Does the Best of Show at Pebble Beach signal a new trend?
For several years now, unrestored and well-preserved cars have been honored at Pebble Beach with the Preservation Award or a win in the Preservation Class. But at the 73rd Pebble Beach Concours d'Elégance , Fritz Burkard's 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports won the "Best of Show" title, a prize that is usually awarded to a top-restored and mostly specially bodied pre-war classic.
The victory of the Bugatti Type 59 raises several questions:
Are top restorations no longer in demand, or rather are honest patina cars at concours events recently and generally preferred to classics with a new car look?
Is the history of a car so important at a Concours d'Elégance that one can overlook the aesthetic weaknesses that the prize-winning Bugatti definitely exhibited as an intensively used and unrestored racing car?
It's not as if there weren't attractive and top-restored classics at Pebble Beach this year.
In other years, the Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport might have been voted Best of Show as a Saoutchik hatchback coupé. A Ferrari 250 GTO and the super wedge Lancia Stratos HF Zero as well as a whole series of attractive pre-war classics would also have been up for selection.
However, the jury obviously wanted to make a conscious decision and chose the Bugatti as "Best of Show".
What do our readers think? We would be interested to know. Leave your comments and let us know what you think ...
