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monterey car week

Get 20% off Admission at Concorso Italiano

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Cisitalias wanted for Concorso Italiano. Plus get a 20 percent VeloceToday discount on admission!

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of Concorso Italiano. Alongside our event’s anniversary, we are observing the following marque milestones and seek additional vehicles for our show field. Overnight transport parking is available at our event for those exhibiting a vehicle. Owners can register directly at www.concorso.com, or they can contact me with any questions or for further details: cindy@carprusa.com

In addition, for VeloceToday readers, we are offering a 20 percent discount, applied to vehicle registration and/or the purchase of General Admission tickets. [Read more…] about Get 20% off Admission at Concorso Italiano

Nino’s P4 takes your breath away….

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John and Debbie Nino with the 412 P at the Quail where Elitch first saw the car.

By Brandes Elitch
Photos courtesy John Nino

“When it does not exist, design it,” Henry Royce

At Monterey Car Week you would rightfully expect to be surprised and delighted by some of the things you will see, both on the show field and in the streets. After all, between the three major shows (Quail Lodge, Pebble Beach, and the Concorso Italiano), not to mention the Historics at the Laguna Seca racetrack, there will be over a thousand show cars on display, many of them quite fantastic. This year was no exception, an embarrassment of riches, so to speak. It can be quite overwhelming. You have to pace yourself, and from time to time just have a sit down and catch your breath, because some of these experiences can take your breath away. [Read more…] about Nino’s P4 takes your breath away….

Concorso Italiano 2022

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Maserati T151

Story and photos by Brandes Elitch
Scroll down for Alfa to Ferrari photo gallery

The third week in August is known on the California Monterey Peninsula as “Car Week.” The population of the small town (1.06 square miles) of Carmel-by-the Sea has about 4000 residents, but during car week they will see an additional 85,000 visitors, according to the Monterey County Visitors Bureau. This is primarily a four-day event, but there is even a “Pre-Historics” the week before at the Laguna Seca racetrack. Car week now spans ten days and stretches from Seaside to Carmel Valley to Big Sur. Aside from the three major shows, there are another dozen or so smaller events, spread out all over the Monterey Peninsula. The pandemic put the brakes on some Car Week events for the last two years, but now, “It’s all right here!” [Read more…] about Concorso Italiano 2022

Lynch at Monterey, 2017

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Story by Michael T. Lynch
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt unless otherwise noted

If you really want to do the Monterey Peninsula’s Automotive Car Week completely you have to arrive on the Friday before the weekend before the Pebble Beach Concours. The nine days include multiple car shows, auctions, panel discussions and book and memorabilia sales events. This year’s tally was 38 events that I would have been interested in, if I were younger. Let us take you to a few stops along the way.

If you have spare time during the week and have any interest in Italian machinery (and I know you do), you must make some time to see Robb Talbott’s Collection in the Motorcycle Museum in Carmel Valley Village, out where the sun shines much more than it does on the coast.

Above, the upstairs is primarily road and road racing bikes and, as you can see, the flavor is definitely Italian. However, who doesn’t love a BSA Gold Star Clubman. (Lynch photo)

Brandes Elitch has previously written of this Museum in the August 30, 2016 edition of VT, but the quality of this collection should be mentioned as often as possible.


The downstairs has flat trackers, speedway bikes, motocross machines, desert sleds and anything else that ran on dirt. I hope I conveyed how any trip to the Monterey area is incomplete without viewing this jewel of motorcycle history. (Lynch photo)

Monterey Car Week

The congestion caused by Car Week events has resulted in at least one City Council person in every Peninsula City to call for the abolition of the week. The municipalities have brought part of the problem on themselves. Most have ordinances to protect the taxpayers by calling for events to pick up the cost of police overtime, cleanup, etc. This is understandable, but most cities did not enforce those ordinances so they could attract people to their towns. Now the events are being charged in some cases and we will see what effect this has on the events themselves, some of which are always marginal financially. Whatever happens, you can be sure bandings of the CAVE people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) will continue to keep the abolitionist cause alive via letters to the editor, City Council comments, etc.

Two bright spots in the week, optically speaking, are the Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue on Tuesday and the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance on Thursday. The venue for both is the same, Ocean Avenue, the Main Street of Carmel. These two events are free, allowing the locals to see the Concours cars without paying the mid-three figure prices of the main events. They thus draw huge crowds, including many families. These events are somewhat of a payback to the local communities who suffer through the inconveniences of the week.

[Read more…] about Lynch at Monterey, 2017

Hugues Vanhoolandt at The Rolex Reunion

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Two “Batmobiles” atop the corkscrew.

Two “Batmobiles” atop the corkscrew.

Photos and story by Hugues Vanhoolandt

100 years of BMW was the unmistakable theme of Monterey Car Week in 2016. And of course, it was also the case for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion held at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on August 18-21. But BMW was not the only highlight as the Can-Am series were also celebrated as well as historic F1 cars and Trans-Am cars.

All in all, more than 550 cars were to be seen on track in one of the 15 races. For those who were too busy with the various other events during the main weekend, they could enjoy an already strong field of cars during the Pre-Reunion meeting held one week before the Reunion itself. We attended both days, and so the following images are from both events. [Read more…] about Hugues Vanhoolandt at The Rolex Reunion

Gallery Vanhoolandt: Rolex Motorsports Reunion

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In the Paddock was a small gathering of outstanding Maseratis that includes this 1928 Tipo 26B which is considered to be one of the oldest running Maseratis, if not the oldest. Behind it is the Fiat which served Maserati to transport their F1s and Sports cars throughout Europe between 1952 and 1957.


Photos and captions by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Once again, Hugues takes our breath away with his coverage of the Monterey Motorsports Reunion, get that mouse ready…

Hot moment for this Tipo 61, s/n 2458.

[Read more…] about Gallery Vanhoolandt: Rolex Motorsports Reunion

Monterey Round Up

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Seems that dirt is in this year at the Auctions.

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. [Read more…] about Monterey Round Up

One Man’s Monterey, 2013

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Fiat Otto Vu s/n 000051 was one of two similar Vignale bodied V-8 Fiats and was seen at the Quail. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.

By Wallace Wyss
Photos by Author unless otherwise noted

Dear Editor,

Automobilia was the first event I rolled into, which starts Tuesday morning of “car week” and is held in the Embassy Suites hotel in Seaside. This event has at least 30 vendors and they all bring their specialties. Some bring out of print books (I was shocked when the vendor next to my booth told me he sold three books for over $1400 each!). Some bring older posters both pre-war and post-war; there was a vendor from England with original photographs that he was proud to say “weren’t digital.” A few sell car bits, like the fellow next to me selling Rolls Royce radiator ornaments.

And then some were selling clothes that were either copying old pre-war racing clothing or in the spirit of sports car clothing. I had my own booth vending the brand spanking new Incredible Barn Finds and was pleased when, on the second day of the event, I met people who’d bought one the first day and were enthusiastic to finish it.

Go ahead, make my day. Wyss gets the nod from Leno.

[Read more…] about One Man’s Monterey, 2013

Hugues Vanhoolandt at Pebble Beach

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This Lincoln Indianapolis Boano coupe was ordered by Lincoln for the 1955 Turin Motor Show before being used by Henry Ford II himself.

Story and Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

For the 63rd year running, the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance was a reunion of the crème de la crème of the classic automobile world.
This year’s edition celebrated among others the 50th anniversary of both Lamborghini and the Porsche 911, the Lincoln and Simplex brands, and the French coachbuilder Vanvooren.
[Read more…] about Hugues Vanhoolandt at Pebble Beach

Monterery Magic by Hugues Vanhoolandt

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The magic is not Monterey; the magic is in the way that our photographer Hugues Vanhoolandt gets the cars without the bodies. We thought it was because of the huge VELOCETODAYPRESS badge he wears, but it is due more to just plain hard work, persistance and his dedication to being at the right spot at the right time, waiting for that Henri Cartier-Bresson decisive moment. Here is Part 1 of Monterey Week by Vanhoolandt.

Quail Rally

The Quail Rally marked the start of the Monterey Classic Car week on Tuesday 14th August with at least 30 classic cars of high quality.

...among them, a rare Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione s/n 07641.

Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue

on the same day, Carmel hosts its annual Concours on the Avenue where people can see vehicles ranging from a small cars like this 1959 Autobianchi Bianchina Trasformabile (or convertible).

cobra-transporter

Fiat Grand Prix Transporter bodied by Bartoletti, used by Maserati, Scarab and Shelby racing teams. It also appears in the film Le Mans.

Alfa Duetto, a very well done restoration.

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Friday at Monterey with Michael T. Lynch

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Alfa S-11

David Smith’s Alfa S 11 Corto Spyder Speciale, described in VeloceToday’s 25 August issue, shows its final form at The Quail.

Story and photos by Michael T. Lynch

In our previews of the Alfa S 11 and the Bugatti Type 64, we promised you pictures of the cars when they appeared during Holy Week. In addition here are a few more Italian gems that caught this historian’s eye.
[Read more…] about Friday at Monterey with Michael T. Lynch

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