Peninsula, there are also tours, shows, car club gatherings, vintage races and a series of closely watched auctions.
This year, the auctions set a record of $262 million in sales, easily surpassing 2011’s total of $198 million, according to Hagerty, the classic-car insurer, which tracks the auctions. The dollar total increased despite fewer cars being offered: 1,217 lots, compared with 1,373 in 2011. And fewer cars met their reserve prices and sold this year: 754, compared with 882 in 2011.
But the average sale price spiked, to $343,968 a vehicle from $223,950 last year. Surprises like the $627,000 result for a Toyota — admittedly, it was a ’68 2000 GT — and $179,000 for a ’52 Hudson Hornet, both by Gooding & Company, certainly helped the averages.
These notable increases, which analysts said indicated a continued strengthening of the classic-car market, came despite several notable no-sales: a 1935 Duesenberg Model JN once owned by Clark Gable that was bid up to $6.4 million before being withdrawn by its owner; a 1935 Bugatti Type 55 Cabriolet that fell short of its reserve with a top bid of $4.5 million; and a 1931 Blower Bentley 4 1/2 Liter that reached $7 million in bids before the auctioneer moved on to more promising merchandise.
Even the week’s top sale, a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster that brought $11.8 million at a Gooding event on Sunday, went for less than some experts had expected — perhaps by as much as $5 million. Called the von Krieger roadster, for a baroness who once owned it, the car did set a record for a Mercedes at auction, and it certainly ranks as one of the all-time greats among so-called barn finds.
However, other $11 million sales — a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT California LWB Competizione Spyder that sold for $11.3 million at Gooding and a 1968 Ford GT40 Gulf/Mirage racecar that RM auctioned for $11 million — exceeded expectations. The sale price of the Ford was said to be the most money ever paid for an American car at auction (though there’s a good deal of British DNA in the genes of this series).
The top motorcycle sales of the weekend were two Crockers, a 1937 V-Twin and a 1940 Big Tank V-Twin, that each went for $302,000 at a Bonhams event. A third Crocker, another 1937, went for $291,000.
At Mecum Auctions, the top sale was a 1972 Porsche 917-10 Spyder racecar that sold for $5.8 million; Bonhams’s top sale, completed after the car crossed the auction block, was a 1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail FIA GT Endurance Racing Coupe for $3.9 million. Russo & Steele’s highest sale was a 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 that went for $781,000.
Source: New York Times
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