Father's Day in Beverly Hills can only mean one thing to car lovers: The annual Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance. As its name implies, the concours is held right along that world-famous shoppers' paradise that is Rodeo Drive, right in the shadow of the "Pretty Woman" hotel. This year's theme was "Haute Wheels: Celebrating Car Couture," which might have made a few people at Mattel cringe, but was intended to evoke memories of the original Parisian Concours where high fashion was on display along with the beautifully crafted custom coachwork. Estimates say 30,000 people were on hand braving the heat, doing some window shopping, and catching glimpses of celebrities like Larry King who simply mingled with the crowd and became just another car guy on Sunday. The Rodeo Drive Concours is always a special show because of its location, the cars almost feel secondary to the setting, but car fans weren't disappointed, either.
Approximately 100 cars were on display, running the gamut from hot rods to Veyrons, Fords to Ferraris, and motorcycles to Maseratis. Personal highlights were a rare 1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider America, gorgeous original Stutz Bearcat, a 21-window VW Microbus complete with matching trailer, a coveted 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, a wild Dubonnet Hispano Xenia custom and a beautiful green Delahaye 135S we happened to spot on the drive into the event. It wasn't too smart to be sporting those Celtic colors in LA right now, but the driver and car made it in safely. Other notable entries included one of six or seven (depending on who you ask) Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupes, what is believed to be the only modern Marcos in the U.S., a gorgeous Zagato-bodied Maserati that was once found behind a wall hidden from plunderers, a 1933 Duesenberg Model J Tourster that was too popular to photograph whole, the Porsche Design boat, Cizeta, F40, Veyron.
Performance West has rolled out a stretched wheelbase blinged-out 300C with an appropriately protracted name. The W.P. Chrysler Executive Series 300C Rodeo Drive Plus 6 by Performance West pulls together the work and merchandise of several vendors to create a six-inch longer 300C for those executives who find the standard choices too boring. Nobody will be able to ignore the chrome spear down the flanks, and if they do just crank up the stereo. Mechanicals are upgraded with a Corsa cat-back exhaust and a Flex Fuel Smart system adds E85 capability to the Hemi. Coil-overs and thicker swaybars tighten up proceedings underneath, and SSBC's upgraded brakes hide behind 22-inch Sporza wheels. Inside, the seats have been retrimmed in custom leather, there's an audio system to rattle your molars and an integrated computer and communications rig, too. Look up, there's a Glassback installation by Classic Design Concepts, look down, you'll find a Hurst shifter sticking purposefully out of the console. It looks like it'd be a whole lot more fun to shuffle papers around in the rear compartment of the Plus 6 than, say, a Maybach. The whole shebang will be available for an as yet unannounced price at dealers.
Thanks for the tip, David!
Source: Allpar
