The Super Bowl. The Oscars. The White House. Those are places that seem so far away from me that they might as well be outer space. I saw the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in the same manner, even though I work in automotive media for a company that’s covered it before — that’s just how big of a deal it is. Even though Pebble Beach was more than a week ago, it still hasn’t completely sunk in. In the meantime, I’ll tell you the things that made it so special.

Great Timing

I was fortunate enough to go this year, which marked the 75th running of this event that brings together many of the rarest and most stunning classic cars from all over the world. Since 1950 (there was no 1960 show), owners such as J.B. Nethercutt, Sam and Emily Mann, and William Harrah have built legacies founded on discriminating taste, world-class restorations, and painstaking attention to detail. Models from Duesenberg, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, and Packard have reached the pinnacle of competition and been crowned Best of Show — and covered with confetti.

The End of an Era

This year’s Concours was also the last one with Sandra Button at the helm. Previously the Executive Director, she has served as Chairman since 2002, helping to increase awareness of the event and broaden its audience. As members of the Selection Committee, she and her husband Martin have been part of determining which cars appear on the 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach Golf Links. There are a lot of people in this business I’d love to interview and Sandra Button is one of them.

Tangled Trio

There were three types of cars on the show field: Cars You’ve Always Wanted to See, Cars You Never Thought You’d See, and Cars You’ll Never See Again. Many of the vehicles I saw fell into all three categories. There were not one but two Ferrari 250 GTOs present, including David SK Lee’s $38.5-million 1-of-1 Bianco Speciale.

Three of the four original cars shown at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair were also present: the one-off 1933 Duesenberg SJ Rollston Arlington Torpedo Sedan (aka “Twenty Grand” for its rumored $20,000 price tag), a 1934 Packard 1108 Twelve Dietrich Sport Sedan, and a 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow.

In the same line of cars was the 1938 Phantom Corsair, 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I “Round Door,” and a massive 1941 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Weinberger Cabriolet, one of six Royales ever produced. You can see these wonders in various museums, but it would take a small fortune and a lot of time to do that. Pebble Beach had all of them in one place, right by the water.

Witnessing History

Thanks to being on my feet all day (in a terrible choice of shoes), my lower back and left ankle were shot by the end of the Concours,. But that pain didn’t stop me from working my way toward the awards stage to watch the this year’s Best of Show winner roll up. Statistically, it wasn’t surprising that a prewar car, a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster, won the top prize, but that didn’t diminish how wonderful it was to witness that moment in automotive history. This will probably be the last time I mention the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on this site for a while. My wife and son, on the other hand, will have to hear about it for the rest of my life.