The Ghost In The Machine

Co-founder of The Peninsula Classics Best of the Best, Christian Philippsen, spoke at the recent award ceremony in Carmel, California.

- David McKirdy​​​​​​​

He shared a conversation with a close friend of his who had asked him whether he thought the mechanicals, the chassis or the body contained the essence of a classic car. Christian thought it was a combination of all of the aforementioned elements working in harmony with each other. His chum disagreed and insisted that it was the body, because the chassis and mechanical components were simply faithfully and accurately produced from the engineering drawings whereas the body was an approximate interpretation of the designer’s vision entirely dependent upon the craftsman’s own skill, inspiration and facilities and therefore contained more than was originally designed into the car – some of the skilled artisan’s DNA.

This got me thinking that any number of the cars that I have worked on must also contain my DNA and those of others who have been associated with them. For the recent Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance, I was tasked with preparing two cars, the 1958 Ferrari 250 TR that Phil Hill drove to victory in Le Mans that year, becoming the first American to do so, and a unique 1937 three-seater Bugatti 57S Gangloff coupe.