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Pebble Beach 2016: The Concours d’LeMons celebrates the best of the worst

Concours d'LeMons co-founder Alan Galbraith congratulates a winner in his "Worst of Show" competition for ugliest automobiles, held annually during Monterey Car Week in Seaside, Calif.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
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Celebrating “the best examples of the worst automobiles or the worst examples of the best automobiles,” the eighth annual Concours d’LeMons was held in Seaside, Calif., to honor the ugliest cars on the Monterey Peninsula.

Held the same week that sees the most elegant automobiles ever built competing for top prizes at The Quail Motorsports Gathering, Concorso Italiano and Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the free, lemon-themed festival of failed automobiles drew a crowd of about 5,000.

Some had brought cars. Parked on a grassy strip in a public park were some of the best examples of bad American and European automobile design and engineering. There was an Edsel Ranger and two AMC Pacers. There was a Yugo.

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Volvos, Peugeots and a variety of American brands were vying for the top prize in categories like “Swedish Meatballs,” “French Legion of Horror” and “Rust Belt American Junk.”

In time the events co-founders Alan Galbraith and Tim Suddard called the crowd to order, and asked the winners to line up on the “yellow carpet.”

“It’s time to line up the losers,” Suddard said.

“For their public humiliation,” Galbraith said.

A Yugo won the “Kommunist Kar” award. (It was the only car entered in that class, Galbraith said.) A Nissan claimed the “Soul-Sucking Japanese Appliance” prize.

The “Worst of Show” award went to a gentleman, who identified himself as Chris Blizzard, who had brought to the show a 1974 Bricklin SV-1 — a gull-wing sports car that is a well-regarded design disaster from a dark period in American auto engineering.

The Bricklin had racing numbers on it, which impressed Galbraith.

“You’re not only dumb enough to own this car, you’re dumb enough to race it?” he asked, before handing Blizzard his winner’s trophy and asking the audience to anoint the Bricklin with silly string.

“Now get this thing out of here,” said Suddard. “Please. Take it away.”

A crowd of several hundred had stayed to watch the awards ceremony. They appeared to be pleased with the results, and applauded gamely when Galbraith presented some of the cornier prizes — a bottle of French dressing to a Peugeot owner, and a can of boiled potatoes to the Yugo owner.

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“It’s a good-humored event, during a week of events where people may sometimes take themselves a little too seriously,” said Jonathan Klinger of the classic car insurance company Hagerty, which helps sponsor the LeMons. “This is a chance for people to relax and have fun, and to show off the kinds of cars that have a face only a mother can love.”

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