The Quail hands top honours to Jaguar D-Type

Apart from being the world’s prime social automotive event, the Quail is also a Concours. This year, Bill Pope’s 1956 Jaguar D-Type collected top honours.

The Quail is one of the main events of Car Week in the Monterey area. For specialist manufacturers, it has become the place to be to show their restomods, supercars and other toys for the rich and beautiful. As a social gathering, it takes things to another level.

Restomods and supercars

But we’re here for the cars mainly, so we let our eyes wander to some of our personal favourites: the Cyan P1800 Restomod, Singer’s stunning Turbo Study or our friends at Totem Automobili who brought an improved version of their Giulia GT restomod to the Quail. Not forgetting Tuthill’s totally bonkers 850 kilo Porsche 911K, with a 3.1-litre engine that hits 11,000 rpm. Tom Kristensen was among the celebrities, happily posing next to the Bentley Speed 8 with which he took victory in the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Best of the Best

First of all, as part of the Peninsula group, the Quail had the honour of showing the car that won this year’s ‘Best of the Best’ award. The 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France, chassis #0507GT, was voted the best of last year’s top Concours winners. The car has extensive racing history in Europe, in the hands of privateers. It was in the 1956 Mille Miglia, came second overall in the Coppa Lombarda in Monza, ran in 1959 with French rally ace René Trautmann winning several hillclimbs and won best of show at the Villa d’Este Concours last year.

XKD 528

This year, the Quail had themes on Mini, the 50 years of BMW Motorsport and 70 years of Jaguar and their Le Mans wins. Ultimately, it would be Bill Pope’s 1956 Jaguar D-Type that won best of show. ‘XKD 528’ as the car is known, raced in the US with Pete Woods first. It was Harald Erb who gave this Jaguar D-Type its first podium finish, in Santa Barbara in 1956. The first win came in Bakersfield. In 1957, this car ran at Sebring. It would score what is considered its greatest victory in the 1958 Pomona Six Hours with Ken Miles and owner Carlyle Blackwell Jr behind the wheel.