Five Days at Monterey

By Wallace Wyss
Photos by Wallace Wyss, Warren Wyss, Dr. Dennis Palladino

Friday August 16, The Quail

Once I wondered why the Quail was created because I thought “well, there is already a Pebble Beach. Why do they need another fancy concours?”

But this is a show created not only for men who are steeped in car culture but for the women to come and show off their finery. I wouldn’t doubt, after seeing the clothes worn by the spectators at the Quail, that many garments were tailored specifically for the occasion. Oh, some were looking at the cars but it is obvious that the Quail is much more of a major social occasion than a car show.

And let me tell you about the Quail’s increasing status in unveiling new creations. True, the De Tomaso P72, a new German-developed prototype using the Italian company’s name, already appeared at Goodwood but at the Quail, in that setting with that clientele, it looked right. It had, so to speak, found its home (and maybe some potential buyers).

Remember when luxury car makers debuted their cars at shows like the LA International Auto Show? Well, they have been dropping out of such shows for years and I say, after seeing the perfect match between the cars shown and the audience paying to see them that the Quail, and Monterey Car Week in general, is a better investment for Rolls, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc. than the major auto shows where, let’s face it, few onlookers can take out a checkbook and order your car.

Among the prototypes shown there were Lamborghini’s new Aventador Roadster, which the rumor mill was saying was completely Sold Out Before Its Monterey Car Week Debut. This year’s Quail had no less than 11 concept cars, including the 1,600 hp Bugatti Centodieci and the 2,000 hp Lotus Evija hypercar. The head of Bugatti , Stephan Winkelman, in his impossibly tight suit, was expounding on the reason for their latest car, which may be the most expensive new car in history as well has the one with the most horsepower on tap.

If there was a trend observable there among the prototypes, it was that the mid-engined car with Lambo style lift up doors is now The Rule. Now I wonder if we can even say mid-engined anymore because if it’s an electric motor that’s propelling it, it has to be called mid-motored since an electric motor is not an engine.

Saturday August 17, Concorso Italiano

The great thing about this show is that they host not only expensive GT cars owned by private owners but even sub-economy cars, Fiat 500 models and even smaller, like the BMW Isetta, a car developed when a crisis in the Mideast cut off Europe from oil. The Isettas were BMW powered.

The most interesting car I caught at Concorso was a late model Ferrari coupe cut down into a spyder (with a skimpy “bikini” top like a Porsche 718 Boxster Spyder) this one converted from a solid roofed car by a California dentist who tried to have a celebrated firm do it on his car first. They dropped the ball so he did his own design and it’s quite fetching. Where did he get his design smarts? He attended Art Center College of Design at night. He’s taking orders on three different models of Ferrari. Price? Not counting the initial price of the stock coupe, it was over $300K!

Alas, Concorso’s longtime lead speaker , Keith Martin, had suffered a stroke just a short time before the event, but relief speakers Matt Stone and Miles Kitchen were able to entertain the crowd and fill in gaps in history. We hope Martin gets well quickly.

Sunday August 18, Pebble Beach

The next day was Pebble. I had to get up early so we could get to Pebble Beach in time. “In time” meant before the cars were surrounded six deep by spectators. This is the 69th concours so they have it pretty well dialed in as far as handling the flood of traffic. Driving in is still a monumental task but they’ve made it simple by allowing you to park along the famous 17 Mile drive and simply hitch a ride in by bus. For free. But only the bus is free. The concours cost over $300 a ticket if you buy it before the day of the event but the fee zooms up past $400 on the day itself.

Before you even enter the Pebble Beach concours there is a free show of sorts, on what I call the “dream car lawn.” Now some of the cars are one-off prototypes, showing the farthest stretch of imagination on what could be coming a few years from now. Others are merely new models due on the market in months. That dream car lawn, I presume, is to whet the appetites of those who hadn’t yet bought a ticket to the big show, a mere 100 feet down toward the sea.

The judging is sort of two-fold, one group pointed to ascertaining originality and authenticity, while another group, the Honorary Judges (which may include ex-design directors of car companies) devotes their attention to design, styling and elegance. The big prize is called “Best of Show.” To be eligible for that a car must first win its class. With so many Bentleys on the field this year it was pretty sure a Bentley would win Best of Show, and sure enough, it was a 1931 Bentley 8 Liter Gurney Nutting Sports Tourer owned by Michael Kadoorie of Hong Kong.

Now some spectators walk the field looking for the prettiest car, but I was looking for a car to inspire a painting, and found a gold Ferrari 250GT California Spyder with closed headlamps. Never seen that color on an old Ferrari before but it made my day.

But I was also looking for some I had never seen before. I am not ashamed to admit that I am still adding to my automotive education—as long as there is a special car I haven’t seen before, I have to keep on learning. Toiling in the auto historian ranks for some decades now, I like to think I’ve seen at least a picture of almost everything but each year Pebble proves me there are holes in my education.

For instance, this year there was a Bentley, in a light gold, that was very bland in styling, and seemed to have Corvair taillights! Who would commit such a sacrilege? Well, the coach builder was Graber of Switzerland and the story was it was the last coachbuilt Bentley on the S3 chassis. The car strongly resembled some Alvis cars they were building at the time.

And then there was a Bentley coupe that looked kind of like a Continental fastback done all wrong, with none of the smooth lines of the Mulliner coupe.

I actually liked seeing these “mistakes” – the road not traveled in production quantity so to speak, because my feeling is that you learn a lot by seeing where a coachbuilder other than the one who was awarded a production contract went wrong.

THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is a fine artist specializing in postwar sports cars. For a list of prints available of his works, write mendoart7@gmail.com