Review of the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

For Mark's Christmas gift last year, I bought us tickets to the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. This is the most exclusive car show in America and culminates a whole week of car auctions and car shows on the Monterey, CA peninsula.  

The Concours focuses mainly on rare, classic cars, the type that famous Tonight Show host, Jay Leno collects. But it is also a chance to showcase the latest unveils and concepts from modern day car makers. The whole event was much more fun than I had anticipated. I am not crazy about cars, but even I got caught up in the beauty of these custom, rare cars. Also, it was a lot less hoighty toighty than I thought it would be.  The show attracts rich car enthusiasts who are interested in purchasing the many cars gathered. I was rubbing elbows with multi-millionaires (and perhaps billionaires -- Mark thought he saw Google cofounder Sergey Brin lurking by). At the event, people were dressed from jeans, to formal couture.  It was truly an egalitarian gathering with people napping on the grass intermingled with furred ladies drinking Cristal. 

(All pictures here were taken on Mina's iPhone.)

Check out the exterior shift knobs on this oldie. A number of cars had difficulty maneuvering out of the golf course. One classic Mercedes had to be pushed out by its German mechanic outfitted in a cute Mercedes jumpsuit.

A modern day, Zagato bodied Alfa Romeo. Zagato is a famous design house established after World War 1. It is associated with avant garde design, and has designed Ferrari's, Fiat's, Maserati's, Aston Martin's, as well as Alfa Romeo. It is known within the same circle of design houses as Pinin Farina, Ghia, Scaglietti, and others. A Zagato descendent, possibly the head, was in attendance with this car. 

2012 Shelby Cobra Super car.  I'm not a fan of the styling, but maybe the styling is before its time. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger, admiring the new Lamborghini Aventador with a handsome Italian sales representative

This famous night-time host nearly ran me over.

Best in show at the Concours was a 1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne - I actually prefer a view of this car from the side. This car deserved to win for its uniqueness.  It had interesting Art Deco lines, a unique sliding roof top, an unreliable sleeve valve engine design (which was the demise of the Voisin car), and wacky art deco fabric interior (not pictured)

Unfortunately, I got in a little tiff with the Bugatti representative for taking pictures too close to this Bugatti Veyron's interior

The gem-like details (check out those faceted head lights) on this Mercedes left me in a swoon. This was my favorite car of the show for all of its bespoke details. It even came with a ladder to access one's roof-mounted luggage (see thing on ground)

Fore: Austro Daimler,  one of the cars favored to win "Best in Show"
Rear: Talbot-Lago Teardrop, which won "most elegant closed car"

21 of the world's 36 Ferrari 250 GTO's were lined up at Pebble Beach to celebrate this iconic 1962 car's 50th anniversary. Each car costs up to $28 million.  This was the first Ferrari design to be wind-tunnel tested, resulting in a perky spoiler at the rear end which helped this race car perform better at high speeds. These cars won the International Championship for GT Manufacturer's between 1962-64, until the Shelby Cobra came along. Each Ferrari 250 GTO was hand shaped by noted coachmaker, Scaglietti, which is why the cars do not look identical, nor do they even look symmetrical from side to side.  Strangely, Scaglietti thought the 250 GTO was an ugly car, stating that its windshield was too upright on the sides and gave the car an appearance of having "horns".  Today, the 250 GTO is considered to be one of the most expensive and beautiful cars ever made. It was amazing seeing these cars lined up together on the ocean front at Pebble Beach. But I'm not sure I would say it was the most beautiful Ferrari (I think I prefer the 1967 Ferrari 330 P4), or that it deserves to be as expensive as they are.

This one-off 1960 Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster won the "Gran Turismo" award. It also won "Most likely to be included in the Gran Turismo PlayStation game" trophy.  The criteria for this particular trophy was the vote of one judge, who happened to be the Sony Playstation "Gran Turismo" video game designer. I can totally see this car in a video game.

People were dressed in hats, hats, and more hats and brought along pets as accessories.

More hats.