Seemingly, every year, new concours pop up in chic international destinations, summery automotive spectacles born to attract collectors of the world‘s finest classic vehicles. And while these tony parades of the well-heeled annually grow in popularity, the Honorable Sir Michael Kadoorie recognized a void. With all the noise growing in the market, the Hong Kong billionaire identified a need to collect the best in show winners from the planet’s most elite concours and anoint a winner even among them, the most esteemed cars on Earth.
So Sir Kadoorie teamed up with fellow uber-collectors William E. Connor II, Bruce Meyer, and Christian Philippsen to create what they aptly titled The Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award—a sort of meta automotive super crown. For the chairman of the 158-year-old Peninsula Hotels group to name this most illustrious award after his luxury hospitality chain was an inspired moment. But ensuring the apex contest always takes place at one of the dozen Peninsulas across Europe, Asia, and America (including Beverly Hills, Chicago and Manhattan stateside) was nothing less than a stroke of marketing genius.
This year, the 10th annual Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award took place at The Peninsula Paris, a palatial grand dame hotel replete with all the stately elegance necessary to host an event of this tier. Nine of the finest vehicles on Earth were plucked from the top international concours for one to be placed at the pinnacle—among them a trio of Bugattis, two each from Ferrari and Delahaye, and single entries from Alfa Romeo and Rolls-Royce.
The 25 esteemed judges tasked with knighting this year’s winner included designers Flavio Manzoni (Ferrari), Gorden Wagener (Mercedes-Benz/AMG), Fabio Filippini (Pininfarina), Chris Bangle (BMW), Peter Brock (Shelby, Corvette Stingray, Mustang), Ian Callum (Jaguar), Shiro Nakamura (Nissan/Infiniti) and Ed Welburn (General Motors), automotive icons Gordon Murray and Henry Ford III, royalty such as HRH Prince Michael of Kent, The Duke of Richmond and Gordon, and HH Rana Manvendra Singh of Barwani, and celebrity motorsport collectors Ralph Lauren, Jay Leno, Nick Mason, and Peter Marino.
One of the unique developments from this year’s awards was the emergence of the Preservation Class—a fairly new phenomenon in the concours stratosphere that prioritizes authenticity over restoration. A premium is placed on patina and other un-retouched aspects that honor a vehicle’s original condition and provenance. Hagerty, the world’s largest specialty insurance provider for classic vehicles, notes that these cars have recently been earning as much as their fully restored contemporaries at auction.
This unadulterated movement reached new heights last year, when a 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider claimed the “Best of Show” ribbon at Villa d’Este 2024 on Lake Como—the first time in history a Preservation Class has ever done so at a major concours. When soon after an unrestored 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports claimed Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and then a 1928 Bugatti Type 35C took similar honors at the Chantilly Arts et Elegance Richard Mille, the emergence—and possibly impending dominance—of the Preservation Class was complete.
But not quite yet, as the winner chosen in Paris for The Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award 2024 was not a Preservation Class vehicle, but rather a pristinely renovated 1964 Ferrari 250 LM, an immaculate reinvigoration performed by none other than Ferrari Classiche. The stunning cherry red Grand Prix racer, owned by U.S. collectors Chris and Ann Cox, qualified for The Peninsula Classics Best of the Best by winning an early Best of Show at the Palm Beach Cavallino Classic in January 2024.
Named after the famed Le Mans endurance race, the Ferrari 250 LM was created as a road-going Grand Touring version of the 12-cylinder, mid-engined Ferrari 250 P race car. Fitting this car captured The Peninsula Classics crown in Paris, as the 250 LM was unveiled in the City of Lights in November of 1963. From there the model enjoyed a successful racing career winning the 1965 International Trophy for GT Prototypes and the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans.
That would be the last Maranello-born race car to conquer the checkered flag at Le Mans until 2023, when Ferrari captured its first of back-to-back victories at the world’s most famous endurance race. Interestingly, the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours-winning 250 LM recently fetched an eye-popping $38-million (€34.9-million) at a RM Sotheby’s auction inside the Louvre Palace.
Meanwhile this Cavallino Classic-winning car, the 22nd of only 32 250 LMs ever produced, boasts a rich motorsports pedigree itself by claiming checkered flags at Brands Hatch, Snetterton, and Silverstone in 1966, in addition to racing in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1966 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1968 before being acquired by the Cox family in 2018.
The specimen so perfectly encapsulates the Prancing Horse’s vaunted 250 bloodline that it snagged the Cavallino Classic’s “Competizione” early in the Palm Beach concours, setting up its eventual Best of Show ribbon. Considering the Competizione category pitted the 1964 250 LM against several other 250-series Ferraris, among the planet’s most valuable cars, the Italian beauty’s eventual rise to The Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award mountain seemed all but preordained.
This article originally appeared in Maxim’s September/October 2025 issue.