Another million-dollar vehicle shown at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Aug. 18 was destroyed by fire after it was being transported by trailer, this time on Wednesday, Sept. 4 on Highway 68.
According to the Monterey Fire Department, firefighters arrived to the scene of a trailer fire on eastbound Highway 68 near York Road around 5:36pm. The fire had spread to nearby vegetation, but was quickly knocked out.
Inside the trailer was a 1934 Hispano-Suiza J12 Vanvooren Cabriolet owned by Hong Kong billionaire businessman Michael Kadoorie. The vehicle, which is valued at $2 million, took second place in the J-1: European Classic Touring Early division at Concours d’Elegance.
The driver of the tow vehicle suffered minor injuries in the incident where 16 fire personnel responded. The cause of the fire is being investigated, but is not considered suspicious, according to Monterey Fire.
Highway 68 was closed in the area for about one-and-a-half hours as the fire was extinguished and the vehicle and trailer were removed.
It’s the second vehicle shown at Concours to be ravaged by fire in less than a month. On Aug. 18, hours after the event ended, a $1 million 1979 Ford Ghia Probe 1 Prototype that was being towed by a trailer on Highway 1 went up in flames. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Monterey Fire Division Chief Chris Grogan says even one trailer fire after Car Week is extremely rare, noting that he’s never experienced something like this in his nearly 30 years in the fire service.
“This is an unusual event to happen twice,” he says. “Neither one of them appears to be suspicious. It’s just a string of bad luck.”

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