Gems at Pebble Beach ‘Car Week’ 2018

I’m back from Car Week at Pebble Beach in Monterey, and although there is less hot rod and custom items to share than last year’s event, there were a few highlights once again. In the auction world, Mecum sold one of it’s two very significant hot rods with Pebble Beach history in Monterey- The Jack Carlori ’36 Ford Coupe and the Chrisman Brothers Bonneville record ’30 coupe. The Calori car hammered at $407,000, which was right in the middle of it’s $350,000 – $450,000 estimate. The Chrisman car on the other hand, petered out at $410,000 with an estimate that was supposed to reach between $500,000 – $700,000!

The Jack Calori coupe was a star from the beginning as the November 1949 Hot Rod magazine cover car.  The 3″ chop, ’39 LaSalle grille and ’41 Hudson taillights were all pioneering custom touches at the time. Under the custom hood, she was built to go, running a bored and stroked ’46 Merc flathead, with Eddie Meyer heads, Clay Smith cam, Weiand 2X2 intake running Holley 94s. This milestone custom also won Best in Class for the very first Pebble Beach ‘Early Custom Cars 1938-1945’ category, and a Dean Bachelor award for ‘Most Significant Hot Rod’, which speaks volumes about how important this car is. Next year will be a Hot Rod magazine cover car category for Pebble Beach, so the Calori coupe may be back!

Looking at the landmark Chrisman Brothers Coupe, most would never guess that it started like as a 1931 Model A, or that it would go on to set the standard as the  quintessential Competition Coupe of its era, let alone set three separate engine SCTA class records at Bonneville starting in 1954: B class at 180.08 mph, C class at 180.87, and in 1955, D class at over 196 mph. My favorite body features of this car are probably the clam-shelled ’40 Ford hoods that make the nose cone, and the very radical chop inspired by the Pierson Brother coupe, both done in the name of minimizing wind resistance. This car was actually one of the first historic hot rods to be invited to Pebble Beach in the newly-formed ‘Famous Hot Rods’ class, along side the Pierson Brothers coupe, and the So-Cal coupe.

All I can say was that it was a true honor to just be spending time on the lawn with these beauties during an epic “Car Week’.