PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS: CAR CRAZY WEEK PART-3

GRAND PRIZE WINNER, BEST OF THE SHOW 1937 DELAGE D-8-120S POURTOUT AERO COUPE PULLING AWAY ONE OF A KIND CONTINENTAL PARK WARD ROLLS ROYCE STREAMLINER SALON BEST OF CLASS PREWAR...A 1938 MERCEDES BENZ 540 K TOURENWAGEN BEST OF CLASS AMERICAN 1925-1941 A 1934 PACKARD 1108 DIETRICH COUPE CLASS A ANTIQUE THROUGH 1915 A 1904 POPE-TOLEDO TYPE IV, REAR ENTRANCE TONNEAU Today, being the third Sunday in August, is Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Sunday. In honor of that occasion I am posting some photographs I have taken at previous events.

PEBBLE BEACH COUNCOURS: CAR CRAZY WEEK-PART 2

PARK THAT ROLLS RIGHT HERE SIR! A STUNNING 1938 MERCEDES BENZ 540 SSK THE CHP ESCORTS THE TOUR INTO DOWNTOWN CARMEL Excerpted from my book :OUR SUMMER IN CARMEL- Amazon.com (This posting covers my visit to the PB Councours in 2005) Late Thursday morning found me walking up into Carmel’s central business district, or to be more precise, Ocean Avenue, the main thoroughfare. This avenue is about a five minute walk from where we rented our house for the summer. I was on my way to witness a stopover on the eighth annual Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance. This fifty-plus mile road rally brings Sunday’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance cars out of the “garage” and demonstrates that they are not just “hanger queens” only to be ogled at and photographed. They are also to be driven and enjoyed as they were a long time ago. In that sense, this touring event is what the Concours d’Elegance is all about, not only preserving great cars, but honoring them as well by driving them. This year the rally would take the cars through Carmel Valley, down magnificent Highway 1 roadway towards Big Sur, over the famous Bixby Bridge, and then turning back to stop for lunch in Carmel, before returning to Pebble Beach. It happened to be a beautiful day for the event with the perennial fog lifting, allowing the sunlight to glisten off the polished chrome and exquisite finish of these fine automobiles. Ocean Avenue, that was previously declared a no parking zone for this event, began to fill with the rally cars at about 11 am. The entrants were skillfully escorted by the California Highway Patrol. The cars were all parked facing the ocean on both sides of the divided avenue. Crowds began to gather, and soon swelled: they “oohed” and “aahed” with the arrival of each automobile, swarming around their favorites and snapping pictures. Meanwhile the owner/drivers, if even for only two hours, mingled with the general public, which is what this event is all about anyway. The owners even left their cars unattended while they ate lunch in Carmel’s welcoming restaurants

PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS: CAR CRAZY WEEK

Phil Hill's legendary 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SLR overlooking Carmel Bay from the 18th green at Pebble Beach Excerpted from my book: OUR SUMMER IN CARMEL Amazon.com (This narrative is about the 2005 Councours d'Elegance) On the third Sunday in August, the center of the automobile universe is a tiny piece of golf-sacred land, the finishing hole on the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course, alongside beautiful Carmel Bay, California. Isn’t the 18th at Pebble an unusual place for such a boastful automotive claim? Here’s the background. Since 1950, when the inaugural Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Road Race was conducted, the now week-long, peninsula-wide festival has grown to achieve an unparalleled status as the premier international celebration of the automobile. It began simply enough with a road race inside gated and private Pebble Beach, which in that first year was won by legendary driver Phil Hill. The accompanying Concours of about 30 cars at the Beach and Tennis Club, was largely a chance to have a picnic, show off, and parade elegant and expensive automobiles, many of which were new models. In fact the best of show for the first five years was a new, or nearly new, car. It was not until 1955 that the same Phil Hill, who won the road race again that year (now removed from Pebble beach to the Del Monte track), also won the Concours Best of Show with a meticulously restored 1931 Pierce-Arrow. Since then, the Concours d’Elegance was forever changed to focus on the preservation of classic and historic automobiles. The most sought after and prestigious award in the motoring world is the simple ribbon given as a Best of Class award. For this 55th year of the Pebble Beach gathering, 227 cars will be judged by experts and divided among 24 classes, a select 9 or 10 cars per class. They are the finest representations of their class in the world. More on the Pebble Beach event, the centerpiece of the weeklong festival, later. The Concours d’Elegance, meaning a meeting of the finest and highest style, has grown over the years from a small group of friends an aficionados gathering for a one day drive-by and picnic to admire what were, at the beginning, essentially new cars, to today, where, for an entire week, the whole Monterey peninsula is given over to the automobile. This is really a BIG DEAL. You cannot get a room within fifty miles. Many attendees return every year and assure their accommodation by booking the next year before they leave. The Village is clogged with very expensive cars. Just the cars strewn about the 18th fairway (by the way closing the hole for play that day) of the Pebble Beach Golf Course on Sunday are estimated to have a value in excess of $300,000,000. Yes, $300 million or about $1.3 million each. Not your average parking lot on a Sunday afternoon.