Monterey 2004 Events

The days in Monterey were hectic, busy and tiring.

Wednesday, I met up with Tom Shaughnessy and we loaned each other a couple of things.  I needed an original 330 GT owner's pouch for Lowell Brown to use in the FCA concours and he needed a GTE owner's manual to put into a pouch for a 250 GTO being shown in the Pebble Beach Concours.  So I guess that I can claim that I've had something entered in Pebble Beach!

Thursday was the Pebble Beach Tour.  The cars entered in the concours can participate in the tour, a 50 or so mile drive around the Monterey area with a swing through the hills and Laguna Seca raceway.  My volunteer job was on the sign crew so we drove the course at the start putting up directional signs and then at the end after the cars had gone through taking them back down.

One part of the course loops back on itself so we were able to take some pictures of the cars as they came through.

There were a couple of breakdowns, so I got to try and crank start a Bugatti and push a Cord!

Thursday evening was Tom Yang's party.  Here are some candid shots.

Friday was Concorso Italiano.  The announced count of Ferraris there was 538.  An amazing collection.  My 330 GT was picked to be one of the 53 cars used to spell out FERRARI.  They had a helicopter taking pictures so when they post them, I'll be able to see where my car was parked.  At first they had it as part of the I, but then decided that it was too long, so it ended up being the bottom of the second R.

Here are some more pictures.

Friday evening was the 250 GTE register party hosted by Bill Preston.  A pleasant evening capped by a delicious Italian dinner at a local restaurant.

Saturday was a day at the Historic Races at Laguna Seca.  The Ferrari parade lap got canceled because of an accident that happened just before we were due to go out.

Sunday was Pebble Beach.  Nothing more needs to be said.  Here are some pictures.

Sunday evening was the start of the FCA National Meet.  There was a reception and then it was early to bed for me.  The volunteers have to be at Pebble Beach at 5:30 AM and you are on your feet most of the time until it's over around 4:30 PM so I was beat.

Monday was almost a day of rest.  I stopped by the FCA hotel for my $100 breakfast.  You see, the pricing is for the whole thing at $650, even if the main thing I was interested in was the concours.  So I tried to amortize the cost over the various meals.  Then it was a lunch with a bunch of Ferrari historians.  I thought that I should have brought some Ferrari books to get the authors to sign them, but I would have had to bring most of my library.  In the afternoon, Lowell and I found a self-serve car wash and then we cleaned his car up for the concours the next day.  Monday evening was the FCA dinner at the Monterey Aquarium.  That had to be a 175 dollar dinner plus 25 for the Aquarium for a total of $200.

Tuesday was the FCA concours.  I didn't enter my car, but Lowell did enter his.  Sadly he didn't win an award, but it was interesting to watch the judges.  Here's a picture of the judging.

I had Lowell point out the flashing light in the handbrake lever as I figured that the judges might not know about it.  I was right, they didn't.

After a few weeks, Lowell got a copy of the Individual Results Feedback which is a composite of the judging sheets.  Lowell and I have a couple of items to bicker about, but overall we felt that the score was representative of the car.  This was good enough for a silver award, but there is only one silver or gold award in each class, given to the car with the most points for that award.  In this case, the only award for the class was a silver one given to a 365 2+2.  I didn't notice whether or not they had a toolkit or not, but if not, I wish I had loaned them the one from my car.  That might have given them enough points to get a gold award, thereby letting Lowell receive the silver one.

The other thing that happened in the concours was when Lowell was asked to start the car.  When we went to wash the car before the concours, Lowell asked me to drive his car and notice how sloppy the shifting was.  I really didn't need to drive the car to tell him that the shift lever bushing had probably broken.  When Lowell went to start the car at the concours, he jiggled the shift lever and thought that it was in neutral, pushed in the clutch and started the car.  However because of the broken bushing it felt in neutral, but was actually in first.  Then he let out the clutch and the car jerked forward.  The chief judge was leaning over the engine ready to check for a fuel leak with his feet very near the left front tire.  Needless to say, he moved quickly and didn't get hurt.  After the judging was over, I asked him how points are taken off for running over a judge's foot!  He just laughed and said that it had happened to him once before.

Here are some more pictures from the concours.

Another early night as I wanted an early start on Wednesday for the drive back home.  Click here for the drive back to Seattle.