Decor Girl

The countdown is on with only two months to go until the premiere event for automobile enthusiasts, the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on the famed 18th fairway of Pebble Beach on August 21 st.   For me this means 2 months of deciding what clothes and shoes to pack and what to attend.  Warm this year or freezing friggin cold like last year?

From a car I’d never heard of a 1920 Ballot

This year special attention is being paid to:

• Mercedes-Benz and 125 years of the Automobile
• Stutz Centennial
• Ferrari 250 GTO
• Edwardian Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts
• Italian Motorcycles

Even us girls know the Ferrari 250 GTO is the male version of sex on wheels.  Soft sinuous curves which magnetize the eye from any viewpoint and a throaty roar which can make anyone weak in the knees are just a couple of its famed characteristics. It had a rocky start with the original designer and a few other important  personnel leaving Ferrari in a bit of a revolt while the prototype was till in testing.  This left Ferrari to call on Sergio Scaglietti to simplify the complicated original 250 GTO design into one of Ferrari’s most successful cars.  According to Mr. Scaglietti in a recent interview with Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance publication Insider, “…the car won everything.”

Ferrari 250 GTO

There is another one on my Flicker Gallery from Cavallino 2010.  I want, I want, I want.  This is one of the few times I could rationalize an enormous living room to display such artwork.  (Note to husband: the car comes first then the remodel.)  These rarely come up for sale and at the often bandied about figure of $30,000,000 – yes I do mean thirty million dollars, I’m thinking I have a better chance going to the moon.

I’m not a big Stutz person all I really know is growing up, a local judge in our region’s AACA had a Stutz Bearcat.   He was a jovial fella with a neat old car, and we got our first Siamese cats from him.  It was an original, a real one not one of these stupid recreations.

Sorry but I’m a purist, no fakes, no kit cars, no replicas, it’s just wrong.  Buy an original or go home.

Of course I’m all hopped up on seeing any older Rolls.  Last year I was salivating over the cream & black interior design of a beauty and you know me, I tend to prefer color and I barely believe in creme (crisp white only thank you).

Custom interior of a Rolls-Royce

I have always loved old Rolls-Royce cars.  I mean love.  I used to read the car ads in my dad’s Hemmings Motor News and circle my selections.  We had Ford Model A’s, but a girl could dream.  Rolls were about coachwork built for people to their specifications, when people’s taste was equivalent to their means.  Coachwork, there is a word not many under 40 have a clue about, okay maybe that is under 60 if you aren’t a car person.

Of course I’ll be there for the full week of events from the auctions to the track.  I’ve already heard from a couple of my readers who will be there, email me if you are going – if you bring a car I’ll be sure to feature it in my follow-up posts.