Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance: luxury, passion and irony in LA

It was the thirty-first edition of the Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance in Beverly Hills, and the enthusiasm and success made it feel like the first. The idea is a brilliant one: Los Angeles's most celebrated street, home to the great names in fashion and luxury, closes its doors to become an exhibition of automobiles that are as extraordinary as they are curious and singular. A spectacle for everyone, entirely free of charge, in the name of the automobile as a way of life. The 2026 edition also had the honour of celebrating 250 years of the United States, the centenary of Route 66, and the fiftieth anniversary of Rodeo Drive itself.
The Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance can count on an incomparable setting along Los Angeles's most celebrated street, transformed for the occasion into a grand automotive celebration.
The cars did not arrive unaccompanied: a number of figures well known for sustaining automotive culture were on hand. Among them Bruce Meyer, the soul and President of the Concours, and Jay Leno, television personality and celebrated American comedian, long regarded as one of the most prominent champions of collecting and restoration. Along the gentle slope of the patrician Rodeo Drive as it descends toward Beverly Hills, some of the most captivating automobiles in the world were on display: Ferrari, numerous and greatly admired, alongside Rolls-Royce, Duesenberg, and modern hypercars drawn from the most exclusive collections and dealerships in California. Cinema cars were present as well — as they could hardly not be in Hollywood — among them the celebrated Batmobile used in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

Best of Show went to a remarkable 1913 Mercedes 37/95 Double Phaeton Torpedo from the Nethercutt Collection, a choice that confirms how, even within a setting this spectacular and populist, historical merit remains at the centre of the judging.
Bruce Meyer, President of the Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance, alongside Jay Leno, one of the most celebrated ambassadors of automotive culture in the United States.
The spirit of the event surfaces in the names of the awards themselves: consider the wry humour of the Police Chief Award, dedicated to cars that best embody speed and performance in a country where speed limits are rigidly enforced, or the Fire Chief Award, which stirs the soul with the most spectacular new arrivals, through to the prestigious Steve McQueen Award, reserved for the great classic sportscars so beloved by the famous actor. Recognitions that speak both to the most seasoned collectors — proud to receive a trophy that is charmingly unconventional — and to visitors, who grasp the precise mix that binds passion, enjoyment, and the respect owed to those for whom the automobile is, even professionally, an essential point of reference. Steve McQueen, through his great films about cars and racing; the firefighters, always ready to move at a moment's notice to avert tragedy; and the police, feared but indispensable.
Cars of every era on display, from magnificent pre-war machines to modern hypercars. A formula that draws the enthusiasm of enthusiasts of every age.