Okay, I Think I Understand This Year’s Pebble Beach Concours Winner For A Change

I’m about to go to the airport after a very fun but exhausting Monterey Car Week – we should have lots more content about it all coming soon – and while I’m tired and my head is so sunburnt it feels like it’s been well-microwaved, I feel like I should at least inform you of a bit of Pebble Beach news I usually never pay attention to: who “won” the damn thing.

I know it’s a big deal and all, but the truth is usually that I just don’t really care about which car gets Best in Show, like a well-groomed terrier, not because I don’t care about the cars, but more because I usually find that there’s so many remarkable, unique, and unexpected cars out there that picking one to somehow elevate just seems a little silly.

But I get why they do it, people like trophies and the gift cards to the Sizzler or whatever you get when you win the Concurs D’Elegance, the element of competition is exciting, and what else would all the Monterey back alley betting parlors do if there was no competition?

This year, though, I think I at least can see why the winning car was singled out for special attention, because it really is remarkable: the 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Tulipwood Torpedo.

I’m showing the rear first for two reasons: one, it’s stunning, and B., this sort of wooden boattail is something you’ve probably seen before on vintage cars. But what I suspect you may not have seen is something like this:

An entire body done in strips of wood. At first this feels like boatbuilding techniques, but it’s actually not: it’s aircraft fuselage-type contstruction, and it wasn’t done for the aesthetics – which are stunning – but for weight reasons, because this was a racing car.

The whole body only weighs about 160 pounds. The wood is mahogany, cut into 1/8″ thick strips, held together with aluminum, flush-mounted rivets. This was the carbon fiber of its day, just, I think, far lovlier.

Oh, and I know it’s called “Tulipwood” but it’s not tulip-tree wood, the name comes from the ruddy color and curvy-ness. And, I suspect, an urge to be confusing.

The car has a pretty fascinating history: it was commissioned by André Dubonnet, the grandson of the guy who made the booze you’ve likely heard of, which, I just learned, contains a bit of quinine, so if you don’t want to get malaria, maybe have yourself a glass.

Being an apéritif heir meant that André had the resources to pursue whatever he wanted, which included flying planes, being on the Olympic bobsledding team, and racing cars, which he did for Bugatti and Hispano-Suiza. He even designed an independent front suspension system that was, for a time, licensed by GM.

He also had a few of cars built on Hispano-Suiza H6C chassis, one of the earlier ones of which was this racing car, the Tulipwood. The chassis for this car was only one of three specially lowered, and with a lowered radiator and an absolutely massive 52-gallon fuel tank, to allow for long rally racing.

The body was built by aircraft manufacturer Nieuport-Astra of Argenteuil, with whom I’m all certain we’re familiar, having enjoyed many flights on a lovely wooden Nieu-Astry, and this lightweight body in conjunction with the 8-liter engine made for a formidable and extremely advanced racing car.

I was told the car makes close to 200 horsepower, though I have seen power figures online as varied as 45 or 160 hp. This was a racing car, so I’m inclined to believe the higher numbers.

Dubonnet raced the Tulipwood in Targa Florio in 1924, finishing 6th in that grueling race, and enjoyed it for racing, but then added fenders and headlights for road use. The car later was sold to a perfume magnate, a marmalade heir, stored during WWII, and was later sold in the 1950s to an heir to the Standard Oil fortune, which leads to this amazing anecdote, from the RM auction page when it was sold for over $9 million in 2022:

Gerald Albertini, a Standard Oil heir and passionate automobile enthusiast living in London, spotted the car at roadside in 1955, and in the age-old fashion left a note on the windshield offering to buy it. Six months passed before a change in Forestier-Walker’s circumstances led to the consummation of the transaction, held at an appointed spot on a Welsh roadside, as the seller’s family was heartbroken and did not want to see the car go. The return trip home necessitated a pause for fuel, at which Mr. Albertini sat down for a leisurely cup of tea, emerged, and found the attendant still laboriously hand-pumping vast quantities of fuel into the tail’s 52-gallon tank! To add insult to injury, the wealthy owner found his wallet empty, and was forced to pawn his watch to pay for the fuel.

Even with gas as expensive as it is now, so far I’ve never had to hock my watch for a tank. Yet.

The car went through a few changes over time, like these more bulbous wooden fenders that were fitted, as you can see in this video:

…and this video from 2022:

Since that sale, the car has been restored to the roadgoing spec that Dubonnet himself used, with metal fenders, and different, huge headlamps:

The whole car is just stunning. Look at the interior and dashboard:

I think those are alligator-leather seats, and that very fully array of instruments is just perfect. There seems to be no provision for a roof of any sort, so maybe bring a hat, that most personal of roofs.

Unusually for a racing car, the Tulipwood has a rear seat, complete with a speedometer/tachometer combined gauge so passengers can, you know, stay in the loop.

Since I’m sure you’re wondering about the taillight situation, let’s take a look at it. Oh, also, note that matching wooden mat/drip tray(?) below the car up there.

It’s an unusual taillight setup; there are two taillamps and a license plate light, but the setup is asymmetrical. There’s what I suspect is a brake lamp at the place where, if this car were a spider, the spinneret would be, and there’s a taillamp mounted on the license plate frame. There’s no turn indicators or anything, so I think that’s it. It’s simple and novel, and I think works well with the car.

This is a genuinely stunning car in person: huge, yet with so many beautiful details that you want to both scrutinize it up close as well as appreciating it as a whole. It’s an interesting and unexpected car, and I think it’s actually a worthy Big Prize winner here.

I’m very happy I got a chance to see it up close! And mazel tov to Lee Anderson of Naples, Florida, who seems to be the owner. I hope Lee has a good tarp to put over this, I hear it gets rainy in Florida.