Gallery: On the Dawn Patrol at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

Pavel Kasik’s 1936 Tatra T77 was stunning in every regard, easily justifying its category win. Photos by author.

Conventional wisdom states that in order to photograph cars in a relatively unobstructed manner, one must get to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance show field early, and that duty is affectionately known as the Dawn Patrol. This year, the Hemmings staff opted to play it safe, arriving onsite sometime prior to 5:00 a.m., nearly two hours before first light and a full five and a half hours before the gates open to spectators.

Shivering through the pre-dawn chill was worth it, as we managed to capture the majority of the cars in this year’s show, and many of them will appear in upcoming issues of our magazines. Rather than make our readers wait, however, we thought it appropriate to present a gallery of images captured on this year’s Dawn Patrol.

This 1909 Stanley Model R Gentleman’s Speedster steam car is one of eight surviving examples.

Each of the thumbnail images below is named with the year, make and model of vehicle shown. They’re presented in chronological order, and don’t necessarily represent category winners. Instead, they’re cars that caught my eye as I made my way through the show field in the early morning light. If they have anything at all in common, it’s this: As with any vehicle displayed at Pebble Beach, each is spectacular in some manner, and a worthy candidate to represent the marque in show competition. Enjoy!