Fabulous Fiat Ferrari Hauler, Star of Pebble BeachMark VaughnSure, you had your Bugattis, your Delages, your Delahayes, but the vehicle that made every one flip their collective lid at Pebble this year was this gigantic Ferrari hauler, built in 1957 to carry the Scuderia's race cars around Europe.Originally constructed by coachbuilder Carrozzeria Bartoletti on a Fiat Tipo 642 R bus chassis, it could carry two cars up top and one underneath. Ferrari hauled its race cars with this for 12 years, from 1957 to 1965, after which the company used it to deliver road cars to customers across Europe. From there, at some point, Ferrari got a new truck and this one went to a farmer, who cut the cab down and made it into a flatbed to haul hay. Later, something in the drivetrain broke, and the farmer parked the truck in a field and used the engine to pump irrigation water.Oh, the ignominy.It ran in The Tour without the race cars on the roof.Mark VaughnIt was rediscovered in the 1990s and refurbished by the original maker, Bartoletti, which even brought some former workers out of retirement to tend to the task. Symbolic Motorcars got ahold of it and showed at at Cavallino Classic in Florida, where Ferrari collector Jon Shirley saw it.AdvertisementAdvertisement"I just fell in love with it, I bought it, bought it on the spot," said Shirley, who has won Best of Show at Pebble twice, first in 2008 with a gorgeous 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta, and again in 2014 with an even more gorgeous 1954 Ferrari 375 MM Scaglietti Coupé.The big truck's moment of restored glory came last week, when it ran in The Tour, the big trans-Monterey rally for cars entered in Sunday's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Most of those entries, as we noted, are swoopy million-dollar restoration grand tourers, as well as a few race cars, along with large, elegant sedans built to ferry the wealthy around in the Great Depression. Among that field the Bartoletti really stood out.It did for me. See, I had gotten a call a couple weeks before asking if I'd like to tag along as a passenger/riding mechanic in the transporter, complete with a Ferrari mechanic jump suit. Easy answer—"Yes!"Among Jon Shirley's greatest skills, in addition to vintage racing and having run Microsoft, is picking good people. Thus, the four other guys in the cab with me comprised one of those rare groups wherein you immediately feel welcome and accepted and everyone's telling jokes you might not tell outside of the group because they're funny in their own way but they might get you in trouble elsewhere and no one wants to have to watch yet another HR video.The start of the Tour.Mark VaughnInto the cab we piled, glad to be out of the rain, and driver Vinay, who had rebuilt the brakes specifically for this run, fired it up.AdvertisementAdvertisement"When we got invited, we realized that this thing hadn't been out for a while, and so we went through it," said Fred Russell, who works for the collection and knows every nut and bolt on every car. "We went through a complete mechanical overhaul, including doing the entire brake system, because we were really worried about the brakes. So we just redid the whole thing, everything, even the lines, new brake lines, everything."Vinay was the driver. He's the one who redid the brakes. Driving this thing was something like a mechanical ballet. There are two transmissions, one at the engine and one at the rear differential, and he shifted them at just the right time. It wasn't easy, as there's no synchromesh.Mark VaughnBut off we went, plowing into a sea of car fans taking cell phone videos of everything, all of them smiling when they saw the big Fiat."Isn't this great?" said Shirley's friend Merritt, sitting next to me on the bench seat that 70 years ago carried real Ferrari mechanics. "Isn't this great?"AdvertisementAdvertisementIndeed, it was. Vinay operated the truck with great skill, swapping gears and always remembering whether it was time to shift the front or the rear transmission. I kept forgetting. Richard Adatto, chief class judge at Pebble, friend of Jon's, expert on pre-war French cars, rode shotgun and pointed out potential threats. Michael sat on the left and helped direct traffic, and Merritt was on my right.We only had to stop once, when the engine brake wouldn't release. I suggested a hammer, which they had in the back, stored in one of the wooden boxes built to look period-correct. A couple whacks and the brake was free and we were off, swimming through the rain and waving to the crowds like five happy tinpot dictators.What a day, what a lovely day.We few, we happy few...Jon ShirleyAll too soon it was over and we were back in the dirt lot of the Equestrian Center above the Lodge. It had been the high point of a very pointy Pebble, and when I saw the transporter on the lawn at Pebble Beach three days later, it felt a little like it was mine. Or at least that I had played a small role in its vaunted history, even though I was just a passenger. There on the lawn at Pebble, I started pointing out details to people who hadn't asked, and telling people about the two cars parked on top of it, a GTO and a Testarossa loaned to the sculpture by Shirley's friend Tom Price. And I even chatted away with Shirley Collection curator Fred Russell like we were old pals.The next day, when it really was all over, I drove back to LA in a Volvo.