Everyone knows about the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elégance, which is a problem: When you’re the type to spend eight figures on a vintage Ferrari, the thing you want is exclusivity. Because, in a country of 300 million people, the one percent is hardly an elite club.

That’s what makes The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering the real place to be. Held a few days before the concours, the event limits ticket sales to just a few thousand and displays cars in classes like “Iconic Pre-1965 Porsches” and “The Great Ferraris.”

Auto enthusiasts in attendance are served complimentary champagne and cocktails, and go for an attire we’ll call country club excess: gentlemen in exuberantly colored pants and loafers, ladies in hats worthy of exploration by New Horizons. And there are non-conformists: the lady with the questionable “Lamboprincess” back tattoo, the guy accompanied by a pork bun-gobbling parrot...

Alex Davies, for WIRED