Elitch and Goldberg: Pebble Beach, 2026

Story by Brandes Elitch
Photos by Bob Goldberg

VeloceToday readers are located all over the world, and most will not likely be able to journey to the US for a car show. As a writer, my brief is to try to give them a sense of what an event is like, to try to paint a picture and recreate the experience so that they might feel that they are almost there. I have been doing this for a while now, and most of the time those goals are attainable.

But when it comes to the Pebble Beach Concours d ‘Elegance, it is very difficult. This is because the Pebble Beach experience is frankly overwhelming. There is nothing else like it that is even close, anywhere in the world. When people ask what is different, I reply that at other shows, you look at every fourth or fifth car, but here, you have to look at EVERY car, because they all are compelling. Just to give you a sense of the complexity involved in putting on this show, here are some statistics:

-there are 218 show cars on the field, all extremely rare and often one of a kind

-of the 218 cars on display, there were 33 international entrants from 14 countries, and 185 US entries from 30 states

-there are 62 honorary judges, all well-known and in some cases famous in the antique and classic car world

-there are 17 people on the selection committee

-there are 29 classes for the entrants

-there are 60 cars going over the ramp to get an award

-there are 16 concept cars on the lawn in front of the Lodge

As background, be aware that on the Monterey Peninsula “Car Week,” as it is called, has around 35 events spanning a ten-day period. Somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 people drop in to Carmel-by-the-Sea, a small village with a population of around 3000 people. You can imagine the impact on lodging and even just trying to get a reservation at a local restaurant. There is really only one road in and out of town, and the road from Monterey to Santa Cruz goes down to a single lane in each direction, so you can imagine the traffic situation. You have to have stamina.

Meanwhile, in the background, there are 5 auction houses competing with each other, with about 1200 vehicles up for auction, some with 7 and 8 figure valuations. Lat year sales figure was around $128 million; this year Gooding posted sales of $159 million.

To add to the excitement, a few days before the Concours, there was a 4200-acre forest fire in the nearby area of Big Sur, where the Tour d ‘Elegance normally goes. The fire was in the south fork of the Big Sur River. There were 1400 personnel, 9 helicopters, 135 engines, 29 bulldozers and 17 water tenders fighting the fire. Many people were watching this unfold just before the Concours, but fortunately the fire did not come north, but it was pretty scary for the week before the event. The famous Tour was rerouted for the 150 entrants that do a roughly 65-mile coastal circuit on Thursday afternoon, and it gives the spectators a free view of the cars in motion.

Another factor is the quality and depth and breadth of the judges, because they are a beacon for people who have spent years finding and restoring a car, and they want it to be appreciated the first time out. It is not an exaggeration to say that the organizers have truly built networks of car collectors all over the world, over decades of communication and networking. Finally, the extraordinary amount of research and due diligence in the selection committee that creates the classes and winnows through a thousand applicants to choose 200 to be accepted. There is no other event that has to deal with these kinds of numbers.

Classes

We all have our favorites and this year my favorite class was Vignale bodied cars, with 28 cars on display, including 15 Ferraris. The highlight was a pair of the Nardi Blue Rays from 1955 and 1958. I consider the pinnacle of Italian custom coachbuilding to be from the period of roughly 1950-1965 and there was a lot to see here.

Another featured class was about the cars that raced or could have raced in the original event, the Pebble Beach Road Race in the Del Monte Forest from 1950-1956. There were 2 categories: Road Race Production and Road Race Special.

Heroes of the Forest Reviewed

Along with this a new book called “Heroes of the Forest,” by Mark Brinker, was released at the Concours. This is an incredible book: 1750 pages in four volumes with 1500 photos and extensive documentation, including an 86-page index! It took 3 years to write, with support from Kandace Hawkinson of the Concours.

A very special exhibit, brought from England just for this event, was the 1927 Sunbeam World Speed Record Car, equipped with two 22-liter aircraft motors, which enabled it to reach 203 mph in 1927! It has been undergoing an extensive restoration over some time, and might make a centennial run at Daytona next year.

A special class this year celebrated the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exhibition. There were four astonishing cars on display here: the Pierce Silver Arrow, the Duesenberg Twenty Grand, the Packard “Car of the Dome,” and a Cadillac V16 aerodynamic coupe. The first three were actually at the show, the Cadillac is another similar car. What are the odds that they survived?

A particularly fascinating class was The Art of the Streamliner. Actually, this was the most emotional class, at least for me. The entrants included cars I have only seen pictures of before: the 1934 Hispano with coachwork by Fernandez and Darrin, a Voisin Aerosport, the Hispano Dubonnet Xenia, an Alfa 8C 2900 By Touring, and a Tatra Type 77. These take your breath away.

You might say that this was Ferrari Year at the show, with four classes: Competition: Chinetti/NART, Ferrari Competition, Ferrari Grand Touring, and Ferrari Vignale. Pictures to follow.

As a Jaguar collector, I appreciated the special class of 5 Historic Jaguars, particularly the Briggs Cunningham 1955 D-type. The D-type won at Le Mans in 1955, 1956, and 1957.

We cannot overlook the famous poster each year, of which I have a few. This year the artist is Tim Layzell. The poster of the Alfa B.A.T. cars, is superb, and of course all three were on the field this year – breathtaking!

But wait, there’s more. If you had any energy left after the 18th green, there were 43 Lamborghini Miuras gathered on the third fairway, in addition to a Ferrari display on the first fairway.

Charity. I think it is important to note the contribution to local charities here. Last year the event raised $4.1 million for charity and this year the goal is $5 million, which would bring the total charitable giving to over $50 million since inception. You might think, driving around Pebble Beach, that everyone who lives on the Monterey peninsula is wealthy, but it is estimated that last year 13,000 local students faced housing challenges. Most of this number was raised in the last two decades, a tribute to the organizers.

In this brief overview, I have not done justice to the enormity of this happening, and the thousands of hours of planning by the organizers. Now we will present some photos, courtesy of Bob Goldberg, the editor of the famous Alfa Romeo Association club magazine, “Overheard Cams.” We are very privileged to get these photos from Bob, because of his knowledge of photography, editing, and just being an overall good guy. We will follow this up with more columns, primarily pictures with captions from the event.

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