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The week of the Monterey Historics is
a series of vintage automotive events like
no other, in a place like no other. Anyone
who calls themselves car persons and has
a chance to go and doesn’t, at least once,
should be taken behind the barn and shot.
If someone they know owns a car that is
accepted into the Pebble Beach Concours
or featured in the Monterey Historics and
doesn’t go, they should be shot twice. I
might be willing to be shot once, for my
country maybe, but not twice.
If you never had the chance to attend,
everything you’ve heard about the week-
end is true. It’s crowded. It’s expensive. It’s
hard to get the room you want without
booking months in advance and paying
double the rate or more that is required
any other time of year. You may have to
book the room for a three or four night
minimum. Some people begin looking for
lodging for the next year on the day after
the event ends. Or they leave a deposit
with the place they stayed the current year
as they checkout.
It’s hard to get a reservation at a
restaurant and it might take a while to get
served after being seated. The roads are
jammed and it takes forever to get around.
It can be sunny and foggy, hot and cold on
the same day. It can rain. It’s nearly a
week long, sixteen-hour-a-day hassle. And
it’s worth it.
The Monterey Bay is the only place I
found in North America where the color of
the sky and the water and the land be-
tween them resembles the northern coast
of the Mediterranean. It’s stunningly beau-
tiful. The town of Carmel is adorable, Pa-
cific Grove is wonderfully eclectic and
Pebble Beach is simply magnificent. All of
the coastline and the drive along it is won-
derful, from San Francisco south to San
Simeon as well as portions north and
south of them.
Once Pebble Beach was a simple show
featuring a few dozen cars viewed by a
small group of enthusiasts. The current
schedule of events, the number of cars par-
ticipating and number of people attending
is bewildering. It was free to the public
when it began, along with the Pebble
Beach Road Races in 1950. The Concours
began asking for a $1 donation in 1961.
Since then, it has become “more expen-
sive.” Today’s ticket is $300 per person in
advance and $350 on the day of the event.
As of this writing, you can still view
the 2015 Concours calendar page on the
internet if you like to set your head spin-
ning. It’s a veritable week long automotive
Disneyland, an amusement park of over-
lapping shows, tours, auctions and exhibits
spread across Pebble Beach, Carmel, Pa-
cific Grove and Monterey. Did I mention
the Rolex Motorsports Reunion at Mazda
Raceway (formerly Laguna Seca Raceway).
A week of sixteen-hour days are insuffi-
cient, even if you try to experience it a mile
wide and an inch deep.
You can choose between a half dozen
auctions, four days of vintage racing, ar-
rival of the tour from Seattle at the Pebble
Beach Lodge, the Pebble Beach Tour, the
RetroAuto display and the Automotive
Fine Arts Society display; the towns of Pa-
cific Grove, Carmel and the Carmel Mis-
sion each have their own concours; there is
a Classic Car Forum, Auto film and Arts
presentation, Concours d’ LeMans, the Lit-
tle Car Show, Exotics at Cannery Row, the
Concours Italiano, the Pebble Beach Con-
cours d’LeMons, the Quail Gathering, var-
ious presentations and lectures and more,
culminating with the Pebble Beach Con-
cours on Sunday.
This year, seven Ferraris of the era re-
traced the Del Monte Forest Road Races,
run at Pebble Beach from early to middle
1950s. Held on Friday, they lined up for
display at the Pebble Beach Concours on
Sunday. Even if you hate “red” cars, that
was a special event. Shelby drove one
when he won the last Del Monte Forest
Road Race in 1957 in a 750 Monza Ferrari.
Sports Car Illustrated
named him “Driver
of the Year.” If there were no Ferraris,
there would have been no Cobra - Ferrari
Wars.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Winter 2016 41