Monterey, California - When it began 65 years ago, the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance was just a one-day affair. Car enthusiasts raced around Pebble Beach's famed 17-Mile Drive and hung around afterwards to admire each other's hardware.
Now the day has become a week. It includes road rallies, races, auctions, displays, seminars, exhibitions, parties and, underpinning it all, marketing.
The week's events are spread throughout the Monterey region, from the tony-rustic Carmel Valley to the gritty working-class town of Seaside, home to Saturday's tongue-in-cheek Concours d'Lemons. It's a deliberately downscale celebration of Edsels, Gremlins, Corvairs and Yugos - some of history's worst cars.
Sunday's Concours d'Elegance, on the 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach golf course, is focused instead on finery, with Ferraris, Bugattis, Hispano-Suizas and other rarefied cars competing for Best-in-Show honours.
Hard-core enthusiasts arrive for the 6am. "Dawn Patrol" to watch the 200-or-so cars on display, all by invitation only, roll onto the 18th fairway while the morning mist rolls in from the adjacent Monterey Bay.
When all was said, done and lusted after, it was a 1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Cabriolet that took the Best of Show Award, in which entrants were judged by their style, historical authenticity and technical precision.
"It's the Super Bowl of car shows," said Dave Magers, CEO of Mecum Auctions, which this weekend sold a Porsche once owned by the late actor Steve McQueen for $1.95 million (R25.1m).
Reuters & IOL