Spend Father's Day on Rodeo Drive -- Dad won't mind

With Mother’s Day done and dusted, the next headache is Father’s Day, a breed who are notoriously difficult to buy for -- or please in any way. But help is at hand. This coming June 15, take Pop to Rodeo Drive, set among the rolling hills of Beverly. No, not to do any shopping (as if), but to attend the 2008 Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance. Which is a fancy-schmancy name for a car show.

This year’s event is themed: ‘Haute Wheels: Celebrating Car Couture’ which is a fancy-schmancy way of saying that there will be some pretty high-end machines there. “An extraordinary array of antique and contemporary automobiles [that] focuses on custom coachwork and exceptional style,” say the organizers. Such as this DuBonnet Xenia Hispano-Suiza H6C Saoutchik Coupe (which obviously had to have a long nose just to fit the name down the side). This is a joint creation by race driver and pilot Pierre DuBonnet and designer Jacques Saoutchik that blends aspects of automotive and aircraft designs.

And just to show that they do build ’em like they used to, a new Bugatti Veyron (contender for the fastest and most powerful production car in the world) will be joined by a Versace Edition of a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640, one of only 10 in existence. In addition, there will be around 100 exotic and classic cars with a combined value of about $75 million. It all happens between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the 300 and 400 blocks of North Rodeo Drive. Unusually for the area, admission is free to the public, which should really please Pop. And dutiful daughters can go look for shoes. More information is just a click away.

-- Colin Ryan