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Pebble Beach Concours New Era - Vince Finaldi · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrol heads that wonder, how did
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they get that job or become that person?
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The road to success is paved by all of us, because everyone has a story.
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The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is entering a new era.
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After 40 years of constant leadership, the world's most prestigious concours
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turns to Vince Finaldi this fall, a third-generation car guy whose
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life has swung between high-stakes courtroom battles and the calming
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precision of restoration work.
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From his family's Italian-born automotive lineage to the shop he
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built on the Monterey Peninsula, Vince has always returned to the garage
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as a place that keeps him grounded.
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Now, he's stepping into one of the most influential roles in the collector
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car world, tasked with guiding a living institution as it evolves for
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a new generation, without losing the soul that made Pebble Beach iconic.
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In this episode, we dig into his journey, his philosophy, and the
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vision he'll bring to the lawn.
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That's right, and joining me tonight is returning co-host Don
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Wieberg from Garage Style Magazine, one of the many personalities
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on the Motoring Podcast Network.
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So welcome back to the studio, Don.
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Thank you, Eric.
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Good to be here.
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And with that, let's officially welcome Vince to BreakFix.
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Welcome, Vince.
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Thanks for having me, folks.
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Well, Vince, like all good BreakFix stories, there's a
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superhero origin story out there.
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So as we said in the intro, your family's automotive roots go all the
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way back to Italy and, I've come to understand, the early General Motors days.
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So let's talk about how that heritage has shaped the way you see craftsmanship,
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restoration, and all-around car culture.
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Sure.
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So I mean, I guess it started with my grandfather, who's from Italy.
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When he was very young, his father died at a young age, so his mother would
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bring him and the kids out to the US.
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This is the early, early 1900s.
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So he spoke the language and eventually started working in, in
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the automotive world here in the US.
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You know, this is before the '20s for GM, uh, in the R&D.
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They would have an engine, engine would break down, he'd take it
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apart, figure out why it broke, and discuss with the engineers how to
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kind of re-engineer or fix things.
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'20s happened, uh, you know, Depression, layoffs.
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You know, he was obviously a foreigner, one of the first ones to be laid off.
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Went back to Italy, opened other, you know, automotive related businesses,
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and that's, you know, when my father was born and his brothers.
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And so they kind of grew up in the car world there in Italy, emigrated
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here to the US in the '60s to Chicago, opened up their own shops, uh, and then
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eventually moved to Southern California and opened their own shops as well.
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Types of shops were mechanic shops, body shops, and also shops
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involving tractors, earth movers.
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So from a very young age, I grew up in shops.
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Um, that's kind of all I knew.
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That's what all my family did is- You know, a automotive.
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They also imported and exported Italian sports cars, 'cause back
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then there were not a lot of dealers that you can go and buy and sell them
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from, so that was kind of another avenue for, of business for them.
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So I always had cars coming in and out of the house and the shop.
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I always wanted to be at the shop.
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I didn't want to be at home.
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Any time I could be anywhere, I, I didn't want to be playing sports, I didn't want
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to be at home, I wanted to be at the shop playing with cars, as were a lot
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of kids, you know, in, in my generation.
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Yeah, so that's kind of the genesis of my entry into the car world, if you will.
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So was there any one particular car or cars that rolled in or
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out of the shop that you went, "I want one of those when I grow up"?
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Yeah, pretty much all the cars that he would import and, uh, and then sell.
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You know, the way it would work is, you know, I'd, I'd come from home from
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school, you know, I'm five, six years old, and, and I'd go look in the garage
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and there'd be a Ferrari in there.
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I'm like, "Wow, this is cool." And you know, I'd sit in it and I'd play
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with the buttons and I'd look at it, and I had like, "This is my car.
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This one's not going anywhere." And then, you know, a couple days later I'd come
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home from school and I'd look and the car is gone, and it's like, "Where did it
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go?" And my mom's like, "Well, he sold it.
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That's the way it works." So I'd cry and I'd be upset and, you know, for
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another couple weeks until another car would show up, and this time it'd
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be, you know, a Lamborghini Miura.
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And I'm like, "Wow, this one's even better," and I'd fall in
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love with that one, and then, uh, same thing would happen.
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And so wash, rinse, repeat, I fell in love with many cars as a
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youngster, but I also got steeled to the process of buying and selling
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and cars as a business, if you will.
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Whatever that attachment is that some collectors have where they
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buy a car and they never get rid of it and they can never imagine
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selling it, that got weaned out of my system at a young age, if you will.
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So which car was the ultimate?
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I mean, the, the Miura was the one that, you know, really, really
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imprinted on me very heavily.
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Kind of a double-edged sword because that's one car of the many that we had
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in the shop through the years, Ferraris, and Alfa Romeos, and you know, you
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name it, US sports cars, and Corvettes, and that's one car that always kind
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of just went up in price throughout the decades, and went up and up.
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I would say it's an elevator that, that only goes up, and it's continuing.
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You know?
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It's, it's a car that's really broken a lot of molds, widely
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recognized as the first supercar.
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And you know, so the double-edged sword side is that I always
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wanted one, but prices were always outpacing me and outpacing me.
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And so anything I was doing to try and get my hands on one, it was just
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a really difficult car to chase.
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So I don't know if the reason why that one imprinted on me so much is
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just because of the car itself or if it's also because that was the really
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elusive one that I couldn't catch until much later on in my restoring, playing
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with, collecting, chasing journey.
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And when we look back over your career, obviously you went into
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law, but you also stayed in the car world at the same time- Yeah
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with your own restoration shop.
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So you know, as they say, the apple does not fall far from the tree.
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When you look back on all those years, you know, hanging out with your dad,
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and his brothers, and grandpa, and all that kind of thing, was there something
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that you carried forward with you?
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Were there family traditions that you carried into your restoration business?
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And if so, what were those?
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Yeah, I don't know if it's traditions or if it's business practices, you know?
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'Cause it, kind of what they would do is they'd supplement the core
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business, you know, whether it's the body shop or the mechanic
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shop, with buying and selling cars.
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And they'd buy and sell cars that they were into and they liked, and they
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knew that they could make a profit on.
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Sometime they'd buy cars that were in a collision or something, and
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they'd repair them and sell them.
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What I learned is that, you know, you, you know, you really make your
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money on a car when you buy it.
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If you buy it right, that's really the way to do it.
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And um, you can improve a car, and then get it into a condition where
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when you're ready to move it on to the next collector or owner, you can
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take that fund, if you will, and then use it to buy another car, and kind
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of, you know, wash, rinse, repeat.
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That's something that I learned at a young age.
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And I, and I started with skateboards, and then bicycles, and then I moved to
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mopeds, and then I moved to go-karts, and then I moved to cars at 15 years old.
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Cheapest car I can get, and then, you know, moving up to a little more expensive
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one, and a little more expensive ones.
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You know, by the time I was out of high school, you know, I went into
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the Marine Corps, and I served as an infantryman for four years, but
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I was still doing this on the side.
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You know, I'd buy a Jeep or something, and fix it up, and sell it, and
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squirrel away some of the money.
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So when I got out, you know, I used the GI Bill and I went to college.
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And you know, my dad said, "Look, I know you'd love to open a shop and do
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that for a living, but I don't think this is the path for you. You know,
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you're, you do really well in school, you always have, and you have an
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opportunity to do things, uh, with higher education and maybe with a career that
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I didn't really have a chance to do."
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So why don't you just see where, you know, your higher education takes you, and you
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can always do cars on the side And so I said, "All right, let's do that." And so
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I, I continued in, in higher education and, you know, I ended up having a
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friend who was, you know, in law school, and I never knew a lawyer growing up.
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I never encountered a lawyer in my life.
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But, you know, I was looking at his homework and I'm like, "Wow, this is
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pretty interesting, you know, and this doesn't even seem like it's work."
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And so I decided to take some law classes and, you know, ended up going
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to law school and becoming a lawyer.
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But on the side, partially to get myself through college, I was waiting tables,
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I was using the GI Bill, and I was also buying and fixing cars and selling them.
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So that's kinda how I was able to put myself through undergraduate work and then
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through law school with barely any debt.
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And so this has been a lifelong thing.
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And then, you know, once I became a lawyer, I had more money with
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which to kind of play with cars.
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So, you know, it's a chicken or the egg thing, you know?
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Are, are you, are you, are you working so you can get the cars,
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or are you us- you getting the cars so that you can, you can work and
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get a better job and do education?
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They're kind of both intertwined.
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It, you can't separate them.
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So has a Miura ever graced your shop after all these years?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So I finally, finally caught up to the Miura elevator in 2015.
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Took me that long.
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So I was, you know, almost, what, 40 years old almost by
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the time I finally caught one.
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And it wasn't the best one, it was in Belgium.
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It's kind of a funny story.
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I, I met through some people Valentino Balboni, who was the legendary test driver
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for Lamborghini for 30 years, and he test drove almost every single Countach that
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came off the line, many of the Miuras.
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And, uh, now he does consulting work, and you can hire him to go meet with
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you and to inspect a car, drive it, you know, kind of give you the thumbs up
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if it's a car you're looking to buy.
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And at the time I bought it, it was really expensive.
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I w- it was uncomfortably expensive, let me say that.
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But I knew it's the car that I always wanted.
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And so he met me there in Belgium, looked over the car
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and he said, "Look, it's good.
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The numbers are good.
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The engine's matching.
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You know, let's go drive it." He hops in, I get in the passenger seat.
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We're driving through the fields and farms in Belgium, right?
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I had driven a lot of cars in my life, but I had never driven a Miura.
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He pulls over and he gets out of the car, and I'm like, "What's going on?
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Is there something wrong with the car?" You know, and he goes, "No, it's
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your turn." And I'm like, I'm like, "Oh, great." So I gotta drive this
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thing for the first time in my life with Valentino Balboni sitting in the
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passenger seat, and I'm thinking, you know, "I'm gonna stall this thing or…"
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Yeah, that was my introduction to actually driving one.
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Yeah, I, I, I owned it.
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We restored it.
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I ended up selling it.
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I took that money and bought two Miuras.
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You know, one that was better, one that was in major need of restoration.
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I sold the better one, used some of that money to restore the other one, and I
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kind of did that a few different times.
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So I've owned about five Miuras, uh, various parts and collection
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of parts and all kinds of stuff.
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So y- I got pretty deep in the, in the Miura world, if you will.
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So you are the opposite of the saying that I usually throw out there,
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which is never drive your heroes.
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So you've expanded upon the love and the passion, and you
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actually adore these cars.
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Yeah, yeah.
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As part of the, the gig, I mean, it's really hard to come
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across Miura parts- parts.
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They're just not there.
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You know, the factory doesn't even have them.
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So in order to restore some of these cars, I had to find parts, you know.
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So I actually got introduced to Claudio Zampolli, who used, he was the first
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person actually sent by the factory here to the US to work on these cars,
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'cause so many were having issues.
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So they supplied him with parts and, you know, the know-how and, and so he
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was working on cars for years and years.
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As he got towards the later part of his life, you know, I found out that he
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still had a bunch of parts and things, so I was able to buy his collection
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of Lamborghini parts and manuals and tools that he'd had for 40 years.
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Yeah, the Lamborghini journey kind of took me down many different paths, but
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it all started because my dad had bought that first one back in, what, 1978 maybe?
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He would take me and my two brothers out for drives together in it.
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So the three of us would be in the passenger seat, and this
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is a P400, and he would go at a spirited pace, let's say that.
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You know, through the farms in, in Southern California when it was all, a
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lot of farmland and dairy land and, you know, you'd hear the sounds of the motor
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and, you know, the carburetors and the gears, and it was just… It's a car that
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if you ever have a chance to drive in one, do it, because you won't forget it.
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I need to make sure that you know how many people out there are listening
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right now to you, Vince, and saying- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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His first Miura, he took a ride with Balboni, and then when he wanted
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parts, he called that other guy.
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Yeah.
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Do you know how many, not just Lamborghini guys, but car enthusiasts in general are
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listening right now, their mind is blown.
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You've literally blown their mind.
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I mean, that's incredible.
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I think that's one thing I love about the car community is some of the people you
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meet, I mean, just through serendipity of having some of these cars, and then you
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find out, and correct me if I'm wrong, but those guys you've met, they're pretty
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much just normal guys, aren't they?
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Yeah.
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I mean, that's one of the things about me is that I have an
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intellectual curiosity in the cars.
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I want to learn about them.
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I want to learn about how they work, who made them, how they made
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them, the whole history of the car, and that's kind of what I do.
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Whenever I get into a car, I, I do a deep, deep dive.
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Up my OCD side of my personality, I, I just do a, a deep dive on it.
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I learn everything I can about the car and just digest every single
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manual and, and piece of video.
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Yeah, so that leads me sometimes to people who helped to make the cars,
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and yeah, pick up the phone and call them, and they're normal people, and
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most of them are car guys, and yeah.
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So this is not something that's special to me, like, oh, special, and I was
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able to meet these-- Anyone can do it.
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All you have to do is just find them and pick up the phone and ask them
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the question, you know, and, uh, if you get the yes, then you're in there.
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But that's part of the joy of the car hobby for me, you know, not
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just owning a car and, you know, I, I, I like all facets of it.
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I, I like the maintenance of cars.
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I like the, you know, re- preparing the cars.
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I like modifying cars.
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I like concourse restorations.
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I like the history of-- I like all of it, the automobilia.
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I think it's the joy of this whole car hobby, you know.
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It's, it's not just limited to one thing.
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One of our last conversations, you went on the California
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Mille, if I remember correctly.
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Yes, I did go.
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But you were in search of a closed classic car, and I'm kind of
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wondering, did you ever find it?
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Not yet.
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Still looking, still kind of narrowing down exactly what I want to buy.
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Okay.
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As you know, this is an interesting time period in the collector car world.
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You know, the last, let's say, three decades, we saw a, a monumental increase
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in the value of these cars, many of them.
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It was a pretty steady pace with a couple blips.
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You know, 2008 there was a blip, in late '80s, early '90s there was a blip as well.
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But generally, it was a pretty good curve.
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So what we're seeing now is a change in the, some collectors aging out,
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some '50s, '60s collector cars that have generally been blue chip
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investment cars are kind of flattening out or even going down a little bit.
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So, you know, if you're someone who plans to hold a car and kind
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of stay in this market for a while, that's something you gotta look at.
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People generally don't wanna spend a bunch of money on a car and then have it, you
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know, lose half its value or something.
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So that's, that's all part of this game, you know?
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It's, it's an interesting part of it.
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So yeah, I'm still kind of looking and, and thinking and deciding.
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Any particular brands catching your attention?
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I don't know.
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I'd like to get something pre-war.
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Yeah.
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I love the pre-war Bugattis, you know?
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Mm-hmm.
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I really like them.
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But, you know, once again, that's a, that's an elevator.
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That's a big one, and, and you can also get in rabbit holes on those cars.
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I mean, you know, there's really, really great ones out there, and there
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are some that have been kind of pieced together from parts and cobbled together
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and, you know, they're great for someone that can't afford the best car.
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So that's another thing that, you know, when you're looking at getting a car
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like this, you have to go through your decision tree and see what you're gonna
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use it for and what it can qualify to get into and, um, see if, if that's
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gonna be something that's good for you.
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For those events, do they have to be top level concours style cars,
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or can they be the cobblestone type cars you're talking about?
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No, no, a- and it depends on the event.
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So the California Mille, for example, it, it mimics the, the Mille Miglia.
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Right.
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The Mille Miglia has opened cars 1957 and prior that would have
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actually run in the Mille Miglia.
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Okay.
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Porsche 356 you can run, 'cause one of those ran in the Mille Miglia.
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Most Ferraris, um, you know, would be eligible You know, generally it's gotta
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be a real car, but if it's got pieces from other cars or it's been, uh, you
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know, repaired or something, then you're still gonna be good, generally speaking.
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Well, Vince, to use some legal jargon, you've established your credibility-
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… as a car guy in conversation.
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So let's pivot and talk about your road to Monterey.
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So you've had all these things going on, you know, the California
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Amelia preparations, all your restorations, all the Miuras,
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everything we've covered so far.
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How did we get from there to becoming the president of the Concours?
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It really wasn't something that was planned.
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I was a trial lawyer.
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I was litigating really, really difficult civil cases for 22 years.
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I worked for the same firm for the entire time, became a partner rather quickly.
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Just really had a knack for this type of litigation, hardcore
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litigation and trial work.
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We represented sexual abuse victims, so this is, you know, gut-wrenching
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stuff, you know, very emotional, tough cases to do all around.
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You're usually litigating against these very well-funded institutions that
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hire teams of attorneys, dozens of attorneys, and, and you're litigating
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against them with a very, very slim team, sometimes just yourself.
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So it's really difficult, high-stakes litigation where if you're not
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successful in the case, you don't get paid and your client doesn't
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get any recovery whatsoever.
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And sometimes for these clients, you're kind of their last resort.
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Their abuser might be passed away or they, you know, were never held accountable.
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They were never arrested because of political reasons or whatever.
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So there's a lot of reasons why these are difficult cases.
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After 22 years of it- I was ready to kind of get out while I still
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had my health and, you know, had a great family and figured that I
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can, I can have a second career.
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I was young enough to be able to do that.
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I was fortunate.
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I wanted to lean more into the car business and actually open my own shop
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and kind of figure things out from there.
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I, I knew I also wanted to do something where I'm giving back.
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I, I always felt fortunate.
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I was able to use my GI Bill and, you know, the jobs I worked to go to school
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and, you know, I had some people along the way that really helped me, great mentors
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and, you know, I was lucky that, you know, I just fell into a, you know, a line of
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work that I happened to be really good at.
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I think anyone who's had any measure of success in life, they have to
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contribute a, a portion of it to luck.
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Not everyone in life gets that same luck, so I think giving back is,
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is really important for anyone.
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So, um, yeah, we moved up to Carmel, which we had been coming to for years, and I
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opened a shop and started restoring cars.
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I just met some people within the Pebble Beach Company and the community and
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car people, and we became friends and, you know, they started saying, "Look,
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we're looking for someone to kind of carry on the torch in the Concourse,
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and maybe you'd be a good choice for it." Yeah, so first I, I just kept
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saying, "No, that's, that's not me."
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You know, I'm not looking to be the Concourse person.
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I, you know, I, I like cars, but I like driving them, repairing them.
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I like-- I can do paintwork, I can do metalwork, I can
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do mechanical work myself.
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That's me.
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They said, "Well, you know, you, you've done well in business.
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You know how to run a business.
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You know cars.
18:50
It's really hard to find someone who straddles both of those." You know,
18:53
you find a lot of car people out there who are not really good at business, a
18:57
lot of business people who don't know anything about cars, but it's really
19:00
hard to find someone that straddles both and is also young enough that they can
19:04
kind of carry the torch on something like this for a number of years.
19:07
But what really got me was learning that All the money that the Pebble
19:11
Beach Concourse raises for charity and gives away to charity every year,
19:15
which is, you know, a huge focus of it.
19:17
And that's what really got me interested more.
19:19
So I took some meetings, just realized that our interests align.
19:22
You know, we kind of have the same passion for the collector car hobby
19:26
and the community, and continuing this passion that's really given so
19:31
much to mine and other people's lives.
19:33
And that's when I decided to pursue it and, and to go forward with it, you know?
19:37
So it, it kind of is something that fell into my lap, if you will.
19:40
It's not something I pursued or even saw myself doing, but now that I'm
19:43
here, I can see that, you know, it probably happened for a reason, you know?
19:47
My wife, you know, earlier on in the process was like, "Why
19:50
are you so hesitant to this?"
19:51
You know?
19:52
"You know a lot of these people anyways.
19:54
You go to most of these events.
19:55
You're gonna deal with cars until you die.
19:58
They give back to charity.
19:59
You wanna do something where you're giving back.
20:01
What's the hold up?" And, you know, I was like, "Well, that's
20:03
why I married someone who's smarter than me." She gives good advice.
20:08
Yeah, so that's kinda how I got here.
20:09
It's, it's, it's weird.
20:11
Could that hesitation also have been because you're stepping into the shadow
20:15
of Sandra Button's 40-year tenure?
20:18
I mean, those are some pretty big shoes to fill.
20:20
Yeah, I don't think it was that, you know?
20:22
In, in my career, you know, I've done a lot of things.
20:25
We really were trailblazers that paved the path for a lot of people
20:29
to be able to finally hold their users accountable and get recoveries.
20:33
We changed the laws in order to allow a wide swath of people to actually do
20:38
these types of cases across the US.
20:41
In, in doing this type of work, you're standing up against large corporations,
20:45
large insurance companies, and you're, you're getting beaten up from,
20:49
from the left and from the right.
20:50
So I've never been a person, just out of my, my nature and character,
20:53
to kind of back down from a fight or a challenge, you know?
20:56
I'm, I'm the one that, that runs into the fire, if you will.
20:58
It wasn't that.
20:59
It was more that I didn't think I was someone who's solely a Concourse person.
21:05
And, and I figured they're looking for someone who's a hardcore
21:08
Concourse person, who's all about the Concourse and nothing else.
21:11
And it turns out that that's not what they were looking for, and that's not
21:14
what they felt was best for the Concourse.
21:17
And when I talked to other people, including Sandra, in this whole
21:21
Concourse world- I learned that that's really not what, you know, you want.
21:26
You want someone who's kind of a car person, who understands the whole hobby.
21:30
Because in order to have a successful concourse, you need to be able to see
21:34
where this whole hobby's going, to kind of portend what's gonna happen before it
21:38
happens so that you can keep the concourse alive and living, and is something
21:42
that's, that's a leader in the field.
21:44
Well, you opened a very special door to a conversation that we could
21:48
probably do a whole episode on.
21:50
Your door unlocked.
21:51
It, it, yes.
21:52
And Don is chomping at the bit here, but it hit the nail on the head.
21:55
It's the evolution of the- Yeah … concourse as we know it.
21:58
It's double-barreled for me.
21:59
I, I only have one mouth, and there are so many questions trying to come out.
22:03
I, I'm gonna let you lead the charge, and I'll follow up behind you, 'cause, eh,
22:07
Vince, you did, you opened up not a door, man, you opened up a whole, you know.
22:12
Well, it's the million-dollar question.
22:13
I mean, you know, when I was going through the interview process and when I was
22:16
talking to some of these bigger collectors and, you know, in, in, in my due diligence
22:20
process, first question I get, and I still get, is, "Well, what are you gonna
22:25
change? Why are you gonna change things?"
22:27
And, you know, "I hope you don't change things." And it's all, all
22:30
the questions revolve around change.
22:32
And first thing I told the people that I spoke to during this process is I
22:37
said, "Look, if, you know, whoever you choose, whoever you choose, if someone
22:40
comes in there and starts telling you about all these things they're gonna
22:43
change and they're gonna tweak and they're gonna change, wrong person.
22:46
That's just, that's absolutely the wrong build.
22:48
So choose whoever you want, but please take that as a, as a
22:51
really important consideration.
22:53
What you need to do is get into the role and figure it out." Figure out what makes
22:57
it tick and kind of see where, you know, where it is, the temperature, if you will.
23:01
And yeah, adjustments will need to be made.
23:04
That's the case with any business.
23:05
But it's the pinnacle concourse in the world.
23:08
Most people say it's the most important.
23:10
Winning another concourse is winning that concourse, but winning Pebble Beach is
23:14
winning Pebble Beach, and everyone in the car world knows what that is, right?
23:18
So yeah, it's an important thing that I'll have to deal with, change, but
23:23
it's a necessary part of this car world, and it's something that Pebble
23:26
Beach has been doing for 75 years now.
23:29
It's a, it's a living, breathing event.
23:31
Y- you mentioned that, you know, you gotta change it slowly.
23:33
You gotta be careful.
23:34
You gotta- Yeah … it's almost totally organic how this thing is
23:37
going to evolve, and that it is always inorganic in its evolution.
23:42
Just so some of our listeners cue in on this, what have been some of
23:47
those changes that you've seen- Sure
23:49
and that the Concours went through?
23:50
Sure.
23:51
What are some of the genres of automobiles that have been welcomed
23:54
to the Concours that maybe 20 years ago or 30 years ago, there's no way we
23:58
would have had that car on the field, but now- A, a Concours d'Elegance is
24:02
nothing more than a contest of elegance.
24:04
You know, if you go back to the, you know, the early 1900s, these started in Europe,
24:09
where, you know, someone would have this fantastic one-off car that costs more than
24:15
1,000 people's salaries, and they would take it to a park, along with some other
24:19
people who had cars of similar nature.
24:21
I mean, they'd have a, their wife or something dress in a, in, in some
24:25
amazing gown, and they would have a contest of which car and which gown is
24:29
the most luxurious and, and elegant.
24:31
You know, after cars came here to the US, we started having those events as well.
24:35
The first Pebble Beach Concours was in 1950.
24:38
And it was something that was tagged onto the Pebble Beach road races,
24:41
which started that year as well.
24:43
Early years of the Pebble Beach Concourse, a lot of cars were just, some of them
24:47
were just brand new, like Jaguars, and MGs, and Austin Healeys, and some
24:52
were some really great cars from the '20s, and the '30s, and the '40s.
24:57
But in order to stay alive, and to stay relevant, and to grow,
25:01
the Concourse, you know, has gone through many different changes.
25:04
You know, we added something that, which is the Tour of Elegance, which
25:07
is Thursdays, where these cars go and they do a drive, and you can actually
25:11
see them being used and exercised.
25:13
And that was done because that's the way you bring people
25:16
into the, into the community.
25:17
It's, seeing a car static is one thing.
25:20
Seeing it on the road and being used is a, an entirely different thing, you know?
25:24
So that's something that's gained in popularity.
25:26
For many people, it's their favorite part of Car Week, is watching the tour
25:31
and watching these cars go down to, you know, drive down to Big Sur and back.
25:34
But there have been oth- other things as well.
25:36
The introduction of more post-war cars and different classes of cars, newer cars.
25:41
This is something that the Concourse has been doing for years, and years, and
25:44
years in order to remain relevant, to bring in new collectors, to keep young
25:50
people interested in the, in the hobby.
25:52
And you alluded to this earlier about the shift in the car culture, and
25:56
investments, and things like that.
25:57
And so as I read between the lines, it harkens back to a project that
26:01
I was working on with some fellow creators here on the NPN at the
26:05
tail end of last year, beginning of this year, where we were doing some
26:08
research into Dolce Vita era Ferraris.
26:11
Where they sit in the market, is that a type of car people wanna buy anymore?
26:15
You know, there's all these arguments that, let's say a
26:17
250 GTO, it's a bygone era.
26:20
People are more interested investing in McLaren F1s.
26:23
That's gonna be the new GTO of 2026, let's just say.
26:26
And so there's this cultural shift because, as you said, collectors are
26:30
aging out, and folks at their peak earning potential are moving into the space.
26:35
Yeah.
26:35
But it's always the car that was on your wall as a kid is the car
26:38
that you wanna see on the lawn.
26:39
So how does Pebble embrace that in the future as you begin to see more F40s,
26:44
and 959s, and Diablos, and things like that, instead of SSK Mercedes, and
26:50
1920s Bugattis, and things like that?
26:52
So there's two parts of that.
26:53
The first part is the whole financial element of it.
26:57
Back 30, 40 years ago, the mantra was buy what you love and, you know, worst
27:01
case scenario, if the value goes down a little bit, if it goes up a little
27:04
bit, you're gonna be fine because you're gonna have a car you love.
27:06
And that mantra worked really well, it was great advice when the cars are worth
27:10
$3,000, $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, right?
27:14
Now, it's, it's a bit of a different world, and that mantra still holds true,
27:18
you know, if you plan on keeping the car.
27:20
But eventually, you know, you're gonna have an exit strategy for the car.
27:23
And if, and if you're spending a considerable amount of money on the
27:26
car, you can't just ignore that, right?
27:29
Most people don't just ignore that element.
27:31
You've got to take into consideration what's gonna
27:33
happen with the value of the car.
27:35
And so it's just looked at in a different way.
27:38
You know, you, you talk about the popularity of these new
27:40
cars and, you know, what some of them are selling for now.
27:44
I think part of it is fueled by that, by the whole investment and the business
27:48
side of the car collecting hobby.
27:51
You kind of have to look at both.
27:52
As far as the show field, the show field has always been kind of changing.
27:58
And so what I tell people is that a great car is always gonna be a great car, right?
28:03
A Type 35 Bugatti is a great car.
28:07
It's a car that was so ahead of its time, at least a decade ahead of
28:11
all the other cars it was racing.
28:12
That's why it won every single race.
28:14
Privateers would take the car right out of the box, and
28:18
they'd go and they'd win races.
28:19
And when they won races, it was printed that the Bugatti won and the Bugatti
28:23
brand kind of gained by people who weren't even these famous race car drivers.
28:28
It's always gonna be an important car.
28:30
It's always gonna be a great car.
28:31
Same thing with the Gullwing.
28:33
And, and there's other cars that are kind of like that.
28:35
You know, the, the Lamborghini Miura is one of mine.
28:37
You know, I've got a soft spot for it I think what's important
28:40
is to make sure you're bringing in new cars that are important cars.
28:44
You know, a, a McLaren F1, very important car.
28:48
Definitely a collector car.
28:50
That's a car that broke many barriers.
28:52
It was way ahead of its time.
28:54
And so, yeah, it's got a place on the show field.
28:56
And what you can do is, you know, a lot of these kids go straight for the McLaren F1.
29:00
That's what they wanna look at.
29:01
But when they're on the show field, then they see that, you know, hey, there's
29:04
another car, a Ferrari from the '60s that, that has three seating position as well,
29:10
you know, which is, "Wow, I, I didn't know there was another car like that."
29:13
And then they look and they see a, a Bugatti Type 35,
29:15
and they start learning more.
29:17
You know, the concours field becomes a classroom where they learn about
29:21
cars and they get interested in these cars, and that's how you
29:24
keep some of the older cars alive.
29:26
You use the newer cars as a tool to educate and help, you know, new
29:30
collectors understand the old stuff.
29:32
And I think it's funny, having walked the show field myself,
29:34
Pebble is full of different classes of cars that are out there.
29:38
I often chuckle when I see, let's say, something like an F40 that
29:42
is already 40 years old at this point, and it's considered modern.
29:46
And it's like, no it's not.
29:48
Yeah.
29:48
There's been so many Ferraris after that.
29:50
So there has to be this shift in the classes too, where what was a modern
29:55
is now a classic, cult classic type of car, is now just a classic car
29:59
along with- Yeah … all these other vintage cars that are out there.
30:02
So again, how is Pebble going to embrace what I call these mid-period cars now?
30:07
Because they're from the late '70s, you know, the malaise era, the '80s
30:10
and the '90s, and even the early 2000s, there's a lot of great cars in there.
30:14
But they're not the same in terms of luxury, right?
30:17
Yeah.
30:17
Luxury cars sort of disappeared.
30:18
Yeah, there were Maybachs and still Rolls-Royces and Bentleys and things
30:22
like that, but the attention focused to what became the hypercar now,
30:26
which was the supercar then, right?
30:28
Yeah.
30:28
So that's something that, that the concours has already been doing.
30:31
I mean, we've had McLaren F1s on the show field.
30:34
We've had Ferrari F40s on the show field.
30:36
We've had all types of different newer supercars, if you will.
30:41
And that's something that, you know, in order to stay relevant,
30:44
in order to kinda lead the pack, that's something we had to do.
30:47
That's just something that's gonna continue.
30:49
There's a place for many of these cars, you know?
30:52
The real trick is to figure out which ones are the great ones and which
30:56
ones are not, because you still have to have room on the show field for
30:59
all your greats from the past, right?
31:02
The Rolls-Royces, the Packards, the Duesenbergs, the Bugattis.
31:05
Those are never going anywhere from the show field at, at Pebble, right?
31:09
What we're doing is we're making room for the newer greats.
31:12
And so that comes in doing exactly what I was talking about earlier
31:17
with my own collecting car hobby, is learning everything you can about
31:21
the car and what makes it great.
31:23
Why, why is the McLaren F1 great?
31:24
Because it was a clean sheet car that was built and developed by, you know, a
31:29
team that was led by the, one of the best engineers and designers of our generation.
31:35
Using what he learned in Formula 1.
31:38
Mm-hmm.
31:38
And, and they took it to Le Mans and they won.
31:40
They, they cleaned house with that car.
31:42
And, and to do that is just so rare and is so incredible that, you know,
31:47
for someone to say that that car does not have a place on the show field just
31:50
doesn't understand the history of the car.
31:52
If you understand the history of that car and how important it is
31:54
and how ahead of its time it was, everyone would welcome it, right?
31:58
Yeah, I, I think our job is to kind of delve into that history and figure out
32:03
which ones are the best ones of their marks and their makes to have there.
32:07
You know, we've had a wedge class, for example, where it was all the wedge cars
32:10
of the '70s that kind of, you know, were the precursors, were the grandfathers to
32:14
these hypercars and supercars you see now.
32:17
So it's something that Pebble's been doing for years, and my job is to continue that
32:21
process with some of this newer stuff.
32:24
Now, are we gonna see a Ferrari Luce on the show field?
32:27
I don't know.
32:28
We'll have to see.
32:29
There's a lot of opinions on it right now, and it's probably a topic for
32:32
another podcast, but this is part of the whole collector car hobby, you know?
32:37
Um, it's part of what makes it great.
32:39
Not to go down the Luce trail, but is there, has there been, and
32:43
I missed it, I don't know, but is there a place for EVs at this point?
32:48
I mean, the EV, that's not a new concept.
32:50
You know, so many people look at the, the Prius and the, the Tesla.
32:53
We've had EVs on the, on the show field many, many, many years
32:57
ago because, you know, some of the earliest cars were electric.
33:00
Tell us about some of those cars that you had on the field.
33:02
What were they?
33:03
Oh, man, so I, I can't get into the, the exact details, but I can tell
33:06
you that, you know, in the, in the early 1900s, I think we had 2,000 car
33:11
manufacturers in the US, and a lot of them were making electric vehicles.
33:15
A lot of these electric vehicles were actually, they were catering towards
33:19
females because they're easier to drive.
33:21
You, they're not dirty.
33:22
They wouldn't get their dresses all dirty.
33:24
So they were used as these clean cars that got around and, you know, for some
33:28
reason, the combustion engine cars are the ones that really grab hold, and
33:32
there's many different reasons why.
33:33
There are many different industries that lobbied to push forward
33:37
the combustion engine and to, to kind of kill the EV, if you will.
33:41
Uh, electric vehicles have, have been around for quite a long time.
33:44
You know, the question is, which ones are the right ones?
33:47
Are, are you just gonna take a standard Tesla and put it on the
33:50
show field and say that that's elegant and that belongs there?
33:53
I'd say no, that's not gonna happen, right?
33:56
But are there some EVs that might make their way in?
33:58
We'll just have to see.
33:59
Earlier, you talked about how the show field becomes a classroom.
34:04
Mm-hmm.
34:05
And, and that's for car enthusiasts of all ages.
34:07
But let's hone in on the younger crowd that, you know,
34:10
you wanna bring into the fold.
34:11
You wanna mold them and become part of the Pebble Beach Concours culture.
34:16
But let's face the hard facts.
34:18
Ticket prices are not cheap.
34:21
Yeah.
34:21
And so these younger kids wanna see these more modern cars.
34:25
Well, I can go to Cars and Coffee, or I can go here, and I can go there, and
34:27
I don't have to spend the same, right?
34:29
'Cause we make those budgetary decisions.
34:31
How are you trying to embrace the younger folks?
34:35
How are you trying to make accommodations for them to come in?
34:37
Yeah, so, um, we've, we've got special programs that we can use in
34:41
order to get tickets for youngsters to come in, and there's a lot of
34:45
things you can see Without actually going to the Concours itself.
34:49
You can go to the tour, and the tour's free.
34:51
So you can see all these cars on the tour.
34:52
You can see them being used, see them being displayed.
34:55
You can go to Concours Village and see all the manufacturers' displays
34:59
and all, all the different things we have there and the vendors.
35:02
You can go and, and look at all the Ferraris on the lawn on the, on the
35:05
first tee with Casa Ferrari, and you can go on the Concept Lawn to see all the
35:10
concept cars, and this is all, all free.
35:12
So, um, it's, it's not the case that, um, it costs, you know, an incredible
35:16
amount of money to come and see and enjoy and witness these cars.
35:20
But on the other side of the coin, Car Week is not what it used to be.
35:23
You know, it's grown into a, you know, a very, very, very
35:27
big- Feels like Car Month.
35:29
Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's Car Christmas.
35:31
People come from all over the world and, and for a lot of
35:33
people in our community, it's more important than Christmas, you know?
35:36
Probably sacrilegious to say that, but you know, they, they look
35:39
forward to Car Week more than they look forward to certain holidays.
35:42
Let me put it that way.
35:43
I'll try and be diplomatic, right?
35:46
And so as a, as a company, you, you have to deal with things like security.
35:51
You have to deal with traffic.
35:53
You have to deal with all the things that go into the infrastructure of Car
35:57
Week, and those things are expensive.
35:59
You, you have to deal with those on the business side of it, if you will,
36:03
which we're, you know, we're talking about the whole business side of the
36:05
Concours and the whole fun side and the show become a complicated thing.
36:09
And you add on another layer, which is we used to have auto shows.
36:13
Remember those?
36:14
What happened to the auto show, you know?
36:16
We used to be able to go to New York Auto Show and Chicago Auto Show and Los
36:20
Angeles Auto Show and, you know, you'd see a lot of the cars that we loved as
36:24
kids, and that's where they were unveiled.
36:26
You know, they had the Geneva Auto Show, where some of the best cars in
36:29
the world were unveiled on the stand.
36:31
Come collectors are, "You know, I've got this car, and this was actually
36:34
the car from the Geneva Auto Show.
36:35
You know, this is the one that was the car We don't have those anymore And how
36:40
many cars literally got their start there?
36:42
Y- you know, you with the love of Lamborghini- Yep … we all know
36:45
the history of that first show.
36:48
Exactly.
36:48
First show, and if I remember correctly, and correct me if I'm wrong, I remember
36:52
the story that, uh, Lamborghini forgot to sign up for the show, and
36:57
when he did, they had one space left and it was right next to the bar.
37:01
And it was a small space, but Lamborghini was like, "I'll take it.
37:05
That is a great place to be." Why?
37:06
Everybody's going to the bar.
37:08
Yep.
37:09
And how many orders were filled right there?
37:11
I mean, how many car company, it doesn't matter we're talking Lamborghini
37:14
or Chrysler, it doesn't matter.
37:15
You show the latest, greatest, people come up with a checkbook, they wanna sign up.
37:19
I miss those days.
37:20
So now a lot of that's done, you know, here during Car Week.
37:24
All the manufacturers are here, and this is where they unveil their new products.
37:28
It's become a, a, a behemoth, if you will, of business and fun all mixed into one.
37:34
And you keep mentioning the business side of this, and I don't think a
37:38
lot of people realize, you know, the business of a concours, but that
37:42
also entails having competitors.
37:44
So when you think about how massive Car Week has become, when Don and I
37:48
were there together a couple years ago, we attended 38 events in 10 days.
37:53
W- that was just the middle of the iceberg, right?
37:55
Yeah.
37:55
There were so many things we couldn't go to just because scheduling
37:58
conflicts and everything else.
38:00
But to that end, when you look at Pebble Beach Concours top
38:04
three rivals, who are those?
38:06
And how are you guys trying to play nice in the sandbox, let's just say?
38:09
Yeah, I, I don't, I don't, I wouldn't call it rivals, actually.
38:12
Each concours has its own kind of place in the concours world, if you will.
38:16
And maybe it's just feels like that way for me because we're Pebble Beach, and
38:21
we're one of the leaders in the field.
38:22
I mean, we're the pinnacle concours in the world and, you know, it's kind
38:25
of always been that way or been that way for quite a long time And, you
38:30
know, we're in an iconic location.
38:32
It's a mecca of golf, and it's, you know, you're on the 18th fairway, which is
38:36
famous for many, many different reasons, and going all the way back to Bing
38:39
Crosby playing there with the clambake.
38:41
And what, what I've seen is that the leaders of these concourses actually
38:45
are, are friendly with one another.
38:47
We go to one another's events.
38:49
I just got back from Villa d'Este.
38:51
I helped to give out a trophy there and to select a car for the President's
38:54
Trophy, and I, I get along with all of them, and we're all friend, 'cause
38:58
we're all part of the same community.
39:00
And there's room for all these events.
39:02
People go to the ones they want to go to for the reasons they wanna go to 'em.
39:06
We have more people that wanna come to our event year after
39:10
year than can actually go here.
39:12
It's not something where, where, you know, you have to be territorially, if you will.
39:16
And I know where you're going with that, right?
39:17
In, in simple terms, I like cars, you like cars, we all like cars together.
39:20
Yeah.
39:20
That, that makes total sense.
39:21
With so many other, let's say, top-tier concourses that have grown up through the
39:26
years in the shadow of Pebble, wanting to be like Pebble- Yeah … doesn't
39:30
that give you license then to redefine what Pebble is or even maybe put up
39:35
some guardrails and say, "You know what?
39:37
We do elegance really well, and elegance is defined as X," which
39:41
unfortunately pushes out, maybe alienates some of the newer cars
39:44
that we were talking about earlier.
39:45
But in your vision, your future vision, what does Pebble Beach Concours look like?
39:50
Yeah, I, I think it just continues to kinda grow on and
39:53
to be what it's always been.
39:55
Pebble's always been an event that accepts the best of the best cars.
39:59
You make it on the lawn at Pebble Beach- You know, you've made it.
40:02
You, you don't need to win a trophy.
40:04
If you get your car on the lawn at Pebble Beach, you've already done
40:08
something that most collectors in the world have never done and, and, and
40:12
most will never even get a chance to do.
40:14
Just getting your car on the lawn means that your car is grouped with
40:18
anywhere from 8 to 12 of the best cars in that class in the entire world.
40:25
We've always been able to curate the best examples of each class year
40:30
after year after year, and that's because we have a great reputation,
40:35
great history, and also some of the best people working on the Concours.
40:39
The best judges out there, the best experts, and the best people on the
40:43
selection committee that are out helping to find these cars and to get them here.
40:46
That's something that we're gonna continue to do and, and continue
40:49
to be a leader in the field.
40:50
That's something that I think other Concours have kind of
40:53
seen as, as a good thing.
40:55
We wanna get the best cars as well, and we wanna have rigorous, disciplined,
41:00
strict judging with real rules so that when you win Pebble Beach,
41:05
everyone knows that that's the best car in that class without a doubt.
41:08
Some Concours out there, they're not like that.
41:10
You know, they have different types of judging.
41:12
They have popular judging or what you will, so you, you might win a,
41:16
an award, top award from another Concours, but it doesn't mean it was
41:20
the best car there because they don't have the same judging standards.
41:23
That's something that's very important to me.
41:25
It's important to the Concours to, to adhere to those strict
41:28
standards and to continue that.
41:30
Then for some people who want to try to get their car on the lawn, I
41:35
mean, do they pick up the phone and say, "Hey, I got a great Duesenberg"?
41:37
How do they do that?
41:39
Yeah, they go to the website.
41:40
That's where they can get the application.
41:42
Anyone can apply.
41:43
Anyone with any car can apply.
41:45
Mm-hmm.
41:45
And a lot do Application form talks about the different classes and the special
41:50
classes that'll be there that year.
41:52
And, um, you know, you can figure out which class that your car fits
41:55
into, and, you know, you write down all the reasons why it's a special
41:58
car, and it's a great car, and you include photos, and you submit it.
42:01
And if you're selected, then you get to bring it here
42:04
and, uh, be part of the show.
42:05
You know, you mentioned something about the special classes, or what I like to
42:08
call the featured marque, and I really was impressed at how that changes every year.
42:14
Especially last year, Shelby was the featured marque, right?
42:16
And so that was super cool as we had worked with Aaron Shelby on a
42:18
project together and things like that.
42:20
And so I was wondering, is it sort of like the Olympic Committee?
42:23
You already know, like, years in advance what the featured marque is?
42:26
Or is it, how do you guys organize, how do you figure that out?
42:28
Yeah, kind of.
42:30
You know, certain classes are very, very, very difficult to put together.
42:34
And, and, and I'll, I'll go back 40 years into what I think was the most difficult
42:39
class ever, which was the Bugatti Royales.
42:42
Bugatti Royales were incredibly expensive, and I think it was 1985, Pebble Beach
42:48
was able to assemble every single Bugatti Royale that was made, and it was
42:52
on the lawn at the 18th Pebble Beach.
42:55
Happened one time, the only time they've been together, and it's
42:58
probably gonna be the only time it ever happens in the world, because
43:01
now they're scattered at different collections, most of them in Europe.
43:05
And the prices of those cars is so astronomical- That shipping them,
43:10
it's another world how expensive it is because of the insurance mainly.
43:14
But to get all those Bugattis together on the field, one of the cars was
43:18
actually in, I think, Germany.
43:20
Person who owned the car, I, I think the government had kind of seized
43:24
the cars because, you know, there was an allegation that there was some
43:28
tax issues or some, uh, nefarious activity in, in, in, with money, right?
43:32
So the car was seized by the government.
43:35
So this is one of the Bugattis that came in for the Concourse.
43:38
But in order to get it in, once it left the country, that person could
43:43
potentially make a claim against the car saying, "Hey, this was
43:46
improperly seized, and it shouldn't have been seized and, and therefore
43:49
should be given back to me," right?
43:51
So they had to get basically diplomatic rights for the car to bring it in
43:56
here so that it was immune from that type of thing, and that was
44:00
done through the federal government.
44:01
So y- the amount that had to be done in order to bring those
44:04
cars… And this was 1985 when the world was a lot less complicated,
44:08
I would argue, than it is now.
44:10
And so to put that class together took years of work, negotiation,
44:15
preparation, funding, and that's something that, you know, Pebble's
44:18
been doing for years and years.
44:20
So yeah, there's classes that we're prepping for 2028, 2029, 2030.
44:26
Can I tell you what those ones are?
44:27
No.
44:28
You're gonna have to find out like everyone else.
44:30
But I can tell you they're gonna be great.
44:32
Well, you are gonna be king for a day.
44:34
If Vince could have his own class, would it be a Lamborghini Miura class, or is
44:39
there something else you personally, and I know it's decided by committee,
44:42
but that you personally want to see on the lawn at some point at Pebble?
44:47
Yeah, there have been Miura classes.
44:48
I've seen, you know, Miuras on the lawn for years.
44:51
That's something that's not… Actually, for the first time, we're actually
44:54
gonna have cars on the third fairway.
44:57
We're opening up the entire third fairway to Lamborghini because it's the 60th
45:01
anniversary of the Lamborghini Miura.
45:03
So we're gonna have a huge gathering of Miuras all on the third lawn this
45:07
year, and we're hoping to have the largest gathering ever of Miuras.
45:12
I think the largest one before this was 30 cars, and we're looking
45:16
to beat that, and I think we have a very good chance of doing it.
45:18
But to say, you know, which other class, I, I just wanna have interesting
45:23
classes of cars that people are gonna love and that maybe have never been
45:28
together and may never be together again for various different reasons.
45:32
As long as we continue to do that, I'll be happy and, and
45:35
I'll think that's a good thing.
45:36
Eric, I just wanna say, I, I think- Nope … you know, Vince, I speak
45:40
for a lot of us when I bring this up.
45:43
Nope.
45:43
At some point, I think you need to have a Chrysler TC by Maserati class.
45:48
I just do.
45:49
T by Maserati.
45:50
That's it.
45:51
Best car ever made right there You gotta get it through the
45:54
selection committee, right?
45:55
So the way it works is people submit their applications.
45:58
The applications all go to the selection committee.
46:01
Selection committee is made up of members of the car community.
46:04
They're some of the most renowned experts in all these different marks,
46:08
and we meet together one time at the beginning of the year, and we go through
46:12
all the applications, and we decide which cars are gonna be accepted and
46:16
which cars are not gonna be accepted.
46:18
And then at the end of the selection committee, we talk about the
46:21
classes that we're gonna maybe wanna have for the next year.
46:24
So someone in the, in the selection committee s- could say, "Hey, Chrysler
46:28
TC is the best car ever made, you know, they should have stopped in
46:31
1989 because they won. We could just focus on airplanes or something
46:36
because the car was won back then."
46:40
And if, you know, a lot of people on the selection committee agree, yeah, then,
46:43
then you'll see a Chrysler TC class.
46:45
If you were to ask me the odds of that, I'd probably be wagering against it.
46:50
For my Chrysler TC people out there, what Vince is trying to say is that, for lack
46:55
of a better word, bribery goes a long way.
46:57
Uh, yeah, okay.
46:59
A lot of bribery.
47:00
Yeah.
47:01
So Vince, as we begin to close this out, I wanna pose the question that goes kind
47:06
of contrary to what you said earlier, right, especially during your interview
47:09
process, which is, don't talk to the guy that's all about change, change, change.
47:14
Yeah.
47:14
But as you take over Pebble Beach Concours, what are some of the things,
47:18
if you can share, that you do want to change, that you're actively looking to
47:22
make better for everybody at Pebble Beach?
47:25
Nothing huge.
47:26
You know, nothing huge.
47:27
I mean, there's not, you know, you're, you're not gonna have this big
47:29
groundbreaking, you know, we're gonna completely upend it and, and, and retool
47:33
the whole thing and … Just small things.
47:36
Figuring out h- how to bring in some of the newer cars because, you know,
47:39
the focus is big concentration on these newer cars right now, and so to figure
47:43
out a way to do that so that you don't have 40 red F40s on the show field,
47:49
you know, which is not interesting.
47:51
It's not fun.
47:52
It's, it's not what we do.
47:54
So how to, how to tweak the classes and how to bring in classes so that you're
47:58
accepting these new cars, finding a place for them, bringing in new collectors
48:02
while still respecting all the other classes and, and having a place for those.
48:06
Well, Vince, with that, we've reached the part of the episode where I like to
48:09
invite our guests to share any shout-outs, thank yous, promotions, or anything
48:12
else that we haven't covered thus far.
48:14
So it's the 75th anniversary this year of the Concourse.
48:17
It's the longest continual Concourse, uh, if you will.
48:21
There are some other Concourses that may have started earlier, but they
48:24
had huge 10, 20, 30 year breaks.
48:27
Me doing this for 75 years is a real special thing.
48:29
We've got a great class of cars.
48:32
If you've never been to the Concourse in Pebble Beach, it's
48:34
something that should be on every car guy's bucket list, and gals.
48:38
In a world where the collector car landscape is always shifting,
48:42
conversations like this remind us why stewardship matters.
48:46
Vince Finaldi steps into Pebble Beach not as a disruptor, but as a caretaker,
48:52
someone shaped by lineage, sharpened by experience, and grounded by the belief
48:57
that the Concours is a living tradition.
48:59
His vision isn't about reinvention.
49:02
It's about thoughtful evolution, the kind that keeps history alive
49:05
while opening the door for the next generation of enthusiasts.
49:10
And as we look ahead to what Pebble Beach Concours becomes under Vince's
49:14
leadership, one thing is clear.
49:16
The passion that brought him into the garage all those years ago is
49:20
the same passion guiding him now, and that's exactly the kind of energy
49:24
that keeps this community vibrant.
49:26
And if you want to explore more about the Concours culture, automotive preservation,
49:30
or the future of car collecting, be sure to visit pebblebeachconcours.com.
49:35
So with that, Vince, I can't thank you enough for joining us on
49:37
BreakFix and sharing the story behind this new chapter at Pebble Beach.
49:42
It's not every day you get to hear directly from the person stepping
49:45
into one of the most influential roles in the collector car world.
49:48
And your openness about its lineage, your leadership in the future of the
49:52
Concours is gonna make Pebble truly something special to see, and I'm
49:55
happy we're here to see it happen.
49:57
So thank you.
49:58
Thanks.
49:58
Thanks for having me.
49:59
I look forward to coming back and talking with you guys with
50:01
new updates in the future.
50:03
Any time.
50:03
You're welcome back any time.
50:05
All righty.
50:10
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