For automotive enthusiasts, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is one of the most important automotive events on the calendar. The event features during Monterey Car Week, held on the Monterey Peninsula in northern California and celebrates both our automotive past with tomorrow’s cutting-edge technology.
The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance bills itself as ‘an unmatched tradition of automotive excellence’ and at the very pinnacle of that excellence is the coveted Best in Show award. This year, the prize was won by the exceedingly rare 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster – only around 60 units with this body style were ever produced. The 540 K Special Roadster is also powered by a supercharged 5.4-litre straight-eight engine and combines speed with sculptural elegance.
“The event is a magnet for car enthusiasts and opens up new opportunities for us to facilitate a personal encounter with our brands in a first class setting.”
The world’s best come together
According to Bettina Fetzer, Head of Communications and Marketing Mercedes-Benz AG, this year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Monterey Car Week was an opportunity to display selected brand icons that highlight why Mercedes-Benz continues to fascinate 137 years after its inception.
“This event is of unparalleled importance to us among the international automobile platforms and not only because of the Californian lifestyle,” says Bettina. “The event is a magnet for car enthusiasts and opens up new opportunities for us to facilitate a personal encounter with our brands in a first-class setting.”
To that end, and in addition to a luxurious display of its models both past and present, Mercedes-Maybach hosted an exclusive business lunch at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Mercedes-Benz also welcomed guests at the Star Lounge within the Concours Village.
Icons on display
With the recent launch of the seventh-generation SL, Mercedes-Benz Heritage presented sports and super sports models from its collection, including the iconic 300 SL Roadster and 280 SL Pagoda. Guests and select members of the media were offered the rare opportunity to drive these icons on the stunning Pacific Coast Highway that wends its way along the rugged and beautiful coastline. In honour of the location on the Big Sur coastline of California, the brand also used Pebble Beach to reveal the Mercedes-AMG SL Big Sur Edition for the United States’ market.
Further highlighting the important intersection of how our automotive past informs its future, Mercedes-Benz also displayed its Vision One-Eleven sports car study that marries elements of the iconic C 111 design and technology studies from the 1960s and ’70s, with forward-looking electric mobility solutions. Since its beginning in 1950, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance has recognised that today’s stars are tomorrow’s future icons and classics. With an eye on the array of gathered legends of the past, today’s production models and futuristic concepts, this theme was touched on by Marcus Breitschwerdt, Head of Mercedes-Benz Heritage; “I truly believe that the new Mercedes-Benz EQS will be seen and respected in 30 years’ time as a pioneering vehicle and will be highly sought after”.
Again highlighting the magnetic pull of the event, this year’s Monterey Car Week also boasted the largest-ever gathering of vintage Mercedes-Benz W06 S-series sports cars in North America, many of which took part in the Tour d’Elegance before the event.
A much-anticipated world premiere
Beyond the spectacular and near-priceless historic vehicles on display, the event also plays host to numerous international debuts for new production vehicles and future-projecting concept cars. One such world premiere at the 2023 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance was the all new Mercedes-AMG GT Coupé.
Debuting a sporty and luxurious 2+2 cabin layout and 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive for the first time, the second-generation GT Coupé is a game changer for Mercedes-AMG.
“The new AMG GT Coupé combines highly dynamic driving characteristics and distinctive sportiness with a high level of everyday comfort.”
In launching the new model, Michael Schiebe, Chairman of the Management Board of Mercedes-AMG GmbH and Head of Business Mercedes-Benz G-Class & Mercedes-Maybach said, “The new AMG GT Coupé combines highly dynamic driving characteristics and distinctive sportiness with a high level of everyday comfort.
“Our new GT is clearly the top-of-the-line product in our diversified portfolio and is therefore not only AMG's youngest brand shaper, but also a clear commitment to the sports car made in Affalterbach. With the new dimension concept and optional 2+2 seats, we are directly responding to the wishes of our customers.”
The new AMG GT 63 4MATIC+ Coupé also grants wishes for customers with a powerful and charismatic bi-turbo V8, six drive programmes, AMG TRACK PACE data logger for use on race tracks, luxurious interior, and a full suite of active and passive safety systems.
From Best in Show to a world premiere, that’s a wrap on the 2023 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Monterey Car Week.
Stay up to date with the launch of the all new Mercedes-AMG GT Coupé here.