Some of the out-of-this-world-looking automobiles took house Greatest in Present honors on the 2025 Pebble Seaside Concours d’Class. Even though there was some extraordinarily robust competitors from 229 vehicles this 12 months, the winner — a 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torpedo — was clear and apparent the second I walked onto the 18th fairway on Sunday morning, and it looks like most individuals had the identical thought. Fairly merely, there’s nothing else like this on the earth, and no different automobile actually stood an opportunity.
I am certain you’ve got by no means heard of the Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torpedo — generally referred to as the Tulipwood Torpedo — earlier than yesterday, as a result of I definitely hadn’t, however what we have right here is an aero-inspired marvel made out of mahogany with a form that extra intently resembles a ship than a automobile. It was first commissioned by André Dubonnet, a World Conflict I ace fighter pilot who additionally simply so occurred to be the inheritor to the Dubonnet fortune. He needed to go racing, and what higher automobile to go racing in 100 years in the past than a wood-bodied behemoth with an 8-liter inline-six that pumped out a whopping 45 horsepower. The automobile raced at each the Targa Florio and Coppa Florio.
Designed by Henri Chasseriaux, the automobile was constructed out of strips of mahogany, with each being individually carved to form and joined to an interior rib system by about 8,500 rivets. In complete, the physique is tremendous light-weight, and solely weighing in at round 160 kilos. That is some spectacular craftsmanship, no?
The street to Pebble Seaside
The automobile was restored and delivered to Pebble by a pair out of Naples, Florida, who truly received Greatest in Present again in 2022 with a Figoni-bodied 1932 Duesenberg J. They eliminated the pontoon fenders that some cheesy proprietor had put in in some unspecified time in the future previously, restoring it to its unique torpedo form.
“I like wooden! I am a wooden boat vintage collector. I began accumulating them 40 years in the past, earlier than it grew to become vogue-ish to try this. So I’ve at all times cherished varnished wooden, and after I noticed this I mentioned, my gosh! That is proper in my wheelhouse,” Lee Anderson Sr, the automobile’s proprietor, mentioned. “That is what I actually like.”
The Andersons purchased the automobile again in 2022 at RM Sotheby’s Pebble Seaside public sale, clearly feeling good about their Greatest in Present win that very same 12 months. Quickly after their buy was finalized, a grueling two-year restoration that required over 12,000 hours of analysis and work kicked off, in line with MotorTrend. Fortunately, when it was bought, a lot of the automobile’s mahogany was nonetheless intact. As for lacking bits, RM sourced 100-year-old wooden to finish the restoration.
“This Hispano-Suiza ticks each attainable field. The underpinnings are technically superior,” Concours Chairman Sandra Button mentioned. “The physique is meticulously hand-crafted, mild, and beautiful.”
I’ve acquired at hand it to this 12 months’s judges. It may be exhausting to face up to the temptation to offer one other Nazi automobile the highest prize at Pebble, however they did so with ease, making the precise selection. It is exhausting to face out in a sea of attractive classic vehicles, however the Tulipwood Torpedo did simply that, and seeing it in particular person was completely one of many highlights of my weekend.
