Wherein a motoring scribe describes four days in the motoring paradise that is Monterey Car Week.

Thursday of Monterey Car Week is the day of the Tour d’Elegance where many of the cars scheduled to be on display at the Pebbie Beach Concours d’Elegance take a drive around the area and wind up on Ocean Avenue in downtown Carmel for all to see for free. It is also a good day to preview some of the auctions.

Today we reach back into the My Car Quest archives and re-post A Connoisseur’s Monterey Car Week – 2017 – the Wallace Wyss story about his car week in 2017. This is the fourteenth of the My Car Quest Archives Series.

I do hope you all are staying safe and healthy and that you enjoy these flashbacks as a reminder of what next year can be.

Mike Gulett, Publisher and Editor

by Wallace Wyss –

Four days is not enough. That became abundantly clear when you look how many activities are packed into Monterey Car week. As the parachute boys used to say, one has to “hit the ground running” in order to see as much as you can in the time allotted.

I landed in town –the town being the tiny village of Carmel–on Thursday, at noon. This is by far the most daunting event to go to because there are ten times as many cars in town that day than the town is designed for. I only had to park one mile away and hoof it but my poor wife wouldn’t have been able to make it if I hadn’t dropped her off first.

So after the long trek, I found myself on the main street with a wide variety of cars parked from the Tour d’Elegance, most of the cars destined for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance later in the week.The deal is participate in this show on the streets and you get extra points which could figure in a concours win.

What makes this event fun is 1.) it’s free and 2.) you get to observe the reactions of ordinary people—including tourists who had scheduled a trip to the Peninsula long before and had no idea of the arrival of Monterey Car Week–to the sight of cars that they had never heard of, or envisioned, everything from hand-built prewar luxury cars to a custom Pontiac bodied in Italy. That’s entertaining in itself, seeing their reactions. “Gobsmacked” is the adjective that comes to mind.

Friday morning was the Quail, offering in a tranquil valley a very rich sampling of historic cars and some brand new ones. This is not a “run what you brung” show but a “curated one” where, if a car is there, there is a reason for it being there, even though occasionally you see a custom, like one of Terry Cook’s pseudo-prewar classic hot rods like modern day interpretations of French streamline moderne. There’s even Porsches redone by Singer, which are interesting because basically they are customs but you might say “customs” for the cost-is-no-object customer.

The event costs over $600 for a ticket, which are sold months in advance, and limited in availability, but I have to say in a way it’s worth it because of the “curated” cars (not too many of any one model) and the way the automakers displaying their new cars go to great lengths to put you in the mood (couches, music, free drinks) as you enter their little slice o’ heaven.

This Monterey Car Week event is in Carmel Valley and I was glad I went at the opening moment because as I drove out later I saw the most horrendous traffic jam, filled with such like as Bugattis, Lamborghini Miuras and the like, all cars that yearn for the open road and not liking traffic jams and I am sure the owners were regretting they stopped for breakfast first (though I noticed they weren’t opening the three restaurants on site until 11 am…..)

On Saturday was Concorso Italiano, a very casual concours over in Seaside on the a golf course that was once part of a sprawling military base. It’s not a curated show, in the sense that there is no selection process, you just pay the entry fee and buy a spot but the great thing about this show is that they try earnestly to not just be snobby and favor one marque over another (they didn’t invite Ferrari clubs to come until they had been in existence for five years). So the result is you see an odd ball like a Fiat Topolino.

Most interesting to me this year was the Iso Fidia, a four door sedan designed by Giugiaro at Ghia, that was shown mid-restoration, no interior, you could see the raw wiring and it served as a a warning to those who buy unrestored cars—i.e. “This is what it’s going to take to do it right.” See the Iso Fidia slide show at the end.

Here is a bonus slide show from Concorso Italiano – 2017 – photos by Mike Gulett

I also like to see the presence of a wrecking yard that has smashed classics because, let’s face it, not all of us can afford to buy one new.

They had a new artist this year, and I humbly have to admit his work is better than mine, but my own art booth there kept the wife busy. Our highest selling work was a canvas of a pre-war “streamline modern Figoni et Falaschi Delahaye, while the Ferrari canvases didn’t sell (though the paper ones did).

Really entertaining at Concorso is the running commentary, interviews of owners whose clubs in attendance had voted “best such-and-such brand there” or some such, because the knowledge of emcees Keith Martin (publisher of Sports Car Market Magazine) and Matt Stone, former Motor Trend editor, and Miles Kitchen, an engineer who knows his nuts and bolts, is so vast they can always come up with a bit of history to augment what the owner says.

Plus they had ladies strutting the latest in Italian fashion and even a speedboat that had a connection with Italy.

Saturday night I put on my slacks, dress shirt, two tone shoes and double breasted white blazer and mixed in with the high rollers at the Rolls Royce party, at a stone edifice that looks like something Jay Gatsby would have lived in, on the ocean’s edge, with a pool, outdoor fireplaces, catered food, and very little mention of The Product, not like the Bentley House, which had a room devoted to showing you the leather choices and even dashboards which could be designed to commemorate life’s greatest moments (like the time you climbed Kilimanjaro …).

Saturday night, I also tried to get into the much touted 70-car Ferrari display, but first at the clubhouse Ferrari was renting for VIP customers, there was no chance of the media entering (who be the media? Do you have $895?). So I tried to find out when we can see the 70 cars and got no answer.

Saturday evening is also the day of the Automotive Fine Art Society art preview, which takes place in a large tent on the same turf as the Pebble Beach concours and almost every artist there was present to show and explain, if need be, their latest work. I was completely befuddled by a stack of wood, a sculpture by Dennis Hoyt, that was supposed to represent a car and cost $45,000 –was this some sort of cosmic joke–but then forgot about it as I fell in love with the work of James Dietz, a historical painter (who has won awards for the historical accuracy of his paintings) who had one sort of sci-fi canvas featuring a prewar car. Then another painter had wild almost tropical colors and told me bravely “I’ve never been afraid of color.”

Being a painter myself. I could understand what he was saying but remain intimidated. You can buy an art work right there, but I presume they delay you from picking it up until after the concours because that way throughout the concours, anyone with a concours ticket can go to the show.

Sunday afternoon I went back to the 70 Years of Ferrari show, only 100 feet from the concours. It was worth it. The 70-car display was very roomy, the cars at least 10-30 ft. apart from each other on a vast golf green, and very well “curated” with at least half the cars rare rare models (I counted three 250GTOs, each worth at least $50 million depending on racing heritage) and very few cars that would be regular “used cars.”

They also had some limited edition models like the Aperta, and cars that you’ve heard about but have very little chance of ever seeing in person. I appreciated the small identifying signs, which didn’t block off the views of the cars, a sin at other shows. Alas there were no owners present when I was there, so no chance to see the engines, but then again it would be hard to get a good photo of the car if everyone had the lids lifted.

Sunday morning I caught a shuttle to Pebble so early that I actually entered the vaunted event without anyone asking for my ticket! I saw 100 people already there (the legendary “Dawn Patrol”) lined up chock-a-block along a small asphalt driveway, as each concours entrant rolled by to their assigned place. The lighting was gloomy due to clouds and ocean fog, but my digital camera took no notice and took the pictures, photos are no longer prisoners of the film speed.

Only a few cars were on the water’s edge, haven’t determined how they choose these, but I noticed Bruce Meyer’s SWB Berlinetta, a car with LeMans history, a couple GTOs and a 250LM. There were also Ferraris known not by racing history but more by Who Owned Them like the Ingrid Bergmann/Roberto Rossolini coupe, a one-off by Pininfarina and the 400 Superamerica in Kelly green paint ordered new by Giovanni Agnelli. In the rest of the concours there were no less than four different classes containing Ferraris.

Very oddball, re: “authentic history” was the inclusion of custom cars at the far end, some of which had splendid craftsmanship but really you wonder now, 50 to 60 years later, what were the owners/builders thinking? They look like leftover props for ‘50s sci-fi movies, except for the sports car/hot rod by GM engineer Herb Adams with Euro styling, which I believe I photographed for a magazine some 50 years ago!

Now ya think an old car veteran scribe like me would have seen everything before but I saw two things at Pebble I hadn’t seen before. One was an old prewar car with a polished aluminum deck stem to stern that had a luggage rack suspended above the body, and another was a Delahaye with curved tailfins, (similar to the BAT prototypes by Bertone). Too bad at least two of the Delahayes had prominent proboscis, the result of a public fascination with the Norval whale back then, so basically they put whale noses on classic cars! Go figure.

I tried in vain to gain access to the hospitality suites at Pebble, where, if you succeed, you are treated royally, but motoring scribes are, as it turns out, far lower on the pecking order than large dealers who sell millions of dollars worth of cars for the brand sponsor of the suite.

McLaren did invite me in to their tent, on the grounds of the concours green, and it astounded me that their tent is so big, when Ferrari has no such tent on the green, indicating perhaps how aggressively they are courting the Ferrari buyers.

I think that Monterey, with its sort of “curated” demographics (hotel prices like $480 a night with a 4-night minimum tend to weed out the middle class), is threatening major auto shows with the ability to field monied prospects who want to see what’s new in new models and/or concept cars, and there were several such cars there, mostly at Pebble on the “dream car lawn” in front of the Lodge but also scattered about Pebble Beach.

In the concepts, I couldn’t take Mercedes long nose two seater seriously, like they are bringing back the long, long bonnet, but I personally always like that design theme. The electric powered Bentley had a glitzy interior, but overall the shape is reminiscent of a Camaro convertible that cost about 1/10th the price. The Aston Martin Zagato convertible was nicely shaped, but it’s a shape about the imitation ‘50s Oldsmobile-style fluted tail lamps.

I was impressed by a four door sedan called a Faraday (isn’t that some name going back to the beginning of electricity, like Tesla?) and some other electric car. I view these non-combustible engine cars as The Enemy, a prognosticator of our autonomous electric powered automotive future but then who am I to stop progress, right?

There was still time Sunday to squeeze in the race track, at under $70, one of the bargains of Car Week, and there I saw some interesting cars in the pits, though one wonders “Are they real?” (I have to check out the Cobra Daytona coupe, was I looking at one of the six or a replica?) The track also has a vast arcade of tents where you can buy books, model cars and souvenir clothing. Parking, if you park on the hills that surround the track, is precarious and your car gets dirty, which is why the more pristine-minded avoid the track.

This year, there being only so many hours in a day, I missed all the auctions, though in previous years I enjoyed the RM which has some of the cars in the hotel’s square (it’s circular, though) and you can walk around and kick tires of the cars about to go through.

I packed it in Sunday night, realizing as I left the Monterey Peninsula that I was re-entering ordinary civilization. That wonderful dream environment evaporated by the time I hit the 101 freeway. I had seen everything I expected to see and even a few things I didn’t. True, I had spent $1,000 (even with media passes) but I can once again look back and say “I was there” for another year.

Let us know what you think in the Comments.

 
 
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is putting the final touches on an anthology of fiction short stories set in the world of collector cars. He is actively looking for a film scout to market it. He can be reached at photojournalistpro2@gmail.com.

 

 

 

Iso Fidia at Concorso Italiano during Monterey Car Week – photos by Mike Gulett.

The Pete Whitehead owned Iso Fidia in the process of being restored by Maurice Mentens. Based on what I saw this will be the best Iso Fidia in the world when done.

Mike Gulett

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