2023 Pebble Beach Concours D’elegance Dawn Patrol and Casa Ferrari

Another one for the books! We ‘infiltrated’ Dawn Patrol to get you the best coverage, plus our comments on the Concept Car Lawn and we made a stop in Casa Ferrari

(We will have another post with pics only, and our YouTube Channel will finally get some great videos. Stay Tuned!)

However, to be found worthy, (on a budget of no tickets) one must pass a series of challenges before getting there.

The first challenge, which is to get there at a proper time. That demanded a 3am wake up call and then a 80 minute peaceful drive to 17 mile drive, the house of Pebble Beach Golf Club.  No traffic at least.

The second challenge is to get past the gates. On prior years, security gates started at the resort. This time they did have a guard at 4:30am at the main entrance. I drove my 1986 Saab 900 Turbo. The security guard looked at me and glanced for a few seconds at my car. Made a face that said ‘I’ve never seen a car like this in my life, so it must be legit’ and let me pass.  For the grace of God, go I.

The third challenge is to find parking within a walking distance of the main event. The main parking spots are given away to the actual guests. The ‘cheap’ parking ($120) required a shuttle from 6 miles away. The actual places with parking to spare have security all over the place.  I found some event staff parking on a side dirt street without any homes (a miracle, really) and I discreetly parked there so I only had to walk a bit less than a mile to get to the prime watching spot. Also is a bummer guest parking is so far away this year, checking the parked cars is a show unto itself. This time only one parking lot, that was not full, was the only one within walking distance.

Then, finally, and sans caffeine, the show gets started at 5am. It is always a pleasure to see these machines actually moving under their own power. No trailer queens here. My guess is cars at least have to be able to drive from 5-10 miles away and then face a steep incline going downhill to enter the display area. Many times I held my breath thinking disaster would happen, but never did.  I mean, you have octogenarians driving enormous cars that require 3 or 4 levers to move.

Nothing is like breathing the fumes of cars from 1917-1939 and listening to the engines of the many Packard 12s, McLarens and Lambos at full blast. This year featured award classes for Bugattis, Pagasos, Lamborghinis, Pre-War cars (always Mercedes Benz) Ferraris, Figonis and Duesenbergs, plus some Alfas, Astons and Maseratis. The usual suspects of every show.

Security gets tighter every year, the Monterey Sheriff department seem entirely focused there, some military and the usual cast of shady characters doing private security were all over the place.

Here are a few of the cars that made an impact, our other post has a larger collection:

This Beautiful Purple Lamborghini Espada is gonna live in my brain for a long time. I think it won a prize on the Lambo category this year

Check this other Lamborghini Countach, according to lore, this was *the* Lamborghini from the original “Cannonball” movie

Another beautiful racer, this was the McLaren that Elvis Presley bought and it sounded amazing!

I was betting this would win the whole thing. But it was a 1937 Mercedes Benz that won. (Do not complain about Nazi cars winning this thing all the time, I don’t care)

Sometimes, you do get to see a car you never seen before. Even to my experienced, jaded eyes, this car was amazing. What Batman drives in an alternate universe

This Aston Martin was beautiful in this shiny blue color

The concept cars, as usual, were hit or miss. But first, we had the hot off the presses Mustang GTD make an appearance. I don’t care it costs $300,000 – It will be a legendary Mustang. It looked incredibly.

Another year, yet another Electric VW Bus, this time the pre-production ID. Buzz. But the size is really very large vs. what I expected. Will it finally made an appearance at your local VW dealer?  My bet is no.

There were some ugly ducklings as well. Someone call Faraday Future and tell them someone stole their only production car, added some Pontiac-level cladding and named it the NWTN. Why? Who’s doing this EV vaporware?

Now, the Lamborghini Lanzador, also made an appearance. Along with SUVs from Ferrari and Pininfarina. I just don’t like this future y’all. It just looks, awkward in the middle of all their beautiful cars.

Last, what I’d imagine and hoped our electrical future would be. Take the existing cars and make them electric, instead of 5,000 lbs SUVs. “Sacrilege Motors” (loved the name) had this EV Porsche

Some Tweets of the whole thing. I remember 2021 had way more dealers in the free exhibits, so the festivities seem less lavish vs. prior years, but the Maybach dealership had some amazing concept Benzes and also the old classic stuff. Check our twitter for more pics, plus, please check our other article with over 70 pictures –

My cellphone started to die around 11am, so I had to leave. Sorry if I couldn’t see some of you guys there.

It was a great Pebble Beach this year and I hope I can attend a few more, until they find out I’m a poor and kick me out for real. Until then, enjoy!