Brandes Elitch: True Believers and Monterey

Story by Brandes Elich
Photos by Bill Green unless otherwise noted

The “Historics” is a catch-all phrase given to the multiple events occurring during “Car Week” on the Monterey Peninsula, including the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Historic Car Racing at Laguna Seca, the Quail Lodge extravaganza, and the Concorso Italiano, among others.

While there are many other iconic motoring events across the country, it is this combination of so many compelling events and the sheer diversity of the cars and content that makes the Historics so unique. And the crowds – about 85,000 of your fellow car enthusiasts converging on two small tourist towns, Carmel and Monterey, all trying to get to the same place at the same time on roads that have only one or two lanes, with multiple stop signs, traffic signals, etc., in short, gridlock, an integral part of the Historics experience.

There are really two sides to the Historics. One side is the true car enthusiasts, people who cherish their cars and spend years or even decades restoring and safekeeping them. They have fabulous stories to tell about where they found their car and what the restoration entailed. I met many of these people last week. They are the true believers. But increasingly, their dedication, perseverance and passion is overshadowed by another irrepressible force that is impossible to ignore, and I think it is time to address it squarely and openly.

I cannot say it any better than Peter de Lorenzo. If you do not subscribe to his weekly blog at www.autoextremist.com, I suggest you do so. Here is what Peter had to say about the Historics:

“It’s clear that the car enthusiast culture – or what’s left of it- has been overrun by con artists, spineless weasels, clueless marketing twerps, greed merchants, poseurs, and too many (but not all) in the media who display more go-along-to-get-along, “Thank you sir, may I have another” cheerleading…As for the auction houses, or as I refer to it, the “circus of artificial enthusiasm,” we have received an unending series of come-ons…there is no excitement generated by these communiques, just a gloomy emptiness hanging in the air over machines that once brimmed with passion and creativity, but are now relegated to marks on a ledger…these machines are paraded on stage – souls removed- only to end up in antiseptic, “perfect” garages until they’re prepared for another auction down the road. This isn’t about the car culture or the sheer passion once associated with these automobiles, now it’s the living, breathing embodiment of Greed is Good.”

Well, this is certainly a sobering commentary on the whole situation, and Peter hits the nail right on the head, as he usually does in his weekly column. If you are careful, you can avoid most of this sort of thing. It is typically most noticeable around the auctions, which I avoid like the plague, and owners of relatively new “supercars.” But when you hang around true aficionados of a single marque, or people who have owned their cars for a long time, you can disassociate yourself from this nonsense and hopefully is becomes just background noise. Frankly, I believe that most readers of VeloceToday are the true believers, [You bet we are…Ed.] not the hangers-on and poseurs and speculators, which is why we do this in the first place. Anyway, when you focus on the compelling offerings that are on display, then you can really appreciate the uniqueness of the Monterey experience to its fullest, without any distractions, well, except for the traffic, and trying to find a place to eat, another hopeless task this weekend.

Italian racing history as presented by the Moto Talbott Museum.

The True Believers; those are the people you want to meet. And they are everywhere during the Historics (read about True Believers in the UK; The Last Refuge of the Enthusiast). These are the owners who have spent years, or even decades, on a restoration. They are the upholsterers, mechanics, electricians, engineers, sheet metal workers, painters, and all the other specialties which used to be called “guilds,” comprised of artisans who have spent a lifetime learning their trade. For them, it is like opening night at the theatre, seeing the car that they have worked on for years finally displayed to the public for the first time. These people are not highly visible, and they are not wearing fancy clothes, nor do they have a sweater carefully hanging off their back and sunglasses on the top of their head. They are standing with their car, or hanging around in the background, not parading up and down Route One in their new supercar, blipping the throttle. But if you go up to them and ask, “Can you tell about this car? How long have you had it? What did you have to do to it? Can you tell me about its history?” then you will find the true believers grateful to be asked, and pleased to tell you their story. We will cover a few of them in the subsequent two articles, one on the Quail Lodge event, and one on the Concorso Italiano.

But now I want to tell you about one True Believer who has assembled a magnificent collection of mostly Italian motorcycles, including more MV Agustas than you will ever see in one place, right there in Carmel Valley. It is called Moto Talbott and it is owned by Robb Talbott, whose parents Robert and Audrey started the luxury necktie company Talbott Ties many years ago. Subsequently Robb worked with his father to start a different business, Talbott Wines. Last year, he sold the winery, acreage, and tasting room to Gallo. I had heard rumors about this museum at the Quail Lodge Motorcycle show a few months ago (link here), but it was not ready for prime time back then. After viewing the Pebble Beach cars on Ocean Avenue in downtown Carmel, I walked past the Talbott clothing store, popped in, and asked, “Any news on when the motorcycle museum might open?” The reply was, “It is supposed to open on the 25th, but we just heard that they are having a soft opening today!” Photographer Bill Green and I immediately ran to the car and headed out to the end of Carmel Valley Road, a little hamlet called Carmel Valley Village.

Talbott started riding in 1964. He raced motocross after that. Today, he is 68 years old. Robb has remodeled the 6000 square foot building to perfectly house the museum. He has over 150 bikes, and the museum can hold about 120 at a time. There are bikes from sixteen countries, but there are basically three categories: vintage dirt bikes, particularly the ones that Rob actually raced himself, Italian bikes, and pre-1957 Italian MotoGiro bikes (175 cc). Rob started acquiring these bikes about fifteen years ago, after someone gave him the book on the Guggenheim museum’s famous motorcycle show in 1998. He prefers pre-1980’s bikes, and most are made in the fifties through mid-seventies. The road bikes are upstairs and the dirt bikes are downstairs, along with an exhibit of motorcycle models and esoterica.

Robb was fortunate in finding the curator and restorer-in-chief, Bobby Weindorf. Bobby is known as a Ducati specialist, and has previous experience as a factory Honda race mechanic, and service tech at ProItalia. Both Bobby and Rob are genial, friendly, and down to earth folks who want to preserve the bikes and get the word out about them. To that end, Rob has created a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation to take care of the museum, in his words, “after I take my last ride.” If that isn’t the essence of a True Believer, I don’t know what is.