Automobiliac at the Greenwich Concours - FULL GALLERY

This weekend, I attended the annual Concours D'Elegance in Greenwich, CT.  It was the 5th or 6th time I've been, and I have to say that the highlight for me is always the parking lot outside the show! Not only is it free (unlike the now $30 entry fee, which is frankly exorbitant for an event so small) but there is more of a serendipitous aspect to seeing what happens to turn up! This year my Parking Lot Best in Show award goes to an exquisite Maserati Bora that was offered for sale. Finished in black, with an immaculate yet lived in tan leather interior, this Bora was as nice as they come. I really would love to know what the guy is asking for it!  Runner up was a lovely Lancia Fulvia HF which had a wonderfully snarling, snorty exhaust note as the owner pulled away.  Inside the show, there was a breathtaking Cisitalia "Nuvolari" Spider, which really should have had pride of place, but was inexplicably stuck by the port-a-potties in a spot where you couldn't even get close to it.  One of my other highlights was a lime green Ferrari Daytona Coupe, similar in color to the green GTO that was just sold for 35 million.  The Pininfarina-bodied Corvette Rondine show car was a surprise and delight, very much presaging the surfacing that would later be found on the FIAT 124 spider. This is natural, as both cars flowed from the pen of the young American designer Tom Tjaarda. Some other Italian rarities included an Iso Lele, De Tomaso Longchamp, an Intermecchanica Italia, and a Momo Mirage--the only car at the show that completely baffled me as to its identity!There was a "barn find" Chrysler Imperial custom that had a sumptuous Art Moderne interior featuring cabinetry and a clock in the passenger compartment.  In line with the current fetishization of neglect, the car was talked about in hushed tones. But photos of the car on display show that it was in reasonably good shape until the 90s-- I'd say someone owes us an explanation!Easily the most flamboyant car in the show was this tacky yet oddly compelling custom Rolls Royce.  The brightwork is quite fussy, but the actual geometry of the car is clean and crisp. The best design detail was the framless windshield, consisting of a single pane of glass! Quite remarkable.

Click HERE to see the entire gallery. Don't forget to see PAGE 2 as well!

Montauk Motoring

We attended the "Run out East" this weekend, which is a small, but growing Italian car show held in Montauk.  Here is my GTV6 visiting the famous montauk Lighthouse, which stands at the very Eastern tip of Long Island. More photos to follow.

Our man in the UK visits the RM Auction

Our intrepid London-based contributor Davide de Giorgi filed the following report on his recent experience at the RM Auction:

RM Auctions in Battersea Park was the first Auction I managed to follow from the very beginning and I have to say has been a fantastic experience.

There were some truly amazing cars and the game of "trying to guess the price" kept me glued to the chair till the very last lot. The "feel" of the market seem to apply randomly and sure there were surprises. Most of the cars went for less of the estimate and quite a lot could not be sold. I wouldn't know how it could feel to offer £1,3000,000 for the 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Spider and hear the reply "sorry, can't let it go for that price". Just another quarter of a million would have done to take home the only 750 Monza without the headrest finn, a car extremely familiar with the chequered flag.

Also unsold the 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy Berlinetta (£635,000), the stunning and unique 1972 Miura SV (£700,000) and one of my favourites of the day, the stunning 1965 Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada.

Someone got away with a real deal on the 1958 Lister-Chevrolet "Knobbly". The estimate was reasonably between £460,000 and 590,000, for a car that has spent most of its life on the track and was offered completely restored but with a beautiful patina. Incredibly no one in the room moved a finger until an usual celebrity managed to take it home for £177,500. Sold.

The queen of patina, though, was the legendary Alfa Tipo 33/TT/3 that left Japan for the lower estimate, £525,000. I sure hope to see this monster at the next Le Mans Classic, this car is what motorsport dreams are made of.

Few cars passed the minimum estimate and you should have seen the expression on the face of the bidder when no one added anything to his £8,000 for a 1947 Chrysler Windsor Club Coupe'. The estimate was £25,000 to 32,000. Something like "what? really? where the hell am I going to put it now?"2011 proved the lucky year for the Voisin once again. After the glorification of the C-25 Aerodyne at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance this summer, it's no surprises that RM's C25 Cimier coupe' went under the hammer for £340,000. The real surprise was the very pretty indeed 1927 Avions Voisin C11 Cabriolet. The estimate of £42,000 to £68,000 was completely wiped out by the final bid of a whopping £117,500. Staggering.

Unsurprisingly the queen of the night was the stunning 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB "Tour de France" Berlinetta. The room went silent and I was expecting a new world record when in fact the hammer fell on the 2 million mark. The lower estimate.

Lower than the estimate but still an achievement on its own was the delicate concept of the Ferrari Pinin.  I spent good forty minutes around this car on viewing day because it has always been one of my favourite sedans of all time. It looks quite conventional at first sight but considering it was presented in 1980 it truly is one of the cars that inspired things to come. Being able to sit in it and enjoy the silence of that dashboard sitting at the wheel was truly an experience that will stay with me for a long time.

Was all this worth the £50 entry? Absolutely. In fact considering the fantastic 300 pages catalog, two days of fun and the party with food and drinks on tuesday night turn it into a pretty good deal.

Pebble Beach 2011 Gallery is Up!

For all 175 photos over 3 gallery pages click HERE

The featured themes this year were the Ferrari 250 GTO (roughly 20 of them in attendance!), prewar Mercedes-Benz, and Stutz automobiles. Best in Show was won by Peter Mullin's incredible Voisin.

Look for cameos by Stirling Moss, Gordon Murray, Jay Leno, Ed Welburn, Ian Callum and Jason Castriota!

We interrupt our Pebble Beach coverage ........ to bring you the Lime Rock Historics!

This Alfa Romeo GP car , circa 1936, was lapping at around 1:10! That's pretty damn fast for a 75 year old racing car on skinny tires!Labor Day weekend, I managed to escape from the Metropolis for a few hours to enjoy the Historic Races and Lime Rock Park. The track is near and dear to my heart and it's always a lot of fun to come up there. I was there on the Monday, and it rained like crazy, but I did manage to get a few rather evocative shots before I booked it home. Click the pics below for the full gallery.