Car Culture

MONTEREY, Calif.—Automobile enthusiasts gather in and around Monterey, California, every August for a series of auctions held in conjunction with the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. This year, RM Auctions’ sales, on August 15 and 16, include the subtly finned 1957 Chrysler Diablo convertible (est. $2.5–3 million), a one-off design collaboration between the late Virgil Exner and the famous Italian car and coach-building firm Carrozzeria Ghia. The Bonhams and Butterfields auction on August 15 is offering two important race cars: a 1960 Jaguar E2A prototype, a precursor to the classic XKE road car, expected to bring more than $7 million, and the 1969 Porsche 908 (est. $1.5– 2 million) with which Steve McQueen won second place in a 1970 race at Sebring, in Florida. In its sales, on August 16 and 17, Gooding & Company has a 1934 Triumph Dolomite 8C Twin-Cam Super-Charged, one of only three produced, and a never-auctioned 1938 Alfa Romeo 6C-2300B roadster.

"Car Culture" originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from the July issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's July 2008 Table of Contents.