Pebble Beach Concours - 2024

Love the post Kevin. I have been twice on a VIP pass to the show. It was incredible to see and to be part of the whole Pebble Beach show. Three of my friends were showing their cars that year, so I had to go. I took my Daughter who loves cars and the idea of dressing up for the event. We had total access to the show, got in early, premium parking, food, drinks, the works. We had a great time and created some great memories that we still talk about today. I haven't been back lately, but who know's ....... Here are a few photo's from the event. My Daughter, along with friends Roy Brizio, and "Chip Tooth"........ I mean Chip Foose and my other friend's garage and his collectables.

I just got pictures from a lifelong friend of mine who goes to Monterey every year with John Wilhoit and some other friends. I have been invited but something has always gotten in the way. Not next year. I'm goin!

@Kevin - Bay Area -- I can't love this post enough to do it justice. Pebble Beach is a bucket-list thing for me. Just one time. I'd love to see the show, the whole thing. You're living the dream.

@Butcher Boy -- what an outstanding story.

I feel honored to be able to hang out with you guys here.

Well let's go next year Stan!

The Pebble Beach Concours is great.  My advice would be to wear AirPods eliminating the sounds around you.  I'm not talking about the sounds of the wonderful chorus of a 12 cylinder Colombo engine, but the sounds of the faux rich trying to act all pretentious and snobby.  My son asked me, why are all the announcements for the show done in a British accent when the show is in America?  My only response was it adds to the pretentiousness.

I used to arrive Monday night and leave Friday afternoon after Werks. The crowds start to arrive late Thursday and early Friday.  My explanation was that I love cars, not so much people.  The Concours on the Avenue in Carmel is great (and free).  And the Tour d'Elegance is great featuring a majority of the cars on the lawn but driven along Highway 1 (or parked in Carmel) for free.

Then there's the track.....and this is what I love.  It one thing to witness a piece of automotive art displayed on the 18th fairway, but it's a heightened experience watching that same car rip down the straight at 170mph before hitting the brakes for a hard left 180-degree turn.  And then the corkscrew.

There are a lot of gold diggers that come out in droves hanging out around the concours.  I often joke that the astronomically wealthy are at the track.  It takes A LOT of money to keep those cars racing.

Where do you stay Kevin?

I have the feeling that rooming gets scarce about 6 months out.

@Panhandle Bob posted:

Where do you stay Kevin?

I have the feeling that rooming gets scarce about 6 months out.

That's the other reason why I like to check-in Monday and check-out Friday--the room rates are significantly lower, and rooms are available.  I'm under the impression the hotels try to "make their year" by the weekend rates for Monterey week.

I found the Best Western in Pacific Grove to be affordable those days, and it's right at the entry gate to 17-mile drive.  When I stayed for the weekend, I either stayed at a friend's condo by Spanish Bay (who has since sold it), or some real dump of a motel in Seaside for $650/night.  I wondered if I was cleaner prior to using the shower at this hotel; however the parking lots was filled with lamborghinis and Ferrari and mclarens.  

All week there are plenty of shows to keep one occupied.  I really like the little car show in Pacific Grove that only allows small cars under 2L, maybe even smaller....

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@Kevin - Bay Area posted:

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...My son asked me, why are all the announcements for the show done in a British accent when the show is in America?...

Why, indeed?

Your son is wise beyond his years, Kevin. Kids often ask the questions that all of us should but have learned not to.

I had a long love/hate thing with the whole Pebble Beach scene. Yeah, sure, the cars, but the strawberry and clotted cream crowd, not so much. For years, I just never went.

Then, too, we're far enough away that a one-day trip is just too long a day, and trying to find a motel room for car week can be near impossible.

But we do like 'the peninsula' and go pretty often for a few days when there isn't a major event on. We stay at a funky little family-run motel near Asilomar. One year the owner told us they had a cancellation for car week, so we grabbed it. But the plan was to go at the beginning of the week, do a few of the lesser events, and be out of town by the time the weekend crowds arrived.

We did that for a few years until Covid, and sadly, we haven't been back since.

The major events aside, I just like how the whole region becomes car crazy and you never know what you're likely to come across.

I've told the story here before of how we were leaving one morning and there, in the parking lot, was a guy waxing his Miura (as one does). I asked him when the paint had last been done, as it was immaculate. And he says, "Oh no, it's the factory paint — this was a barn find!"

We loaded up the Speedy and headed off, but something about the guy's voice was familiar." Did some Googling when I got home and it turned out to be this guy.

So, even if you don't make it out to the 18th fairway and the strawberries and clotted cream, there are always memorable things to see there. Ten minutes after I talked to the guy with the Miura, we passed a BMW 507 just driving down the street. Hey, it's car week.

You're to be applauded, Kevin, for being such a great dad and for making such deep personal sacrifices all so that your son will have a few fond memories of these years.

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@Panhandle Bob posted:

Well let's go next year Stan!

I’d love to, but I think it’s probably not good for my health, Bob.

Unfortunately, I get a very strong allergic reaction to paying more than $350 a night for a hotel room. I start feeling queasy at $250, and by $300 I’m starting to experience shortness of breath. $350 puts me into anaphylactic shock, and requires medical intervention.

I realize anything around Pebble Beach is probably going to be significantly more than that — because I paid more than that when I did the great PCH trip-of-a-lifetime more than 10 years ago.

I’d love to do it, but I’m afraid of what it would mean for my health.

@Stan Galat, I had lunch today with some friends, one of whom just got back from  trip to Pebble Beach and Laguna Seca.  He found a decent hotel under $200/night about an hour or so away in some little town.  He said it was nice enough.  I'll be happy to get more info if that'll help you go.

On the flip side, he said a Motel 6 near Pebble was charging $600/night, 6-night minimum.  Holy Schlitz!!!

@Kevin - Bay Area. What a terrific event to share with your son!

Newport, Rhode Island will be going through this Dog and Pony show in late September.  The descendants of the Robber Barons, nestled in their 30-room “Summer Cottages” in Newport, have the good sense to hold their big car celebratory week after the withering heat of Summer and just before migrating to Northern New England for the colorful Fall foliage and Brandy season.  

Or maybe the two main Hosts, Jay Leno and Donald Osborne, know enough not to hold an outdoor car event during the summer there, for fear of having to contend with the predictably unpredictable Newport weather.

The Audrain Museum in Newport will be hosting a similar Concours crowd, some with fake British Accents, too, and with some of the same cars as at Pebble Beach, transported cross-country in pampered exotic car transporters, some of which have wings (or maybe flying your Ferrari around the Globe is more of a “Boston Thing”, I dunno).  🙄  

Unfortunately, the prices for hotel rooms in the Newport area at that time are at least as much as around PB, and last I checked on ticket prices for the show they were around $1,650 for the week or you can do a day pass at the Concours for just $245 (Both of which are less money than last year, so maybe that’s something).

Yes, it is a wealthy person’s hobby.

@Lane Anderson posted:

@Stan Galat, I had lunch today with some friends, one of whom just got back from  trip to Pebble Beach and Laguna Seca.  He found a decent hotel under $200/night about an hour or so away in some little town.  He said it was nice enough.  I'll be happy to get more info if that'll help you go.

On the flip side, he said a Motel 6 near Pebble was charging $600/night, 6-night minimum.  Holy Schlitz!!!

Yeah.

In the past, when I've road-tripped in the clown car, I've tried to travel alone. I'm not wild about being on somebody else's schedule, and I like to travel at my own pace (typically well north of the speed/distance other guys want to drive). If we've got the loose change in the couch cushions, Mrs. Galat flies in and meets me wherever we're going.

My game is to sleep as cheaply as is possible. Motel 6 is the talisman -- I check the price of the nearest Motel 6 to where I'd like to stop, and then look for places for that price or less. There will often be a Red Roof Inn, America's Best, or an independant place at or below Motel 6's rate. When I drove out to Kalifornia in '12 and '14, I tried not to ever pay more than $50/night. That got me in some pretty sketchy places, but I was able to stay for less than $30 at a couple of mom-'n-pop's. I'd say they were on par with my Motel 6 experiences (me, 50 mexican guys, and 10 guys with Ram 3500 diesels pulling 50 ft trailers). I'd happily sleep on a picnic table in a rest area, but I need a spot to plug in my CPAP at this point. That, and my "Princess and the Pea" love for nice sheets. Alas, I'm becoming a wuss.

The idea of $3600 for 6 nights of "We'll keep the lights on for you!" luxury seems pretty Carmel By the Sea to me.

Send me the info for the place an hour away, if you'd be so kind.

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@Stan Galat posted:

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...my "Princess and the Pea" love for nice sheets...

Stan, $50 rooms, anywhere within 100 miles of Monterey, won't include any sheets. And you may have to rent by the hour.

Monterey motels are frequently booked up on busy weekends even when it's not car week (or 'golf week').

The usual alternative places to look for rooms are Salinas, Watsonville, and Castroville, all of which are about half-hour drives away.

And Salinas is just down the road from Laguna Seca.

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I get that, Mitch. I don't require nice sheets, but I'm coming to appreciate them more than I ever thought possible. The last time we needed new, I ponied up for the Egyptian Cotton.

Who the heck is this old man?!

Regarding hotels -- anything within a reasonable distance (and hour or so) of Pebble for less than $250 would be on my radar. I wanna' see this thing (especially the historics racing), but I'm a blue-collar man. Tips about how to do it without breaking the bank are always welcome.

My nephew just got back from this show & I'm very jealous. Apparently he's friends with Charles M. Schulz's grandson and they got 8 people into The Quail with only four tickets.

Attaboy!

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So, this funky, family-run motel I mentioned is a gem.

We've been staying there for 30 years, when the parents of the current manager ran the place. It's small (maybe 30 rooms), was probably built in the 1960s, and last 'freshened' 40 years ago. But the family has chosen to hold rates down for a loyal clientele while keeping up religiously with maintenance and cleanliness. Some would say it's 'aging'. I call it 'comfortable'. It's on a quiet street that borders Asilomar, the state-run conference center. So, there's no commercial development at all between you and the Pacific Ocean, a block away across a wooden planked walkway through the dunes.

They are booked years in advance for car week and the AT&T Pro-Am golf tournament (originally Bing Crosby's 'clambake'). And the stunning thing is that, for their 'regulars', they don't raise their rates for these events!

One of the headliners at the big golf event is Bill Murray, who obviously could stay anywhere he likes. But he always stays at this funky place to avoid the bright lights and chaos over at Pebble Beach. And he drinks his coffee, one swig at a time, in the tiny lobby/breakfast room along with everyone else.

I'll not reveal the identity of my little hideaway in this public forum, but if you're serious and ask in a pleasant enough way in a private message, I might be persuaded to provide an unattributed leak.

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@edsnova posted:

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...and they got 8 people into The Quail with only four tickets...

No!

Don't tell me!

They locked four of them in the boot of a 1938 Mulliner-bodied Hispano Suiza and drove through the front gate?

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As you do.

Back in my working days and around the middle of the 1990's, I regularly attended the infamous "ComDex" computer show in Las Vegas (in it's day, the largest trade show of any kind in the World).  My company had their own internal travel office and for some of us "Road Warriors" we had dedicated travel agents to set up our frequently changing travel plans ("What?  You're in Seattle?  Could you stop in Phoenix and Dallas on the way home?  Great - Mary will set it up and call you.")

Anyway, Mary thought she was doing us a favor when she booked us into the Thunderbird Motor Hotel in Vegas, mostly because everyone had seen the place in movies from the 1950's, 60's and 70's and it was one of the original hotels "on the strip".  It was a Las Vegas Icon, like the huge cowboy statue for the Texas State Fair ( "HOWDY! and WELCOME!" )

So we fly into Vegas, getting there around 9pm from the Least Coast and taxi our stuff over to the World Famous Thunderbird and check in.

I gotta tell yah, the place was  a  FLEABAG!  Everything I touched in the room had a slimy film on it.  Even the bed sheets felt slimy.  And the room décor looked right out of the 1950's, all "Earth Tones" of Browns and Orange and Yellow, which would have looked better if more of the lights in the room worked beside the one in the ceiling.  It looked like the owners hadn't put a dime into the place since the day it first opened.

So by this time I'm pretty exhausted, since I was still running on Least Coast time and for me it was around 1AM and I knew I needed to be up to head to the trade show booth in a few hours, so I crawl into bed, lovin' those clammy sheets,   which made me put in a call to Mary's extension back at work and left something like this on her voicemail:

"MARY!  This is Gordon.  The Thunderbird Hotel is a total fleabag!  Everything is slimy! Please, please, please get us the heck outa here!  Even if we have to drive 2 hours one-way, anything has to be better than this!  Call me at the booth phone and let me know what you can do!"

So, I go over to the door and turn out the only light that works and get into bed but never really slept that night because I kept hearing things scurrying around the room whenever the light was out.  Honest to Pete, I've been in much better hotel rooms in third-world countries like Nicaragua and el Salvador!

Next morning we bring our bags with us and tastefully avoided the Thunderbird's famous "Continental Breakfast" (probably famous for inducing ptomaine or something) to eat at the show and, in the middle of breakfast (double espresso and a Bagel), someone came running over from the booth to tell me to call Mary, pronto.  Mary tells me that she's cancelled our Thunderbird rooms and booked us into the Showboat, off-strip and about 45 minutes (five miles) from the trade show hall.  Turns out the place was owned by some Mafia guy from NYC who missed decent Italian food in Vegas, so he had large, chilled coolers of fresh pasta flown in every day for their absolutely amazing Italian Restaurant in the hotel.  

From fourth World to Michelin Star in one night!  We all chipped in (ok, so I expensed it) and had a big floral display delivered to Mary and later we all took her and her family to dinner in Boston's Chinatown because, besides being an absolute Gem of an in-house travel agent, her full name was Mary Wang.  

And oh, BTW.....   The nightly cost for those rooms were about equal for both hotels at around $450/nite during ComDex back then.  And thank God they finally tore the Thunderbird down, although I still miss the Sands, Ceasar's Palace, the Flamingo (both the old one and new) and the Luxor Pyramid.  

Vegas is a pretty cool place.  

The Thunderbird Hotel?  

Absolutely not.