H.R. Owen Client Wins Pebble Beach Award
H.R. Owen are delighted to hear that Andrew Pisker’s beautiful Ferrari 250 California Spider won the People’s Choice award at the Pebble Beach Concours this year. Having recently been restored, it then went through its Classiche inspection at our workshops in North London.
People's Choice from MSN Autos
Stunning 1961 Ferrari 250 SWB Spyder California Scaglietti is the choice of the readers.
Most people would agree that red is one of the finest colors for a Ferrari — it just wasn't the right color for Andrew Pisker's stunning 1961 Ferrari 250 SWB Spyder California Scaglietti Convertible, winner of Pebble Beach and MSN Autos' 2010 People's Choice Award.
Though the steel-bodied Ferrari, of which only 54 were produced from 1960 to 1963, started off its life with the Italian automaker's signature hue, the color had been changed to black when Pisker tracked it down in Canada three and a half years ago. "Not a good color for this car," Pisker says.
What assuredly is a good color for the car is the one its new owner eventually chose: the arresting azzurro metallizzato, a light but rich blue that, while not the original shade of this particular prancing pony, was in fact a color offered by Ferrari in the correct model year.
Of course, the paint wasn't the only consideration when it came time to see the project through to completion. The convertible — which boasts a hardtop along with the soft — took approximately three years to restore to the near-perfect condition in which we found it, turning heads amid rows of drool-worthy Ferraris on the green at California's Pebble Beach. The six months between final restoration and the Concours d'Elegance judging on Aug. 15 was hardly a time for the owner to kick back and relax. Pisker, who hails from London, needed to have the car ready for its journey across the pond back in June.
Pisker, who says he "absolutely loves" the Ferrari marque (though his collection spans more than just that one badge), had attended the Pebble Beach Concours before, but had never entered a vehicle. Having his first car in competition didn't seem to faze him at all. Early in the day, he quipped, "If we presume to come here and place last, but then do better than that, we're ahead." Later, as he waited with his son Charlie in the lead-up to the podium — without yet knowing what he had won — he jokingly said that his car had probably been awarded "the bluest car in the 'Blue' category."
Still, Pisker, who was on his way to leaving the grounds before being notified that he was due in line for an award, was visibly enthused to come out on top in the nearly 100,000-strong voting for the People's Choice Award.
"We're honored to win," he said. "Since we arrived, people have been telling us that it's a fabulous-looking car, a car that embodies summer elegance and original early '60s style."
The line of his winning car — a tad shorter than the classic longer-wheelbase Tour de France Berlinetta — is one of Pisker's all-time favorite shapes, he said, and is "the most beautiful of '60s convertibles. It's a car that means open motoring in the sunshine."
There's no doubt that as Pisker and his son pilot the sleek Ferrari off the Pebble Beach grounds with award in hand, that particular bit of motoring will be extra sweet.
Article courtesy of Josh Condon, MSN Autos
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