ArtCenter College of Design Car Classic

Pasadena, California, USA 22 October

HELD ON A BEAUTIFUL hillside campus in California, the 2017 edition of the designfocused Car Classic was themed red, white and blue, representing the racing colours of Italy, the US and France respectively. Almost 150 cars – some designed by ArtCenter graduates – trickled onto the showfield just after dawn, treating early risers to the intoxicating sounds of four-, six-, eight- and 12-cylinder engines.

The red of Ferrari dominated the Italian section with such rare and historic cars as a 1951 Ferrari 340 America Berlinetta by Touring, owned by Don and Carol Murray, but it was two non-red Italians that caught the eye. The first was the beautifully presented 1955 Fiat 8V Zagato Berlinetta displayed by the Milani Classics Collection, which attracted three-deep crowds all day. The second was the 1963 Ferrari 400 Superamerica owned by Donnie Crevier. A popular Italian favourite was the Byrd family’s ’27 Lancia Lambda Series 7 Airway.

Two first-generation Corvettes were noteworthy class winners in the white From top Ferrari and Alfa Romeo head up the red Italian section; Don and Carol Murray’s 1951 340 Touring; the 1955 Corvette C1 of Paul and Sherill Colony. (American) section; Paul and Sherill Colony’s 1955 Corvette and Bruce Meyer’s 1960 Cunningham Corvette Le Mans Roadster, which also won one of the four coveted Designer’s Awards. The other winners in that category were the 1932 Bugatti Type 55 displayed by Peter and Merle Mullin of the Mullin Automotive Museum in nearby Oxnard, a 1962 FiatAbarth 1000 Coupé owned by Thomas Shaughnessy, David SK Lee’s 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4, and the 1972 Citroën DS21 Pallas of Po Shun Leong.

The blue (French) section was rather overwhelmed by its counterparts, but made up for lack of numbers with some eclectic choices that included Scott Boses’ 1949 Voisin Biscooter Prototype and Erik and Jannie Ouwersloot’s 1951 Panhard Dyna K Break disguised as a bakery delivery van. There were also two performance-oriented entrants: James Selevan’s 1976 Alpine A110B and Bruce Milner’s rarely-seen-inthe-US ’81 Renault R5 Turbo.

An impressive judging panel included Jonathan Ward (ICON), Franz von Holzhausen (Tesla), Freeman Thomas (Ford), Jason Castriota (Ford), and Sasha Selipanov (Genesis). Selipanov was also part of a panel hosted by Octane contributor Jay Leno that played to a standing-room-only audience in the ArtCenter’s state-of-the-art laboratory. He told his own moving story of growing up in poverty in the former Soviet Union to a dream-come-true career as a designer for Lamborghini and Bugatti.