Land Rover 109 Wins Award at Pebble Beach

This year, Land Rover exhibited a collection of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s vehicles at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It was one of the most incredible displays of historic Land Rovers ever assembled in America, and many of the vehicles had never been to these shores. But at Pebble Beach, it wasn’t the only big Land Rover story, as a 1962 Land Rover Series IIA 109” Special Station Wagon from The Lee Collection won the Ansel Adams Award at the show.

The Lee Collection is one of the most incredible car collections in America, based in Sparks, Nevada. The collection was started by Robert M. Lee, who purchased a prototype Ferrari 250 GT from Enzo Ferrari himself in the 1950s. He took his collection from there, and it features absolute icons of automotive history, with Ferraris, Mercedes-Benz, Bugattis, and more – all in rare and collectible specifications. Some of the rare vehicles he owned include the first Ferrari imported to the United States, and Luigi Chinetti’s 1949 Le Mans-winning 166 MM.

Robert M. Lee didn’t intend to be a car collector, but after amassing 50 or so vehicles, he realized he was in deep and this was his calling. He spent his life collecting, until he passed in 2016. He expected his widow, Anne Brockinton Lee, to sell the collection after he died. But she’d had the cars as part of her life for their entire 35-year relationship, and decided that she would keep it, add to it, and exhibit it on her own.

Lee also had interests in Africa, which is apparently the source of the Land Rover. He had an early hunting concession there, and opened up Angola, then a Portuguese colony, to foreign hunters. During his time in Angola, he was instrumental in spearheading early conservation efforts to protect lions, cheetahs, and black rhinos, trying to save them from the fate of poaching and over-hunting. He wrote a book in 1960 called Safari Today, a handbook to the new methods of African exploring. When civil war broke out in Angola in 1965, he left Africa and came to New York. He would later spearhead exploration in China after it opened to the west in the early 1980s.

The Land Rover seems to have some tie to this African era, though it has not been exhibited as part of the illustrious Lee Collection before. The vehicle won the Ansel Adams Award, which is dedicated to the most desirable touring car in its era that is on display at the show. The late, iconic American photographer (and Carmel resident) was often a judge at Pebble Beach.

In a banner year for Land Rover overall at Pebble Beach, the Ansel Adams Award win was a cherry on top of a wonderful week.