Wheels of Fortune Impress 9,000 Automotive Fans : Competition: At the 13th annual Newport Beach Concours d’Elegance benefit, spectators marvel over nearly 200 classic--and pricey--cars.

Peter Kukay was a motorcycle drag racer in his teens--competing at top speeds against some of the fastest dragsters of the 1960s.

So it was with more than casual interest that the veteran road warrior and automobile enthusiast went to a golf course-turned-auto museum Sunday where exhibitors rolled in nearly 200 antique and classic contemporary cars for the Newport Beach Concours d’Elegance.

“I have a problem with contemporary-car shows. The new cars all look like appliances,” said Kukay, 45, an artist based in Inglewood, who was among about 9,000 automobile buffs at the Pelican Hill Golf Club.

“People who come learn that all the cars you see here you can no longer buy because they just don’t make them anymore. It’s like going to a museum,” he said, studying a 1932 roadster in the hot rod exhibit area, the newest addition to the 13th annual benefit for the Assessment and Treatment Services Center in Santa Ana.

The $15-per-person event raised about $100,000 for the center’s juvenile diversion program, breaking the $1-million mark in funds raised since the car show began in 1982.

The Assessment and Treatment Services Center is a nonprofit organization that has served families in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Tustin and Orange for 21 years. It helps troubled children who have been identified by schools, police and other referral sources, and through intervention works to prevent children from developing lifelong dysfunctional and anti-social behavior, said Melinda Guinaldo, executive director. The net profits of the event go to the center, accounting for one-fourth of its yearly budget.

More than 100 cars, including turn-of-the-century antiques, vintage American and European cars and exotic sports cars competed at the show, where some 60 automotive experts judged the vehicles for their quality of restoration, authenticity and beauty.

Among the unusual autos on display were a 1930 Isotta Fraschini Special Tourer, one of only two in the world, and a General Motors Corvette Cerv 3, a “1990-something concept car,” according to a GM engineer.

Designed in 1984, the concept car was completed last year, but never made it to dealers and remains the only one of its kind. “It’s a purely engineering vehicle. . . . It’s never going to happen,” said Dick Balsley of GM.

Like patrons visiting an art gallery, car enthusiasts lit up when asked about their favorite works of art.

Carol and Jack Cross of Newport Beach, who described themselves as “car nuts,” noted that the concept car was their favorite in the show.

Meanwhile, Jim and Cassie Hellinger of Long Beach leaned toward the late-’60s American and European sports models. And for Valerie Driscole, a columnist for a Southern California trade magazine on race cars, it was like being a child in a toy store.

“I’d be very dangerous in one of these,” she said, pointing at a 1983 silver Countach Lamborghini. She later said the same about a 1958 Fiat Coupe, a 1995 Ferrari and a slew of other hot rods in the park.

Said Kukay: “Americans have always been in love with cars. It has always represented freedom, and as soon as an adolescent gets a driver’s license, it’s like a rite of passage to adulthood.”

Likewise, the Assessment and Treatment Services Center wants kids to have a trouble-free passage into adulthood. This event helps them do that, Guinaldo said.