Paul Russell and Company offers restoration, preservation, maintenance, and sales and brokerage services on pre-war through 1960s Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Porsche, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, and other fine European collectibles.
Connoisseurship and the Collectible Car
March 2013
The 7th Biennial Symposium on Connoisseurship and the Collectible Car, hosted by the Revs Institute for Automotive Research, is now behind us and was another provocative, educational, and inspiring four-day event. This is the third of the seven symposia in which we have been invited to be a member of the faculty - an honor and a privilege. This year marked a significant presence of Stanford University students and faculty, as the Revs Institute takes a foothold in the university curriculum, and fulfills Miles Collier's vision of incorporating the historical, cultural, and technological significance of the automobile into the entire curriculum at Stanford and beyond.More...
A significant segment of this years program centered on the maturing of the collector car "hobby" into one of stewardship of historical objects - documents if you will - that reflect so much of life in their own time period. Dr. Frederick Simeone was there to discuss just that, using his own new book, The Stewardship of Historically Important Automobiles, to lay out the issues. Paul's role was to discuss the many varied decisions a serious owner and restorer must consider when bringing back an historic automobile to a certain point in time. The example used for this discussion was the 1948 Ferrari 166 Spyder Corsa we are restoring for Mr. Collier. It is in its trial assembly stage - just before paint - and brought down to the symposium (pictured on display here) to illustrate the decisions made and their consequences in this subject area.
Other presenters included motorsports historian Doug Nye, Michael Bock from Mercedes-Benz Classic, Indy 500 Champion Dario Franchitti, and Keith Martin from Sports Car Market. To learn more about the Revs Institute for Automotive Research, visit revsinstitute.org.
Storytelling at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum
March 2013
Our very own Drivetrain Specialist, Bob Lapane, will be one of the guest speakers at the first ever MotorMouth: Insider Series, "an evening of fascinating tales from those who have made careers out of their love of the automobile". At the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, MA on Thursday, March 21st. For tickets and more information click here.
Best of Show
20 of our cars have won 36 Best of Show honors since our clients first started attending Concours d'Elegance events in 1987. For more on these and other award winning projects, visit Our Portfolio.
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Cavallino Classic XXII
January 2013
We sent a truckload of cars to the Palm Beach area for this important South Florida weekend. There were no scheduling conflicts with the Scottsdale weekend this year, but there was a conflict for Ferrari racing fans who wanted to attend the Ferrari Challenge N.A. event at Daytona International Speedway. More...
The 1954 Ferrari 375 MM, winner of Preservation and Competition Cups in 2012, returned this year for a special class honoring Pininfarina designed Ferraris at Saturday's Concorso d'Eleganza. As the 375MM is a Preservation car, it needed only a check-over after its runs on the track last month during the Bahamas Speed Week Revival.
Pictured here is the 375MM on display at Jet Aviation's La Bella Macchina, Thursday evening. On Saturday at The Breakers, this unrestored 375MM was awarded Gold in its pre-1956 class. Also on the field was a client's Ferrari 500 Superfast, which we serviced and detailed following its 2012 season of European rallying. For the Classic Sports Sunday event, the 375MM owner drove his car to the field at Mar-a-Lago, and then won Finest Competition Car.