First Time Vintage Ferrari Wins Best Of Show At Pebble Beach

For the first time in 64 years (ever) a Ferrari wins Best of Show at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.  Congratulations to Jon Shirley of Medina, Washington who won with his 1954 Ferrari 375 MM Scaglietti Coupe as an outstanding example of automotive design and performance.Photo: Rolex / Tom O’Neal

The Ferrari has a fascinating history.  Ordered by noted film director and Ferrari lover, Roberto Rossellini, it began life as a Pinin-Farina bodied Spyder.  After an accident the chassis was sent to Carrozzeria Scaglietti for a replacement body since the original was beyond repair.  The Coupe Speciale was Scaglietti’s first passenger car for Ferrari.  After passing through two other owners if was discovered in an underground Paris garage and sold.  Mr. Shirley had it restored first in 1995 and promptly won its class and the Luigi Chinetti Memorial Award at the same show in 1998.  Armed with a focus on originality, further research led to a subsequent restoration which included returning the leather seats to vinyl.  Over the last few years originality carries more weight with the judges than the most beautiful restorations.  Could this have been the winning factor?  The 375 MM received other notable awards last Sunday at the Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance:

• Strother MacMinn Most Elegant Sports Car
• Art Center College of Design Award
• First Place – Class M-1: Ferrari Grand Touring

It was a record breaking weekend on the Monterey Peninsula for Ferrari all the way around.  Ferraris were the stars at many of the auctions around during Monterey Car Week including the most talked about first ever auction of a 250 GTO at Bonham’s on Thursday night.  The attention on this single car was so huge, it put a major damper on the ability of many people to Tweet or post to Instagram – mine was out for 13 hours! We congratulate Mr. Shirley and others like him who pour such passion into preserving these outstanding automobiles so they may be appreciated for years to come.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more coverage from the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the events of Monterey Car Week.