Celebrating most prestigious, and junkers, of automobile world

On the central coast of California, car enthusiasts can marvel at the most prestigious and the junkers of the automobile world, all in one weekend. 

No place celebrates the elegance of the automobile quite like the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Like bubbles in champagne, these vehicles have risen to the top as some of the most exclusive and valuable collector cars in the world.

This invite-only event is chaired by Sandra Button, who exudes a very serious air about it all — for good reason. Button said for some, owning one of these cars is "like owning an art form."

"As more and more time goes by, as caretakers, it's important that we keep them authentic. That we're really here for the cars," Button said. 

But just up the road from the perfect green carpet of the 18th fairway in Monterey, on the not-so-manicured laws of the Seaside City Hall, is another event that's gained popularity.

The Concours d'Lemons is a more corndog than caviar event that's an ode to the less desirable, less loved and less expensive driveway dwellers.

Alan Galbraith stitched together this monstrosity in 2009. He calls himself the "head gasket of the Concours d'Lemons." Like Concours d'Elegance, it's an annual celebration of cars where the vehicles ooze with mediocrity instead of pedigree.

"We kind of figured if there's a top, there needs to be, you know, rock bottom, and that's what we do," Galbraith said.

The car categories say it all. There's the Swedish Meatball class, the Soul Sucking Japanese Appliance class, and the award for Rust Belt American Junk. 

Will Hughes was dressed just as questionably as his award-winning entry — a 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass — the "gutless" as he calls it.  

"It started out from the factory with 75 horsepower. Now it's 50. Sounds like you hit a dog when you get up to 50 miles per hour," Hughes said. 

Galbraith means no disrespect in holding the annual event. It's just the opposite.  

"A lot of people, they'll see a VW Bug and, you know, you can come up with the story of, 'Ah, me and six of my idiot buddies went to a concert. We all crammed in that car and went there,'" Galbraith said. "Not everybody has that story about a Duesenberg or a Ferrari, right? So there's a little bit more of a connection with some of these cars."

There's no Best of Show here – only Worst of Show. This year, Chris Wollard took home the top prize for entering what can only be described as an unidentified driving object. Past winners have included a double-ended Honda and a fur-covered Lincoln Continental named Buttercup. 

When asked what it's like to drive his car, Wollard replied, "It's terrifying. It was a terrible idea. But it looks cool."

As the silly-stringed festivities were coming to an end, Galbraith began shifting gears for the job he'd start the following morning. For all the love he has for Ford Pintos and AMC Pacers at the Concours d'Lemons, he respects the Bugattis and Bentleys at the Concours d'Elegance. In fact, he's a respected lead docent there.

"He's such a trickster and it was just so fun to think on this weekend when Pebble Beach is so serious that somebody was having a little poke at us and having some fun and kind of taking the seriousness out of all of it," Button said.

From the rare to the rotten, Americans' love affair with the automobile is a bit promiscuous. Enthusiasts will stop and look at just about anything with a motor.

"If you're laughing, smiling, having a good time, a little bit of levity into what can be a fairly serious thing. If you're having fun, I've done my job," Galbraith said.

In:

• California