Mercedes-Benz's 140-year history, designer Peter Brock highlighted at 12th annual event near Owen Sound, Ontario

The winner of the most Outstanding Post-War car of the event came out of the European Sports Cars (1946-1980) class, a 1949 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Superleggera owned by Frederick Fischer of Wildwood, Missouri. The car was purchased by Fischer’s father out of France in 1964; it last year came out of an extremely thorough restoration that was begun in 2018.

Most Outstanding Pre-War went to a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Sport Cabriolet bodied by Erdmann & Rossi, owned by Lee Anderson of Nisswa, Minnesota. The supercharged roadster, like the Rohr, debuted at the Berlin Motor Show before being acquired by Gustav Froelich, a famous German entertainer. It was bought and restored by a German collector following the war, and soon after gained national renown as one of the best examples of the model; its showing at Cobble Beach this weekend marked its North American debut.

The 540K had been entered in a special marque-specific class, Mercedes-Benz Icons: Celebrating 140 Years of Innovation. The automaker, one of the Cobble Beach concours’ principal sponsors this year, hosted the Canadian debut of the 2027 S-Class luxury sedan at the event, and several of its most notable models – including a 2023 Mercedes-AMG One – stood out among the other cars on the show field.

The other special class at this year’s Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance highlighted the career of car designer and motorsports impresario Peter Brock, who on September 19 hosted a seminar in Owen Sound on the history of the Cobra Daytona Coupe he engineered in 1964 while working at Shelby American. (He was, in fact, Carroll Shelby’s first employee.) The class included the 1959 Stingray racer from General Motors’ private collection; Brock penned the initial drawings for the car, which directly inspired the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette.

The 2026 Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance was comprised of 22 classes of cars, including examples dating back 120 years as well as cutting-edge modern supercars. Owners brought their cars from across Canada as well as 12 U.S. states to be scrutinized by teams of expert judges at what many consider Canada’s premier automotive event. The 2027 iteration of the concours is scheduled for the weekend of September 17.

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