Gallery: Pebble Beach in ten cars

Pebble Beach Concourse d'Elegance 2013 is officially underway, bringing with it brass buttons, red trousers, and the finest cars on God's green earth. And at this year's event, rubbing shoulders with the fantastically exclusive classic stuff, there's been an unprecedented number of new car launches. A useful barometer of this place's newfound importance in the motoring calendar.

Galvanising its spot in the petrosexual's diary are the auctions. Crocodiles of rarefied classics lines up to fall under the gabble for what are truly staggering prices. Click through our gallery and you'll find out how much the world's second most expensive car sold at auction costs, and what badge it has on the boot (HINT: loads, and an Italian one).

So read on as we pick out the ten most important, influential cars from this year's show - old and new - for your delectation...

First up, here's the global reveal of the £200,000 Aston Martin V12 Vanquish Volante. The wraps were pulled off alongside the 2015 V12 Vantage S and the CC100 Speedster concept.

Dutch carmaker Spyker has peeled the cloth off its open-top B6 Venator concept, promising a 375bhp-plus V6-powered production version in 2014. It gets the same six-speed automatic box you'd find in the coupe, and despite the folding roof mechanism, the manufacturer claims it'll weigh less than 1400kg.

Bugatti's been at the paint pots again, showing off the first of six Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse specials called the Bugatti Legends. The first of which doffs its cap to Jean-Pierre Wimile, who won two victories for Bugatti at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1937 and 1939.

Another top-end manufacturer bustling into the fray is Bentley, which is showing off its Mulsanne special edition. It's bristling with fripperies inspired by the manufacturer's best-loved racers, like quad-effect exhausts, diamond-quilted seats, sporty suspension and steering, and drilled aluminium foot pedals.

We've heard a lot about it already, but the Porsche 918 Spider in pre-production guise has also hit Pebble's lawn. As we mentioned in this story, it's not quite the same 9150rpm, 880bhp monster that'll be landing in Frankfurt. Though not a million miles off...

This is the world's second most expensive car sold at auction, and the costliest Ferrari to ever cross the block. It's a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Spider, which brought in $27.5 million, $10m north of the auctioneer's top end estimate. It was the perfect storm for major bidding, though - one owner from new, the engine and body numbers match, and the proceeds went to charity.

This is the snappily titled 1934 Packard 1108 Twelve Dietrich Convertible Victoria, and 2013's overall winner of Pebble Beach Councours d'Elegance. It's one of just three cars built, and according to industry experts at RM Auctions, this accolade can as much as double the car's value.

A decent weekend for the New Jersey-based owners considering that a similar car sold at the 2012 Amelia Island concourse auction for $2,200,000...

In 1955 a coachbuilder called Boano built this concept based on a 1955 Lincoln chassis for the Turin motorshow. It caught Henry Ford II's eye, he bought it there and then, then shipped it home to Dearborn. It won Pebble Beach in 2001, but unlike so many of the cars at this event, this one's driven.

This is the Laraki Motors Epitome concept. OK, so it's built on a C6 Corvette chassis, but wait till you hear the numbers...

The 7.0-litre V8's been gutted and refitted with beefed up internals so it can handle the two turbochargers that Laraki's strapped on. Which means 1,200 horsepower using normal petrol. But if you hit a button, the engine feeds from a different petrol tank - which you fill with 110 octane race fuel - and changes its ECU map, raising output to 1,750hp. Bonkers. Like the $2 million pricetag.

Behold, the 1935 Avions Voisin C25 Aérodyne. What's amazing about this one-of-eight car, aside from its remarkable tech - retracting sunroof, fold-down rear seats, and shortwave radio - is that it sold for just under half of its $3m estimate. Despite that, the Gooding auction it found itself in still managed to pull in $86m in total...