MONTEREY, Calif. – For decades, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance’s prestigious Best of Show award has gone to immaculately restored cars. That changed in 2024, when judges named a 1934 Bugatti Type 39 Sports competing in the Preservation category the overall winner.

As the name suggests, the Preservation category is open to cars that are bursting with patina. The cars that compete here carry chips, scratches and dents as part of their history, not as flaws, and their owners cling to the notion that a vehicle is only original once. Seeing a worn-out 90-year-old Bugatti beat cars that have just undergone a six- or seven-figure restoration confirms that the collector market has indeed shifted toward originality.

If cars could tell their story, Hollywood’s biggest producers would be lining up to get the film rights to the winning Type 59. It was driven by René Dreyfus, Robert Benoist and Jean-Pierre Wimille, among others. Bugatti then converted it into a road car by removing the supercharger and adding parts such as a new fully synchronized four-speed manual gearbox, headlights and a windshield. The model continued to race, however, winning the last Algerian Grand Prix among others, and eventually ending up in the collection of King Leopold III of Belgium.

Ettore Bugatti had the Type 59 Sports repainted from blue to black, the King’s favorite color. What happened to the car while the King owned it remains unclear, but we do know that it moved to Belgium with the monarch and his family in 1959. He sold it in 1967 and since then it has had several owners – fortunately they have all gone to great lengths to preserve the car’s originality. Its current owner, Fritz Burkard of Zug, Switzerland, entered it in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, making it the first time a European owner has won the Best of Show award.

Bugatti has now won the most Best of Show awards at Pebble Beach with Mercedes-Benz. Each brand has ten wins to its name.

This year’s Best of Show nominees included a 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Saoutchik Fastback Coupe from the Czech Republic, a 1934 Packard 1108 Twelve LeBaron Sport Phaeton from Ohio and a 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero Bertone from California.