200 mph Supercars: Caruso Concours d’Elegance at Americana on Brand

“If you’ve never been at 200 mph, it’s a sensation beyond belief.”  The words of Dick Messer, the longtime Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, could hardly have better summarized the reasoning behind the museum’s sponsorship of an October 11 car show that focused on automobiles capable of 200 mph.  Reaching out to local collectors and loyal members, the museum was able to assemble 23 such supercars for a fun and free event set against the backdrop of one of the area’s most popular open air luxury retail centers, the Americana on Brand Boulevard. 

 Located in the Los Angeles-adjacent city of Glendale, nicknamed the Jewel City, Americana on Brand is the latest project of Caruso Affiliated, a regional real estate development company that has garnered a reputation for the outdoor retail malls that are becoming increasingly commonplace in Southern California.  There is a small degree of irony in the fact that a Caruso property would host an exhibition of expensive supercars, given that company founder Henry Caruso made the majority of his fortune as the founder of Dollar Rent-A-Car.  

 “To my knowledge, and I read practically every [automotive] publication, at least here in the United States, and some in Europe, this has never been done before – that this many supercars ended up in one place at one time,” explained Messer.  The Petersen, of course contributed some of the most stellar offerings on display, including a Ferrari F40, F50 and 575 Superamerica, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a Bugatti EB110 and Veyron, a Ford GT and a Jaguar XJ220.  Another area institution, the Riverside International Automotive Museum, supplied a freshly acquired Maserati MC12, which in concert with a handful of locally owned Lamborghinis and Ferraris, rounded out the representation of the major Italian supercar rivals. 

 Rarer contributions came in the form of a 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG, one of about 100 carbon fiber-bodied CLK models homologated for racing and one of only 40 that the manufacturer allowed to circulate into public ownership.  A Cizeta V16T, one of roughly 10 of the Marcelo Gandini-penned supercars that employ a transversely mounted V-16 engine, provided a rare glimpse of another little-known exotic.  The most unusual car on hand though was an AREX, whose acronym stands for American Roadster Experimental.  Fully looking like an experiment, the scissor-doored twin-turbo V-8 oddity was produced in the early 90s by former GM and Toyota designer David Stollery and Gale Banks Engineering.

 Though the show wore the banner of a Concours d’Elegance, there was no judging other than one People’s Choice award, which went to a Ferrari Enzo owned by Armen Aslanian of Glendale.   The show was the third such event that Americana on Brand has hosted in the last year, the previous two focusing on classic cars and the cars of celebrities.  Caruso Public Relations Coordinator Jenny Bronstein clarified that the event would probably be held on an annual basis from this point forward. 

 “This is all excess beyond excess,” concluded Messer.  “Nobody needs to have one of these cars.  You don’t need to have a car that goes 200 mph plus to drive around Los Angeles,” he said, referring to the city’s notoriously congested traffic.  “But on an open road, there’s nothing like it!”

Story and pictures by Mike Daly

 

2009 Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance – 1930 Rolls Royce PII Brewster “Best in Show”

2009 Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance – A Real Italian Job

 Article and photos by Mike Daly

 It was an altogether pleasant surprise to find that the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance had eschewed small-time expectations and staged a world class exhibit of rare and desirable automobiles when it held its 17^th annual event on Sunday, September 13.  Located just south of Los Angeles on the Palos Verdes peninsula, with its ocean vistas and misty glimpses of Catalina Island, this year’s Concours offered an overall theme of Italian automobiles with a stress on Maserati as the featured marque. 

 In the hands of another organizer, this event might have resembled a diminished version of Consorso Italiano, featuring row upon row of late-model Ferraris, Lambos and Panteras.  Fortunately, however, the PV Concours’ organizing committee strived to match the elegant setting of the Trump National Golf Club with a discerning selection of rare and seldom seen Italian classics that transformed the show into one of the better such events of the season.

 In addition to a smattering of requisite Dinos and Miuras, the grassy slopes offered Siatas, Cisitalias, Lancias and Bizzarrini motored sports cars.  A stupendous 1955 Maserati A6G/54 2000 GT Zagato Coupe owned by John Bookout of Houston, TX took first place in the Maserati In-Line 6 (1946 – 1969) class while a beautifully detailed 1958 Ferrari 250 PF Cabriolet Series 1 owned by Peter McCoy of Beverly Hills garnered a win in the Ferrari (1946 – 1974) class.  The outstanding presentation and extreme rarity of both cars was generally indicative of the exquisite and unusual offerings on display throughout the Concours.  Though not nearly as refined, a 1963 ATS 2500 GTS Allemano Coupe owned by Richard and Ginger Powers of Santa Ana, CA attracted just as much attention with its cutting edge mid-engine design.  One of a mere eight built, the Bizzarri engineered racecar won first place in the Iso & Bizzarrini class.

 The Petersen Automotive Museum made a typically strong contribution, presenting its 1954 Plymouth Explorer Ghia in an American Luxury class that featured three such Ghia-bodied Chryslers, and its 1947 Cisitalia 202 Coupe in the Fiat, Siata & Cisitalia (1946 – 1974) class.  To this day the Cisitalia is considered a seminal Pininfarina design that is widely regarded as a landmark of modern sports car design.  Though the Petersen’s cars were not submitted for judging, a gesture of public outreach over competition, museum director Dick Messer’s personal car, a 1953 Siata 208S, won a special award as the Best Sports Car. 

 A showstopper in this writer’s mind, the 1932 Auburn V-12 Boattail Speedster owned by Anthony Vincent Zehenni of West Hollywood, CA won the distinction of Most Exciting Open, though even with the top up this car was an arresting beauty, unusual in design and pristine in presentation.  Ironically, the Best in Show was given to a 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom II owned by Helen and Jack Nethercutt of Sylmar, the renowned benefactors of the Nethercutt Museum.  While there is little doubt that the Brewster-bodied towncar had all the makings of a show winner and Mr. Nethercutt is virtual automotive royalty in Southern California, one might have presumed that an Italian car would win an event whose focus was automobili.  Notwithstanding this seeming incongruity, the Palos Verdes Concours could not be regarded as anything but a smashing success, with a mid-sized crowd that never impeded the car gazing, mild seacoast weather marked by gentle sun and ocean breezes, and a dizzying array of some of the finest and most unusual collectible cars seen in one place in recent years.