Tour d'Elegance will once again put classics on the raceway at Laguna Seca

For a decade or so, a tradition that many considered a highlight of the Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance has been missing. This most anticipated of classic and contemporary automotive beauty and power has always been associated with a love of driving.

Now, that love returns as Rolex, sponsor of the 2013 Pebble Beach Tour D'Elegance, announces that the show will once again have participants lapping the Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca to go along with the Tour drive along the coast to Big Sur.

The 17-mile drive takes the line of beautiful automotive machinery from past and present through the Pebble Beach Resorts on two of the routes cited as the Top Coastal Drives in North America by MSN. The Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance is the deciding factor in Concours wins. If two vehicles tie for a win in their respective categories at the Concours show, the one which completed the Tour will be given the win.

The events begin on August 15 as cars will line up near Collins Field in Pebble Beach and depart early, around 8:00 a.m., and proceed to the Mazda Raceway, through downtown Carmel-by-theSea, and then to Big Sur for the Concours d'Elegance.

"The Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance presented by Rolex underscores the fact that cars are meant to be driven," says Concours Chairman Sandra Button in a statement. "The Tour is the perfect way to experience the elegance of the automobile in motion."

"It will be great to have Concours cars circling the historic raceway once again," says Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance Director Sean Jacobs. "I think many enthusiasts will enjoy the rare opportunity to see not only race cars but even touring cars--such as the Packards, Lincolns, and Duesenbergs, all with wheelbases over 140 inches long--navigating the tight turns of the track."

Indeed. The Pebble Beach Concours is the grandaddy of all other Concours events and is the one most-anticipated by automotive enthusiasts of all ages.