ARIZONADRIVER • September-October 2007 • 5554 • September-October 2007 • ARIZONADRIVER

SPECIAL EVENT : THE 7TH ANNUAL RUSSO AND STEELE MONTEREY AUCTION

August in Phoenix is a great timefor a collector car auction—inMonterey. Russo and Steele

Collector Automobile Auctions, known fortheir high profile event in north Scottsdaleeach January, has run another auction inMonterey for seven years now, coincidingwith the Monterey Historic Races andPebble Beach Concours d’Élegance.

The winning Russo and Steele formulais the same—painstakingly careful juryingof entrants, the knowledge and personaltouches of auction chief Drew Alcazar, thecatered hospitality of partner and brideJosephine, and an intimate auction-in-the-round venue, where everyone is in themidst of the excitement.

This year featured half a dozen carsfrom the very large muscle car collectionof Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson,and we had a chance to review those withReggie in person before the opening gala.

The auction opened with rock’n’roll,film and celebrity memorabilia. In the firstminutes of any auction, with some heavyhitters still arriving, there are oftenbargains. A Princess Diana autograph,valued at $4000, went for just $525. Butwithin an hour, a Pink Floyd-autographedFender Stratocaster sold for $7000.

Similarly, the third car on Fridayevening, a 1965 Mustang fastback, sold forjust $16,500, and the first on Saturday, aTVR coupe, for $8500. Both were topquality. We wished we’d signed up to bid.

It didn’t take long for things to heat up,though—within about an hour a ’64 E-Type Jaguar fetched $102,500. From there,things went higher... including a 1973Lamborghini Miura P400 SV for a record-breaking $962,500 and a 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL for a record $764,500. In all,the auction grossed over $10 million insales, with a 62% sales rate.

This year, Russo and Steele allowedreserve price consignments for the firsttime. Drew explains the decision: “Themarket has spoken clearly that the all noreserve sale has now compromised theintegrity of the auction forum and no longhas value. Russo and Steele continues toexceed the standard by offering our clientsthe option of reserve. This added featureresulted in higher quality consignmentsand builds infinitely more equity in ourrelationships. We are thrilled with theresults being a true indicator of the marketplace; free and unencumbered by prev-iously perpetuated stigmas.”

You can find complete auction results atwww.russoandsteele.com ■

HOT AUCTION FEVERON THE COOL NORTHERNCALIFORNIA COAST

Photos byAlan Grinbergand Joe Sage

ARIZONADRIVER • September-October 2007 • 5756 • September-October 2007 • ARIZONADRIVER

SPECIAL EVENT : THE 57TH ANNUAL PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS D’ÉLEGANCE

The 18th fairway at the historic PebbleBeach Golf Links® is open 364 days ayear. On day 365, one of golf’s most

scenic and challenging holes is trans-formed for the Pebble Beach Concoursd’Élegance. The Concours debuted in 1950,a low-key affair with about 30 cars. Fifty-seven years later, the event has grown toexhibit almost 200 of the rarest, mostvaluable vehicles in existence.

Automotive entries in the Pebble BeachConcours are by invitation only. In fact,many collectors spend years andhundreds of thousands of dollarsrestoring a car in hopes of being chosen toparticipate.

From prewar classics to postwar trea-sures, the Concours assembles a stylishmix while highlighting certain marques,this year featuring Aston Martin and theAuburn-Cord-Duesenberg (A-C-D) group.A historic hot rod class celebrated the 75thanniversary of the iconic ’32 Ford, the “10-plus Club” focused on cars with displace-ment of 10 liters or more, and for the firsttime, a preservation class was added.About two dozen classes competed, withvehicles from 30 states and 12 countries.

Cars first compete by class, for excel-lence of restoration, mechanical conditionand authenticity. Cars that achieve Best ofClass then compete for Best of Show,evaluating styling, design and elegance.

Eight relatives of Cord founder E.L. Cordattended. Tonight Show host Jay Leno (a2004 class winner) provided color com-mentary and awarded raffle prizes. Racinggreats attending included Dan Gurney,Phil Hill, Parnelli Jones, Jochen Mass andSir Stirling Moss. Thomas and LammotDuPont displayed their prized machines.

The oldest car was an 1897 Henriod DucKellner Phaeton, brought from Sussex,England. The “Mormon Meteor,” astreamlined 400-hp 1935 Duesenberg SJthat set speed and endurance records inthe ’30s, won Best in Show.

Concept cars included the Mercedes-Benz Ocean Drive, Maserati Granturismo,Chrysler Nassau, Dodge Demon, JeepTrailhawk, Bentley Brooklands, CadillacCien, Lexus IS-F, Lexus LF-A, Lincoln MKR,Italdesign Mustang by Giugiaro, SpykerC12 Zagato and Callaway C16 Speedster.

The event has contributed more than$10 million to charities through the years.

This event is of supreme importance toits participants, but is also a genuinecrowd-pleaser. If you’d like to see aConcours, this is the one, so book now. Forinfo, visit pebblebeachconcours.net ■

Pebble Beach Concours...57 years... 190 cars...$200 millionPhotos by Alan Grinberg and Joe Sage

58 • September-October 2007 • ARIZONADRIVER

SPECIAL EVENT : THE 34TH ROLEX MONTEREY HISTORIC AUTOMOBILE RACES PRESENTED BY TOYOTA

The Monterey Historic Races kicked offon Thursday, August 16, when AlUnser Sr., Bobby Rahal, Parnelli

Jones, Emerson Fittipaldi and other driverstook a practice run for the Legends ofMotorsport on Saturday, which honoredIndy’s Roadster Era, champion drivers andthe host racetrack, established in 1957 andcelebrating its 50th anniversary.

On Thursday, the media got a sneakpreview of the Indy Roadsters during afeature photo line-up, as 33 Roadstersturned the track in preparation for theweekend races. Also on Thursday, PeteLovely, winner of the first main event atLaguna Seca in November 1957, washonored as an inductee into the Legendsof Laguna Seca, with a presentation byMonterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala.

The 400 cars participating in the RolexMonterey Historic were divided into 14groups based on age and engine size,selected for their history, interest andcurrent state of presentation. The carsdated from 1914 (Mercer) to 1981 (Porsche935K4). Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, Corvette,McLaren and Shelby led with the numberof entries. A team of nine pre-War Bentleysarrived from England for the event.

The 14 races were split with sevengroups racing Saturday and seven onSunday. Qualifying practice sessions wereheld on Friday.

Friday featured the Ferrari HistoricChallenge races, with historically signif-icant Ferraris, Maseratis and Alfa Romeosthat have contributed to the racingheritage of Ferrari today. A display byFerrari Classiche and a gathering of FerrariF40s, celebrating its 20th anniversary,highlighted event activities,. Pete Lovelywas honored again, as his 1957 victoryhad been in a Ferrari 500TR.

50 YEARS OF RACING AND A 50-YEAR REPEAT WINNER AT MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECAPhotos: Joe Sage

Toyota hosted the inaugural Race ofLegends on Saturday, in which driversholding championships from nearly everylevel of racing, including Formula One, theIndy 500and the 24 Hours of LeMans,competed in an eight-lap charity race,driving 215 hp Scion tC sport coupes. Thefield included Bobby Unser, Al Unser Sr.,Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Rahal, ParnelliJones, Vic Elford, Emerson Fittipaldi, OveAndersson and Derek Bell.

History repeated itself on Saturday witha win by Pete Lovely, 50 years after takingthe first-ever win at the track in 1957.Driving his 1959 Lotus 11 in the class of1955-1960 sports racing cars under2500cc, Lovely, of Tacoma, Washington,held off Jim Lawrence from Lafayette,California, in his 1958 Lotus 15.

The Rolex Monterey Historic Automo-bile Races is “an automotive museumbrought to life,” and is the largest event,with over 40,000 visitors, of the renownedclassic car weekend each August inMonterey. For more information, visitwww.laguna-seca.com. Speed TV willtelevise the Rolex Monterey Historic Raceson September 30th at 6pm EDT. ■P

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