Some winners are easier to pick than others. At the Kentucky Derby, it’s the nose of the horse that crosses the finish line first. At the Super Bowl, the team with the most points when the clock expires is the champion. The first team to take four games in the World Series is the victor. Selecting a car for the coveted “Best of Show” award at a prestigious concours is not so simple. The most famous and respected concours in the world is the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It is the World Series, Super Bowl and Triple Crown of car shows […]
Some winners are easier to pick than others. At the Kentucky Derby, it’s the nose of the horse that crosses the finish line first. At the Super Bowl, the team with the most points when the clock expires is the champion. The first team to take four games in the World Series is the victor.
Selecting a car for the coveted “Best of Show” award at a prestigious concours is not so simple.
The most famous and respected concours in the world is the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It is the World Series, Super Bowl and Triple Crown of car shows all rolled into one. Everything that happens at Pebble is dissected and discussed by collectors, enthusiasts and the entire classic-car industry that revolves around them.
A first for Pebble
This year, for the first time in Pebble’s long and storied history, the judges awarded Best of Show to a Preservation Class car. The winner was a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports presented by Fritz Burkard of the Pearl Collection in Zug, Switzerland. The car was a relatively recent addition to the collection, acquired in 2020 at a Gooding & Company auction for $12.6m (SCM# 6934000).
Concours Chairman Sandra Button commented, “This storied Bugatti, the first Type 59 built, is a rare factory race car that recorded multiple Grand Prix victories at the hands of several important racing greats — and it also has ties to royalty. Perhaps most importantly, it wears all of its history to this day, having been preserved in the livery it was given when redressed by King Leopold of Belgium.”
Pebble Beach offered a Preservation Class for the first time way back in 2001, and this year was not the first time such a car had won the top award at a concours. At The Elegance at Hershey in 2013, Bob Bahre’s unrestored 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 won the Governor’s Cup. And at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este this past May, Best of Show was awarded to an unrestored 1932 Alfa 8C 2300 from the HM Collection in Belgium. Considering the Bugatti for the top award at Pebble was not going down an unmarked path.
The preservation-restoration continuum
Exactly what constitutes a “preserved car,” however, is a contentious topic.
For those preservation advocates who like to pick nits, “redressed” refers to the fact that the paint scheme on the Type 59 had been changed from its original, and the bodywork altered when it was converted from a Grand Prix car to a sports car in the 1930s. Some stalwarts maintain that a car that has been altered can never be a truly preserved car.
It bears mention that there is a big difference between a barn find and a preservation-class car. A “barn find” is often neglected, and in many cases nearly derelict.
At the other end of the spectrum, a fully restored car can be accused of having its history erased in the pursuit of some imaginary perfection. As the hobby continues to evolve, we can hope that there will be a “softening of the border” between preservation and restoration, somehow allowing more integration of the two.
Who wins?
For top collector and restoration shops, the crowning of this Bugatti raises an interesting question. If judged head-to-head, which version wins, a well-restored example of an important car or a well-kept preserved one?
I would argue that it doesn’t really matter. The number of significant cars that would benefit from top-flight restorations is a fairly large one, let’s say in the hundreds. The number of cars that would be in suitable condition to be “preserved” and entered in a top show is much, much smaller, perhaps only dozens.
It requires several fortuitous accidents for a Preservation Class car to be considered for a top award at a top concours. Think about it: Nearly a century ago, no one set out to “create” a potential Preservation Class winner. The planets that must have aligned include a car turning out to be important (often an unknown at the time of its construction), for it to have been used enough to develop an impressive history along with some patina, and also for it to have escaped previous attempts at restoration or “improvement” as the years went by.
The late Dr. Fred Simeone, known for his advocacy of preserved cars, wrote in his seminal book, The Spirit of Competition, “Posterity should reward the owner for preservation, not restoration.” He continued, “While cosmetic perfection is very difficult to achieve, historic perfection is even more elusive and more desirable.”
Regardless, we will not see restoration shops closing en masse. Restored cars will still scoop up the majority of Best of Show awards, simply because important cars that are deserving of a restoration are far more plentiful than are properly preserved cars of historical significance.
The Ferrari factor
We might also note that one award does not a trend set. In 2014, for the first time in the modern era, a post-war car won Best of Show at Pebble Beach. This car, a 1954 Ferrari 375 MM owned by Jon Shirley, was also the first Ferrari to win the top award. However, that did not signal a sea change in the awards at Pebble. Since then, neither any other Ferrari nor even another post-war car has won.
Similarly, it may be years before we see another appropriate and eligible Preservation Class car vie for the top award.
The Pebble Beach judges made the right decision to look at the Bugatti from all aspects, including its provenance and presentation and the way it has been lovingly and thoughtfully attended to throughout its long life. On the day of the concours, amidst the sea of restored cars, this preserved one was proudly wearing its 90 years of illustrious history. It deserved the trophy it received. ♦