Seven Days in L.A.; One week in June has become a celebration of car culture in la la land.(Brief Article)

Who says there's no culture in Los Angeles? There is some car culture, if nothing else. Every year, centered around the Concours on Rodeo on Father's Day, is a week's worth of automotive celebration that, you could argue, rivals the best car stuff anywhere.

The well-connected can start the week with the ultra-exclusive California Classic Rallye. It's limited to 35 or 40 cars and has no cutoff date for model years. In the past it has been graced with automotive luminaries like Carroll Shelby, Phil Hill and Dan Gurney. Some years the cars are the stars. This year's rally featured everything from a 1913 Stutz Bearcat and a 1915 Marmon Speedster to a new Maserati Spyder and a pair of Ferrari 360s. The rally was started by collector Jim Hull, who modeled it after the Historic Monte Carlo Rallye that he participated in several times in Europe. The California Rallye features the best back roads in the state, of course, but like its European progenitor, includes stops at luxury resorts. It stretched over five days this year and ran from Beverly Hills to Monterey and back. Call (310) 589-5890 to get in on the 2003 run.

The rally returned to Los Angeles in time for the Petersen Automotive Museum's big fund-raiser, the fifth annual Cars and Stars Gala on June 13. This year's event raised $1.25 million for the Petersen Museum Foundation and helped kick off the ``Million Dollar Cars'' exhibit, which runs through Jan. 27. The draw is that, you guessed it, all 30 cars are worth over a million bucks each. The field includes a Bugatti Royale and Type 57C, a '38 Dubonnet ...