1929 Mercedes S Barker Tourer wows at 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

Dear Marco, dear Ralf,

My point was that the Mercedes with Barker body looks like two entirely different cars had been welded together.

I am pretty sure I wouldn't have approved the result almost 90 years ago, because other manufacturers did a much better job using the same basis back then.

Just because it's a historical artefact, this vehicle is not immunized against criticism from an aesthetic perspective, irrespective of who the first owner was.

So, the problem is neither the colour scheme nor the choice for an extravagant body as such - I simply don't find the result convincing.

That said, the car would have made a pretty good joke, nevertheless, in my opinion.

Regards
Michael

The problem, is, as has been said before, that people have a certain idea how cars did look at the time mostly from black and white photos.
A good example are also Cricklewood Bentleys - seeing most of them in our time, they all look like Le Mans tourers painted dark green. But in period that has never been the case, a lot of them had quite different bodystyles, some quite extravagant, painted in vivid colours with bright and flashy interiors.
It is true - it is a pity that we are not able to look back in colour !!

@Phil. I don't know if Mr McCaw will bring its 1929 Mercedes by Barker to Chantilly Art & Elegance.
But for the ones disappointed by the brightness of his car, I can confirm my never restored, carefully preserved, not bling-bling at all 1927 Hispano Suiza by H.J.Mulliner (both a European chassis clothed by British coach builders, both first delivered to a British Army Captain) will be displayed in Chantilly.

I would add that I love my preserved Hispano, but I am prepared to swap it for his freshly "over-restored" Mercedes.

@Michael. I wish we all were at the Barker's atelier to attend the discussions with Earl Howe regarding the design of his Mercedes. I am not in the position to criticise the aesthetic choices of such an eclectic gentleman (I wish we had many of them nowadays in our parliaments!) in a time so different from mine.
I could not ask to Cubism artists why they were portraying human faces with unnatural squared lines.

The car looks beautiful. I am a little surprised it sits so low without being an underslung front or rear. Thankfully nobody put whitewalls on it which I think were available at that time

Also I...

@Hugo. You are right. I think our common imagination (I believe no one of us was already a kid in the '20s!) suggests a black&white, opaque, lustreless, dull world before the WWII.
Maybe we spent too much time staring at period, poor quality, faded if not discoloured photos?

If we look how Art Deco heavily influenced architecture, jewelry, ceramics, tableware, metalwork, glass, textiles, we can understand a bit more about that amazing time, when vivid colours were the fashion and the world was exploring new paths.
Why automobile design and coach-building should not be touched by the same spirit?

Obviously I believe the quality of the finishing, the feverish search for new unexplored design and technical solutions, the vivid colours and the glittering materials were prerogative of luxury high-end cars. But what can we find more luxurious, outrageous and lavish than this Mercedes?

Consequently I think the restoration of this type of cars needs a different approach than the restoration of, let's say, a Peugeot 190 S, as the finishing were certainly different when they left the respective factories.

In my humble opinion the restorer of this Best of Show achieved a proper and congruent goal.

In my opinion, the problem with this car is that it appears to consist of two halves which just don't fit together. The massive front section is pure "form follows function" with hardly any elements that would flatter the eye of the beholder. Yet the rear part is light and elegantly shaped, it would have suited an Italian car well, for example. The ridiculously tiny doors made me think that someone with very outlandish taste or a good sense of humour must have created this vehicle.

For those of us in Europe, I gather the car will be displayed at the Concours Chantilly‏ on 10 September 2017. Perhaps it looks better in real life...

Pebble Beach has become a rich man's game. It wasn't always that way, but then J. B. Nethercutt and Bill Harrah, good friends, started the over restoration to out due one another. As Jay Leno said, "It is the place where mere millionaires can compete with billionaires." But there are still plenty of cars for the rest of us to enjoy.

I can't help but agree... and I am an American. I suspect that many so-called "collectors' in the U.S. are actually participants in a bizarre, narcissistic pursuit of trophies game. Actual interest in the cars, or automobile engineering, is often absent — replaced by a lust for cosmetic perfection that beggars imagination and is often at odds with the historical record. I know of "100-point" restorations that barely ran... but as long as they can totter on to the show field, this is not an issue. Add bad taste and lots of money and you have many over-the-top model cars built from old parts on a 1:1 scale. Thankfully, this is not everyone. It may not even be the majority, but it may be the majority of those that get a lot of attention from the general public (which is what they seem to want).

Well, as a yank, I do like it a lot. Yea, I fall for the bling too, and I'd love to have it in my garage. But, I think I'll keep my 14 Peugeot just the way it is, a oily rag........

When we all first saw the car being unloaded from a truck we had the same feeling as David Scott. Hubertus however is correct. We tend to forget how extravagant the twenties and thirties were. Think of the Maharajah cars, the gold plated Rolls Royces, the Swan car, even the Lady Docker cars of the early fifties. Original photographs probe that the car now looks as when it was delivered new. Including all the extra horns, the red parliament lamp, the unusual trunk etc. the result is actually quite magnificent. For Mr. Scott there were fabilous cars in the preservation cars but before they win Best of Show some time will pass!

@ David: Don´t be so cruel! OK, I agree that it looks over-restored, but I think, it looks exactly as it did, when it was new. When you look at period pictures, you can spot the same shiny "bling-bling" on the upper parts of the body and the hood. The car you / I expect to win at PB is a black roadster with much more chrome-lametta, as the car originally had. The typical American 70/80s restauration with a red chassis, chrome wire wheels, black paint and red leather interieur. I like the Barker-Benz and I think, that it looks VERY elegant. But I´d like it much more with a dark-red or dark-green paint (the hood also painted). That would be less bling-bling, but also less original.
Just have a look at this period picture of the car in original (and not pebble prepared polished) condition:
http://www.coachbuild.com/forum/download/file.php?id=24330&mode=view

Perhaps white wall tyres would help..........

I am in complete agreement with David Scott. The Americans seen to have extended their need for excessive cosmetic surgery to cars. I well remember the magnificent Daimler Double Six, owned by Barry Burnett and his family for 40 years, which he sold to America. It appeared later at the 2006 Pebble Beach event, blinged to the headlamps, and completely unrepresentative of the magnificent machine it once was. The motivation was, presumably, financial gain coupled with bad taste.
On a more personal basis, I once completely rebuilt an MG TA and exported it to a business associate in America. He sold it on, and the new owner stripped it down again so that he could chrome the chassis! Satis dictum.

sorry but i have to agree with you

Good taste and opulence do not usually coincide

What a dreadful, ugly, over-restored blingmobile, hardly what I would call "elegant" but what we have come to expect form this event?