MONTEREY, Calif. – For decades, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance’s prestigious Best of Show award has gone to an immaculately-restored car. This changed in 2024, when the judges selected a 1934 Bugatti Type 39 Sports entered in the Preservation category as the overall winner.
As the name implies, the Preservation category is open to cars that ooze with patina. The cars entered in it wear chips, scratches and dings as part of their history, not as blemishes, and their owners adhere to the idea that a vehicle is only original once. Seeing a well-worn 90-year-old Bugatti beat cars that just received a six- or seven-figure restoration confirms that the collector’s market has indeed shifted toward originality.
If cars could tell their story, Hollywood’s biggest producers would line up at the winning Type 59’s door for the movie rights. It was driven by René Dreyfus, Robert Benoist and Jean-Pierre Wimille, among other pilots. Bugatti then converted it into a street car by removing the supercharger and adding parts including a new fully-synchronized four-speed manual transmission, headlights and a windshield. The model nonetheless kept racing, it notably won the final Algerian Grand Prix, and it ultimately ended in King Leopold III of Belgium’s collection.
Ettore Bugatti had the Type 59 Sports repainted from blue to black, which was the King’s favorite color. What happened to the car during the King’s ownership remains vague, but we know it moved to Belgium in 1959 with the monarch and his family. He sold it in 1967, and it has gone through several owners since — luckily, they’ve all gone to great lengths to retain the car’s originality. It was entered in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance by its current owner, Fritz Burkard of Zug, Switzerland, making it the first time a European owner has won Best of Show.
Bugatti now ties Mercedes-Benz for the most Best of Show awards at Pebble Beach. Each brand has ten victories to its name.
This year, the Best of Show nominees included a 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Saoutchik Fastback Coupé from the Czech Republic, a 1934 Packard 1108 Twelve LeBaron Sport Phaeton from Ohio, and a 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero Bertone from California, shown here:
