'15 Motorsports Reunion……….AKA Monterey Car Week

[72targa]

Always a joy to view your collection of photos...

[John Z Goriup]

Following up with some images of a pair of Porsche 908s:

Car number 264 is a '69 908 / 2 - a car which started out as a Coupe and in time was rebodied as an open model - photos #1, 2 & 5.

Car #20 is Cameron Healys original race winning '70 908 / 3. I find the opportunity to study the aluminum space-frame construction alone worth the price of the Saturday ticket…….fascinating stuff - photos ##3, 4, 6, 7 & 8.

The last two images are of a late '60s Renault - Alpine.

[John Z Goriup]

An entire set of 5 devoted to a very special '62 356 Coupe, specially ordered by Brumos Racing from the Porsche factory. I understand all non-standard features ( nose, driving lights and rear fender flares ) are unique and done by the factory.

[John Z Goriup]

Just a few more general interest images of various cars, including shots # 8, 9 & 10 of a beautifully done '65 Curtiss 500 S with 331 cu. in. Chrysler Hemi power.

[John Z Goriup]

We have finally arrived at the final set for this segment of Monterey Car Week. Tomorrow AM I'll start processing the "Cars-on-the-Avenue" images and will post when they're done.

Please don't ask me to even try to guess why anyone would bring two Reliant three-wheel Scimitars to a race track……..all I could think of was a hilarious episode of Top Gear ( damn, I miss that show ) when the Stig's assignement was to lap their secret track at under some ridiculously generous time in one of the 3-wheelers…..and couldn't keep the thing on three wheels. It kept tipping over, lifting its inside rear wheels like a pissing dog lifting a leg, and he had to get out, right it onto all three wheels and keep going to the next corner.

The red Deuce Coupe is Bruce Meyers' latest Ardun head-equipped supercharged acquisition…….my goodness, he has a nice collection of classic American hot-rods.

The last image is my trusty Subaru Forseter, with a rusty old BMW 2002 parked next to it…….that same car has been parked next to my car at the last two or three race meets - wonder if he's stalking me.

Thanks for looking, see ya soon with pictures from the next event.

JZG

[Chuck Miller]

The red Deuce Coupe is Bruce Meters latest Ardun head-equipped supercharged acquisition…….

Another outstanding shot John........ WOW!!!!!

[Nine17]

Please don't ask me to even try to guess why anyone would bring two Reliant three-wheel Scimitars to a race track……..

Great photos, but the three-wheelers are Reliant Robins. The Reliant Scimitar is another beast entirely, powered by Ford Essex or Cologne V-6 engines, sometimes driven by members of the British Royal Family, and actually known to inhabit the occasional race track (not my photo)...

Cheers,

-- David

Edit: According to Wikipedia (so it's gotta be true), Jeremy Clarkson entirely faked the Reliant Robin tipping segment by fitting a 10-inch wheel on the driver's side, a 12-inch wheel to the passenger side, and a 13-inch wheel on the front. I'm not a fan of Clarkson's -- this is shades of self-crashing Audi's on 60 Minutes and exploding Chevy pick-ups on Dateline.

[Flieger]

I think those guys were at the concours de lemons.

[John Z Goriup]

Continuing with my regrettably much-delayed coverage of Monrterey Car Week, as real daily life with all its petty obligations and complications to which you have to respond intrudes on our dream of only doing what we like to do, the next event was Tuesday's Cars-on-the-Avenue informal Concours d'Elegance on Carmel's Ocean Avenue.

I am not alone in singing the praises of this brilliant one-day display of cars on the main street in one of the most beautiful, receptive and co-operative vacation destination little towns in the country. The concept is simple and ingenious - there are 15-20,000 car people already on hand from all over the world, they have families, wives, girlfriends and kids with them and there is something to do for everyone. If a wife isn't interested in the cars and bs'ing with buddies about cars, she's free to go shopping in the myriad of shops lining Ocean, or walk the beach……..whatever, while the car lovers have a smorgasbord of cars strewn in front of them that just keep getting better and better year after year - then you can always meet wife, family, mistress, or whatever for lunch in some of the best restaurants anywhere, relax and get back at it 'till the end of the day. This year, several of the top auction cars were on display on Ocean as well- the orange, original Miura which evetually brought more than 2 millioin , McQueens slate Gray '76 Turbo which mystifyingly also fetched almost US $2 million, and various Ferraris. Honda, or more accurately Acura, took over a small city park to display their new NSX.

Since this is a free event - and if you think about the impossibilty / complication of trying to set up an entry / exit system to collect any size attendance fee, I believe it's easy to understand why it has to remain thus- the whole thing is funded by entry fees and sponsor donations and seems to be working somewhat well to keep it small, friendly, and from becoming unmanagable. The crowd is fundamentally different from the much too self-important and pretensous hordes at Pebble Beach on Sunday. Talking to Doug Friedman, the organizer, he tells me that with the event growing from year to year he is in the enviable position of having a far greater field of entrants from which to choose than the available areas set aside to be roped off from traffic can accommodate. This year, about 3-1/2 times the entrys that Ocean and the sidestreets could handle applied for entereing their cars……I'd say he picked his actual entries well & wisely.

Things started a little damp, drizzly and cool which delayed staging and placing the last few cars until about 10:00 AM, at which time the sun started coming out and things got going in earnest and returned to sunny 'normal'.

This is really a great event, always makes for a great day and makes me look forward to next year's edition - think of it as the world's best Cars 'n Coffee, with just the right mix of enhancements to make it worth the trip…….highly recommended !!

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Getting there very early is of absolutely paramnount importance, both from a standpoint of finding convenient parking and for the sake of watching the staging and entry process. All the coffee shops and decadent bakeries are open, and its the perfect place to chat with friends from all over the world you don't see all that often, and also hearing the cars getting to their assigned spots - listening to a Shelby Mustang 350 GT with 12.2 compression and open side pipes echoing between the buildings will give you goosebumps.
I don't know where the eccentrics in pajama patterned suits come from, but there sure seems to be a never-ending supply of strange folks on hand during the Week.
McGuiar's, one of the sponsors of the event, handed out gift bags to every entrant.
Meyers Manx were a featured species at this Concours and entered en masse.

Enjoy !!

[John Z Goriup]

The next few sets - thank you so much Chuck for providing the ability to post more trhan 5 at one time, very useful feature - are random shots of various entrants waiting to stage their cars at their assigned group / individual spots.

As always, if there are specific questions about cars, details, owners, etc. let me know and I'll try to reply.