Jumpstart Automotive Group

Every August, California’s Monterey Peninsula gets hijacked by car crazies for a week or so of high-end car craziness known simply as “Pebble.” The signature event is the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, a Sunday gathering of the finest, most perfectly restored collector cars in the world, parked on the 18th green of the Pebble Beach golf course. During the event, I was on the grass overlooking the cars and wondering, Recession? What recession?

Granted, the folk displaying their $5 million Bugattis are not the ones we need to worry about. They might complain about the price of jet fuel, but no one’s foreclosing on their eight vacation homes.

The spectators, on the other hand, were not all so gold-plated. And yet they ponied up $150 to crowd the golf course and linger over the cars — Ferrari 166MMs, Porsche 917s, and more Delages than you could shake a stick at. The Concours was as packed as I’ve ever seen it in my ten years attending.

The scene was no different at any other event that weekend. It took me 45 minutes to get into the parking lot at Laguna Seca, the racetrack where the Monterey Historic races are held. The Quail, another car show at the Quail Lodge on Carmel Valley Road, sold out in 7 minutes. My ticket for the Quail was $400. Thankfully, it was comped.

So what did I take away from Pebble Beach, besides sunburn and a cold (it was summer in Monterey, after all)? That the passion for cars runs deep, and that seeing the great machines of the past, parked on golf courses, racing at Laguna, or just driving up Highway 1,is something that the car faithful will not cut out of their calendars, no matter the cost. It was a fine and fitting reminder that passion trumps all.

Read more from Eddie Alterman on the Car and Driver Blog.