2022 Pebble Beach Concours Celebrates Le Mans And Lincoln

Every Pebble Beach Concours celebrates multiple automotive themes, and for the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours the themes included 100 years of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 100 Years of the Lincoln Motor Company. One could question the technical timing of those celebrations, as it’s really next June (2023) when the famous endurance race turns 100, and Lincoln exited before 1922, though that was the year it was purchased by Ford Motor Company.

Technical quibbles aside, the latest Pebble Beach Concours yet again lived up to its billing as the ultimate celebration of classic automobiles. With hundreds of cars blanketing the famed 18th fairway and competing in classes like, “Antique”, and “Postwar Racing”, and “Ferrari Grand Touring” you are guaranteed to see something from every great automotive era between 1900 and 1970. And with the 24 Hours of Le Mans theme this year there were plenty of impressive racing cars from both the 20th and 21st centuries.

The celebrate of Lincoln Motor Company came on the heels of Lincoln showing it’s latest concept car, which features a leaping greyhound paying homage to the brand’s original hood ornament (before safety regulations banned these protruding metal sculptures on fast-moving vehicles). The row of antique Lincolns resting astride Carmel Bay were a powerful reminder of the brand’s illustrious history, though I was personally drawn to the 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II owned by Leon Flagg and Curtis Lamon, which made the trek from Mcqueen, Wisconsin to be part of the Lincoln Zephyr and Continental class at this year’s Pebble Beach Concours.

And while the Le Mans and Lincoln classes provided an interesting contrast to the pre-war machines that have always represented the bulk of Pebble’s participants, the coveted Best of Show winner for the 2022 event was as classic, and classy, of Pebble Concours winner as one could imagine. A stunning 1932 Duesenberg J Figoni Sports Torpedo, shown by Lee R. Anderson Sr. If you were trying to identify the automotive epitome of a bygone era where top hats, jazz music and whitewall tires were all the rage…well, here it is.

And as today’s automotive industry rushes (careens?) toward a world of self-driving connected cars powered by batteries, the consistency of what you get to see, hear, and smell for a few hours every year on Pebble Beach’s 18th fairway becomes increasingly unique, and desirable.