Southern California is the land of car shows, from lowrider showcases to Cars and Coffee, from Hot Import Nights to car-club bro-downs. But few have the nitpicking fans and million-dollar rides to be considered brethren to the globe's most elite car showcases, such as the granddaddy of them all, the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Except one. And it's right in our own backyard. And it's free. We're talking about the Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance, which has grown from an annual Father's Day block party to a real powerhouse of rare metal lined up on a closed Rodeo Drive. The latest edition celebrated Beverly Hills' centennial and featured such blue-blood cruisers as a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special, a 1957 Abarth Zagato 750 GT Corsa owned by Swedish royal Carl Gustav Magnusson and a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT. People in roped-off VIP areas are known to wear white and sip Champagne from plastic flutes, but it's much cooler to walk the street in your jeans and inhale that six-figure, old-car smell. —Dennis Romero

Rodeo Drive at Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, 90210, rodeodrive-bh.com.

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