Pebble Beach Concours Tour Turnaround
Monterey Car Week
August 14, 2025
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On Thursday, August 14, 2025, the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance sent Concours entrants out from Pebble Beach along 17-Mile Drive and down Highway 1 to Big Sur, before turning around and returning to the Peninsula. Spectators line the route for free vantage points, with action starting early as cars stage before sunrise and depart mid-morning (typically around 9–9:30 a.m.). The Tour doesn’t pause in Carmel-by-the-Sea these days, so Big Sur becomes a prime spot to watch cars under power, then see them loop back north—rolling history against coastal cliffs and low cloud.
This one’s part adventure, part photo op. I left Carmel with PCA friends ahead of the Tour, ran Highway 1 south, and grabbed breakfast at Big Sur Roadhouse before staking out the turnaround. We weren’t alone: Porsches tucked into the dirt pullouts, small knots of people gathering at the bend. A highlight before the main rush—spotting Matt Farah from The Smoking Tire and his Meyers Manx, freshly in use for Car Week. Then the flow began: brass and prewar cars first, then postwar sports and GTs—about twenty I managed to capture as they swung wide, paused, and headed back up the grade. Between passes I worked the waiting scenes: friends trading notes, locals and visitors comparing favorites. I wrapped with a quick shot of my own car tucked deep in the lot—out of the dust and out of the way—before we chased the train north.
The Tour d’Elegance is a relatively modern layer on Pebble tradition, launched in 1998 to show the Concours field in motion and to encourage owners to exercise their cars on public roads. It also matters on Sunday: when two entries tie in class, completing the Tour can serve as the tiebreaker. The route itself is the point—17-Mile Drive, Highway 1, Bixby Bridge, Big Sur—a roughly 80-mile ribbon that tests cooling systems, clutches, and nerves as much as it delights bystanders. As formats shift year to year, that blend of movement, scenery, and consequence is what keeps Thursday morning essential.
