Braking News · Art and Racing
The Car-Art Lover’s Calendar: Pebble Beach, Le Mans and Monaco Historique
A concours lawn, a coastal road and a street circuit offer very different ways to look at a car. For an automotive art enthusiast, the pleasure is in comparing them: the same interest in shape can lead to a poster, a sketch or a racing photograph. Here are the subjects from Pebble Beach’s 2026 celebration and the announced events ahead in 2027 and 2028, with a few ideas for giving your looking a purpose.
Pebble Beach at 75
The 75th Pebble Beach Concours result put a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster at the center of the story. The Best of Show winner had originally belonged to Clark Gable. The 2026 field included 218 cars: 33 international entries from 14 countries and 185 US entries from 30 states. The celebration also took the Concours’ total charitable giving past $50 million.
The next Concours is August 15, 2027. Put that date beside a simple visual question: what makes a car command your attention before you know its name? Try a silhouette study, leaving out badges and fine detail. Then look again for the relationships between the wheels, body and open space. This gives you something more personal than a list of famous machines to pursue.
Keep the 2026 winner and the 2027 date distinct in your notes. A result tells you what was recognized at one event; it does not tell you which subjects will be on the next show field.
Three posters, one tradition
Announced on July 15, 2026, Pebble Beach’s official 75th poster collection comprised three original works by Tim Layzell. Each offers a different answer to the question of how to place a car in a picture.
The Concours poster shows all three Alfa Romeo BATs approaching the Awards Ramp. BAT stands for Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica; these early-1950s studies explored aerodynamic resistance. The three were first united at Pebble Beach in 1989. For a drawing exercise, compare their outlines before attempting small details. Ask which shapes you would keep if your picture had room for only a few strong lines.
The Tour d’Elegance poster puts a 1954 Ferrari 375 America Vignale Cabriolet on Highway 1, with Bixby Bridge in the background. It is the only cabriolet among the 12 Ferrari 375 Americas built. Try reading the image as a journey: follow the road through the composition, then notice where the car interrupts or continues that movement.
The first-ever Road Races poster commemorates the races on a 1.8-mile circuit through Del Monte Forest that inspired the Concours’ creation. Here the subject reaches beyond an individual car to the event’s origins. Compare that approach with the Awards Ramp scene and the coastal-road scene. In your own notes, give each picture a short description of what its setting contributes. That exercise works just as well with a favorite racing poster at home.
Le Mans: the 95th running
The 2027 Le Mans announcement gives 9 to 13 June for the edition and lists a 16:00 start for the 95th running. Treat the announced event dates and the race-start time as separate pieces of information when planning what you want to follow.
For an art exercise, choose a scene rather than trying to describe the whole occasion. Is your interest the car’s outline, the relationship between several cars, or the setting around them? Write that down before gathering reference material. A precise subject makes it easier to decide which details belong in the picture.
Keep the event year attached to every reference you use. If you are making a period racing scene, leave a space for details still to be checked rather than quietly borrowing them from a different year. A calendar supplies a date; your picture still needs its own clear subject.
Monaco Historique returns in 2028
The Automobile Club de Monaco announces that the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique returns in 2028. Its races bring vintage machinery onto the Principality’s narrow, winding streets. The series are divided by era and vehicle type, including pre-war cars, front- and rear-engined F1 cars, sports prototypes, Formula Juniors, and naturally aspirated or turbocharged single-seaters.
The organizer names marques including Bugatti, Maserati, Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren, Ligier and Brabham. Rather than making the badge your only guide, pick a category to compare. In a sketchbook, leave separate spaces for the overall outline, the wheel positions and a detail that caught your eye.
Only the return year is announced in this event description, so keep 2028 as a year marker rather than assigning a weekend. For historical artwork or model reference, also distinguish the date of the event you are observing from the period you want to represent. Those are different labels, and both deserve room in your notes.
Making the most of a show day
Give yourself a small looking project. Choose one theme — an outline, a reflection, the relationship between car and scenery — and make a few notes around it. The aim is to leave with a useful comparison, not a catalog of everything you passed.
If you take photographs, pair an overall view with the detail you wanted to remember. Record the car identification from its display information when available, and mark anything uncertain as a question. Keep those notes together with the event name and year so that a striking curve does not become an unidentified curve later.
Finish each set of notes with a short caption you could put beside a drawing. Name the subject, identify the setting, and say what interested you. Then underline any statement that needs checking. You will have a small, usable brief instead of a folder of unexplained photographs.
Back home, compare what you noticed with a poster or painting. Which parts did the image emphasize? What did you emphasize? The difference is a useful starting point for your next sketch, and an excuse to look at the car all over again.