A 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torpedo was just deemed Best of Show, the top honor among the billions of dollars' worth of exclusive vintage vehicles displayed at the 2025 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
The car is owned by Penny and Lee Anderson of Naples, Florida, who purchased it three years ago at the Sotheby's auction right in Pebble Beach. "The people who represented the sale of this car said it was a potential Pebble Beach winner, and they were right," Lee Anderson told Car and Driver from the judges' stand, moments after receiving the designation.
The yacht-like, mahogany-bodied, aluminum-riveted, torpedo-shaped sporting cruiser just emerged from a two-year restoration less than a week ago—using vintage wood—and was shipped directly to the concours. "If you're into collecting classics, we all know these wood-bodied cars, and this one hasn't been shown before," Anderson says. "How many do you see?"
When asked what drew them to the car, Anderson says, "It's just a beautiful piece of furniture."
This car demonstrates an ongoing commitment to honoring unique interwar classic cars at Pebble, which has long granted this prestigious award to meticulously restored coachbuilt vehicles created during the 1920s and 1930s.
"This is just a very distinctive car with an extraordinary level of craftsmanship," said Ken Gross, a venerable author, curator, and concours judge who has worked for decades in the world of classic cars. "One couldn't even imagine building a car like that today."
This adherence to form in the Best of Show selection signifies that "traditions here at Pebble Beach will continue," Gross says. "Cars like this remain the pinnacle of elegance, like Old Masters paintings."
However much this selection perpetuates the status quo, special vehicles like this—especially ones that have not been readily seen in decades—can continue to inform our deeper understanding of the significance of the automobile in a world that has largely been shaped by it.
But the larger narrative at the grand, if at times overwhelming, celebration of car culture that is the annual Monterey Car Week, is the way in which affection for the automobile's mechanical, technological, and sculptural achievements is one of the few things in our contentious world upon which we can all, perhaps, find common ground.
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