September 12, 2002

by Rick Carey

What's a Spanish-built Pegaso doing at Concorso Italiano? According to its proud owner Jack Vopal, it's because its Panoramica body was built by Touring. What's next, a Pinto class? Ford put Weber carbs on them.

Mike Lynch has given a behind-the-scenes view of Monterey’s A-list secret society, a view that even “working journalists” don’t see.

There isn’t enough time to socialize and work, even with a fistful of invitations.

Monterey is the week(end) where there is simply not enough time to do everything. There isn’t even enough time to do most things and by Sunday evening sleep deprivation is balanced by malnourishment from skipping expendable activities. I do Amelia, Meadow Brook, Castle Hill, Scottsdale and Auburn. There is nothing, simply NOTHING, more exhausting than Monterey. There is nothing better.

Here’s what you really need to know, even if you are, like I am, on Monterey’s D-List.

The Crown and Anchor in downtown Monterey serves comfort food until midnight. This is the single most important piece of information anyone at Monterey needs to know.

Shepherd’s Pie settles nicely on a bed of Guinness at eleven PM. Warm and smooth, it won’t react at eleven AM on the Lawn at Pebble Beach where the Blue Johnnies are disguised behind black curtains and massed lines of distressed revelers and the real bathrooms of The Lodge are out-of-bounds unless you’re wearing a Blue Blazer and Boater.

Jim and Sandy McNeil's Ferrari 250 GTO (s/n 3647) has been theirs since a year after its last race and still has its 1965 Targa Florio tech sticker on the windshield. It is the only GTO still pristine and original, proudly wearing the scars from its Italian racing history. The McNeils brought it to the Monterey Pre-Historics where Sandy put it through its paces until the gearbox called it quits.

A $65 Christie’s auction catalog will get you onto Seventeen Mile Drive throughout the weekend and even into a good parking place on the Equestrian Field on Sunday. It is the Pebble Beach bargain, a great book with lots of good writing (self-serving plug), history and color photos. Buy it by mail or on Thursday because Christie’s audience is limited (serious bidders, however, need not be concerned.) In contrast a Bonhams catalog earns its holders the right to spend $60 each for admission to Concorso Italiano. There are no deals at Quail Lodge and even a preferred parking pass (parking passes are THE Monterey currency) means nothing. Downtown, it takes a wristband (in assorted vile colors of indeterminate significance) to secure admission to RM’s auction where the $50 catalog buys a walk through the preview but not admission to the auction action. Drew Alcazar’s Russo & Steele auction preview is free; the auction at the low-ceiling Marriott seems like a nightclub.

Downtown, park in the municipal structures. The daily rate is cheap and the collectors go off duty at night. Parkers who stay late may drive out for free.

Even with a Christie’s catalog, however, there is no free lunch at Pebble Beach, which keeps raising the price to discourage the hoi polloi, albeit without visible success. It’s a C-Note now and don’t be surprised if it adds another Quarter in the near future. Get there early or consider passing it up. The masses (“This is a Bentley. Oh, it’s a Cadillac.”) rule after 10AM and the award ramp viewing places are blanketed well before then.

Concorso Italiano has become so vast an event it is beyond full appreciation by even the most determined visitors. This shot shows a small fraction of the cars on display, and the masses thronging around them.

Rides: This “working journalist” pedaled a 2-wheel drive Ford Explorer, its great high-eyepoint visibility a real asset in Monterey traffic and its handling surprisingly rewarding driving Cal One to and from Lompoc to see my new granddaughter. Media parking at Pebble beach on Sunday is probably the year’s largest gathering of Press Cars. Monterey is, however, the one weekend a year when a carbon monoxide-spewing, gas guzzling supercar is the ride of choice, cheered and admired by participants and spectators alike. There are no Greens in Monterey this weekend where Testarossas and Diablos outnumber Priuses and Insights a hundred-to-one.

Missed dinner? There’s a McDonald’s on Del Monte Ave. toward Seaside. It has a 24-Hour Drive-Thru. You will need this information, either late at night or in the morning when your stomach begins to cramp up in anticipation of another day in traffic jams.

Traffic Jams: Most people who work in Monterey can’t (no surprise) afford to live there. They arrive every morning from, and escape every afternoon to, Salinas. There is only one road to Salinas. It also is the main route to Laguna Seca. It is gridlock. To get to Laguna Seca go to Seaside on the surface streets and take Del Rey Blvd (Cal 218) East. There is a well-marked back entrance to Laguna Seca. It won’t be quick, but it will be quicker.

Laureles Grade leads over the ridge from Laguna Seca to Carmel Valley. It’s a great road, smooth and twisty, and avoids the congestion where Cal One goes from two southbound lanes to one. Expect, however, slow traffic just as you get your Giulietta’s tires up to temp. The downgrade, in either direction, will cook drum brakes. Don’t look for other shortcuts. There aren’t.

If you don't get onto The Lawn at Pebble Beach early this is what all your shots will look like. Next year I'm joining AFAS and having a one-man show of collected butt shots from years of shooting cars at shows and auctions. The neat car beyond the butts is James Patterson's 1937 Talbot-Lago T150 C SS with spectacular Figoni et Falaschi coachwork.

If you have access to Seventeen Mile Drive (see “Christie’s Catalog” above), a seemingly pointless detour off Cal One down 17 Mile Drive toward The Lodge presents the “Carmel Gate” option through Carmel to Carmel Valley. I can’t chart a course through Carmel (even after thirteen years) but a good nose will find Rio Blvd (past Carmel Mission) which eventually crosses Cal One. A quick left where the left lane turns onto Carmel Rancho Blvd followed by a right at Carmel Valley Road eventually arrives at Concorso Italiano, avoiding the line of Ghiblis, Dinos and Panteras dribbling vivid green coolant on the not-so-freeway. Quail Lodge is about four times farther out Carmel Valley Road than even the most pessimistic attendee ever thinks it is.

There is a good coffee/sandwich shop in the shopping center off Carmel Rancho Blvd. The coffee will be consumed in traffic well before reaching Quail Lodge but the sandwich will be recognized as real food and a bargain at Concorso prices.

This shot shows the car (with the butts exiting stage left). It's no surprise why it won its class.

On Sunday there are only two roads to Pebble Beach from Monterey. One winds through Pacific Grove and you will get lost. Everyone gets lost. Even after years and years everyone gets lost. It is 34 miles long (it may not be 34 miles, but it feels like at least double 17 Mile Drive) and on Sunday officious parkers attempt to direct everyone to spots on the most remote fairway of the Pebble Beach course where the wait is an hour for standing room on a bus that takes forever to get to The Lodge, arriving at least an hour after the hoi polloi have taken over The Lawn.

Waving a Christie’s catalog may help get closer. But don’t count on it.

Then there’s Cal One. Entering the freeway on Munras Avenue from downtown Monterey helps; its merge lane is also the exit lane for Seventeen Mile Drive so Munras Ave. enterees interdict legions of drivers who have been sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic from Watsonville and Salinas. Don’t expect a lot of sympathy. The upper Seventeen Mile Drive entrance is more direct than going through Pacific Grove, and some stupidly gawking drivers’ behavior can be avoided by taking the Crespi Drive cutoff. That is, however, only making the best of a seriously-bad situation. The real answer, despite sleep deprivation, malnutrition and Guinness-head, is to get up early.

Just recounting the tricks and trails learned in eleven years is exhausting, but I’ll be back next year, doing it all again, finding new ways to get lost among spectacular scenery, rare cars and car people enjoying themselves.

Pick a few events and have a great time. There’s always something new at Monterey. No one, not even Mike Lynch, can do it all. Particularly on the D-list.