Rare stars often appear at Concorso Italiano. This Bizzarrini Manta, for example--
By Brandes Elitch
Photos by Petya Elitch
Twenty five years ago, Francis “Frank” Mandarano began what has become known as the “Concorso Italiano.” Mandarano had previously started a club for Maserati owners, and a company to sell Maserati parts, and even a restoration shop, located outside of Seattle.
He published a high quality, collectible magazine, called “Viale Ciro Menotti,” having understood the truism that most car collectors will join a club mainly to get the magazine, but will seldom attend a club event. Despite this, he had the idea to host an event for Maserati owners, which was certainly not as obvious then as it might seem today. He chose Monterey, and the weekend of the Pebble Beach concours and the historic car racing event at the nearby Laguna Seca track (founded in 1973 by Steve Earle, who set the pace for everyone else that followed). At first, it was a small event, just for Maserati owners. After a few years at the Carmel Mission Inn, he moved to the prestigious Quail Lodge, between Monterey and Salinas, in Carmel Valley. This was a Mobil Four Star resort, and it was a Great Leap Forward. He opened up the event to other Italian car owners, but not initially to Ferrari owners, possibly apprehensive that they would dominate the event in any number of ways (and of course, this came to pass as time went by.)
Mandarano was afraid this would happen--hundreds of Ferraris arrive, many with their own trucks. Actually, Jon Shirley brought his vintage Ferrari transporter to CI this year.
From the beginning he was careful to choose a guest celebrity and a variety of themes around Italian cars. He also provided a fashion show for the spouses, opera singers, and other Italian-oriented themes which resonated with the audience. But there were more changes afoot.
Guest and famous designer Tom Tjarda sits in one of his creations, a Pantera, to autograph the sunvisor.
Quail Lodge was bought by Peninsula Hotels from Ed Heber, the original developer. By then, Concorso Italiano entries and attendance had become so large that the show was inconveniencing the homeowners on the property. Concorso was on a year-to-year lease; it was not renewed. Sir Michael Kadoorie, Chairman of the company that owns Peninsula Hotels and a noted collector, formed a committee with Gordon McCall as the lead consultant, to start a new event more in keeping with a Peninsula Hotels property. The new event at Quail Lodge was named The Quail Motorsports Gathering and almost immediately established itself as the most sophisticated event of the week, but was limited to 3000 spectators and 100 cars and constitutes yet another major event for the Peninsula.
Zagato is still around, more or less, and showed an impressive prototype.
With Quail out of the picture, Mandarano moved CI to a golf course on the former Fort Ord, where the event continued. Mandarano ultimately sold to a new owner and because of constant construction traffic problems persisted. In 2008, the new owners relocated to a nearby airport originally built as Fritzche Army Air Field in the 1960s. This provided a different kind of ambience: a strong wind which blew dirt all over the cars, parked as though they were, well, in an airport parking lot. There was a backlash from the understandingly enraged exhibitors. CI reappeared under the ownership of Tom McDowell and was revitalized by a move to Laguna Seca Golf Ranch in 2009, where it was also held this year.
Italias are Michelotti's secret masterpieces, and are more attractive in person. Dan Greene took first in class with this Triumph Italia number 52.
Concorso is bigger than ever. And big is the operative word here – it is clearly the largest Italian car show in the US, and probably in the world. This year there were at least nine themes, including 45 years of Bizzarrini, a Ferrari F40 reunion, a new Zagato prototype, and special guests Leonardo Fioravanti, Valentino Balboni, Tom Tjarda, Lili Bertone, and Michael Robinson, to name a few. Seven manufacturers were featured, and another seven designers. There were dozens of vendors, and special tents for individual car clubs. Yes, there were legions of Alfa Spiders and Ferrari 308’s, but there were also many, many rare and more obscure models. This year is the Alfa Centenary, and almost every postwar model was represented. There were so many Alfas that they may have out-numbered the Ferraris for the first time! Frank Mandarano has since gone on to other things, notably Mandarano Balsamic Vinegar Glaze and Sauce. But it must be said that Frank deserves full marks for his original vision.
Massively overdone, Ghia's Imperials were rare, the last ten being produced in 1965. But even they fit into CI's agenda.
The meet is very inclusive, and this means that non-Italian marques with Italian coachwork are welcomed. One of the most interesting sections of the show included the following: a wonderful 1965 Imperial limousine, handmade out of a convertible frame and coupe body by Ghia (one of ten), a Morgan with a Fiat 2 litre motor (Morgan subsequently made 100 of this version after they saw how successful it was), a Pegaso, a Citroen SM (with the same motor as a Maserati Merak) and a Triumph Italia, which was much more striking in person than in a photo. One of my favorites was a reproduction Alfa race car from around 1953; normally I am not tolerant of fakes, but this was built to such a high standard it was breathtaking. There was a special area for the Cadillac Allante, which did not seem out of place and other areas for BMW, Porsche, and Corvette, which smacked of revenue enhancement and did. But to use a phrase that one of my friends uses on women with a singular appearance, “as a package, it works.”
Alfa CM 3000 replilcar was extremely well executed.
If you are visiting the Monterey Peninsula for what was once called the Monterey Historics (now called Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion…Steven Earle retains the rights to the name Monterey Historic Automobile Races) or the Pebble Beach show, then it would be logical to attend the Concorso. In fact, there are so many car activities that fill out the week that it is impossible to attend them all, even if you could somehow compress time, and could afford them. This last point is worth noting. If you attended all three shows with your significant other, and stayed for the week, you would be hard pressed to get out of there without your wallet being at least $2000 lighter not including any air or car fare.
The author, left, asked Lambo test driver Valentino Balboni to autograph his book.
The Monterey Peninsula is one of the more expensive venues in the US. This puts “going to a car show” in a whole new category than say, attending Hershey or Iola, but truly if you are a real car guy, it is something you must do at least once in your life.
For someone like myself more just an outside interest in automobiles. This article was very informative in content and details. Nice to read about the history and various aspects of the show. Great article and great pictures.
Thanks for the concise history of the Concorso!
this article by brandy elitch is wonderful ; it gives rich background ,as well as the current state and lineup of the concorso . beautifully done , a pleasure to read .—phil
I’d seen pictures of the Manta before and had not been terribly impressed. But it is an absolute stunner up close and in person! I also was unaware (or had forgotten) that it has a central driving position, ala McLaren GT. It was a real pleasure to see this car.
Cheers
Brandy’s timely article really filled in the CI event history gaps for me. Another excellent history piece by a real historian! Good photo coverage too, Ms. E! Are the Imperial Ghia and SM in the photo both yours, as I recall you used to own a couple examples of these?
The first year I went to Monterey for ‘The Weekend’ in 1984, a Ferrari-owner friend invited me to a Ferrari Club concours-like event held at the local Carmel High School Parking lot on the Friday before the races… The following year, Ferraris were part of the Concorso Italiano in its first year at the Quail Lodge. Parking & traffic was crowded from the git-go, and though prices seemed high at the time, they now seem like a steal in comparison to event prices for everything else in ‘the weekend’.
Attending yearly for the next 20 years became a must-do that I’ve never regretted having spent the money on. There’s nothing else remotely like it. As more and more events were added on, we arrived earlier and earlier – eventually making a full 10-day week of it beginning with the pre-Historics, yet the Concorso Italiano has always the highlight event for me, with the Historic races a close second. Even if I couldn’t attend any of the events – seeing all the amazing and rare cars driving on the roads around Carmel and Monterey each of the weekends would have been reason enough to get a room!