Monterey Car Week

@IndianBob

Great to see you're still enjoying your Speedster! We've done the Monterey Car Week for years with time at the Laguna Seca track for the Historic Races and what used to be the Camel GT race series.

No concourse on Ocean Ave is a disappointment but these events eventually change through the years. No matter, I'm sure you'll still have a great time on the peninsula.

To start the week have tickets to this event on Sun Aug 14th that we’ve never been to:

Monterey Pre Reunion

I'm amazed at how much stuff offered during the week is free to attend.

Looking at the Audrain Concours week in Newport, RI, coming up late September -  NOTHING is free.  

There is no racing at all but I believe they stage a small TSD rally around RI.  Little Rhody is so small that a Rally can't take much more than an hour or two to cover the whole state.

So the "get in to almost everything all week" ticket is about $1,200 per person or every event has separate tickets ranging  $100 - $460.  Several car guys near me have registered their cars for the pre-Concours show simply because it's a lot cheaper to attend that way.  Of course, we get Donald Osborne and Jay Leno as MCs for the week, but still.  Maybe Taylor Swift will drop by from her place at Watch Hill, RI?  And they hold the Concours at "The Breakers" mansion in Newport, so there is that.    

Hot Rod Charlie won his class last year with his 1985 Porsche 911 Outlaw so he's invited back this year for free and taking his "California Kid Clone"

Here's Charlie's 32 Coupe (Lane should love the wheels):

In Aug 2019 we paid $750 for two tickets to the Concours de’ Elegance at Pebble Beach on the last day of the Monterey Car week & we also got to see the Jay Leno interview there. But that was for our 50th wedding anniversary, a one time thing we will never do again. Otherwise most everything else all week was free or pretty cheap. Even entering our Speedster in the Porsche Monterey Classic Show and also  Hagerty’‘s Classic  Motorsports Magazine car show is free even though you have to get tickets ahead of time.

We also had our car in the “ Little Car Show in 2018 which is  also free.We were invited to go to the Quail Motorsports Gathering but those tickets cost the same as Pebble Beach, maybe even a little more, so we’re passing. The Laguna Seca Monterey Pre-Reunion does cost $40 a person for all day tickets to wander round in the pits and look at race cars practice all day, but that is the most were spending for anything ticket wise this 2022 trip.  You can also go to Mecum and Bonham auctions & wander through the field and tents Where the cars are kept until the auction and look at them before the auction for free. I think the most expensive part of the whole trip is the hotel in the food😂

And don’t forget the 17 mile drive and Big Sur and the beach! This is our 53rd anniversary so we’re looking forward to it!

I’m here through Sunday. If anyone is in town, let’s catch up. Headed to the RM auction tonight.

Picked up tickets to the track tomorrow (Saturday).  I plan on bringing my 7 y/o.  I honestly don't know how long he'll want to stay.  I figured if we cut the track short, I'd just head in to Monterey

Hit me up! We’ll be there.

Today was The Quail. Saw Magnus. Saw cars. Now it’s time to drive.

Introduced my 7 y/o to car week yesterday. Starting with Laguna Seca to watch cars how they are meant to be….driven. And driven fast. I wanted him to see them, hear them, smell them. Feel the thud on your chest as they drive by. Our entire trip was 11 hours long (about 7.5 of them were in the speedster). And about 280 miles.

We left the track and drove through Cannery Row. Then onto 17-Mile Drive…past the Lodge at Pebble Beach as everyone was running around prepping for the Concours.

We finished the Monterey “day” by driving up Ocean Ave in Carmel by the Sea. I believe it was a success. Through all that (7.5 hours and 280 miles is a lot in a speedster), he asked when’s the next one?

Funny. As we know, our cars draw attention. Especially in areas where people are there just because they are car people. Cameras were all over. I asked him how does it feel to be a celebrity?  He wanted me to elaborate. So I said…all the cameras. All the attention?  He was quick to point out they have no interest in him or I, but on the car.

Regardless. Here’s a few photos. He has absolutely no idea the significance (or cost) of the cars he saw.

I know I've said it many times, but I really love it back when race cars were allowed to be beautiful.

@Kevin - Bay Area posted:

Introduced my 7 y/o to car week yesterday. Starting with Laguna Seca to watch cars how they are meant to be….driven. And driven fast. I wanted him to see them, hear them, smell them. Feel the thud on your chest as they drive by. Our entire trip was 11 hours long (about 7.5 of them were in the speedster). And about 280 miles.

We left the track and drove through Cannery Row. Then onto 17-Mile Drive…past the Lodge at Pebble Beach as everyone was running around prepping for the Concours.

We finished the Monterey “day” by driving up Ocean Ave in Carmel by the Sea. I believe it was a success. Through all that (7.5 hours and 280 miles is a lot in a speedster), he asked when’s the next one?

Funny. As we know, our cars draw attention. Especially in areas where people are there just because they are car people. Cameras were all over. I asked him how does it feel to be a celebrity?  He wanted me to elaborate. So I said…all the cameras. All the attention?  He was quick to point out they have no interest in him or I, but on the car.

Regardless. Here’s a few photos. He has absolutely no idea the significance (or cost) of the cars he saw.

@Kevin - Bay Area

can’t beat having family and beautiful cars   Special times. ❤️👍

@Kevin - Bay Area  i have only seen one REAL DEAL 550 in person...it was SEINFELDS 1 of only 2 made $14 million dollar 550 coupe at malibu kitchen....i guess i'll have to go to monterey to see another ....only 94 made 550 spyders....which are $3million dollar cars..... i like eye candy car events....it's on my to do list

@Kevin - Bay Area posted:

...

Regardless. Here’s a few photos. He has absolutely no idea the significance (or cost) of the cars he saw.

Wife in passenger seat would like this at times,

That must have been one helluva show.

As it turns out, the Audrain Auto Museum in, of all places, Newport, RI, took home a First in Class there with their original 1964 Porsche 904 (Look for Donald Osborne in the center, left of the second photo):

From their email a few minutes ago:

"The post-war preservation class at the 71^st Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance® was hotly contested and when all was said and done a beautiful and rare 1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS took home first place honors. Owned by the Audrain Collection out of Newport, RI, this 904 has just 1,800 miles on the odometer from new. It was purchased by the Audrain Collections from the Nicholas Begovich Collection back in 2020."

Nick Begovich spent a lot of his engineering career with Hughes Aircraft and, obviously, had good taste in his car collection.

Continuing:

@americanworkmule i think ANY wife in that passenger seat would be thrilled to know you have the $$$$ to own a $3million dollar car...most anything else she wants would have to be a huge bargain!

Yeah, I guess.  I suppose if I had a 904 I would need a mansion out on "Ocean Drive" in Newport, like Jay Leno's "East Coast Cottage"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/m...ife/?sh=64cec75a46f6

Jay has a great quote in that Forbes article:

"Occasionally, I’ve paid too much for things, but that’s OK because I still like them."

I know exactly what he means.

Jay's a lot of fun when he shows up for the Audrain Cars and Coffee events.  He tends to arrive an hour late and stays long after the official closing and then invites people after the event to take the seven village tour on the east bay near where we used to live, in Tiverton-Four-Corners with lunch along the way.  

THAT is a "Cars and Coffee"!!

@jncspyder posted:

@americanworkmule i think ANY wife in that passenger seat would be thrilled to know you have the $$$$ to own a $3million dollar car...most anything else she wants would have to be a huge bargain!

oh most true, although I was being cheeky about the tonneau cover as high as the windscreen, passenger could stay out of elements while driver suffers the slings and arrows