One-Of-Two 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster Once Owned By Clark Gable Wins 75th Pebble Beach Concours

As you're probably aware, Monterey Car Week just concluded, and as you could probably guess, I'm tired as hell after four days of running all over the peninsula to schmooze and stare at incredible cars. The main event is always the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on Sunday, and this year marked the 75th anniversary of the event. My hope for the Concours is always that I'll see cars that I've never seen before, and this year I got that in spades, mainly thanks to the featured classes that showcased Vignale coachwork and 1930s streamliners.

The ceremony ran later than usual this year — the announcer was on the mic naming and shaming judges who hadn't turned in their ballots yet — but at least the sun never came out, so the weather was nice and chill all day. A lot of my favorite cars on the lawn won their classes or some of the special awards, like a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SC Pinin Farina Coupe, a 1953 Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic and a 1938 Tatra T77A Limousine.

There were 218 cars on the field competing, with entries from 30 U.S. states and 14 countries around the world. At the end of the day, four potential Best of Show winners were chosen, with this year's runners-up being a 1938 Delahaye 165 Figoni et Falaschi Cabriolet (owned by the guy who won two years ago), a 1955 Ferrari 375 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta, and a 1954 Ferrari 375 America Vignale Cabriolet. But the car that took home the grand prize was a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster, one of just two ever made and certainly a worthy winner, even if it wouldn't have been my pick.

The winning Duesey was brought to Pebble Beach by Harry Yeaggy, a banker from Cincinnati, Ohio, who happened to win Best of Show at the Concours in 2007 with a different Duesenberg: the 1935 SJ Speedster known as the Mormon Meteor. Though not quite as visually arresting as that speed record car, the SSJ Special Speedster is impressive in its own right. That SSJ name means the car has a shorter 125-inch wheelbase and is supercharged, with the dual-carbureted inline-8 engine boosted to over 400 horsepower. It's a stunning vehicle, with a chopped-down windshield, sportier proportions, and prominent exhaust tubes coming off the engine bay.

This SSJ was originally lent to movie star Clark Gable by the automaker, while the other of the two SSJs was sold to movie star Gary Cooper. The pair would apparently race their cars along Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills, which must have been a hell of a sight to see. (That would also make for a great gay romcom plot.) Gable's car was subsequently owned by the Ferrara family for six decades, and it was apparently the "express wishes of the Ferrara family patriarch" for it to be passed on to Yeaggy, who bought the car just three years ago. It was restored to its original specification of black lacquer with a light saddle leather interior. 

While we don't know how much this winning SSJ traded hands for, we have an idea. The Cooper SSJ was also competing at Pebble (it didn't even place in the top three in the Duesenberg class), and that car was sold for $22 million during Car Week in 2018, a record for an American car that it held until the Shelby Daytona Coupe hammered for $42.9 million on Friday.

"I won once before, 19 years ago, but I appreciate it a lot better now," Yeaggy said in a press release. "I appreciate the hard work it took and the time it took to get here. People don't realize how hard it is, how special it is, to win this award. It's amazing. I found out recently that the second owner lived right here on the point in Pebble Beach. He owned the car for almost 12 years, so this car has come back home today."