Pebble Beach Week 2007: Inaugural Carmel Concours

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After six years of cajoling and lots of hard work, Doug and Genie Freedman finally saw their dream of a Carmel Concours come to life. The Carmel-By-The-Sea Concours on the Avenue was held on Tuesday, August 14, and launched another must-attend event during this already insanely busy week of classic car nirvana. About 130 collector vehicles lined several blocks of Ocean Avenue, allowing visitors to sample automotive history in a relaxed setting. And best of all, it was free. Now THAT doesn't happen very often in Carmel.

It was quite a fun event, and much more laid back than many of the other, more established shows that take place this week. It was a very eclectic show too, with everything from micro cars to muscle cars, Woodies and Wagons, '50s extravagance, European classics, Corvettes, Porsches, British Marques, Shelbys, Hot Rods, pickups, and some pretty impressive race cars. The feature class was cars from 1957, to celebrate 50 years of classic motoring. It was a great inaugural event and will hopefully become a mainstay on the Monterey schedule.

Some standout cars included a super rare Grand Sport Corvette, a 1952 Cunningham C4R, 1953 Nash Healey Le Mans Hardtop by Pininfarina, 1956 Gullwing, 1953 Dannenhauer und Strauss, 1958 Autobianchi Bianchina Special, 1967 Moris Minor, 1956 Rometsch Beeskow Cab, a rare Morgan coupe that always had a crowd around it, and the lone surviving magnesium Jaguar D-Type. The field was pretty impressive, and so was the setting. The staff really made sure all of the details were handled as well, including helping us spot the jets in the flyover demonstration. Very well done for a first year event. We hope to make it back next year.