The Mullin Automotive Museum had a very successful week with each of the four cars entered in the Pebble Beach Concours taking home awards, receiving the first ever Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award from The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering and a class win at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
Oxnard, Calif. (August, 2016) — Monterey’s annual Car Week is a celebration of classic cars of all kinds and regularly attracts the finest cars from around the world. As the foremost repository for pre-war French automobiles, the Mullin Automotive Museum makes it a point to share its collection with the crowds at events such as the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, The Quail, McCall’s Motorworks Reunion, and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. This year the Mullin brought eight unique road cars and race cars from its collection, all of which were honored at the events in which they were entered.
The annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance has, since its inception in 1950, drawn the world’s rarest and most beautiful automobiles to the links at Pebble Beach Golf Course on the Monterey Peninsula and honored the best among those in attendance. Being allowed to merely show at Pebble Beach is an honor and winning an award there is incredibly difficult, yet the Mullin Automotive Museum has managed to bring home awards time and again. This year, the Mullin’s 1912 Delaunay-Belleville La Carrosserie Industrielle Omnibus, a favorite of Russian royalty when new, was entered into the A-2 Antique Closed class where it placed third. The Omnibus may at first seem a little ungainly, but the elegance of its design soon comes to the forefront and the quality of its construction is second to none.
Henri Chapron’s fabulous coachwork was celebrated at the Concours with its own class this year and the Mullin entered two vehicles into competition in both the open and closed categories. The 1939 Delage D8-120 Chapron Cabriolet, with its sumptuous Bordeaux-colored paint, graceful curves and beautifully executed 3-way folding top placed third in its class which featured other extraordinary examples of Chapron’s work. The Mullin’s 1937 Delahaye 145 Chapron Coupe placed second in its class, no doubt bolstered by its fascinating provenance including ownership by the famed Ecurie Bleue racing team and its leader, heiress and accomplished race car driver Lucy O’Reilly Schell. Lastly, the Mullin’s fourth car entered into competition at Pebble Beach, its 1937 Delahaye Type 135M also known as the Star of India, placed second in the K1 class for Delahayes, rounding out an incredibly successful day on the greens at the world’s greatest Concours d’Elegance.
The museum also showed its 1937 Talbot-Lago T150C SS coupe also known as the Goutte d’Eau at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, this year. The Talbot is widely regarded as being one of the most beautiful cars ever made and the example belonging to The Mullin was honored with the first ever Peninsula Classic Best of the Best Award, the competition for which is selected from among the winners of last year’s Car Week awards. The list of 24 judges who selected the winner included noted designers and car collectors such as Lord March, Jay Leno, Ian Callum, and many others.
Though the museum’s primary interest is in prewar French cars, it also has a great passion for the technological mastery and design excellence of Citroën and its legendary DS. The DS was introduced in 1955 at the Paris Motor Show and the public’s reaction to the car and its revolutionary oleopneumatic suspension system was unprecedented. The Mullin chose to share its enthusiasm for the marque by exhibiting an early DS, a black 1957 Berline model, at the McCall Motorworks Revival event at Jet Center.
The Mullin’s cars were not only parked on lawns at the week’s various concours, some of them also saw action on the track at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. The museum’s 1927 Delage ERA won its race on Saturday with racing driver Derek Hill at the wheel. Museum founder Peter Mullin drove the gorgeous 1950 Talbot T26 grand prix car to 19th place while his Timothy Mullin piloted the museum’s 1946 Delage D6 to a respectable 29th place in the same Pre-1940 Sports Racing & 1927-1951 Racing Cars class.
“To have the Museum’s collection so honored at some of the most competitive and exclusive events in the automotive world is deeply satisfying,” said Peter Mullin, founder of the Mullin Automotive Museum “We feel privileged to be able to share our passion for the incredible engineering excellence and beauty of French automobiles with the public and it’s rewarding to see them appreciated in this way.”
The Mullin Automotive Museum takes great pleasure in bringing its cars out into the world to be viewed by the public. Monterey’s car week provides an unparalleled stage on which to showcase the beautiful French cars that exemplify the museum’s mission. For more information on the Mullin Automotive Museum, please visit please visit www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com or call 805.385.5400.
The Mullin Automotive Museum is located at 1421 Emerson Avenue, Oxnard, CA 93033, in the building formerly occupied by the Otis Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife. The museum is typically open to the public on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month from 10 AM to 3 PM. Tickets must be purchased in advance at www.MullinAutomotiveMuseum.com. Semi-Private tours are offered on Tuesdays at 10 AM and Thursdays at 11 AM for $40 per person. Other weekdays may be available by appointment. Reservations are required. For information on semi-private tours or on Mullin 1000 Club membership benefits, please call 805.385.5400.
