Congrats to Jon Shirley : Best in Show @ Pebble Beach with Rossellini 375 MM

Winning Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is always a big deal. But the first post-war car win AND and the first Ferrari win is huge. The door has been finally opened to post-war cars.

1954 Ferrari 375 MM Scaglietti Coupe named Best In Show at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance - Autoblog

For the first time in the event's 64-year history, the prestigious Best In Show honor at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance has been awarded to a Ferrari. The 1954 375 MM Scaglietti Coupe seen here is owned by car collector Jon Shirley of Medina, WA, and as it turns out, has quite a rich history.

Nevermind the fact that it's currently one of five road-going 375 MMs – this example was ordered by film director Roberto Rossellini, and was actually born as a Pininfarina-bodied competition Spyder. Following an accident, the car's original body wasn't able to be saved, but the chassis was sent to Carrozzeria Scaglietti in Modena for replacement, and the finished product became the company's first passenger car design for Ferrari.

Following its tenure with Rossellini, the car was owned by Mario Savona of Palermo, and later Charles Robert of Paris. Years later, the car was restored by its current owner in 1995, after being found in an underground garage in a Paris suburb.

In addition to being the first Ferrari to win the Best In Show award, this is the first post-war car to take the top honor since 1968. This Ferrari has quite the robust pedigree, having won many Best In Show awards at several events throughout the 1990s, in addition to the Luigi Chinetti Memorial Award at the 1998 Pebble Beach Concours.
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The alarm on the car guy equivalent of a biological clock just went off in my head. . .

Congrats!

 

I met him at the Cavallino track day years ago. Super nice guy, congrats!


BT

 

The car looks great and is rare indeed as it is a one off car. It won Best of Show at the Ferrari anniversary events in Italy so I shouldn't be surprised it was appreciated by the judges at Pebble Beach. Congrats to Jon and to Butch.

 

Kudos also to Butch and his crew for doing a spectacular restoration.

 

Congratulations to Jon and all those involved in the restoration. What a gorgeous car! I had the pleasure to see it in person at the show last week. Sadly, there were so many people around it I never got a good photo but grateful I was there.