Pebble Beach Concours and Monterey 2006 Galleries

Pebble Beach Concours Field : The 56th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on the 18th fairway of The Lodge at Pebble Beach. I have never been to the Pebble Beach Concours but it's one of those Must-Go events that should be attended at least once in a car enthusiast's life. It was everything that I thought it would be but not something that I would put on my calendar every year. This event was out of this world. The quality of the cars is top notch, of course. And this is one of the few events in the world where you can guarantee that you'll see what you want to see and also see something that you've never seen before. Here is a sampling of what I found on the judging field and I hope I could convey the elegance and enormity of the event. The Featured Marques for this year were Voisin and Delahaye but there were 25 classes of cars. There are too many highlights to mention but a few were the Delage D8 120, and Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahn Kurier. The new one-off Glickenhaus Ferrari P4/5 was also on display and it is breathtaking in person. For photos of all the winners, click here: http://douging.smugmug.com/gallery/1801689. One thing that I was not prepared to see was the amount of people at this show. This should really be a two-day affair with judging and press allowed one day and the general public on the other. In one of the pictures below you can't even make out any cars because there are so many people. It shouldn't disourage you to go but it will prevent you from getting perfectly-cropped photos of cars.

Pebble Beach Concours Field

The 56th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on the 18th fairway of The L ...

Updated: Oct 06, 2008 1:06pm PST

Toyota Formula One car : Shots of the Toyota Formula One car at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. I spent some time hanging around the back of the garage while the team worked on prepping the car between sessions. They were very nice and I was stunned to get so close and take pictures. There was a public viewing area set up which leads me to believe this is an early development car used for promotional purposes and the design and technology is not the same as what Jarno Trulli and Ralph Schumacher are racing with now. Even if it's 'old' technology, the car is still an amazing piece of engineeering. My time at Laguna Seca was spent on Saturday. Zonta did three demonstration sessions and set a new overall lap record of 1:06.3. This is without a proper test/setup session and only small changes to the traction control and wing settings. I imagine that with a better tire choice and a different setup, a modern F1 car could knock two seconds off that time. Thank you Toyota for bringing the car and allowing me to ogle from inside the garage.

Toyota Formula One car

Shots of the Toyota Formula One car at the Monterey Historic Automobil ...

Updated: Oct 27, 2006 9:22am PST

Blackhawk Collection Exposition : The Blackhawk Collection is one of the world's most respected automobile collector-dealers. For Pebble Beach they had their own display area adjacent to the Concours. For more info on these cars, go to their website: www.blackhawkcollection.com

Blackhawk Collection Exposition

The Blackhawk Collection is one of the world's most respected automobi ...

Updated: Sep 18, 2006 3:02pm PST

Concorso Italiano : Friday's main attraction is the all-Italian show known as Concorso Italiano. All Italian marques are invited with Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and Lamborghini making up the bulk of the entrants. Similar to the Tutto Italiano show in Boston but on a much bigger scale. I arrived in the afternoon after flying all night, then driving an hour and a half (stopping to check-in at my hotel). By the time I got here, a few people were starting to leave. From what I saw, it's not much better than Boston's own Tutto Italiano show. There's just more of everything. I didn't take too many photos because it just seemed like I was taking photos of the same car over and over. The nice thing about this event though is that some rare and cool cars do make it out for display -- a Ferrari 288GTO, several Ferrari F40, more Lamborghinis in more colors than you knew existed, and a great car corral for non-Italian makes (lots of BMWs, a Porsche Carrera GT, Corvettes, Vipers, etc). Even though it's a French-German car, a Bugatti Veyron still made it out onto the field.

Concorso Italiano

Friday's main attraction is the all-Italian show known as Concorso Ita ...

Updated: Sep 18, 2006 2:59pm PST

Monterey Historic Automobile Races : The Monterey Historic Automobile Races was the original event for vintage racers. Started by Steve Earle, the Historics have led to the creation of many other prestigious historic events. This year the featured marque was Cooper and many formula and sports-racing cars were in attendance from the garage of Sir Jack Brabham. Also in attendance was the factory Toyota F1 team with an TF106 racecar and driver Ricardo Zonta.

Monterey Historic Automobile Races

The Monterey Historic Automobile Races was the original event for vint ...

Updated: Sep 18, 2006 2:41pm PST

Pebble Beach Concours Winners : The Class and Special Award winners of the 56th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. I have never been to the Pebble Beach Concours but it's one of those Must-Go events that should be attended at least once in a car enthusiast's life. It was everything that I thought it would be but not something that I would put on my calendar every year. Here are the winners of the 2006 Concours in all of their splendor on the winner's ramp. There were 25 Class Winners and 27 Special Awards handed out. Each of the class winners are eligible to win the coveted Best Of Show honor but the judges picked from 4 nominees. The Concours was hosted by Edward Hermann, a fixture on the History Channel and car collector, with help from Jay Leno. I found it strange that the nominees and the Best of Show are all pre-war cars. Since 1955, only 1 winner has been from the post-WWII era. Are post-war cars any less exciting that pre-war? A note if you are reading this and planning to attend for the first time -- the Awards ceremony is definately worth seeing but plan ahead. Get a spot early and bring a folding chair to mark your spot. I was there an hour before the ceremony started and the closest I got was three rows back on stage right. Also, be prepared for the legions of photographers who think they have every right to get in your way. There were a lot of rude people clamoring to get photos.

Pebble Beach Concours Winners

The Class and Special Award winners of the 56th Pebble Beach Concours ...

Updated: Aug 29, 2006 10:37am PST

RM Auction - Saturday Night : The RM Auction was arguably the biggest auction of the weekend. Taking place on Friday and Saturday night (until after midnight!), it drew thousands of people to a tight downtown block of Monterey. The star of the show was a 1959 Ferrari 412S that sold for over $5.6 million. I was also there to see a 1994 McLaren F1 (sold for $1.5 million). I was surprised to see a BMW 2002tii on the block and even more surprised to see it sell for $18,700. In addition the cars, there were several celebrities in attendance. Alain De Cadenet was shooting an auction special for ESPN2. Inside, I saw Jay Leno in the front row, sitting beside his Duesenberg expert Randy Ema. I also ran into Jean Todt, manager of Ferrari's road car production and the Ferrari Formula One team. There is a great story behind this encounter, e-mail me for the details.

RM Auction - Saturday Night

The RM Auction was arguably the biggest auction of the weekend. Taking ...

Updated: Aug 25, 2006 4:27pm PST