3 days ago
1924 Hispano-Suiza Tulipwood Torpedo Wins Best of Show at 2025 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
The winner of the 2025 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is a worthy one. Thought be some to be the most famous French car of all time, and now surely the most famous Spanish-Swiss car of them all, the 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torpedo, more commonly referred to as the Tulipwood Torpedo, beat out all other contenders and class winners at this year's main event.
Owned by Penny and Lee Anderson Sr. of Naples, Florida, the Tulipwood underwent and expensive and meticulous restoration by RM Auto Restoration, meaning that RM has had nine of its restorations win the big award, a record.
'Winning Pebble Beach is probably the highest award you can win,' says Lee Anderson Sr. 'We're lucky to have won it twice.' Which indeed the Andersons did in 2022 with their stunning 1932 Duesenberg Model J Figoni Sports Torpedo, also restored by RM.
As much of a Duesey as that Duesenberg is, this year's winner is even more special. Commissioned by André Dubonnet, a World War I ace fighter pilot and heir to the Dubonnet aperitif fortune who became an Olympic bobsledder and race car driver, the Tulipwood was built on the famed Hispano Suiza Boulogne chassis and powered by an 8.0-liter H6C inline-six engine good for 45 hp.
The Tulipwood's pièce de resistance is its literally stunning, boat-inspired mahogany bodywork designed by Henri Chasseriaux and built by Nieuport-Astra. It is made up of dozens eighth of an inch thick pieces of wood secured over three-quarter inch ribs with thousands of aluminum rivets, the body was extremely lightweight and is said to weigh just 160 pounds. This combination helped Dubonnet to place sixth in the 1924 Targa Florio and fifth in the same year's Coppa Florio.
As with anything a century old and made from wood, the restoration was a massive undertaking. According to RM, the multi-year project required more than 12,000 hours and nearly two years of research and restoration to exacting specifications. Much of the mahogany was intact, and RM was able to source 100-year-old wood for the restoration.
Coincidently, the Andersons purchased this Hispano-Suiza at the 2022 RM Sotheby's auction at Pebble Beach because they were told the car had a good chance of winning Best of Show. Asked what he thought of the Tulipwood Torpedo when he first saw it pre-restoration, Anderson Sr. said, 'It's a beautiful piece of furniture.
'This car is simply a masterpiece. Every angle, every detail—it's as wild as it gets for 1924 and was so far ahead of its time,' said Gord Duff, President, RM Sotheby's. 'To me, this is the Mona Lisa of cars. I never imagined years ago that our company would be involved in the sale of this car, let alone serve as the restoration firm to return it to its original glory. The fact that our team was entrusted to restore something this important is an incredible honor.'
