Awards and Events

The phrase "award winning" is something to seriously consider when choosing a shop. Awards and a name-brand, quality restoration add significant value to your car.

We would like to thank all our clients for bringing us such amazing cars to restore, for entering the cars in such wonderful events and for being nearly as happy as we are when we win.

Note: This is by no means a complete list and there is often a long pause between updates.

Winning First in Class at Pebble Beach is pretty amazing - even Mark is happy!

Winning First in Class at Pebble Beach is pretty amazing - even Mark is happy!

Pebble Beach 2019

HURRAY!!! IT WON FIRST PLACE!! “Our” very lovely Ferrari California Spyder in the original color of Nocciola continued its winning ways, capturing first in class.

All our congratulations to our wonderful clients and our staff - great job guys. I think next year it will be nearly impossible to repeat so we will gratefully celebrate. Pretty sure no one else on the entire show field is happier than we are to end the day in the white circle.

Patrick and Tazio won the Comp Ferrari class, Bob and Jeanie got second with the GT-40, my favorite people showed in the Bentley class and we had one of the most beautiful racing Ferrari’s ever made displayed at Casa Ferrari. What can I say, another completely awesome year at Pebble. For those of you following along for the last decade, how many times do you hear me say that??

Mille Miglia Storica 2019

Are you tired of hearing ”this is one of my favorite cars ever?” But it’s true, this is SUCH a wonderful car with such a wonderful owner - he drives the wheels off this car.

I am delighted to report the car did the Mille Miglia with only one tiny problem - a nut vibrated off the alternator. Fortunately we had packed a spare and on they went to the finish. All our congratulations to Steve and Jakob for completing another amazing chapter in the life of this 1957 200si Maserati that we are so honored to take care of.

2019 Mille

2019 Mille

Cavallino 2019

Oh boy did we have fun even though it poured rain. Two Platinums and two major awards - The GT-Cup and…BEST IN SHOW!!?! Thank goodness Lee brought help to the awards dinner.

The pale blue car is a very special one-off 275 GTB (Best in Show) and our debut of the freshly restored LWB Cal Spyder (Finest GT).

#1 question: Nocciola. That color is Nocciola which means hazelnut in Italian and yes, that is the original color. Do you love it or hate it?

Pebble Beach 2018

This is Dan Gurney’s #3 car from the 1966 Le Mans. Converted to MKIIB spec and driven by Roger McCluskey and Frank Gardner in beautiful gold livery for the 1967 Le Mans.

Dan Gurney’s son came by and thrilled us by saying hello and having his picture taken with the car.

Restored by Bob Ash with a little bit of help by his friends at Rare Drive, how could the judges not love it as much as we do? Delighted it took First in Class, isn’t it absolutely gorgeous?

Amelia Island 2018

Here’s something new - Rare Drive showing a PRE-war car! Bob asked to bring his beautiful 1934 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 and it won first in class!! In our humble opinion, Alfa 8C’s are the creme-de-la-creme of pre-war cars - technologically ahead of their time, light, fast and incredibly successful at racing, we absolutely LOVE them. Congratulations Bob!!

Wait, we won WHAT??!!

We have won some great awards but I don’t think we are ever going to top winning RESTORATION OF THE YEAR from the IHMA for the restoration of 1046. There simply aren’t enough ways to say thank you to the owner of the car for sending us one of the most famous and special cars on this planet to restore.

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The restorer with his favorite car, ever.

The restorer with his favorite car, ever.

Pebble Beach 2017

Three cars this year, WHOA. Two gorgeous red restorations by Rare Drive - one of our favorite sleeper cars, the rare and lovely Ferrari 275 GTB/C, a super cool 427 Cobra plus a stunning green and white Ferrari Superfast. Jay Leno was kind enough to come by to admire the Cobra several times. The Superfast won First in Class and the Cobra took Second in Class - Congratulations!!

The Colorado Grand 2009-2018

Our favorite event on the calendar. We love the Grand so much. It’s about the people AND the cars AND the charity work AND the roads of Western Colorado, it’s an unbeatable combination. We have been fortunate enough to go on this awesome event many, many times, if you ever get the chance, TAKE IT.

Villa D'Este 2017

You want us to accompany the Prototype Cal Spyder to a show at LAKE COMO ITALY???!!! WOW!!!

What an incredible trip, we can’t thank our client and his wonderful family and friends enough. I am remiss, your blogger can’t remember what award the car won, we were so overwhelmed by the location. We had such an amazing time, how could we not?

Amelia Island 2017

Hey! We won the car the editors of Road and Track most want to drive home! We couldn’t agree more. What was super cool was meeting Donald Osborne - he blew us away with his detailed knowledge of 300SL’s, just fantastic. Our lovely clients Ben and Ann won the Driving Enthusiast’s Award for the owner who drives his car regularly. He sure does and we love that car, his awesomely original 1965 GT-40 MKI.

Copperstate Overland 2016

For Mark’s birthday, we bought a 1970 Baja Bronco sight unseen, picked it up in San Diego, drove it to Scottsdale Arizona, took it on Overland then drove it back to San Diego. I know exactly what you’re thinking and I agree completely - Mark’s wife is a fantastic gift-giver and incredibly long suffering. Like literally suffering, bumping around in a vehicle with no air conditioning in the Sedona desert for 10 days.

Overland is an off-road event for vintage 4-wheel drive vehicles in and around the Grand Canyon. We had a blast with all our car friends and as usual, I can’t remember what we won but it was probably something like most colorful vehicle.

Le Mans 2016

MKII Ford GT-40 serial number 1046 is arguably the most important car in American race history. Ford purpose-built the GT-40 specifically to win Le Mans. They made 11 big blocks and in 1966 they very famously crushed Ferrari, winning 1-2-3.

1046 has been Mark’s favorite car since he was a teenager. To be given the restoration of this most important piece of history is nothing we can explain. A dream. Humbling. Raison d'etre?

There’s a massive website dedicated to the restoration with a series of videos that you should check out, I like Chapters 4, 5 and 6: http://gt40.rkmotorscharlotte.com/restoration/

We finished just in time to get 1046 over to Le Mans, France for the 50th anniversary of that most famous win. Meanwhile, Ford Motor Company decided to celebrate the anniversary by returning to racing. Get this - 50 years to the day FORD WON LE MANS AGAIN!!

1046 won Best in Show at the Concours but that honor paled in comparison to seeing the 1966 winners on the track plus the shock and excitement of being guests of the Ford team and watching them win on the 50th anniversary.

Pinehurst Concours - 2016

All of our CONGRATULATIONS to Larry on winning not only First in Class but the prestigious Chairman's Trophy at the Pinehurst Concours!!! LOVE those American Racing Wheels, what a great choice. Below, photos are winning at Pinehurst, first test drive and delivery day.

Cavallino 2016

Hey! Look at that - Platinum and Best 12-Cylinder!! A tremendous result for the first time out with the car, CONGRATULATIONS to our wonderful owners and to my team, beautiful job guys. This is the 1957 Ferrari California Spyder Prototipo. Look for the TDF styling cues on the body - lovely isn’t she?

1957 California Spyder Prototype

1957 California Spyder Prototype

They changed up the trophies a little bit this year, nice.

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Gunga Din

There is very likely not a machine that has done more winning on this planet than Gunga Din. Gunga is the only Vincent factory racing motorcycle and it was raced in dozens if not hundreds of races all over Europe. The words Black Lighting Prototype are romantic, exciting and suit Gunga perfectly.

Robert Smith wrote a lovely piece that tells the story of this amazing bike: http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-british-motorcycles/historic-vincent-gunga-din.aspx?PageId=1

We are immensely proud that Gunga Din was the first motorcycle invited to Pebble Beach in history. We tied for first place and were awarded second. It was a great honor to restore this priceless piece of British racing motorsports history. All our thanks to the owner, his family and the Vincent community - Somer and Big Sid, we could not have done it without you. Even today Gunga just keeps winning -  after Pebble, it has won First in Class at Amelia Island and Best in Show at Vincent Nationals to name a just few.

Tour Auto 2015

I have learned something interesting about the French. When it comes to sporting events, they are trying to kill you. Think about it - the Paris to Dakar rally, Le Mans, The Tour de France bike race. Each event is the most grueling of its kind and Tour Auto is no exception. It is a deadly serious vintage race and rally event that goes from Paris to Marseilles. There are timed stages, race track stages, closed course stages, mountain stages. It is hard core.

To honor the French organizers, our client chose a famous French rally car - an Alpine A110 and invited professional driver, Rui Aguas to co-drive. That should have tipped us off.

We rally-prepped and shipped the car along with our best mechanic over to France. I am proud to say the client finished the event for the first time ever and I can say with certainty he and Mark will never forget that one. Congratulations to our amazing owner and his crew for getting safely to the finish line!!!

Ferrari Nationals AND Pebble Beach 2014

Prince Bernard Ferrari 250 Speciale

This one-off 250GT was special ordered by HRH Prince Bernard of Holland, a long time friend of Enzo Ferrari. The number plate 13 was the Prince's favorite number and he always had something green on his Ferrari's (in this car, the paint - that is Essex Green, gorgeous, no?).

It won...FIRST IN CLASS at Pebble and BEST IN SHOW at Ferrari Nationals.

As usual I can't recall what gigantic award it won at Cavallino. Platinum and I think...Best Restoration? More trophies than I could carry, for sure.

Pebble Beach 2013

We have won a lot of awards in our day but this car managed something completely new:  First in Class AND Most Elegant Sportscar

At Pebble Beach

The car also won a Platinum and The Excellence Cup (Best Restoration) at Cavallino. I think it is absolutely one of most beautiful cars on the planet and isn’t that interior crazy? The factory was experimenting with this new stuff called VINYL.

1957 Ferrari TDF 14-Louvre Prototype