Glorious sunshine greated entrants for the traditional Tour d’Elegance, a 60-mile run for the Pebble Beach entrants on 13 August. Over 150 braved the congestion of Highway One including several Best of Show favourites. The route across to Laguna Seca, and down the famous coast road to Big Sur and back offered fans a chance to see an amazing collection of cars on the road.
Looking absolutely stunning in the early morning light as it rasped up 17 Mile Drive was Sam and Emily Mann’s newly finished 1937 Delahaye 145 with Franey roadster body. The car features the original GP V12 Prix du Million chassis which after the War was converted to a road car. This was the first showing of this ’46 Paris Motor Show sensation since Mann acquired it in 1997 and reunited body and engine together.
The run had a strong American flavour this year with entrants from special classes including DuPont, Pope-Hartford, Cunningham, GT350 Mustangs, and Mercury customs all enjoying the open stretches of Highway One with its stunning Pacific ocean views.
Race cars always look great on the public highway, none more so than Kazuo Maruyama’s Shelby Cobra Daytona. The ex-Scuderia Filipinetti team car CX2602 was shipped from Tokyo for the Monterey week, and will now head to Goodwood for the one-off reunion of all six famous Daytona coupes.
Another spectacular ex-Scuderia Filipinetti team car on the run was Damien Peal’s Ferrari 250LM which finished 6th at Le Mans in 1965. Other Ferraris included a special group of former Pebble Beach race cars headed by Lex Wexner’s wild looking 857S Scaglietti spider that was once owned by pop artist Andy Warhol.
