by Wallace Wyss –
I missed last year’s Concorso Italiano, the first under new ownership so I wondered how they are faring. I was reassured when I arrived at the 2025 event: still an all Italian car show and still at the Bayonet Golf Course near where Ft. Ord was once thriving.
Fortunately my impression of the new Concorso under new management was good. They had far less cars than I saw in the old days but good quality ones. The ones that impressed me the most were the Spykers. Many of them and they are the epitome of chrome-and-flash with engine turned dashboards, switches aplenty, top down look-at-me.
Spyker – Wallace Wyss
I don’t know what happened to that car company but I am glad to see a club that shows their cars to keep the interest going. Maybe some new automaker will come into being and adopt the Spyker name and design, just like what happened with Bizzarrini.
Speaking of Bizzarrini there were at least two there, and a few Iso Grifos and they are another old car success story, a marque little discussed in magazines but when you hear about a $14,000 Iso Grifo bought back in the Sixties is now worth $400,000 plus you know the Iso & Bizzarrini Owner’s Club is doing a good job spreading the word on what an achievement that car was.
Iso Grifo and Iso Rivolta – Bruce Caron
Iso Grifo – Bruce Caron
I was impressed to see another Italian built car, Apollo GT, with an American engine, a Buick engine. That was another obscure brand, about 88 were made but like many Italo-American cars the public wasn’t ready for it yet. I congratulate the owners for being brave enough to restore cars whose value isn’t locked in tight because so few people have heard of them.
Apollo GT – Wallace Wyss
Compared to the old days of Concorso there were few booths and none selling books or leather jackets or all the things I associate with being a sports car fan. The setting, though at the same golf course as before, is higher up in altitude so you can see a bit of the Pacific Ocean and that makes you feel more excited–you are at not only a sports car event, but sun and sea!
I also saw rows of Alfa Romeos, and Fiats, a few of each being exceedingly rare. You might say this is a Pebble Beach concours for first time show car displayers, to get them used to the idea. Some clubs awarded their own rewards.
DeTomasos were another marque, besides Iso and Bizzarrini, with American made V8 engines.There weren’t many Panteras shown but there was a Longchamp convertible a model never officially imported to the US. But it is of the flat plane school of design so wasn’t as sexy as the all curves school, alas. No full DeTomaso GT4 race car either which would wake people up to their racing history. A yellow Mangusta was overwhelmingly beautiful.
DeTomaso Mangusta – Wallace Wyss
DeTomaso Longchamp – Wallace Wyss
There was a game attempt at showing some early unrestored ’50s Italian race cars like Moretti, and OSCA so I think, like the racetrack organizers, they realize you have to have some old cars because that shows spectators where it all started.
Those could be concours entrants in the future! Even unrestored ones are educational!
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR: Our frequently contributing fine artist Wallace Wyss paints portraits of classic cars. Those interested in a canvas giclee print can reach him at mendoart7@gmail.com
The ocean in the distance – Bruce Caron
Ferraris – Wallace Wyss
Great to see it’s still going strong. Who had the Apollo there? Thanks for the write-up.
Wallace:
Glad you noticed Denny Paul’s Apollo GT. But I think your judgement on values may not be spot on. We don’t restore cars ONLY for an increased value. And while many Apollos haven’t brought top dollar (mostly due to a lack of visibility in the market and lack of authenticity) some have exceeded what pundits have predicted: 1st convertible went for $506K in 2019, first production coupe (formerly my car!) for $242K at the same auction. But these were accurate restorations purchased by knowledgeable buyers; most that are sold are not.
Some Apollos suffer from what we call the “Pantera Syndrome”: Because of their hybrid nature, owners like to hot rod up a beautiful design with billet and chrome. Totally not necessary with the Apollo, whose body was crafted by the same folks doing Zagato Lancias and Pininfarina Ferraris.
Hi Wally, last year’s event was run by a 4th (short-lived) owner. This year’s event was run by a new owner, a consortium of investors, and a new team of which three of us have each worked on the events for various owners across decades, but this is the first time we’ve all worked together at the same time as a team. We appreciate the love.
Dear Wallace, I’d love to see more photos of the DeThomaso Mangusta. It’s a beauty. Did you take more shots of this. Sincerely, Bob Wachtel.
I’ll look. Still organizing my 100 pictures. I think it wouldn’t have won high honors at Pebble
because I thought they had a dull gold colored finish on the wheels. But the importance of Concorso is
that it is a home for all Italian cars, regardless of cosmetic finishing, because after all, there are
still new attendees coming to find a car that “isn’t done yet” that they could buy and finish.\
I miss the booth I saw a few years ago that was an auto wrecking yard but showing a smashed Ferrari
that was still rebuildable. They would never have that at Pebble! And I miss books, art and
Italian clothes…Lost my Marry Me Fly Free mate in a divorce so can’t go to Italy to buy those