The 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d' Elegance "Best of Show" title was awarded to the voluptuous 1934 Packard 1108 Dietrich Convertible Victoria owned by Joseph and Margie Cassini of West Orange, NJ. The Cassinis are well-known classic car collectors who previously won "Best of Show" at Pebble in 2004 with their 1938 Horch 853A Erdman & Rossi Sport Cabriolet (which was auctioned last year for $5.17 million!). The last US-made car to win Best of Show at Pebble was in 2007.
The Cassinis purchased their Packard in extremely rough shape three years ago with the goal of showing it at Pebble Beach; the vehicle's 10,000+ man-hour restoration by RM Auto Restoration was finished barely a week before the event. The car was originally purchased in the US by a Puerto Rican lawyer who had it shipped home, where it eventually saw use as a taxi! Brought back to the States by a serviceman in 1968, the salt air and abuse had taken their toll and according to Cassini, a New Jersey Superior Court judge, "It was ready to fall apart." The Cassinis are the fifth owners of this rare semi-custom Packard, which is the first American car to take Best in Show since the Duesenberg SJ Mormon Meteor in 2007.
Packard Twelves were made from 1932 to 1939 and were the second V12 cars the company offered; an earlier Packard Twin Six was sold from 1916 through 1923. The Twelves carried a 160 HP, 445 cubic inch L-Head engine generating the prodigious torque needed to propel vehicles that typically exceeded 6,000 pounds. Just 960 Packard Twelves were produced in 1934.
Asked what makes this particular car so special, Joseph Cassini simply says, "It's sexy."
(text Gregory Wells, photo courtesy of Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. All rights reserved.)