PEBBLE BEACH 2013: PASS THE POUPON

Ana Llorente and her 1956 Motobecane 175ZC salt flat racer

The 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance celebrated, among other things, French motorcycles on its infamous golf course by the sea.  I was commissioned by Pebble to write a short history of the French motorcycle industry, incorporating some of the motorcycle marques present at the Concours on August 15th. The 2013 Pebble Beach program is beautifully illustrated, and my article looks great: copies are available here.  I've included the text of my article below, with photos from this year's Concours.

'Mr. Cool Hunting' and the Best in Show winning '37 Peugeot 515SP with Bernardet sidecar 

150 YEARS OF INNOVATION:

French motorcycles are exotically mysterious to English speakers, as little is published celebrating the long list of 'firsts' credited to French ingeneurs, and the heritage of remarkably elegant machines which followed in the first half of the 20th Century. The dawn of motorcycling (1870-1920) is dominated by French inventions and experiments, and the French probably invented motorcycling; the earliest recorded concept of a powered two-wheeler, back in 1818, is an etching of a ‘Velocipedraisiavaporiana’, or steam-powered draisine (the 'hobby horse', a pedalless bicycle), supposedly demonstrated in the Luxembourg Gardens. Steam power was gaining traction all over Europe; the print may have been satiric, but the concept was right on - a motorcycle, ridden by a handsome young man, no less. 

Pebble Motorcycle Concours judges Jim Thomas, Tom Meadows, and Somer Hooker look over a second Peugeot 515, this a '38 model owned by Bryan Bossier of Sinless Cycles

The first documented functional motorcycle - still extant at the Sceaux Musée in Paris - was a combination of a new pedal-driven 'boneshaker' (invented by Pierre Michaux in 1863), and a small, single-piston, alcohol-burning steam engine built by Louis-Guillame Perreaux. Perreaux's ‘steam velocipede’ was patented in 1869, and was capable of 30km/h, as demonstrated frequently outside his Paris workshop on rue Jean-Bart. In 1874 Perraux headlined a paper discussing his inventions (also with three wheels) as 'a likely replacement for the equine species' - how correct he proved to be. 

It came late, but it did arrive: the one-and-only four-cylinder Majestic, with a Cleveland engine, the Franco-American hybrid many thought didn't exist, or was a replica.  I'll run a full article on this machine soon!

The perfection of the 'safety bicycle' in 1885 swept Europe (and the US) with two-wheel fever, and specialized racing tracks for bicycles - velodromes- became hugely popular attractions. This craze coincided with the advent of internal combustion moto-bicycles, often demonstrated on velodromes to provide a 'draft' for fast bicyclists. Crowds thronged the banked tracks, fascinated by these new 'pacers', on which riders sat bolt-upright atop an enormous, slow-revving motor of practically automotive capacity (often two or more liters), powered by a massive Buchet, Peugeot, or Marchand engine. Thus began the Age of Monsters; it wasn't long before these mighty pacers were pitted against each other on the banking, a sport which evolved into specialized 'board track' races in Europe and the US. 

1931 Peugeot P107S Tour de France in military spec

By 1896, pioneers like the Comte DeDion were building far more sensible motors of relatively high rpm (3000!) and modest capacity (400cc) which were soon powering bicycles and tricycles in France, England, and the US. The DeDion design powered the first motorcycles in the US and Britain, who copied French motors under license, or not! Engines were clipped into every imaginable position on heavyweight bicycles; above the front wheel, above the rear wheel, next to the rear wheel, beneath the headstock, under the saddle. Each of these positions shifted the center of gravity to locations with undesireable consequences, especially the 'dreaded side slip' (skidding). A dreadful combination of loose road surfaces (paved roads existed, if at all, only in the center of cities), and poor balance made falls a miserable certainty. 

Steve Brindmore points out a potential safety issue with the '31 Peugeot: perhaps 'original at all costs' has too high a price? Clearly, this machine isn't ridden, an important point given the requirements of Automobiles at the Pebble Beach Concours - every car Must be ridden on the Pebble Beach Tour prior to the Concours, in order to be considered for judging.  The same rules don't apply to the Motorcycle Concours...and why not?  If the point of the 'show circuit' is to bring history alive and to the public, certainly motorcycles should be included. Otherwise, they're a sideshow...

In 1901 Werner patented the 'right' placement of a motor, in place of the pedal crank at the bottom of the frame, then one-upped themselves by creating the first-ever vertical twin motor (think Triumph) in 1904, before the death of the Werner brothers Michel and Eugene in 1907 finished the enterprise. 

The judges watch John Lawless start his 1949 Peugeot 156, a 150cc two-stroke single in original paint

Innovation was the very air of Belle Époque France, and marques like Buchet and Peugeot built the fastest and most reliable motors available in the 'Noughts. They were stalwarts of motorcycle racing, which had broken out of Velodromes, and French racing engines were suddenly the hot ticket in the US and England too; the inaugural Isle of Man TT was won by a Peugeot-engined Norton in 1907. By 1901 Clément made a very popular 'Autocyclette' by clamping a small 240cc motor to their own-make bicycle frame (most early motorcycle makers built bicycles previously, or were champion cycle racers); it, too, was raced, and with little competition at that early date, it did quite well, except up hills. 

John Light shares a 1960s video of his grandmother riding his 1945 Motobécane D45A Pebble entry, in original condition

Peugeot are better known for their cars today but are in fact the world's oldest still extant producer of powered two-wheelers (since 1898 - take that, Harley D!). Peugeot designer Ernest Henry halved the engine of their 1913 Indy 500-winning 'L45' four-cylinder race car, and created the world's first 4-Valve, DOHC motorcycle (without the car's Desmo gear - which left Ducati something to boast about 40 years later), the '500M' racer of 1914, a parallel twin so technically advanced it could have landed from outer space. The French dominated their competitors in sophistication, race expertise, and sheer engineering savoir faire, at least until the First World War intervened. 

The irrepressible Bryan Bossier with his Peugeot 515.  Note the chrome tank emblem - a Deco version of the Peugeot 'lion' logo in profile

Magnat-Debon emerged with an ultra-light racer in 1906, on which their #1 racing rider, Jules Escoffier, had success at Mt Ventoux and other important events. In 1911, Escoffier insisted M-D needed a more powerful v-twin, which they refused, so he stole Joseph Magnat's niece along the chassis design of the Magnat-Debon, creating the 'Mandoline' OHV V-twin; the new Koehler-Escoffier became a French racing legend. In 1927, Raymond Guiguet designed a completely new engine for KE, with a shaft-and-bevel OHC similar to the Velocette KSS of 1925. The '500 GP' had a crankcase flat ready for drilling to create a new OHC V-twin; the resultant 1927 Koehler-Escoffier 'Quatre Tubes' (four exhausts) is surely one of the most charismatic motorcycles of all time, although little known outside Europe, one of very few overhead-camshaft V-Twins produced before 1930. Alas only 7 were built, and while all survive, their owners are understandably covetous, and they never come up for sale. 

A short lineup on the Pebble lawn: 9 entries this year.  French motorcyles weren't imported to the US prewar, and appeared mostly in the 1960s/70s as mopeds.  American consciousness of French motorcycle history is only now dawning, and a few interesting machines are trickling across the Atlantic, but the best and most technically interesting French motorcycles are in France!  And jealously guarded there as national treasures; coaxing owners to ship their machines to California for the Concours proved impossible. Pebble Beach has no 'draw' among European motorcyclists, who have their own priorities.

As the 1920s progressed, French engineers were rarely at the forefront of global motorcycling technology, and the English usurped the top spots in racing and development...but none could compete with the French for sheer style. A wave of Art Deco swept the French industry, with the most Deco-to-its-bones being the 'Majestic'. The child of Georges Roy's fertile imagination, the Majestic grew from Roy's previous project, the humbly-named 'New Motorcycle', which had a radical monocoque chassis in 1925. In 1927, Roy used a car-type chassis of box-section steel, with hub-center steering and a Cleveland 4-cylinder engine, all wrapped in curvaceous metal bodywork. Nevermind that air-cooled motorcycle engines 'cook' without decent air flow (the Majestic has plenty of louvres, but no cooling fan), nothing quite like this machine had ever been seen, and it remains unique among production bikes even today. Roy may have only built a single Cleveland- '4' prototype (which makes its first-in-80-years public appearance on the Pebble Beach lawn); 'production' Majestics used Chaise, Train, or JAP engines, usually of one or two cylinders. The Majestic's robust chassis and excellent steering makes even a 'sports' engine of the day feel grossly underpowered. With such looks, it really ought to be the fastest thing on two wheels! 

Dashboard of the Majestic; pure Art Deco.  The 'cracquelure' paint job was an original option for Majestics.

By the 1930s, familiar marques such as Peugeot, Terrot, Alcyon, and Motobecane built boulevardiers of breathtaking Art Deco perfection, the two-wheeled equivalents of a Delahaye or Délage, which remain among the most beautiful and stylish motorcycles ever built. Being French, the industry continued to push the limits of technology with advanced four-cylinder OHV and OHC engines (Chaise, Train, Motobecane, etc), and radical chassis design. The MGC (Marcel Guiguet et Cie - he of the Koehler-Escoffier 'Mandoline') was a glorious failure of aluminum casting technology, having integral fuel and oil tanks within a very shapely all-alloy chassis; the porosity leaks were cured by cooking the frame in resin, but fatigue cracks plague enthusiasts of these rare beasts even today. 

John Light's sons will likely inherit their great-grandmother's Motobécane

Aircraft engine manufacturer Gnome et Rhone built the advanced ABC flat-twin motorcycle immediately after WW1 (licensing the design from rival Sopwith!), and followed this design years later with a much larger flat twin of 750cc housed in a pressed-steel chassis, reminiscent of contemporary BMW practice, but revealing the Germans a somber lot, compared to Gnome-Rhone's feminine Deco extravagance, suggestive use of chrome, and swelling curves. While no longer at the cutting edge of racing technology by the 1930s, highly competetive, even awe-inspiring racers yet emerged from French workshops, as marques like Terrot, Jonghi, and Magnat-Debon built magnesium-engined racers which won European and French national championships. 

Another view of the Peugeot 515 with Bernardet sidecar...look at those cast-aluminum mufflers!

Most memorable, though, is the magnificent development of Koehler-Escoffier racing machines during this period. In 1934, the very busy Guiguet transformed his 'Quatre Tubes' into a mighty OHC 1000 V-twin of brutal gorgeousness, so inextricably linked to its pilot, Georges Monneret, the name 'Monneret' is synomymous with the machine, as he developed it to win National Championships through the 1950s. The K-E 'Monneret' remains the crown jewel of French pre-war motorcycling. 

The grass wasn't the only place to find bikes at Pebble: MidAmerica Auctions pitched its tent of bikes too

Postwar, French motorcycles were stylish albeit generally small-capacity machines, rarely larger than 250cc, excepting the flat-twin police Ratiers built along BMW lines. No equivalent of the Citroen DS emerged, although irrepressibly talented engineers blossomed in racing circles. The Nougier family but put their stamp on history by home-building the fourth-ever transverse DOHC four-cylinder racer in 1953 (after Gilera, NSU, and MV Agusta). The machine was so good, Norton's Joe Craig attempted to purchase the design...but the Frenchmen would have none of it. Two decades later, the Elf team revived the Majestic's hub-center steering for their unorthodox racers of the 1970s and 80s. The first break in a 'lightweight curse' came from Voxan in the 1990s, with a sporting 1000cc OHC V-twin, which succumbed, sadly, to the Crisis of 2009. Except for these bright intervals, French two-wheeled industry has been dominated by scooters and mopeds, as amply evidenced on every street in Paris.

Alfa Romeo 8C; part of a 28-strong exhibit of 1930s Alfa 8-cylinder cars

Alloy-bodied Rolls reflects the morning fog

1914 American Underslung - nearly a motorcycle with such big wheels!

Looking like a 1950s Barris custom car, half coach and half Rolls...

Pets allowed

Seen on the streets of Carmel; Roger Rabbit's custom trike

1920s yacht with nefarious history; ex-Al Capone

His gold LV bag matched my shoes...

In the MidAmerica tent; a Crocker speedway bike

Deco upon Deco: where's Gatsby?

They're all babes, but for the day, they became the East Side Moto Ladies

The 'Preservation' class grows each year as Pebble wakes up to the burgeoning trend for original machines.  Roger Hoffman's '55 Ferrari 250 Europa GT V12 engine, pretty much as it left the factory.  Found in Sicily at an automotive mechanic's shop.

The inside of Roger's Ferrari 250 Europa, complete with priapic shift lever.

Twin superchargers for this '35 Frazer Nash TT Replica; Prewar Preservation class

The Indycar display's pop graphics helped banish the grey weather

10 vintage Indy racers, which sounded amazing when fired up

Can you hear me now?

Yes, your nails match the Ferrari; yes, you should buy it.

Styling does not equal Function, but it can raise a smile

Cool gear; vintage '24 Heures du Mans' Hermés tie, vintage Steve McQueen Persol sunnies

Euro-cop: Dutch 'Rijkspolitie' '74 Porsche 911 Targa.  Owner Guus Reinerink was blasting Euro-disco from the loudspeaker...

Porsche 911 Competition class

Even Indycar collectors enjoy a nice bottle of vin rouge now an then

PreWar Preservation Voisin Clairiére Berline from 1935, without the eye-watering Art Deco interior fabric designed by Paul Poiret... owner Bill Pope claimed not only that the leather interior was correct, but that many 'Deco' interiors were added much later...scandal!  Voisins have come out of the woodwork in the past two years, after winning Pebble Beach and other Concours...

Would you like your Indycar in yellow?  What shade?

Subscribe to The Vintagent by email here!

Read more »

SHINY PEBBLES IN THE CALI SUN...

[Somehow, my articles about Pebble Beach Week last August were all in print magazines...here's one from The Automobile, which has more of a four-wheel focus, but you get the gist...]

Leading off the week's parties; the McCall Motorworks Revival at the Monterey Jet Center has a compelling mix of aircraft, cars, and motorcycles

There’s no other word for it; surpassing all other superlatives you’re likely to hear about August’s Pebble Beach Week in Carmel, the most accurate is exhausting.  That’s no pun on the motoring focus, but is your likely feeling on Monday morning; tired, hung over, and with a mighty dent in your wallet.  What was once, many years ago, an exemplary Concours d’Elegance on a golf course overlooking Monterey Bay, has expanded to an automotive edifice, growing crenellations and turrets every year.  In the space of 6 days, one might attend 10 different shows, daily vintage races at Laguna Seca Raceway, three vintage tours, six major auctions – each taking more than one day – and countless parties large and small, from the buy-your-ticket Motorworks Revival at the Monterey Jet Center, to a dozen you’re-not-invited events at the big tents of Jaguar, Mercedes, etc.   I challenge anyone to do it all; I tried this year, and failed.

Jet Center; a Vincent Black Shadow keeps company with a Yamaha TZ750 and Ford GT40

The ‘institution’ events are well-known; the Pebble BeachConcours, the Quail Motorsports Gathering, the Monterey Historic vintage races; you, holder of this magazine, already know them.  These are the pillars of the week.  The ‘other’ events leverage the presence of thousands of vehicle-mad tourists eager to see More; more shows (German, Italian, Small Car, Novel Junque, etc), more swank parties, more Tours, more vehicles for sale.  That all these events are thriving in a ‘down’ economy indicates Carmel has not yet reached saturation, and undoubtedly, a Motorcycle-only show will soon appear, as will further ‘niche’ automotive events. 

Pebble Beach Concours; the moto-theme this year was Germany, and BMW obliged by shipping the unique R7 ....which won the motorcycle concours

A testament to the power of the big shows is their popular draw; while the Sunday Pebble Beach Concours is limited by fire dep’t order to 25,000 spectators, it’s an open secret they regularly sell twice that many tickets.  Other telling indicators are the myriad ‘what about mine?’ events during the week.   As an example, your Italian stallion – say, one of 2800 Ferrari 308s produced, and shiny as a waxed apple – will never be accepted on Pebble’s lawn, but the Concorso Italiano will be happy, for a small fee, to display it on a different golf course (right next to Laguna Seca!), in a lineup of 30 or 40 identical models.  The Concorso is the same Friday as the Quail, but you’re as likely to gain Quail entry as you are a Radiohead ticket for a small-venue concert; even at $400 a pop, the Quail sells out instantly.  The Concorso feels as uncrowded as the limited-access Quail (3000 tickets only), not due to limited attendance but by sheer acreage…the Italian show is Huge, and overwhelming numbers of Alfas, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Fiats, Ferraris, and Isos are lined up like Mussolini’s troops on parade:  colorful, noisy, celebratory, and not nearly so battle-ready as they think.

Quail Motorsports Gathering; can a guy just eat his sushi without a Cobra chuntering off to Laguna Seca?

A similar story applies to the Legends of the Autobahn show, or the Little Car show, or the fantastic Tour of LeMons, the anti-concours People’s Pebble, a meandering parade of cringe-worthy Pintos, Pacers, and Gremlins, triple-victims of questionable design, the ravages of age, and poor maintenance.  No one could fail to smile at this cheeky send-up of the richy-rich pomp and circumstance of the ‘Real’ shows, where millionaire show organizers award prizes to mill-or-billionaire car owners.  Long may the LeMons wave…it nearly disappeared this year, but sponsor Hagerty Insurance, sensing a marketing opportunity amidst all the fun, stepped in with a check and saved the day.

Pebble Beach; the 3-2-1 winners of the Moto-Concours, with a Münch Mammut, BMW R68, and the BMW R7

And for the butts of this joke?  The Quail Motorsports Gathering is doing very well, thank you, and is widely considered the best event of the week… exactly why it sells out so quickly.  With limited ticket sales, the lawn of the Quail Lodge (and where would car shows be without golf?) never feels crowded; once you’re past security (one way or another – ‘gaming the system’ is a popular sport for the brave this week), the excellent catered lunch, oysters and champagne, desserts and cocktails, are yours to indulge while listening to live Japanese jazz or a Mariachi band.  It’s a wonder more attendees aren’t falling-down drunk and bloated like bowling pins, but the Quail atmosphere is so damnably pleasant, the urge for mayhem evaporates.  The cars are, of course, spectacular; themes this year included masterpiece pre-war Alfas and the 50^th anniversary of Iso Automobili, complete with a wry interview with Piero Rivolta, son of Iso founder Renzo.  Favorite quote; “The marketing department said, ‘we need something more sexy, and faster’, so we designed the Grifo.”  And so it was.

Hail Brittania!

The 800 pound gorilla of the week arrives last, and if you’re not on the actual 17-Mile Drive of Pebble Beach by 7:30am, you’ll feel the week will never end, and you’ll never see the show.  Spectators are herded into parking lots hither and yon, along the side of the road and seemingly anywhere there’s shoulder room; from there (and you’d better remember ‘where’), you’ll stand in a line to board a shuttle to another parking lot, which, as per the Banksy film, you ‘enter through the gift shop’  (the Automobilia tent), trek across a hill, through the Lodge forecourt, past the port-a-potties and, eventually, to the beachfront grass.  Where, being summer, it’s foggy and cold…although the sun emerged this year for a maddeningly brief time, and everyone sweated before the fog again ‘crept in on little cat feet’, to quote Carl Sandburg.  Automotive categories you’ll see nowhere else are the norm at Pebble, this year including a long line of pre-1948 Rolls Royces, ex-Maharajah all, equipped with shotguns, mechanical spitting swans, exhaust-pipe organs, and even Actual Maharajahs themselves, who sat serenely in their family cars, smiling for the army of iphones stealing their souls. 

The Maharajah and his daughter, the Vintagent and his sweetie

Finally, the Preservation classes at Pebble are growing in numbers and popularity, along with a creeping awareness of the historical destruction wrought by restoration-mad concorsi, whose eagerness to see their reflections in paintwork has erased any trace of the original manufacturer’s intention.  FIVA’s efforts to de-legitimize modified vehicles are problematic, but their heart is in the right place to sponsor trophies for the original-paint brigade.  Drab these birds might be, perched amidst hyperglossy supercars, but there’s no denying their charm, and spectators seemed fascinated with the myriad ways Time, destroyer of all material and corporeal things, has altered the appearance of once-shiny exotica. In their alligatored paint, surface rust, and worn leather, we must surely see our own inevitable decline; let’s tip our hats to these rare survivors. 

Shiny enough?  Nary a ripple on the bodywork of this Alfa, reflecting yet another Alfa - an 8C 2500

Quail; wandering mariachis serenading hungry revelers

Quail; taking full advantage of free cigars and wine...

Quail; super rare Crocker speedway racer

Quail; goddess style...

At the MidAmerica tent; the Triumph X-1 streamliner, with twin T110 engines, in original patina

At the Motobilia tent; a slot car track installed in the body of a 70s Camaro 

The R7; despite photographic appearance of perfection, the restoration was true to its nature as a one-off design study.  The pinstriping and metalwork have crude athenticity

Pebble; in the Preservation class, this fab old straight-8 'golf cart', complete with clubs!

Mecum auctions tried to sell in a single lot the Gary Kohs 72-MV Agusta collection, but failed

Pebble; the business office of a Miller racer

Pebble; this early Mercedes racer has and under-dash flip-down manual lap counter...

Polish your car or bike?  Here's your guy; Mr Maguiar

Pebble; Lalique hood ornament makes the Rolls Royce 'spirit of ecstasy' look positively sexless...

Jet Center; Porsche 906 sports racer with infinite stripe

Jet Center; Yamaha TZ750 looking muscular, albeit overlooked by the car-mad crowd

Susan tries out a unique 1950 VW tradesmen's Trasporter

A pair of reapers; some classic insurance companies won't cover Corvettes, as they're #1 for single vehicle fatal accidents.  Whoa, hoss.

Lotus in America

Jet Center; private jet companies show their wares 

Bizarrini and turboprop 

Bonhams; Jared Zaugg and a 1921 Mars

Bonhams; original paint 1911 Pierce 4, which sold for $120k

Bonhams; Cosworth V8 with megaphones stolen from 8 Norton Manxes...imagine the noise!

Bonhams; 1930 Windhoff

Concorso Italiano; a sea of Ferrari Daytonas 

Concorso; pocket-size super adorable Fiat ragtop

Concorso; original paint early-series Iso Grifo

B25 'Mitchell' bomber and Porsche 356C convertible

Jet Center; a trio of red and white

Jet Center; Brittany recognizes the photographer! 

Jet Center; unique VW 1950 commercial van 

The Jet Center party iphone opt-out

Pebble; Ferraris as they should be; competition

Pebble; matching outfits for lady, half-blind poodle, and Mercedes cabriolet

Pebble Beach Tour; Franklin straight-8 racer in faux-patina condition; still fantastic

Pebble; gimme an Imme!

Pebble; esteemed judges pore over a 1925 BMW R32

Supercar, supergirls

Yours truly, marring the Mars

Read more »