Monterey Historic Races
RSRs were abundant
Earlier this month the Monterey Historic Races were held at the Laguna Seca circuit in California. For the 36th edition, Porsche was celebrated in almost every class and the factory Porsche team was present to showcase their cars.
Among the 15 classes, our favorite was Group 7A, which had all the Porsche FIA prototypes including the 906s, 908s, 910s and the infamous 917s. Among the all the Porsches we found two singularities that stood out. The first of these was a 356 SL which was one of the Le Mans Coupes that was chopped for SCCA racing. In a similar vein we also have the Kremer K8 which is a spyder version of the successful 962 Group-C car.
Almost every car from the races can be found in our feature gallery. Also included are cars from the display areas and the Devon supercar which was publically debuted at the event.
August Supercars
Lamborghini Hypercar for Frankfurt?
Besides the cars released at the Pebble Beach Concours, August has had a steady stream of releases for the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show. Supposedly Lamborghini will reveal a new roadster similar to the Reventon that will put a dramatic bodykit over their top model. If there's a car that might steal the show from Ferrari's F458, this might be it.
Porsche has confirmed their Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Porsche 911 GT3 Cup while Gemballa is the first to tune the Panamera into the Mistrale. Mini will bring the Coupe Concept to Frankfurt in celebration of the public debut of the very first Mini in 1959. Maserati will also launch their GranCabrio, a droptop version of the popular GranSport.
Noble will wait until the Goodwood Revival in September to release their newest Supercar. Called the M600 it's a direct evolution of the potent Nobles that have received high praise over the last decade.
Aston Repeat History at Nurburgring
Nurburgring-Winning 007
Aston Martin have done it again. 50 Years after their win at Nurburgring, they have won the event outright, taking first, second and third place at the Le Mans Series 1000km-Rennen Nurburgring. The 007 Gulf-livered LMP1 car of Jan Charouz, Tomas Enge and Stefan Mucke finished first. With the absence of both Audi and Peugeot in the series, Aston Martin didn't have too much competition in the LMP1 class and led from the beginning.
The weekend also included a round of the ADAC GT Masters which featured GT3 cars including a spectacular Audi R8 in Fujitsu livery. This series is currently being led by the Callaway Corvettes with stiff competition from the new Audis.
The Classic Endurance Series was also held and had a very full grid of nearly 50 cars. Among them were many Porsches, a BMW 320 Turbo Group 5 and the unusual Howmet Turbine car. These and more can be found in this week's gallery by Dirk de Jager
2009 Pebble Beach Concours
Bentley's Best Line the Shore
For this year's Pebble Beach show we have assembled our most daring gallery yet. With such a high quality of entrants we could easily single out any car with great interest, but we cannot delay anymore and now present our Pebble Beach gallery with over 1000 organized images.
For 2009, Pebble focused on Bentley in a big way. For the first time, the release of the Mulsanne on the ramp marked an international debut during Sunday's concours. This was joined by four more Bentley classes including a works competition class that had Old Number 1, 2 & 3 plus all four Birkin Blowers and the 2003 Le Mans-winning EXP. There has never been a more impressive display of the British marque.
Bugatti was also given two classes for their centennial year. We have pictures of the repainted Dubos Coupe and a gorgeous Blue and Cream Bugatti Atalante. Morgan was the third major theme. They had the very newest Supersports alongside a replica of the very first car called the 1909 Morgan Runabout.
All the cars in all the classes can be found in our feature gallery. Over the coming days we will add even more material from different photographers. Some of the best shots came from Thursday's Tour d'Elegance where we captured many of the cars down California's Highway 1.
PB-Winning Horch in Detail
Ramp Celebration
After seeing this Horch on the Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance, it was pretty obvious that it would take the overall Best of Show honor. Not only was it striking, but it was also better than a similar Horch which won the show in 2004.
The body was a one-of comission by Voll & Ruhrbeck who also designed this fabulous Bugatti. Unfortunately all the factory records were lost during the war, so very little details are available. We tried to assemble as much as we could at Pebble for our in-depth look into this masterpiece.
If anyone has any more inforamtion regarding this car, please feel free to contact us. Soon we hope to have the entire entry list of Pebble Beach availible with more pictures than previous years.
New Supercars from Pebble
Devon GTX on Laguna Seca
Apart from the ongoing events in Monterey, several debuts are taking place. Devon Motorworks previewed their new supercar at the Monterey Historic Races today. One of two GTX supercars did several hot laps before being shipped to Pebble Beach for its official debut.
The new Devon uses a Viper V10 in a carbon fiber monocoque and has an all-aluminum suspension. The entire car, built for road or track, is available for $500,000 USD. It was proven by breaking the production sports car record around Laguna Seca
Today, Spyker also unveiled the Spyder version of their Aileron supercar. It is larger than the standard C8 and benefits from the visual upgrades of the Aileron package.
We end with the Bugatti 16/4 Veyron 'Sang Bleu'. It is basically a Grand Sport with blue carbon fiber weave, polished aluminum fenders and blue brake calipers.
Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours
Jon Shirley's Testa Rossa causes a stir
Condensed down to one day, the Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours featured about 200 cars in the closed off streets of Carmel, California. It marks the opening of this year's Monterey week which will culminate with the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on Sunday.
Since Porsche is being celebrated almost everywhere during the Monterey Week, many special models were displayed among a huge number of push-rod 356s. The very best of the these was a completely unrestored Porsche 550 RS from the Mallya Collection. Also present was the Glockler 356 Roadster and numerous special-edition 911s.
Jon Shirley took overall honors with the 250 Testarossa Prototipo that will also be racing at Laguna Seca this upcoming weekend. His fabulous Ferrari and more is in our feature gallery by Richard Owen and Dirk de Jager.
Schloss Dyck Classic Days
W25 Screams up the street
The 4th annual 'Classic Days' were held at the Dyck castle near Duesseldorf. The event included a static display around the moated castle and a run up the street for select cars.
Many golden era grand prix cars were around including a stunning Mercedes-Benz W25 that screamed up the street. A video of the W25, including its incredible supercharger whine, can be seen here.
Another highlight of the event was the sole Bugatti Type 64 prototype and a type 57 with a similar body. All these cars and more can be found in our feature gallery by Dirk de Jager and Oliver Kuhlein.
2009 Meadow Brook Concours
Best of Show: Packard Twelve Dietrich Sport Sedan
The 30-year old Meadow Brook Concours rightfully celebrated American design last weekend. Among the dragsters, swoopy coupes, Packards Twelves and modern supercars were some incredible entrants.
The unannounced feature of Meadow Brook could have been Packard. We counted 13 V12 cars and a Dietrich Sport Sedan won the Best of Show. The corresponding European Best of Show went to this Delahaye 165 Cabriolet.
If we had to give an award for the top restoration debut it would have to be this Mercury XM-800. As one of the few surviving Ford showcars, it was never finished with a running engine and ran on its own power for the first time this year! Furthermore, Meadow Brook marked the XM-800's restoration debut.
All these cars plus more can be found in our feature gallery by Richard Owen and Julien Constans. Included is the RM Auction which sold several of the best American cars and made a splendid addition to the Concours.
