PEGASO HEADLINES AMELIA CONCOURS' GRAND MARQUES IN 2016

July 17, 2015 by Amelia Island Concours

The 21st annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance will feature and celebrate the rare and exotic Spanish Pegaso marque on March 13, 2016.

Pegaso is Spanish for Pegasus, the winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white on the Pegaso insignia. Pegasus' mythological role was to deliver thunderbolts to Zeus. Appropriate, because that was the thunderous effect the stunning Pegaso Thrill coupe had on the 1953 Turin Auto Show when the Spanish Touring-bodied grand touring coupe made its public debut.

'That such an elegant advanced design could come from a marketing plan promoting plebian commercial vehicles is a testament to the genius, vision and skill of engineer Wifredo Ricart,' said Bill Warner, founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance.

Ricart was the suave, articulate (he spoke five languages) and urbane creator of the Pegaso automobile. From his arrival at Alfa Romeo in 1936, Ricart was Enzo Ferrari's nemesis, finally displacing him and creating a fleet of advanced and remarkably complex grand prix and competition sports and touring cars. World War II halted Ricart's leading edge designs for Alfa Romeo and saw him return to his native Spain.

The Pegaso Z-102 was practically a grand touring coupe on a grand prix chassis; exquisitely detailed with a supercharged, four-cam V-8 of 2.5 liters, a 5-speed constant mesh transaxle suspended by torsion bars and one of the most elegant de Dion rear suspensions conceived. Built in immaculately clean workshops by apprentices who were not troubled with the realities of modern mass production or the pressure of a time clock, the Pegaso roadsters and coupes were the most exotic road toys for the hyper-rich in the mid-1950s.

A mere 84 Pegaso cars were created as nothing more than an advanced apprentice training program for the giant truck, bus and armored car manufacturing enterprise that took root, appropriately, in the former Hispano-Suiza factory in Barcelona, Spain.

'Pegasos are technically extravagant cars,' said Warner. 'It's period Formula 1 technology for the road, wrapped in coachwork by the likes of Touring and Saoutchik. The Pegaso Z-102 did exactly what Ricart and the Spanish government wanted: it brought Spanish industry to the attention of the world, and did it in a very glamorous way.'

Nearly ten percent of Pegaso's total car production will be on the field of the 21st annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance on Sunday, March 13, 2016.

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About The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance

Now in its second decade, the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is among the top automotive events in the world. Always held the second full weekend in March, 'The Amelia' draws over 250 rare vehicles from collections around the world to The Golf Club of Amelia Island and The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island for a celebration of the automobile like no other. Since 1996, the show's Foundation has donated over $2.5 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc., Spina Bifida of Jacksonville, The Navy Marine Corps Relief Society, Shop with Cops, and other deserving charities. The 21st annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is scheduled for March 11-13, 2016. For more information, visit www.ameliaconcours.org.