To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History May 14, 2025

Colleen Sheehan drives a 1930 BMW 3/15 DA2 at Pebble Beach at age 11

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

1:11

Concept

Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is a fancy car show in California where people display beautiful classic cars. It's a big deal in the car community.

Car

Austin 7

The Austin 7 is a classic small car that was made in the UK a long time ago. It was popular because it was affordable and helped many people buy their first car.

Brand

BMW

BMW is a well-known car company from Germany that makes luxury cars. They are famous for their high-quality engineering and performance.

LIVE

And the buyer of the collection was like, I don't really care about that car, it doesn't

really fit.

And so that's like, I'll take it as part of my commission, my kids love it.

So I got the car when I was eight years old.

And when I was 11, Pebble Beach, the Concourse de la Danse, was doing a exhibit with Austin

7s.

And BMW had bought the rights to basically recreate the Austin 7.

So the very first BMWs were, they look a lot like the Austin 7.

So it fit into this Austin 7 class.

And so when I was 11, the car was entered in the Pebble Beach Concourse.

And I ended up driving it across the podium.

We got third in class, which has a fun story behind it all on its own.

About this episode

Colleen Sheehan shares her unique experience of driving a 1930 BMW 3/15 DA2 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance at just 11 years old. She recounts how she acquired the car at age eight and its connection to the Austin 7, which was featured in a special exhibit. Colleen's journey culminated in a memorable podium drive where her car secured third place in its class, highlighting her early passion for classic cars and the stories that come with them.

BMW Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

Austin 7

Original notes

Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!

We were honored to have Colleen Sheehan from Next Generation Classics join us to share the stories of her first cars including the experience of driving a 1930 BMW 3/15 DA2 across the lawn at Pebble Beach in 2003. Keep in mind Colleen was age 11 and had just learned to drive a 3 speed manual non-synchromesh the day before.

Colleen's favorite episode is "V12 Visions – Tom Yang’s Life Restoring Ferraris and Chasing Vintage Dreams" https://pod.link/1733902541/episode/fe508d92b0cc8ff001a8da00cba9286b

*** Your Favorite Automotive Podcast - Now Arriving Weekly!!! ***

Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.

Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.

To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History

Carly, Doug & Dave: Classic Car Experts, Motorsports Enthusiasts and Automotive Storytellers

View classic page →

0:00

1:11