I thought that some of you might enjoy photos from Monterey Car Week, 2012.
My Dad and I attended Car Week back in 2010 (Pebble Beach being the main event) and wanted to attend more of the events that we weren't able to in 2010 this time around. Around the Monterey area during Car Week, there are many many different auto auctions at the plethora of country clubs in around the area including car shows, historic auto races at Laguna Seca, specific Concours events such as Italiano and then of course the main event, Pebble Beach which is at the very end. We brought our motorcycles along as we did in 2010 but this time didn't get do nearly as much riding as we were busy attending the events. Because of Caroll Shelby's passing earlier this year, much of the venue at many of the events this year catered to Shelbys and Cobras in remembrance of him as you will see in the photos. By the end of each day we felt as if we had gone not stop as we went from event to event to event. It was well worth it thought as we saw some of the worlds finest, many that were only "one offs" and some that were pre-production cars that were just getting unveiled for the first time to public like the new Viper. It was also astounding to watch what many of these cars were going for such as a LWB Ferrari California Spyder fetch over 11 million!
I had the pleasure of meeting some folks in the biz such Bob Bondurant, Adam Carolla and Matt D'Andria (Adam's moderator from CarCast), Corky Coker, Randy Ema the expert Duesenberg restorer/historian and Jay Leno again (more on this below and we get into the photos). I have to say they were all all extremely nice folks and very friendly to talk with. I can't say enough how much of an honor to be able to meet them!! At the 2010 Concour, Jay offered a tour of his garage in exchange for a set donation amount donated to the Boys & Girls Club charity. Ever since then, I decided that I would save up the amount so that for the next time I attended the show I would do it- which I am!! J The way that it works is like a gift certificate where you have opportunity of basically choosing your own desired tour date within a years' time. I will most likely fly back down in the next couple of months depending on the work load from my classes and do it on a weekend. Did I say mention that I'm totally ecstatic?!
I have close to a thousand + photos of the trip so these are just a few. For the big event, we got up at 4:30 as the best to get there is really early as possible to see the cars drive in and get photos before the crowds arrive. Because of this in many of them as you will see include the owners doing some final detailing after they parked before the show started. Some photos are crappy iPhone pics so the quality isn't the best. There are also videos as well. The photos are in order of the trip, so the auctions, cars shows and races will be first, then Pebble Beach and some other miscellaneous photos of later on. You will also see the actual car used in Clint Eastwood's movie "Grand Tornino" as it is on display at his restaurant "Mission Ranch" in Carmel. What an absolute gorgeous area to say the least that he has there.
After Concours, I traveled down a bit further to spend an extra week with my relatives while Dad went back up to get back to work. I've included a few photos as well of some of my favorite roads to ride down here. Oh the endless canyons and scenery! ;-)
Just another Aventador! Driving around this area this time of year is unreal, it truly is. Just about every stop light literally has at least two or three Ferraris, a couple Porche's and Lamborghini. It wasn't uncommon at all to pass a Veyron, McClaren, imported Pagani or a Koenigsegg.
Mecum Auctions- The format was very similar to Barret Jackson.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's custom Wagoneer built by WCC. It has 6.6 Duramax diesel, the steering wheel's button was aplate stating his name being and his former title as governor and the center console had a wooden cigar box mounted on it. I later on saw him at Concours which you will see.
Let's go to something a little more extravagant, shall we?
In case you don't know the story behind these, they were built specifically so that the manufacture could enter this model of car into the GT series. It was required there be a road going version of the model in production in order for the manfacture to enter the car into the race, so, they created these in a very limited production so that this model could be entered into the race.
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri][IMG]http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u364/Auto_Enthusiast/c505bc92.jpg Bonhams at the Quail.
They had sort of a neat way of auctioning off the cars by driving them up onto this stage.
This thing was simply unreal. Seeing the photos does not give you the impression at all of what it was like to see in person. Notice how the fenders themselves actually turn with the wheels.
2012 Shelby GT 1000? Does that even sound right?! Lol. Gotta love that wide body though.
I LOVE watching this class! I thought it was the coolest thing how they had two people in some of them, just like they did back in the day. It was really neat to watch and here!
Ok, get be prepared. This is Shelby Cobra #1, Carroll's own personal car. Unbelievable!! It is original and unrestored. Can you imagine what it would go for at an auction???
This exhibit was full of famous Cobras that had one races.
Finally! If you made it this far you're now at the main event. Pebble Beach Concours D' Elegance, 2012.
Cars first driving in at dawn.
Being an avid fan of Jay Leno's Garage, I had been keeping my fingers crossed to see and hopefully talk with him again at this years' show. In 2010 I had the opportunity to meet him and was able to share my appreciation for his website and presenting his collection for us to see. It wasn't 5 minutes after we walked in that my Dad spotted him in the line-up watching the cars drive into the fairway. He had been talking with folks and I didn't want to interrupt so I decided that I would wait a little bit in hopes that I would find a better time. Soon later he received a phone call and after he hung up, he began walking down the fairway so I thought "this is my chance." As I approached him and began to introduce myself one of the most astonishing things happened that I could imagine. He and his photographer already knew who I was!! I couldn't believe it. The avatar photo that I have whenever I post a comment on his site shows the picture of he and I together from the previous 2010 show and since I post my name at the bottom of each comment, well you get the picture. It shows that he reads the comments! Pretty cool. He told me that I'll have to update the photo now and his camera guy took a photo of he and I together as well on his phone. It made my day. Soon later he began interviewing the owners of
some cars and motorcycles for features on his website. You'll see that and a couple of videos of it below too.
Now this one really cracks me up, we're both looking at different cameras!! Haha.
A bit later we came across Corky Coker. SUPER down to earth friendly guy!!
This motorcycle was unlike any other bike I had ever seen. Every part on it did something. For example the rear axle was the crankshaft, the rear fender was the radiator etc. It's amazing to think of the ingenuity behind it back then. Even today if something like this was created, it would be looked at as a breakthrough in technology.
A one off BMW. Have you ever seen a BMW with this type of art deco design before? It was a sure a hit at the show.
Randy Ema the expert Duesenberg restorer/historian and I
Out and about on some of my favorite roads in Malibu. The endless canyon roads matched with the beauty of the scenery truly make it motorcycle heaven out here.
Ahhh, supermoto heaven.
Spot the photographer? There are a couple of different locations on Mulholland where photographers take video and snap high resolution photos of the cars and motorcycles that ride up and down. You can purchase these photos by going to their sites. I made several passes up and down and got a couple.
WOW! Lot of things and people there that most of us would never see outside of a show like that! Thanks so much for sharing all the photos with us! :cool
Fantastic! So much eye candy, how did you ever take it all in? I can spend hours just looking at your pictures. Thanks for sharing your experience Austen.
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