Beverly Hills is LA’s ground zero for beautiful, elite cars. New incarnations from Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce cruise fender to fender with the latest from Ferrari and Bugatti. But, for one sunny afternoon this Father’s Day, all of those cars took a back seat to decades of automotive royalty — thanks to the 2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance.
Perhaps the premiere free show car event in Los Angeles and one of the better opportunities for the public to see unique, classic vehicles on the west coast, Beverly Hills’ own Concours d’Elegance combined privately owned machines with priceless museum pieces for the enjoyment of anyone willing to brave Sunday traffic in West LA.
This year’s event featured Alfa Romeo as the “Honored Marque,” with the theme of “Highways to Heaven” to honor Route 66, Autobahn and Autostrade. The choice of honored automaker seemed a natural for the even, with Alfa Romeo just recently returning to the U.S. market with the new 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C Coupe and the open-air 4C Spider.
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For the uninitiated, Route 66 was one of America’s very first highways. Christened in 1926, Route 66 ran from Chicago to Los Angeles covering 2,448 miles. It’s been replaced by other highways, such as U.S. 40, but it’s still celebrated by car lovers around the world. Meanwhile, Germany’s Autobahn is Germany’s federal highway and operates without a speed limit for most cars. Finally, the Autostrade is the primary toll road in North and Central Italy. So, this year’s event focused heavily on cars that grew up on those roads — focusing on German and Italian classics alongside iconic American performance cars.
While there were notable historic cars from Jaguar, Lotus and Austin-Healey on hand, the British makes were outnumbered by the Germans, Italians and American custom makes. To assemble the three blocks of automotive history, Concours d’Elegance organizers turned to a national network of private collectors and internationally recognized custom car venues such as the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
According to event officials, the Concours is the largest public event held annually in Beverly Hills. The event brings together a mix of car collectors, automotive museum officials, international visitors and local car enthusiasts. Its Father’s Day timing has become an annual tradition.
If you spent Father’s Day far from LA, the gallery below presents a nice cross selection of the most beautiful and intriguing cars on hand at the Concours d’Elegance.
2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
Classic cars and museum pieces from around the world outshone the stars at the 2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance in Beverly Hills.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1962 Ferrari 250 GT.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1938 Alfa Romeo Spyder.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1962 Shelby 427 Cobra.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1952 Packard.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1952 Ferrari.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1923 Ford Trackmaster T Roadster.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1970 Lamborghini Miura S.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
Elvis lives in thie custom Cadillac.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1955 Austin-Healey 100 BN2 Le Mans.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1960 Chevrolet Corvette.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1958 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
Inside a 1967 Mustang.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1970 Lancia Fulvia.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1956 Nash Metropolitan.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1958 MG MGA Roadster.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
From the car Version of Mount Rushmore – the Jaguar E-Type.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1957 Lotus Eleven re-creation.
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
1985 Lancia Delta Stradale
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
Hippies!
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2015 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance
2015 Ford Mustang Galpin Rocket
