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Pebble Beach Week 2007: Mormon Meteor takes Best of Show at Pebble

Posted Aug 20th 2007 12:02PM by Frank Filipponio
Filed under: Motorsports, Time Warp, Misc. Auto Shows


When it came down to it, the best of show winner at the 2007 Pebble Beach Concourse d'Elegance ended up being both a logical and surprising choice. It's a representative of the featured marque. It had elegant and long lines. It had a very colorful history to match its colorful exterior. It attracted a lot of attention parked high above the water along the coastline beside the 18th fairway at the Pebble Beach Golf Links, and yet it somehow didn't seem to capture our attention as much as a few other spectacular vehicles that made this year's 57th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance so incredible. It's amazing how easy it is to get jaded when you see on incredible car after another for a full week. But in the end, a 1935 Duesenberg SJ Special, owned by Harry Yeaggy from Cincinnati, Ohio, was named "Best of Show."

This car is more known as "The Mormon Meteor." It's a supercharged speedster that was raced and then used as daily transport by Salt Lake City's former mayor Ab Jenkins. OK, so maybe that's reason enough to elect it. But the car also set a 24-hour speed record (135.58 miles per hour) in 1935. It also sold for a record $4.45 million at the Gooding Auction here in 2004. The thing looks like it's 30 feet long and still ready to race. It really was a deserving champion. More details and quotes from the winner after the jump.

Abner Jenkins son, Marvin Jenkins, was also prominent in US motor sport circles. Marvin was one of the team that assembled the first Novi engine for owner Lew Welch. The Team was Welch , Bud Winfield ( brother of camshaft genius Ed.) who set out the basic design for Fred Offenhauser and Leo Goossens, Jenkins, Pete Clark, and Tony Morosco.

All were prominent in Indianapolis and Champ. car circles. Marvin Jenkins was a relief driver for his father at Bonneville and an airline pilot before WW2.