A 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster first owned by the film star Clark Gable won Best of Show at the 75th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday 16 August. The black speedster, one of only two SSJ Special Speedsters ever built, was presented by Harry Yeaggy of Cincinnati, Ohio. Best of Show at Pebble Beach is widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the collector-car world, and at the Concours’s 75th edition it went to an American car with an American story.
It is Duesenberg’s eighth Best of Show, the most of any American marque in the history of the Concours. It is also a second win for Yeaggy, who took the same award in 2007 with another Duesenberg, the 1935 SJ Speedster known as the “Mormon Meteor”.
The Concours was first held in 1950 on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links in California, and it is the closing event of Monterey Car Week, whose auctions set new records this year. The 2026 field was large and international: 218 cars took part, 185 of them from 30 American states and 33 from 14 countries outside the United States.
A star’s car, restored to black
Duesenberg was an American luxury and racing marque of the 1920s and 1930s. Its Model J, and the supercharged SJ that followed, were among the most powerful and expensive cars of their day. This one was first owned by one of the decade’s biggest film stars: Clark Gable, best known for Gone with the Wind (1939).
The car has been restored to its original black lacquer, with an interior in light saddle leather. Its history also has a local thread. The SSJ’s second owner lived in Pebble Beach and looked after the car for nearly 12 years, and duPont Registry described its return to the Concours lawn, and its win there, as a “full-circle moment”.
Yeaggy credited the effort behind the car. “I appreciate the hard work it took and the time it took to get here,” he said, according to duPont Registry.
The cars it beat
Three European cars joined the Duesenberg as nominees for Best of Show. They were a 1938 Delahaye 165 Figoni et Falaschi Cabriolet from The Pearl Collection in Baar, Switzerland; a 1955 Ferrari 375 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta from the Heinecke Family Collection in Bangkok; and a 1954 Ferrari 375 America Vignale Cabriolet from RQ Collections in The Woodlands, Texas.
Each of the three wears a body by a celebrated coachbuilder, one of the independent firms that designed and built bodies on a manufacturer’s chassis: Figoni et Falaschi in France, and Pinin Farina and Vignale in Italy. The judges chose instead a car whose maker, first owner and history are all American.
A Ferrari year on the lawn
Beyond the top prize, the lawn belonged largely to Ferrari. The marque was this year’s featured theme, with a focus on the competition cars of Luigi Chinetti and the North American Racing Team, known as NART, which he founded. Vignale was the featured coachbuilder, and Japanese Motorsport made its debut as a class of its own.
Ferraris took several of the major trophies, according to Automotive Masterpieces. The Chairman’s Trophy went to a 1949 Ferrari 166 MM Touring Barchetta, and the Enzo Ferrari Trophy to a 1956 Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa Scaglietti Spyder. A 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Sperimentale Pininfarina Coupe won the Gran Turismo Trophy, and a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Scaglietti Berlinetta the Tony Hulman Trophy. Yet the biggest prize of all escaped the marque this year, even though two of the four cars nominated for Best of Show were Ferraris.
Another highlight was the reunion of Alfa Romeo’s three B.A.T. concept cars, the B.A.T. 5, 7 and 9d. Designed by Franco Scaglione and built by Bertone in the 1950s, the three aerodynamic studies were shown side by side.
Charity, and the 76th edition
The Concours is also a fundraiser. This year’s event raised $4.3 million for charity, taking its total since it began to more than $50 million, and more than 130 nonprofit organisations in Monterey County benefit from it. The money raised on one Sunday on the lawn is shared across the county, which makes the Concours a local institution as well as an international showcase.
For readers in the Gulf who follow classic cars, and Ferrari’s racing history in particular, the 2026 lawn was a showcase of the marque’s early competition cars, crowned by the most American of winners.
The 76th Concours is scheduled for 15 August 2027. Its announced themes include the centenary of Delage’s Grand Prix-winning season, prewar open-front town cars, in which the chauffeur sat in the open while the passengers rode enclosed behind, 40 years of the Ferrari F40, and a class for Delahaye. Ferrari, in other words, will be back on the lawn, and so will Delahaye, one of the marques the Duesenberg beat this year.
Sources: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, duPont Registry, Automotive Masterpieces