Party Hardy…In San Marino

by Wallace Wyss –

The Dinner

I just went to the San Marino Motor Classic, which is not in San Marino Italy, but in the enclave of San Marino, California nearby (or maybe surrounded by) Pasadena.

I think it was a good thing. Not only did they have 500 diners, but they had at least ten classic cars parade down a grass strip separating the tables and I think that’s a great idea.

Experts gave a little spiel on each car’s history explaining that one classic prewar car was in several movies or another was a one off by French coachbuilders Figoni and Falaschi (nicknamed “phony and flashy”). Each car chosen for this mini-parade had a pedigree…I’d say.

Then there was a live band and a live songstress who was able to sing the song from the movie if the car rolling by was a four wheeled star. The food was scrumptious, beef, salad, dessert, wine, etc. I didn’t get to sit with any of the artists (though I be an artist too…) but still was entertained by the guests around me. (One was from Texas and we traded Carroll Shelby stories).

The organizers made it clear the dinner’s raison d’etre was all for charity, a cancer charity, and I was impressed with the number that it generated. Several partygoers must have chipped in more than the party fee which I think was around $500. I know it’s a write-off but I am damned glad they do it (being a cancer survivor myself, thank you very much).

I would urge more Concours to do this party-before-the-event. I don’t think the partygoers were endangered by cars going down the middle but maybe cutting the number of cars to five instead of ten. Maybe even discreetly towing them so you wouldn’t have to eat exhaust smoke.

This was all on the Saturday evening before the Concours Sunday so I was impressed some diners came from far away for the dinner, and were still planning on coming back the next day for the car show (or maybe they stayed in local hotels).

Above all the reason for a party like this, in my humble opinion, is that it gets the women more enthusiastic about their husband’s hobby. They get to dress up and talk to their women friends and donate to charity and, oh, yes, see cars. The dinner was tied in with the Art Show put on by the Automotive Fine Arts Society, their show just about 100 feet away. Oh, let me add next year they should have each artist display one work nearer the tables because some diners arrived late and didn’t get to see the artwork displayed for two hours prior to the dinner.

I think by mixing in the artists with the diners is noteworthy because a lot of the artists got to meet fans who may have bought their art during a previous San Marino concours. I think meeting the artist whose work you like makes it a richer experience buying art, like going to a movie preview and meeting the director (which I’ve done, having an ever so slight connection with Hollywood). It’s even more of an experience if you commission a portrait of your car and can influence the background, etc.

I would say most all of the art I couldn’t afford but I was eager to see if the styles of each artist I follow have changed, for instance Camilo Pardo, credited for designing the ’05-’06 Ford GT, was actually showing his paintings of Ferraris. The horror!

So party on, concours fans. This was an event for charity that brought automotive artists notice and entertained a lot of people…

San Marino Motor Classic San Marino, August 25, 2024 – The Main Event

Coming only a week after the famed Pebble Beach Concours, the San Marino Motor Classic, in effect it’s sort of a miniature of Pebble Beach, only this time far from the sea, occurring in a neighborhood near Pasadena, down in SoCal.

They have a wide variety of cars starting with Brass and Nickel Era cars (I think I saw a Stanley Steamer) and going through the prewar cars such as Packards, Duesenbergs, Caddys, Buicks, and then jumps into postwar cars coming to very late models.

One oddball was a Zimmer Golden Spirit. While us classic car nuts are ordinarily not admitting to liking replica old cars, I am interested in quality of construction and apparently the Zimmers were largely based on Mustangs. I wonder what the owners of real prewar classic cars, think when they see an Excalibur, Zimmer and the like? Interlopers?

There is a local jeweler who is such a big supporter of the show, and a staunch Ferrari collection he shows his own private collection. His name is David Lee.

The Ferrari clubs are invited to show their cars and though about half the numbers as last year (when it was a wicked 100 deg.plus) they surprised me with a ’05 or ’06 Ford GT and a DeTomaso Deuaville on display alongside the Ferraris, so they are a welcoming about who gets to display in what was once all Ferrari space. They even had at least two DeTomaso Panteras, one a GT5-S that shows where DeTomaso went with the Pantera after the US model. And of course a Mangusta, which preceded the Pantera,.

Porsches got plenty of space and there were several 356s.

It’s a strong show from British cars. Didn’t see as many Jaguars, Bentleys and Rolls as in years past but one of the most beautifully wrought ones was a Figoni et Falaschi Sedanca deVille that was perfect from the windscreen back with mundane styling in front.

It is also one of the few shows that shows muscle cars in the same show as classic cars. And one of the very few that shows Japanese cars. I think they recognize all these groups like to display cars and they give them a space to do it.

They also have an art show containing the works of members of the automotive Fine Arts Society. I read in the program they had European motor scooters, but didn’t spot them. I think the appeal to motorcycles and scooters is another new area where they are experimenting. The Concours has been held for some years now and shows a remarkable ability to try different themes and see which will win a new group that wants to display. I notice they also included Police Cruisers and was pleasantly surprised seeing a Ford Fairlane police car, must have been from the Sixties.

Because the event is so close to Pasadena they had some Tournament of Roses cars.

And because San Marino is only an hour’s drive from the beaches of Orange County, why not include Woodies through 1950—as woodies and surfing go together.

All in all, I think they are hoping to be the concours that people go to who just can’t handle the expense of Monterey Car Week (and the recent scourge of traffic jams). I’ll admit Monterey has the one golden blessing of ocean breezes. Maybe we can talk San Marino into looking at October instead of August?

Let us know what you think in the Comments.

THE AUTHOR/ARTIST Wallace Wyss is a fine artist specializing in portraits of classic postwar sports cars. Galleries are invited to ask for a free art paper print to try out. Write malibucarart@gmail.com

 
 
 
 
 

Photos by Wallace Wyss.