Yesterday we lost one of the greatest motoring personalities of the last six decades; Phil Hill. Best remembered as the first American to win the Formula 1 World Championship and as a three-time Le Mans winner, Hill's real enthusiasm for anything automotive continued to thrive long after his racing career. Many of us greatly enjoyed the insightful articles he wrote for Road & Track, especially those about a wide variety of historic racing cars. His roots as a mechanic were put to good use in the renowned Hill & Vaughn restoration company he co-founded. In 1977 his craftsmanship was awarded with the much coveted Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance 'Best of Show' award.

In his last years he suffered from Parkinson's disease, but he nevertheless was a frequent visitor, participant and judge at a variety of events. At the recent Monterey Historic Races he was due to make some parade laps in the Alfa Romeo, which he drove to his very first victory in 1951, together with fellow American World Champion Mario Andretti. Sadly he fell ill on the evening before and never recovered.

We would like to remember the great man in the best way we can, by highlighting some of the finest cars he drove in his racing career. Two of which are pictured with Phil at the wheel during the 2006 Goodwood Revival. His doctors advised against even riding in these rough and smelly machines, but after several parade laps alongside his son Derek, he had enough and got behind the wheel during the next sessions. The first car he drove was the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 MM he drove to his victory during the 1951 Pebble Beach road races. He later raced the car during the 1975 Monterey Historics and was due to ride in it again two weeks ago. Also in attendance at Goodwood were the Ferraris he drove to his three Le Mans wins; the 1958 winning 250 TR58 (again with Phil at the wheel), the 1961 winning 250 TRI61 and the 1963 winning 330 TRI/LM. During the 1967 BOAC 500 World Championship race Hill concluded his career in great form by clinching a victory in this Chaparral 2F.

This tribute is but a small reflection of the life of a truly great man. At PhilHill.com you can sign a book of remembrance.

Phil Hill, thank you and sleep well.

For racing enthusiasts the Monterey Historic Automobile Races are the highlight of the annual "Pebble Beach" motoring week. The now four-day event held on the scenic Laguna Seca track welcomes hundreds of important historic racing cars, all liveried in their original colours. With cars like the Ferrari 312 P, Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport and the Tyrrell P34 six-wheeler racing through the legendary "Cork Screw", this year's edition again did not disappoint. In addition to the familiar program, the 2008 'Historics' saluted Alfa Romeo, honoured Mario Andretti and celebrated Formula Junior's 50th anniversary. An absolute highlight was Andretti rather quick parade run in his 1978 Formula 1 World Championship winning Lotus 79. Several of his former colleagues raced each other and current Formula 1 ace Timo Glock in competition prepared Scions, which further added to the excitement.
With fifteen classes, two Ferrari Historic Challenge races, the Toyota Legends of Motorsport race and several parades, the track was rarely quiet. Our photographers were track side for most of the four days and have managed to capture every class and race in an extraordinary 200-shot slideshow, which ranks as one of our very finest. Some interesting insights and information is offered by a detailed report on all of the highlights.
Naturally many of the great cars that participated in this year's Historics will receive a more detailed feature in the near future.

With the summer drawing to a close, it is time to look ahead to the major motor shows planned this fall. The biggest is the 'Mondial de l'Automobile' in Paris, which opens its doors early in October. Local manufacturer Peugeot will take the wraps off the RC Hybrid sedan concept. As the name suggests it is equipped with a hybrid drivetrain that produces in excess of 300 bhp. That is peanuts compared to the Audi RS6 Saloon, which is also set to be launched in Paris. Like the 'Avant' version introduced a year earlier, the new RS6 is powered by a 580 bhp twin-turbocharged V10 engine.
A month after Paris, the eyes in the motoring world will be on Los Angeles. There Infiniti will show a third version of the successful G37 model; a Convertible. Whether it will come to Europe is still uncertain.
One of the most unusual racing cars active in England in recent years was the Trident Iceni with its twin-turbocharged V8 diesel engine. Trident Performance Engineering are about to complete the production version. In road trim the massive engine produces a staggering 1288 Nm of torque.
Last week nearly 200 cars lined up on the 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach Golf Links. Only very few were mentioned in our report and now we would like to showcase two of our favourites that did not make it into the article. One of the most exclusive body styles of the early 1920s was the Labourdette designed and built 'Skiff'. On the featured Hispano Suiza H6B, the stylish body is combined with the finest chassis of the day. Fixed-head Duesenbergs are a rare sight today as most original cars were converted into more desirable open cars in the 1950s and 1960s. Looking at the exceptional SJ Murphy Beverly, it is easy to see why that is a real shame.

This weekend the renowned Pebble Beach Lodge hosted the 58th Concours d'Elegance. Generally accepted as the most prestigious event of its kind, the Pebble Beach Concours traditionally attracts the finest classic cars. In 2008 the year 1908 took central stage with celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Lancia, General Motors and the American victories in the Vanderbilt Cup and the New York to Paris road race. The absolute highlight was the General Motors display, which featured well over a dozen of the legendary Motorama cars; more than were even displayed together in period. Established 45 years ago, Lamborghini also took central stage with the first ever Lamborghini class.
For the 11th time the activities kicked off with the Tour d'Elegance. A majority of the concours entrants took part in this driving event on some of the most beautiful roads of the exquisite Monterey area.
At the end of the day a Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Touring Berlinetta was the well deserved recipient of the 'Best of Show' award, but the real stars of the Concours were the more obscure yet very interesting cars. As you have come accustomed to, these will be looked at in greater detail in future updates. In the mean time you can enjoy our in-depth report, illustrated by separate slide shows for the Tour and Concours with a combined total of 350 shots. Enjoy!

Yesterday the Pebble Beach week of events and auctions drew to a close with the prestigious Concours d'Elegance on the 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach golf links. Each year the big question is; what will be best of show? There were many very interesting cars on the lawn this year, but only very few contenders for the big award. From the class winners the honorary judges picked this Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Touring Berlinetta. A quick glance at our beautiful 18-shot gallery is enough to find out why. The elegant lines of the Touring body combined with the competition bred chassis make the 8C 2900 one of the very finest cars built before the War. Underlining its racing heritage the Pebble winner won the very first Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948. The Alfa was presented in superb condition by its owner fresh from a thorough restoration.
In recent years 'Pebble' has also welcomed the latest concepts and high performance production cars on the 'Concept Car Lawn.' This weekend we were treated to two world debuts. Bugatti took the wraps off their second model, the 16.4 Veyron Grand Sport. Later in the day the very first example of the Targa bodied supercar was auctioned off for a staggering $2.9 million. Late last week we already reported on the Pininfarina bodied Rolls-Royce Hyperion. We have now added more images and full details on the many custom features of the Phantom based one-off.
Later in the week you can expect a full report on the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance illustrated by a mouth-watering slideshow that will make you want to call your travel agent; next year's concours is on August 16th 2009.

For some years now the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance does not just attract classic machinery, but annually features one or more world debuts. This Sunday's event will have at least three, two of which were previewed today. At the Gooding Auctions tent, the wraps were taken off the spectacular Rolls-Royce Hyperion. Based on the Phantom Drophead Coupe platform, the Hyperion was designed and built in Italy by Pininfarina. The master designers have transformed the boxy shape of the original into a more elegant and curvier form. They did not stop at the exterior, but also completely redid the interior. One of the coolest custom appointments is the clock that can be transformed into a wristwatch. That way the owner can always keep a piece of his precious machine nearby. At this time we do not know who that specific owner is; he is one very lucky man. Our photographer Rob Clements stretched his already long day to bring you these photographs of the Anglo-Italian beauty.
Earlier in the day and at a much lower profile, one of Pebble's featured marques, General Motors unveiled of a new production car from Cadillac. Aptly dubbed the CTS Sport Wagon, it is the expected estate version of the much acclaimed CTS sedan. Like its four-door sibling, the angular Sport Wagon comes standard with an impressive direct injection V6 engine.
Much more from Pebble and the many events taking place in the area will be published in the following days. You will be treated to some absolutely fantastic cars and mouth watering images.

For many enthusiasts the Jaguar D-Type and E-Type are household names. The former is the three times Le Mans winner, while the latter is one of the sexiest road cars ever constructed. Few though realize just how closely these two seemingly completely different machines are related. The similarities are not immediately visible, but the semi-monocoque chassis used in both cars is virtually identical in design. During the transformation of the D-Type racing car into the E-Type production car, Jaguar built various prototypes. The most famous and sole survivor is dubbed E2A. Underlining its competition heritage, E2A was extensively raced in 1960 by the likes of Jack Brabham, Dan Gurney, Walt Hansgen and Bruce McLaren. After its testing and racing duties, the unique machine was destined to be scrapped like all other Jaguar pre-production prototypes. Fortunately the current owner stepped in and managed to pry the fabulous machine away from Jaguar before it was destroyed.
This Friday and for the first time ever the 'missing link' between the D-Type and E-Type will be offered to the public. Auctioneer Bonhams will offer the very original machine during their Quail Lodge auction in Monterey, California. Considered one of the most important Jaguar's in existence, it is expected to sell for over $7 million, which would mean a new record for Jaguar motor car.
In the build up to the Pebble Beach week we were giving the opportunity to capture E2A in all its glory and have compiled a sparkling 12-shot gallery to illustrate our in-depth article.

British manufacturer Aston Martin seem literally liberated since attaining independence from the Ford Motor Company. Various new road and racing cars have seen the light of day in the last year and a half. Nevertheless the announcement yesterday of the oddly named, but very exciting Aston Martin One-77 came as a complete surprise. Information about the new top of the range model is quite sparse. Aston have revealed that the chassis will be a carbon fibre backbone, topped off by a hand-made aluminum body. The engine will be a 7-litre V12, which might be an indication that Aston Martin have come to some sort of agreement with Mercedes Benz AMG to supply engines for the next generation of Astons. What we know for sure is that we are greatly looking forward to the One-77 and the explanation of the name.
When looking around for potential rivals for the new Aston, the name Reventon quickly comes up. Limited to just 20 examples, it was as eye-catchingly different as the great Lamborghinis of the recent decades. The exterior is clearly inspired by the latest generation of stealth fighter plane and this theme found its way into the interior as well. Particularly the amazing instrument cluster looks like it came straight out of a plane. Rob Clements ran into a brand new example at the Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance, just after the owner had taken delivery. He captured all the unique lines in a fabulous 18-shot gallery.

Starting this coming Monday the Monterey Peninsula becomes the centre of the classic car world yet again. Nearly a dozen exciting events and four major sales are all held in the immediate vicinity of the Californian coastal city of Monterey. The exhausting week reaches its climax on Sunday with the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. By then the enthusiasts have been treated to various top-knotch concours, races and auctions. Traditionally these events attract the finest machinery, some having been in hiding for many decades. In addition to these 'debuts' there will also be some current model official world premieres like the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport and the Rolls-Royce Hyperion by Pininfarina. Each year the auctions break new records and we expect all of them to make headlines with their carefully picked and quite exquisite line-ups.
Our reporters will be out in full force to capture the activities in their entirety. That means working 15 hour days for a full week, but in the end it is certainly well worth it.
To kick off our coverage of the week of motoring madness, we have compiled a complete preview with details on all events and auctions. Over time this preview will turn into a review as we will start posting our reports with in-depth articles and mouth-watering slideshows.

Since Bugatti first showed the production version of the Veyron at Pebble Beach in 2005, several special edition version where launched that differed little from the original design. Now three years later, the supercar manufacturer will unveil the Veyron Grand Sport at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance later this month. The first example off the line of the 'Veyron Roadster' will be offered on auction later that day.
This weekend the Alfa Romeo B.A.T. 11 made its North American debut at the Meadow Brook Hall Concours d'Elegance. Our photographer Rob Clements captured every angle of the full scale model. He also learned that the assembly of the fully functional car is well under way back in Italy.
One of the most unusual machines shown the last few weeks in London was the IFR Automotive Aspid. With this high-tech Spanish roadster, the beauty is clearly skin deep. The roll-out of the revitalised Abarth brand continues with the 180 bhp Grande Punto SS. Porsche seem to be releasing a new car every week; today they released the first details of the limited edition, 303 bhp Cayman S Sport.
With the new A1 GP car, Ferrari is a developing a new single seater racing car for a series other than Formula 1 for the first time in many decades. One of the very last ones was the Dino 166 F2, which was raced in the Formula 2 and various other championships with considerable success. Ferrari's rival Williams F1 are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. Founder Frank Williams' history in F1 dates back much further. His first full season was in 1970 when he entered the DeTomaso 505 for various drivers.
Although almost entirely forgotten today, Locomobile was once known to sell 'The Best Built Car in America.' A great example of the long lost brand is this fabulous M 48-7 Healey Gunboat Cabriolet.