CP INTRODUCES THE NOMINEES FOR THE 2021/2022 “PENINSULA CLASSICS BEST OF THE BEST AWARD”

Good evening ladies, gentlemen, dear friends!

I have my script, because the images on the screens will be prompted very precisely when I pronounce certain words. So, I must not deviate, I really have to stick to the script!

For all of you who, like me, were unable to attend the intimate Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award ceremony here in August last year -intimate because of the Covid pandemic-, I shall start this presentation with an image of our 2020 winner:

-        A Ferrari 750 Monza -which, some believe, should be called 750 Sport-, owned by Tom and Jill Peck. It is a case where the appellation doesn’t really matter: my name is Christian Philippsen, but some call me Philip Christiansen. It doesn’t change anything, does it? It is still me. So, whatever its name, our winning Ferrari, which was nominated after having won Best of Show at Cavallino Classic in Palm Beach, is a brilliant and historically significant car.

Warm congratulations, Tom and Jill.

We have 2 more Ferraris as candidates for this year’s award, which brings the total of nominated Ferraris since the beginning to 10, of which 2 eventually won the BoB. No other marque comes close!

As a reminder, the BoB award goes to a car that won Best of Show in one of the leading Concours in the world as they were just introduced by Gordon.

The contenders for tonight’s Award are winners of events that took place in 2021 and we have eight of them.

Before we dive into them, I’d like to extend a big thank you to their owners, their custodians and their caretakers for looking after, showing and sharing such treasures.

*

So, the 2 Ferraris I just hinted at are

-        A 1956 250 GT berlinetta by Scaglietti, after a design by Pinin Farina, owned by Brian Ross, Best of Show at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, and

-        A 1957 250 GT Berlinetta TdF by Scaglietti, also after a design by Pinin Farina, owned by Martin Gruss, winner at Cavallino Classic.

Both are very similar cars. They are almost identical mechanically. There are however some updates on the body like baby fins on the rear fenders for the later one (on the right) -nothing to compare with the 1950’s Cadillacs fins though!

There is also a difference in their names, as the second one includes the letters TdF, for Tour de France. Ferrari liked to give races’ names to his cars, certainly when they won them, like Monza, or Mille Miglia and here Tour de France after a 250 GT Berlinetta finished first overall in the event in 1956.

The 250 GT model is the real start of the Ferrari legend. Its famous 12-cylinder engine, a development of the initial engine launched in 1947, had now reached maturity, culminating in the early 60’s with the iconic 250 GTO.

When I was a kid, I once saw and heard a 250 GT passing by, and I was so impressed that later, I applied for a job with Jacques Swaters, the Belgian Ferrari importer, and got it. It changed my life!

Our 2 cars had racing careers before joining private collections, the second one purchased new from the factory by Pierre Noblet, a noted French driver. In order to avoid taxes, he asked Ferrari to give the new car the serial number of his former Ferrari, so 0805 became 0619. It could occasionally be done in those years, but I am not suggesting that you ask for the same favour when you order your next Ferrari…

Our third contender is a 1974 Lancia Stratos, the winner of the Cartier Style et Luxe concours held during the Festival of Speed at Goodwood. Though it doesn’t carry the name Ferrari, it belongs to the family: indeed, its power unit is the same as the V6 Dino engine, developed and built by Ferrari and named after Enzo’s son Alfredo ‘Dino’ who had passed away at a very young age.

The body comes from Bertone and was penned by Marcello Gandini, the same Gandini who designed the Lamborghini Miura. Stratos was the name given to a Lancia concept car introduced at the 1970 Torino Motor Show, for it was so special that it looked as if it had come from the stratosphere. In its rally-tuned version, the Stratos won several World championships, European championships and national championships and rallies.

Our nominee is a Stradale, or road, version owned by Marc Newson, a respected designer, which is a testimony to its brilliance.

We now leave the Ferrari family for a Mercedes-Benz showroom!

These two, Ferrari and Mercedes, have been competing since the 1930’s, when the Germans were entering their Silver Arrows Grand Prix cars and Enzo Ferrari was running the Alfa Romeo racing team before becoming a constructor in his own right. That battle is still alive today in Formula 1, in the offering of limited series hyper-cars, and in the classic car market, with Mercedes now holding the title of the most expensive car sold at auction. In May this year, a private buyer paid about 150 million US dollars for a 1955 300 SLR coupé, thus beating the Ferrari GTO which held the crown so far. And here, Mercedes and Ferrari compete for another trophy: the Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award!

Indeed, against the 2 Ferraris and the Stratos, we have no less than 3 Mercedes-Benz, all 8-cylinder 540K’s, which stands for 5.4 litre engines with a K for Kompressor, all from 1938, all capable of 100 mph, but carrying different body styles, all individually built to the customer’s wishes by the factory coachwork Sindelfingen. In the own words of Mercedes-Benz, the 540K model quote “conjures up visions of breath-taking exploits of racing cars and drivers of international fame, but also of superlative comfort and coachwork of exquisite beauty, fine paintwork, brightly polished metal, the finest hardwoods and leather -massive and yet outstandingly attractive bodies- in short: the car for the connoisseur”, unquote.

Our 3 nominees are:

-        A two-seater Cabriolet A owned by Dr Peter Hertel, Best of Show at Salon Privé in England

-        A Spezial Roadster owned since 1984 by Karl-Heinz Keller, Best of Show at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering, and

-        An Autobahn Kurier owned by Deborah and Arturo Keller, Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

The Cabriolet A is a two-seater built on a short chassis. It shows remarkable proportions, with the radiator above the front axle and the A pillar – the windscreen mount - right in the middle of the wheelbase. This very car already won Best of Show at the now defunct Louis Vuitton Classic concours in Paris in 2001.

The Spezial Roadster is also a two-seater, but on the long wheelbase chassis. Only 26 were built. They display sportier looks than the Cabriolet A, but still the same proportions.

The Autobahn Kurier, or Highway Cruiser, one of only 2 and the sole survivor in this configuration, owes its name to the global highway network that Germany was first to build. It is a Trophy hunter:

-        One of four final contenders for Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 2006 already (where it got my vote, but that was not enough and the Autobahn Kurier would have to wait another 15 years to be crowned!)

-        Best of Show at Villa d’Este in 2008

-        Best of Show at the Concours of America in 2011

-        Louis Vuitton Classic Best of the Best in 2011

-        Amelia Island Best of Show in 2019! Wow!

We are now coming to our last 2 nominees.

One is the

-        1934 Avions Voisin C27 Aérosport owned by Merle and Peter Mullin and winner of the Concours of Elegance held at the Royal Hampton Court Palace in England.

Gabriel Voisin started his career building airplanes of which he produced no less than 10,000 for the army during World War One. After the war, he developed an interest for cars, a market he thought had more potential. He was one of the first to deliver complete cars including the body instead of supplying chassis to coachbuilders as was the custom.

Voisin’s looked unlike any other car and displayed several Art Déco touches, particularly in the interior.

Our C27 Aérosport, a one-off two door coupé showing an astute sun roof that is sliding into the rear trunk, is such a typical Voisin.

The company met financial difficulties after the 1929 crisis and was taken over by financial institutions. A disillusioned Gabriel Voisin reflected: “Make no mistake, the automobile is the empire of craftsmanship, the kingdom of tinkering, and the paradise of showing off.”

Showing off is not the aim of our last, but not least, nominee : a classical

-        1926 Hispano Suiza H6 B cabriolet le Dandy by Chapron owned by Mr and Mrs Charles Mitchell and Best of Show at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, now The Amelia.

To the countrary of what its name suggests, Hispano Suiza meaning Spanish Swiss, Hispano Suiza is considered a French marque, for most of them were built in France, in a Paris suburb. So, why Spanish and Swiss? Well, Swiss because the founder was the Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt, and Spanish because one early client and sponsor was the King of Spain Alfonso XIII.

The cars were of the highest quality, competing with Dueseberg, Isotta Fraschini, or Rolls-Royce. Reliability was unequalled, which was due to the company supplying aircraft engines to the military in the first World War, where safety was paramount.

Jules Heumann, the late co-chairman of Pebble Beach and a great enthusiast of the marque, once picked me up at the SFO airport in his H6 B tourer and drove me to my hotel. To this day, I remember the experience, the car easily keeping the pace of modern traffic.

Here, we have a coachwork by Chapron who was the master of understated elegance: an act of class.

*

On a final note, the excellent magazine Magneto published a list of the 50 most important people in the Collector Car World. I was classified 24th, in very good company, including all 4 Founding Members of the Best of the Best, and I said to myself ‘pas mal, not bad’. So, I casually mentioned it to Noelle, my partner in life, and she replied: “Oh! I thought you would be one of the top three”. There you go... The reason I bring this up is that the owners, and their wives and partners, of the 7 nominees which will not win the Best of the Best award tonight, shouldn’t be disappointed: stay happy, you made it to the top 8, and all are fascinating, significant and desirable examples of petrol cars delivering sounds and scents that electric cars will never equal!

Good luck to all and, as per our friend and fellow Founding Member Bruce Meyer’s motto: Never lift!

*

(CHRISTIAN PHILIPPSEN)

14th August 2022