Monterey Round Up

By Wallace Wyss

Photos by Wallace Wyss and Wayne Martin

McCall’s

One of my first stops was the McCall Motorworks Revival party. This is an evening event thrown at an airplane hangar at the Monterey airport and has a mixture of old planes (one bearing little swastikas for every German plane its pilots shot down—making me wonder, at displays of wartime airplanes in Germany do they have little stars-and-stripes on the fuselage?) modern biz-jets and collector cars and new cars.

Again Horatio Pagani was there and I enjoyed the bling in his car’s interior—so dazzling I wonder what it would be like to drive one in daylight. This event has free food once you paid your way in ($325 a ticket) but you have to step quickly to intercept the roving waiters bearing the food.
There was a neat car that I would call a “steampunk” car that was about 20 ft. long with twelve exhaust pipes. I didn’t hear it run but heard that it was a leftover Packard V12 PT boat engine. There was also a Seagrave fire truck cut down into a hot rod that looked like a character in a CARS movie. I like to see these whimsical examples of the car world, acknowledging the fact that some people don’t take the car world all that seriously—they just build cars for fun!

Rolex Motorsports Revival

On Friday, I found time to go up Route 68 to the Laguna Seca racetrack. This even-called the Rolex Motorsports Revival– is one of the bargains of the week, requiring a mere $60 or so for the day. Alas the racetrack doesn’t want me out on the track shooting pictures but I got a few shots that could make good paintings. There was a display of new and old Maseratis, Masers being celebrated at several venues on account of their 100th anniversary.

At Laguna Seca, we saw a Matra Djet, which could be the first mid-engine production car (or was it the Vallelunga?)

But I also go to the Rolex Revival for the booths, and was impressed with the size of the Carroll Shelby booth , with its striped overalls and straw shit-kicker hats (though I don’t remember Shelby ever being pictured wearing one). I pointed out they didn’t have my Shelby bio but they pointed out they don’t have anyone’s book on Shelby. There were two or three booths with books, about the same number featuring die-cast models, and I had a long conversation with the Bondurant School rep, surprised to learn they now have multiple locations in other cities as well as Phoenix. I told their rep I’d like to sign up for what is similar to the escape-and-evasion school that they taught some SEAL team guys. Even that one is over $4000 but hey, if someone’s after you, it might be worth it.

Concorso Italiano

I didn’t make the Barnyard Shopping Village Ferrari event, which would have had Ferraris cheek-by jowl, but rolled into the Concours Italiano at 8 a.m. Saturday with all guns firing, ready to do business at my art and books booth. Once I arrived at the concours grounds, I was so glad they changed the venue back to the BlackHorse golf club in the middle of what was once Fort Ord because in this new location, if you stand on your tippee-toes you can actually see the blue Pacific and what’s Monterey if you can’ see the ocean (you got three directions to look, it being a peninsula). I was one of at least fifty vendors so didn’t get to see the parade of class winners.

At Concorso there was a fellow selling large fabric wall hangings, apparently first inspired by oil paintings.

That show had what had to be over 100 Ferraris but a sizable number of newer Lamborghinis, plus Alfas and assorted what-not like Fiats, Abarths, Morettis, Bizzarrinis, Isos. I didn’t see a Monteverdi but it could’ve been there. Most of the cars are restored but they do not discriminate against barn finds and who knows, one might be for sale from someone who had the money to buy it but no money left to restore it.

Concorso had a special display devoted to Zagato cars, not all of which were all Italian, some being for instance Aston Martin. It was really great to see the revival of a famous name in car design.

I was at my booth hawking prints of my paintings with some success despite Don Sherman of Car & Driver coming by and calling them “scribblings.” He’s an engineer, I suspect he wouldn’t know art if you hit him on the head with it. I had to admire my wife bargaining half an hour with a 12-year old boy who wanted an oil painting for $100, figuring he’d wear her down but she wasn’t buying it. Later I was carrying around my fly yellow Daytona Spyder painting figuring a guy with a fly yellow Daytona Spyder would be a good prospect but the bloke with the car said he was only showing it for the owner. On the way back another couple saw the painting and on the spot commissioned a painting of their 430 Spyder. Oh happy day!

The booths, in little casbah style tents, have things like artwork, collectable books, some shirts and sweaters and hats, exhaust pipes of greater sound and cosmetic appeal, some antique car parts (at least you can complete that set of Marchal fog lamps), but there’s even booths selling olives, wines, real estate or whatever appeals to this event’s demographics, which I figure has to be appealing to marketers, considering every fan arrives in Monterey with a fistful of dollars.

Pebble Beach

If you have never been to the Pebble Beach Concours, it is almost overwhelming in terms of what you can see. Even though the price for the day is $275 (ah, I remember when it was $40) there is plenty to justify that price. If you could only go to one car event at Monterey, this would have to be it. For one thing it seemed like there were over 200 cars. And special displays for Maserati, Eastern European motorcycles and Fernandez et Darrin Coachwork (I was at events years ago where Dutch Darrin was there, but failed to meet him and ask him about the good old days in pre-war Paris…which would have made a great book for Darrin fans.) But the fun part in 2014 of Pebble was the Tatra cars, from the Eastern bloc. At one time these cars were probably dirt cheap but then they became “discovered” and now a lot of hobbyists want this aerodynamic car with the Big Fin.

Tatras were everywhere, especially at Pebble where they were honored; a local paper made a big deal with headline similar to COMMIE SPY CAR as I guess they were used by the secret police in East bloc countries.

That is the beauty of Pebble Beach—every year the planners pick a main theme and then a couple sub-themes and you never can anticipate years in advance what it will be. In a way, they uplift the whole hobby of car collecting by focusing their spotlight on different niches and making owners of formerly neglected (in terms of recognition) marques very happy.

This British lass set up her paints right on the green at Pebble and did paintings. Now I am an artist but am not nearly so brave.

One thing that happens at Pebble is that you see cars you never have seen in books. I thought I had seen every Rolls-Royce post-war Phantom body—from landaulettes to sedanca de villes– until I saw the odd fastback one they had there. And I have been writing about cars sine 1965!

Of course the Ferrari tifosis went nuts over the many Testa Rossas, there probably being more there on Concours Sunday than ever graced a racetrack at any one race. It is the “pull of Pebble” that causes owners of such valuable cars to ship them there from all over the world once they get accepted. I heard over 1,000 entrants apply each year to Pebble but only one out of five applicants is chose.

Pegaso at Pebble. At left, Ak Miller's El Cabello.

Pebble has what I call the “dream car lawn” where in the past they featured some older cars–even going back to prototypes of the Fifties–this year’s display seemed to be new cars. I was a bit taken aback at the presence among them of a Cobra Daytona coupe, which turned out to be some kind of electric or hybrid version. I didn’t expect to see kit cars occupying the valuable turf at Pebble but figure it was more the engineering of the hybrid or electric car they were showing the car for, notwithstanding its Shelby-styled exterior.

Nowhere during the entire five days did I see Ferrari’s new La Ferrari model. I figured that was because, since they are all sold out, they didn’t need to display it. They did show an FF, on a nice stand before you got to the concours grounds, next to a 250GTE, one of, in my opinion, the most prosaic Ferraris. What were they trying to say with that pairing? And they showed the revised California model which looks more adventurous than its predecessor and has a turbo.

It makes my whole day at Pebble when I am able to be invited into a hospitality suite and Lincoln was dubious at first to invite me up the stairs to their digs since I wasn’t on the guest list, but I cried real tears and they let me in so I could have mocha coffee, scrambled eggs and make off with a program for the event, a splendid book ¾ of an inch thick that you will enjoy looking at all year.

Bugatti boys, and girls.

For lunch, I took advantage of my invitation to the Bugatti soiree at the end of the Del Monte Lodge where they had six Bugatti Veyrons on display, said to be the last of their breed. I expected they would give us a hint of the new model to follow but they were exceedingly mum on that subject. There were three male & female model duos wearing jackets that were matched to particular sub-themes on each of the Bugattis, and I gathered if you ponied up a million or so for the car they would throw in the duds, alterations included. Arnold Schwarzenegger was there but I didn’t get a chance to talk to him though I would’ve liked to talk to him about our shared Austrian heritage in his hometown, Graz.

I ate dinner on the pier, choosing an eatery with tables outside and have to say that it’s my opinion that sea food in Monterey tastes much better when you can sit outside to enjoy it. Alas, during the whole time, I didn’t have a spare hour to partake of a meal at Clint Eastwood’s Mission Inn Ranch which I recommended to everyone for the serenity of its back deck overlooking a meadow full of sheep.

Until next time....keep dreaming

I headed south toward Los Angeles Sunday night, my car only slightly more roomy with some artwork having been sold at Concorso. I had over 500 digital images in my three Canons, already regretting I hadn’t shot more (a leftover from the days of shooting film) but feeling, all in all, Monterey Car Week 2014 was mission accomplished….