Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance: One Sunday, One Fairway, One Best of Show

About the Pebble Beach Concours

The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is held on the Pebble Beach Golf Links in California, on the final Sunday of Monterey Car Week. It is widely considered the most prestigious car show in the world and the pinnacle concours competition anywhere, and it is the centrepiece of more than fifty related events spread across the week around it. Proceeds from the show support charities.

The phrase concours d’elegance translates literally as a competition of elegance. In practice it is an event open to both prewar and postwar collector cars in which they are judged for authenticity, function, history, and style — four criteria that pull against each other, which is precisely why the results are argued about. Entrants are accepted through an application process rather than by entry fee.

How the Judging Actually Works

Classes are commonly arranged by type, marque, coachbuilder, country of origin, or period. Within each class the judges select first, second and third place. Best of Show is then conferred on a single car drawn from the group of class winners, and the award carries an engraved trophy and an engraved Rolex watch. That structure matters: a car cannot win the show without first winning its own class, so the decision is made twice.

Authenticity and function are the two criteria that catch people out. A car must not only be correct but must also work — and the field is judged on the understanding that these are machines rather than sculptures. J.B. Nethercutt holds the record for the most Best of Show titles with six. Among marques, Bugatti and Mercedes-Benz are tied on ten wins each, which tells you a good deal about what the judges have historically rewarded.

Where the Show Came From

The Concours was founded in 1950 as an adjunct to the Pebble Beach Road Race, an event sponsored by the Sports Car Club of America and run on a circuit of closed public roads. The first two editions, in 1950 and 1951, were held on a practice tee and driving range next to the Beach Club, near what was then the Del Monte Lodge and is now The Lodge at Pebble Beach. Thirty cars were exhibited on 4 November 1950.

The scale has changed, and not always upwards. The field stood at 227 cars in 2005 and was deliberately reduced to 175 for 2006, on the reasoning that a fairway holds only so many cars before the show stops being a show. The restraint has held, and it is the reason the event still reads as a competition rather than a car park with a view.

Where to Start

• Arrive on the Saturday at the latest — the Sunday itself begins very early and the peninsula moves slowly
• Walk the field before the crowds — the first hours on the fairway are the only quiet ones
• Understand the application route — entry is by acceptance, not purchase, and the process runs months ahead
• Take accommodation for the whole week — nothing on the peninsula is available for a single night in August

What the Day Is Like on the Ground

It begins before dawn. The cars are driven onto the eighteenth fairway in the dark, which is the part of the day photographers wait all year for and most visitors sleep through. By mid-morning the field is set, the classes are being judged, and the fairway is busy enough that seeing a particular car properly requires patience.

The practical difficulty is the ground. A concours on golf links means several hours of standing and walking on grass, in August, in coastal light that swings from fog to full sun within an hour. Sensible footwear, a hat, and somewhere to sit down matter more than anything else you bring.

The awards close the afternoon, and the Best of Show announcement is the end of the entire week rather than of the day. People leave for the airport straight from the links, which is why we tend to hold a car and a room until the evening.

How We Help

• Accommodation at Pebble Beach and in Carmel for the full week around the Sunday
• Entry support for an eligible car, from application through shipping, preparation, and storage
• Access to the field early, and a base to return to across a long day on grass
• Tables in Carmel and Monterey when the coast is at capacity, via our Fine Dining & Nightlife service
• Private aviation into Monterey and transport that works around the Seventeen-Mile Drive

Almost nobody comes to Pebble Beach for one day. We arrange the Sunday as part of the full Monterey Car Week, and clients who follow historic motoring also take Le Mans Classic and the Goodwood Revival in the European season. Corporate hosting on the peninsula runs through our Business Concierge team.

The other Grand Prix worth pairing it with is Singapore, at the opposite end of the season and the opposite end of the spectrum — a night race through a city centre rather than a purpose-built circuit in the countryside.