A look at 17-plus images that illustrate how 17-Mile Drive laid the pavement for Car Week.

Before the Gooding & Company started auctioning cars off for more than the GDP of some countries, before the Rolex Reunion sent classic cars roaring around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, before the Concours d’Elegance got its start, before the storied Pebble Beach Road Races of the 1950s, before driving – or cars – were a thing, there was 17-Mile Drive.

It sowed the seeds of an auto culture that’s bloomed brilliantly and throatily since.

Neal Hotelling knows this better than anyone who’s tapped a gas pedal. He’s the Pebble Beach Company historian and the author of the captions that appear with these historic images on and around 17-Mile Drive.

“A lot of people aren’t aware of this,” he says, “but it was a place where motorcars began to gather as early as they were around.”