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2004 Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance
By: Drew Phillips
Photos by the author
August 23, 2004

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For the last seven years, the Pebble Beach Tour has kicked off the annual events for the Monterey weekend. The fifty mile drive around the Monterey Peninsula has become a much-anticipated tradition for owners and enthusiasts alike that preludes the Concours that occurs on the following Sunday. While concours entrants are not required to enter the tour, cars that finish the entire route have an advantage in the judging during the concours in the event of a tie. A good number of cars usually enter the tour, and this year was no exception.

The tour includes portions of the famous 17-mile drive that passes through the forest surrounding Pebble Beach and parallels the coast line. This year the route also included portions of coastal roads and downtown streets in Pacific Grove, just north of Pebble Beach. The tour then heads south once again on the famous Highway 68, and then east to Laguna Seca Raceway where entrants pass through the first check point. After the stop at the race track, the tour motors back towards the coast for lunch in downtown Carmel where the cars are parked along Ocean Avenue. This is the public's best chance to view the cars without paying the $100 entrance fee to the concours, although parking is horrendous in the small streets, and a good view of the cars is hard with the large amounts of people. After the drivers grab a bite to eat, it's back to Pebble Beach where the cars are safely stored until the show on Sunday.

This year's tour started off at 7:30 a.m. sharp with all the confusion and chaos that comes with trying to get dozens of cars all lined up in order. There was plenty of excitement as well, though, despite the overcast weather and slight drizzle that continually kept everything damp.

The list of participating cars this year was fantastic. Led by Sir Stirling Moss driving a Rolls Royce Phantom as the pace car, a trail of Ferraris and Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwings could be seen cruising along the coastline and through the Monterey Peninsula. Participating Ferraris, a featured marque of this year's tour and concours, included a 250 GT California Spyder SWB, a 250 GTO, and a Zagato-bodied 250 GT SWB. The following groups of cars contained several Rolls Royces and Hispano-Suizas, two of the other featured marques. Other rare participating in the tour included a 1938 Peugeot Darl'mat 402 Pourtout Coupe and 1938 Horch 853A Erdmann & Rossi Sport Cabriolet.

As it has in recent years, the tour kicked off this year's events in Monterey in a relaxed and pleasant manner. It did a great job of offering a preview and building up excitement for the upcoming concours for the weekend without the stress of the actual show. In addition, the owners did an excellent job of proving that these cars can still do what they were built to do: drive.