Many of the world’s greatest and most legendary automotive events like Pebble Beach had to skip the 2020 “model year” so automotive enthusiasts were left scrambling for other opportunities. Fortunately, we live in a fast, fiber optics-connected world so the virtual Concourses have quickly flourished.
The latest representative of the new genre is the Petersen Concours d’Elegance, part of the virtual Petersen Car Week. It took place during the past week (August 12th to 16th) on the Petersen Automotive Museum’s own YouTube channel.
It had it all – from collector (David Lee, Peter Mullin, Dennis Varni, and Doug DeMuro) garage tours to the official presentation of the new 2021 Ford GT Heritage Edition as well as a fully-fledged “Petersen Concours d’Elegance.”
The latter received a total of 500+ submissions from across 24 American states and four continents while featuring a star-cast judge panel that included names such as Chip Ganassi, Bobby Rahal, McKeel Hagerty, Peter Mullin, or Ralph Gilles, among others.
At the end of what was undoubtedly a long debate – considering there were a total of 16 classes to oversee – the Best of Show accolade went to a 1937 Horch 853 Sport Cabriolet owned by Aaron Weiss. Coincidentally, Weiss was also one of the judges, but we fear no wrongdoing on his behalf because he would have had to bribe a total of 32 other peers...
“Although we could not gather in person this year, we couldn’t have hoped for a better digital event to share our automotive passion,” said Petersen Executive Director Terry L. Karges. “From the supportive fans to the incredible partners and participants, our shared love for the automobile helped make Petersen Car Week possible.”
Among the highlights from other classes we could also mention a few that inexorably drew our attention. For example, the American Classic section was won by a 1936 Chrysler C9 Airflow Coupe and the Most Elegant (Open) was a 1953 Bentley Graber DHC. By the way, the 1937 Horch 853 Sport Cabriolet also took home a second class win – the prize for the most coveted European Classic.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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