The judge’s votes have been tallied at the world’s most prestigious car show, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance (as if I needed to state it), and this year’s Best of Show winner isn’t a French car or even a mighty Duesenberg, but an equally impressive 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta, a dark blue beauty with rear fender skirts with sweet horizontal cut-outs to expose the rear wheels. The fastback coupe was shown by Jon and Mary Shirley of Medina, Wash.

The Shirleys’ Alfa was pitted against two other Best of Show nominees, a stunning 1934 Packard LeBaron sport phaeton brought by multiple-Pebble Beach Best of Show winners Jack and Helen Nethercutt and similarly successful Sam and Emily Mann’s 1935 Hispano Suiza K6 Brandone cabriolet.

I speculated that the sheer beauty of the Manns’ Hisso and the size, beauty and uniqueness of General William Lyon’s 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Cabriolet B would put either of these Classics on the podium and flushed with ribbons, but I was wrong!