Best of Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

It's cool. Like jumper cool. The morning breeze has carried a halo layer of fog over the 18th fairway on the famous Pebble Beach golf course, and the temperature hasn't yet hit puberty.

Thirty kilometres inland and August is as steaming hot as my coffee. The weather can be and often is as weird as Californians.

What a week if you're into cars of any type. It is here where you'll see and hear late-model Ferraris, Lambos and Porsches in Corolla-like quantities. Real Shelby Cobras are as common as Mustangs. And there's the unexpected genuine GT40 abandoned roadside after failing to proceed. Poor guy.

On the Thursday, a Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta made headlines when it sold for more than $40 million, and perhaps even more impressive and significant was the sale on Saturday of a 1967 Toyota 2000GT for more than $1.2 million.

In 2012 at the same Gooding & Company auction an almost identical 2000GT sold for a bit more than $650K. Japanese sports cars, namely early Prince/Datsun Skylines to early Mazda rotaries, are now on the menu and likely to fetch six figures if in excellent condition.

As crazy as it seems, a 1980 Toyota FJ40 LandCruiser with fewer than 2000 original miles topped $145,000.

No doubt the market is hot, and auction results would continue to make news on Sunday evening because of what did sell and also for what didn't sell.

A one-off 1966 Ferrari 365 ‘P' Berlinetta Speciale attracted considerable attention but in the end didn't reach reserve. As a prototype it remains in near-perfect original condition having turned only 8000km.

A 4.4-litre V12 is carried mid-wheelbase, and the driver sits centrally in the cockpit with a passenger seat on either side. And you thought the three-seat McLaren F1 was revolutionary in 1994.

Bidding reached $US22.5 million and stopped. “With every respect to the vendor, I would like another bid,” called the auctioneer. The 365 Berlinetta Speciale did not sell.

Money and auctions are a large part of the week's evening activities, but the weekend revolves around either the historic races at Laguna Seca or the Concours d'Elegance at the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach in Carmel. Engine whine or a glass of wine, it's your choice.

The Concours is spectacular for its ocean-side location and beautiful for the 216 cars that occupy the length of the fairway. It is unique. No ropes, no overly protective owners and sincere respect from the many who just want to be near cars from the pre-plastic era when Packard, Cadillac, Bugatti, Bentley, Benz … transcended basic transportation to become million-dollar works of art.

Each year to keep things interesting the Concours honours a couple of marques or coachbuilders, and this year those marques were the obscure American car-maker Ruxton and the Czechoslovakian brand Tatra.

Both are technologically significant in unique ways. For example, when Ruxton began production in 1929 it was recognised as the first American front-wheel drive passenger car.

Roadster, phaeton and sedan body styles were built, and it is Ruxton that introduced the low-roof chopped and low-slung channelled look long before hot-rodders in the '50s made chopping and channelling popular.

Ruxtons were vibrant with rich colours from violets to light blues to creams and greens. It was after all the late 20s. Unfortunately fewer than 100 Ruxtons were eventually assembled before the company surrendered to the financial effects of the Great Depression.

Tatra had rear-mounted air-cooled engines in production long before Volkswagen was a brand. The Czechs certainly saw the car differently than the rest of the world, and big aerodynamic round bodies would become their design identity. They successfully mixed weird with wonderful and the company's rear-mounted air-cooled V8 proved it.

Tatra exported cars to Canada and Australia, mainly the T600 Tatraplan, in the years following World War II. There are very few in the US and most of those were bought privately in the Czech Republic or Hungary and imported.

About once every few years a Tatra T603 pops up for sale on the Ebay or Bring A Trailer websites, so most Americans have never seen a Tatra and marvelled at the big V8 sitting in the boot.

John Long owns a 1947 T87 and gives a great description of its on-road dynamics. “Third gear is the favourite gear and you can cruise all day at 100km/h. Steering is excellent, handling is good if you have radial tyres, and the brakes are shit.”

He drove the restored T87 from Ontario, Canada to Pebble Beach and along the way crossed the Mojave Desert in 42-degree heat.

Sir Michael Kadoorie from Hong Kong doesn't own a Ruxton nor a Tatra but he arrived with an incredible French racing-blue 1939 Talbot-Lago T150C-SS Coupe fresh from an intensive restoration in Britain.

He bought the Talbot-Lago at Pebble Beach five years ago and invested a year researching it before the restoration began. Michael claims four were built and three are still known. This is the only one with a rear vertical fin that originates at the split rear windscreen.

“It uses the GP chassis and engine, and it was raced. We've driven it 60 miles since the restoration was competed just a few weeks ago,” he said.

Michael's Talbot-Lago was judged best in its class. The overall Best in Show was a silver 1954 Ferrari 375 MM from Washington, an interesting pick and the first Ferrari to win the top gong at a concours that historically favours pre-war cars.

Words and some photos by Todd Hallenbeck & also Copyright © 2014  / Courtesy of Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance