The Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance began 60 years ago as a showcase for the world’s most beautiful classic cars. Well that tradition still continues today, but the event has now grown to include a full week of activities.

A rare treat greeted those attending the Rolex Monterey motorsports reunion at Laguna Seca raceway. Among the hundreds of vintage racers on the track were several Ferrari GTO’s –each one worth over 20 million dollars, and all running fender to fender, thankfully without incident. The Concorso Italiano showcased more Lancia’s, Lambos, Alfa’s and Maserati’s than you can shake a dipstick at, and title sponsor Fiat created quite a stir with their new 500 coupe and cabriolet.

Luxury carmakers in particular have found the swanky Pebble Beach crowd to be a very receptive and appreciative audience for their new offerings. Lexus staged the world debut of its 2013 GS350 sedan. The production sedan carries over the strong grille styling of the LF-GH concept that preceded it but is less aggressive overall. Infiniti uncovered the JX concept, a teaser for a 7-passenger/3-row luxury SUV set to join the line in spring of 2012.

Mini drew a lot of attention with its smallest car yet, the Mini Coupe. This tiny two-door aims to out-cute the Fiat 500 while still delivering the excellent driving dynamics expected from German parent BMW. Cadillac once labeled itself the standard of the world and would like to see this CIEL concept take them back there. The open-top four-seater is a new-age grand-touring throwback. ston Martin used a hilltop Monterey villa as a launching pad for their racy vantage-based V12 Zagato.  A full-production version arrives for the Frankfurt motor show.

And who knows? Maybe one of these future classics will bring home a pebble beach best of show someday! New or old, we can all agree that true automotive beauty is timeless.