The Lodge at Pebble Beach hosts the ultimate champagne-and-caviar car show, but it’s the Concours d’LeMons that rattles and backfires its way into a car lover’s heart.
No canapés or caviar
Galbraith and a friend, Jay Lamm, developed the Concours d’LeMons concept.
Galbraith had been going to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. He found it “a fantastic event.” Yet, it was getting a bit stuffy.
“Pebble Beach was the zenith of the car-show world,” he said. “Over a few bottles of wine, we decided to be the nadir.”
The worst, in a word.
Don’t expect a waiter in a tux to serve canapés off a silver tray as you admire a 1960s hippie bus with beading in its windows and an exhaust pipe that’s falling off.
This year, Concours d’LeMons also offers historical curiosities, such as a 1951 Tatra. A product of Czech Cold War engineering, the Tatra was built by comrades on a Soviet Star assembly line.
“The car was made behind the Iron Curtain. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay there,” Galbraith said.
http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20110820/LIFESTYLE/108200309/Salinas-area-auto-show-idolizes-classic-lemons