Pebble Beach ‘24: Elegance, Eva Braun’s Bum, Racing Top Gun, a scruffy Bugatti & a Mafia Ferrari

BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

Jon Summers is the Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. On his show he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, motoring travel.

Jon explores various car events including the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and the Laguna Seca races. In this episode, he passionately discusses the significance of preservation versus restoration in the world of classic cars, referencing historic vehicles like the Mercedes 770 and the Ferrari 340 Mexico. Summers also shares his personal experiences and insights as a Pebble Beach docent, highlights noteworthy cars and auctions, and takes listeners on a scenic road trip through California. His narrative intertwines historical anecdotes, personal reflections on the automotive hobby, and practical tips for enjoying car shows and road trips.

• WASP - Shoot From The Hip
• The Most Evil Nazi and how to restore a Mercedes 770
• The Place Where Eva Braun’s Bum Was
• What makes an Elegant Car?
• Paul Russell Restorations
• The Authenticity of the Unrestored Car
• The “bad” $35m GTO
• J’s enthusiasm for a Preservation car winning
• Bullitt - Stay Wild
• The Ex-Mullin Talbot which shoulda won (according to many other Pebble docents)
• A Tribute to Peter Mullin
• Accept - Too High To Get It Right
• Mercedes vs Bugatti: The Unnofficial Score of Most Winning Marque at Pebble
• A Eulogy on the Winning Bugatti Type 59
• Sublime to the Ridiculous. Or the Ridiculous to the Sub Lime - a long digression on the green 2005 Kawasaki ZX10R, which I paid $775 for from a Copart Salvage Auction, and brought back from the dead
• Windward Art District in Miami and a hand painted Kawasaki ZZR600
• An Avant-Garde Collecting Manifesto
• The comi-tragic opera of transporting a ZX10 from Minnesota to California on an open trailer in January
• After 8 years sitting, the ZX10 Gets Its Turn
• Harlequin Plastic Pattern Doesnt Work
• Down, repaired (well it would seem) but downed again
• Peak Analog. How that is defined by Jon
• A digression on the value of ABS brakes on a motorcycle
• Twenty years ago and the annual arms race by the big 4
• On its test ride, ZX10 races a Kawasaki H2, the Top Gun: Maverick bike
• Kreator - Grinder (Judas Priest cover)
• ZX10 tied to the Elegance, Pebble Beach and Concours Judging
• Hillsborough Concours and the Hagerty Junior Judges
• The Pebble winning Bugatti and J’s Ninja - are they the same?
• Manowar - And The Gods Made Heavy Metal
• How I Became a Pebble Beach Docent
• Ironstone Concours
• What is a Pebble Beach Docent and What Does He Do?
• 3am; my uniform
• Charity. And rich people showing off their cars
• “I am going to try to knock it out of the park telling stories about cars on the lawn”
• The Day In The Life of a Pebble Docent
• The Great Pebble Accommodation Conundrum and Hollister
• The absurd cost of accommodation on the peninsula Pebble weekend
• Learning from other docents
• Meeting the winner on the lawn
• I love that the car was driven over the weekend
• Working with Rolex and Jackie Stewart. And missing his stories
• Meeting the CEO of Rolex
• Rolex VIPs wives and elegance
• The Mercedes EQS design team tour meets the Vanderbilt Cup 90hp
• J goes behind the ropes, invited by owner
• Frua trunk hinges and the nature of connoisseurship
• The leveling of the car guy playing field
• Cathedral - Hopkins, Witch Finder General
• How to make the most of Pebble without breaking the bank
• Bob Devlin and the History of Pebble Beach
• The Pebble Beach Road Races, and the California road racing scene in the 40s/50s
• Ken Miles and the Flying Shingle
• Kimberly Clark and Bill Kimberly
• Driving the course in Phil Hills winning Jaguar XK120
• Junk car or Ferrari ?
• Vain - Whisper
• A Eulogy to Don Williams and the Blackhawk Collection
• Nora Wagner, the Blackhawk Docent Program and interpreting old cars in museums
• Collector cars in the 50’s? “A new 50 Ford or a 29 Duesenberg needing some work?’
• The individuality of the prewar Olympian cars
• JB Nethercutt and the Nethercutt Museum
• The Blackhawk Museum Creation Myth; cars as jewellery
• Roxx Gang - Scratch My Back
• Gooding and Auction review; auctions as car shows
• Legends of the Autobahn
• Concorso Italiano
• Concours de Lemons
• Pebble increasingly a car event for rich guys
• Mecum - so much to see because they sell so many cars
• DAD - Point of View
• Laguna Seca history and comments
• Pebble increasingly a rich guy lifestyle event
• Dokken - Standing On The Outside (Intro)
• Practical Advice for Enjoying Pebble Beach week
• Accommodation: Expensive in Monterey, Hollister and Soledad are distant but cheap
• Leave the stick shift interesting car at home and take the air conditioned automatic modern
• RM/Sotheby’s: The free car show in downtown Monterey at the Portola Hotel
• Ian Kelleher
• The Tony Paravanno Ferrari 410
• Mercedes W196 Stromlinwagen
• Valuing unique one of one cars vs. GTOs, Cobras (where there are plenty of comps)
• Dokken - Standing On The Outside (chorus)
• RM equalling Gooding nowadays
• Drew Alcazar
• J sits in a Ferrari 288 GTO
• The Almighty - Thunderbird
• RM compared with Bonhams
• The Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance on Thursday Morning, arguably the best single event of Pebble week
• Casey Maxon and collecting 90s sportbikes
• Ollie sits in Gooding’s 1961 Lotus 18
• Market analysis - pre 1980 stuff struggling, post 80’s stuff up, at least Testarossas are
• Running Wild - Adventure Highway
• The car park after the tour, and a white Cizetta Moroder V16
• Running Wild - Freewind Rider
• Monterey Historics Visit
• Some anecdotes on the Quail; blagging entry with a John McGuiness shirt
• Jenson Button sneers at J
• Getting invited to show your Maserati at the Quail, but losing the keys
• Watching three Martini Lancias loaded
• Pushing an Indy Offy Roadster
• Dining advice from J: the Baja Cantina
• Judas Priest - Running Wild
• Pod advice from a 9 year old
• The best biscuits and gravy
• OG Vanlife camping at Laguna Seca
• The rhythm of Laguna
• Spins at Turn 8
• The appeal of the Jaguar E-Type
• Stuck in traffic on the Saturday
• The Inn at Spanish Bay - “the place to see the supercars and celebrities”
• Josh Altman
• The Almighty - Power
• The Dawn Patrol
• Twin Spark 50s Maseratis
• Saxon - Midas Touch
• 2024 Tour Learnings
• Pebble Beach deductive judging vs. Amelia Island
• Lancia Stratos Zero
• Vector W8
• The Olympian Cars book
• Black Label Society - Set You Free
• Casa Ferrari
• A eulogy on 50s and 60s Ferrari Superfasts
• Chinetti’s Ferrari 340 Mexico
• Black convertible 400 Superfast
• The Superfasts together allow J to compare design details
• Ferrari and Fake It Till You Make It People
• J looks for his BOLUX wrist watch
• Hawkwind - Moonglum
• Mercedes E55 AMG Bravo! Dormant for a year but worked fine except disintegrating wheel bearing
• Hot August Nights ‘24
• Road trip recommendation: Highway 25 south from Hollister
• Saxon - Forever Free

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Copyright Jon Summers, The Motoring Historian. This content is also available via jonsummers.net. This episode is part of the Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission.