EP26: Pebble Beach ‘24: Elegance, Eva Braun’s Bum, Racing Top Gun, a scruffy Bugatti and a Mafia Ferrari

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Jon Summers is the Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. On his show he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, motoring travel.


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Transcript

[00:00:00] John Summers is the motoring historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of cheap and fast, and not much reliable. On his show, he gets together with various co hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel.

Good day, good morning, good afternoon. It is John Summers, the motoring historian. So, this episode is about the magic of cars, isn’t it? It’s about the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. A concours, a show comparing cars on the grounds of [00:01:00] elegance. And, uh, you know, and I would say, look, the headline, this is one of the things I’m trying to do better in the pot, right?

The headline is, is that this year’s Pebble Beach winner was not a fresh, you know, 500, 000 to 1, 000, 000 to, you know, whatever I popping number normal people would buy a house for. Um, you know, kind of restoration, recent restoration, traditionally, I say traditionally every year up to now that has what’s one pebble.

This, this year was a preservation car. So what does that mean? Um, well, it means that it’s a car which has a contiguous known history that we can look at and we can say, um, this is an antique in the truest [00:02:00] sense of the word. Um, I was trying to explain it to somebody the other day and I found myself thinking about a project that I had been asked to offer an opinion on and it featured a Um, a car, which I mean, I’ll just I’ll say what it is.

It was a grosser Mercedes, a Mercedes 770 that was one of the ones that the Nazi party had ordered Mercedes to make after the death of Heydrich. So Reinhard Heydrich, who was about the most evil Nazi you can think of outside of the SS was, was killed, I think by the Czech resistance, was it maybe anyway, whatever it was, it was a car bomb.

So the party got in touch with Ben’s and said, you know, make a car that’s resistant to this. So that the 770 was, was the result of it. They’re only like seven chassis or, or something like that. Well, well, [00:03:00] um, uh, a, a friend of mine had been asked to consult on the preservation of one of these 770 chassis.

Um, and, um, He by profession is is not, uh, he by, you know, is not a car guy. He’s more of a heritage management historian, um, you know, archaeologist kind of character. So, um, and he always likes to talk with me about car related things if he has something car related on his plate because, uh, you know, as he once said to me years ago when we were at Pebble Beach, you know, you can, you can tell me what I’m looking at.

You know, and I think over the years, he’s gotten a lot better. He learned very quickly, but, uh, you know, the, the, the bottom line is, is that he, we had a conversation about how would you best show a Mercedes [00:04:00] 770? And we talked about this particular, uh, uh, car and, and this particular car had as a result of research that had recently been undertaken, um, being proven to be the car which brought Eva Braun to the bunker at the end of the second world war to Hitler’s bunker.

And interestingly, was also involved in Martin Borman’s escape, right? So it’s, uh, so I guess the car sat around, didn’t get destroyed. And then when Martin Borman fled the bunker, this was the car that he used to, like, get to the airport or whatever. I might be not quite right on on the history there. I’m not quite sure.

done any research about this before. I just remember that at the time when I was doing research about it, that was the impression that I formed. Anyway, that wasn’t the net of the project. The net of the project was here’s the car. It’s in need of restoration, [00:05:00] the engine and the body and the engine or the, you know, the components have been separated for a long time.

And that’s a whole separate and quite interesting story, which at the time I got into, and I’m not gonna Look at that. I’m not going to go down a digression for the first time in the world ever. I’m not going down a digression. How about that? Um, so anyway, that the net net is how do you display this this 717 and, um, I can’t recall.

Well, I believe it was probably him, right? Who would have suggested this kind of thing first, but we, I remember feeling after that conversation that the most important thing about that car was the people who sat in it and and their involvement with 20th century and indeed contemporary history. So, in other words, the most important thing about that Mercedes 770 wasn’t the engine or the chassis or the body or the [00:06:00] restoration or the winning at Pebble Beach or anything like that.

It was that leather seat where Eva Braun had sat on her way to meet Hitler in the bunker at the end. Now that involvement with history is so it’s hard to put your finger on. This is, this is the unfathomable. This is the unfathomable, blah blah, isn’t it? It it’s something bigger and deeper and greater than, than ourselves.

It’s touching, um, um, history. And yet there it is. You know, it’s a story, it’s a fable, it’s a, in your imagination. And then there is the object that is actually there. You know, you too can put your band wear either Braun put hers, um, . And of course, the absurdity of that wasn’t lost on on us. And I don’t believe it’s [00:07:00] lost on on the owner of the car either in in terms of of how do you how do you depict this this story?

How do you depict the car? How do you tell the story without glorying Nazi, the Nazi party? All of this interesting stuff, which is why I’m drawn to the lawn at Pebble Beach. Why I enjoy the show at Pebble Beach because what the show continually makes you think about is what is elegant, how should you best tell the cast story.

But look, the reason why I was thinking about that Eva Braun 770, um, was the, the, this The important thing about that car is the fact that it’s not been preserved, been restored. If it had had had the million dollar restoration, it would just be another, admittedly very nice Mercedes. [00:08:00] But the very important thing about it is that arguably just the seat cushion that Eva brought, sat on, but, but certainly.

This would seem to be the best way to tell the story of that object. Therefore, a restoration completely and utterly destroys the history of the car. I know I ramble a lot and I say a lot of stuff without meaning emphasis, but I’m going to say that again, a restoration completely destroys the history of the car.

That’s why when we talk about a patination, it’s not, Oh, it’s just some scratches and some dents. No. No, it isn’t. No, it isn’t. It’s evidence of a life lived. It’s evidence that it was actually really there. These modern restorations, I’m not really sure what they are. Are they, you know, is it a 1932 Packard because it walks and talks like it or Is it a [00:09:00] night 2024 Packard because just last week it came out of Paul Russell’s restoration shop and the owner just saw it on the lawn for the first time just now.

I saw it before he did because it came out of the truck and was on the lawn, you know, first thing in the morning when I was down there learning how to do my docenting thing, which is why I’m meant to be talking about this on this video. So, so look, right, I have, uh. I don’t mean to. Uh, as ever, I, I cast things in an extreme way, don’t I?

I speak in hyperbole and I use the most hyperbolic example of our times, the Nazi party, to convey what I’m trying to say. But what am I really trying to say here? You know, I don’t just like unrestored cars because of the way that they look. I like unrestored cars because they were actually there.

They’re actually part of real life. History. [00:10:00] Now, you know, am I going to argue that a car like that $35 million Pierre Bar, I think that was the name. Is that no, is that the bloke that had all the collection in the middle of France? Anyway, that the Ferrari that went for 35 million that had the history where it had been wrecked early in its life.

And I think the bloke driving it was, you know, it didn’t bloody make it. It was like in the early 60s, the family, um, like wealthy family. And I guess the family, French family. I believe, um, I might well be wrong on this. I’m no Marcel Marcini, am I? And, uh, anyway, I like stories better than that. Whatever. My understanding is car was wrecked, parked up, sat for bloody ever.

Bottoms eventually pried it out of the family’s hands. I bet you, like a mother died. And, and, uh, or a, You know, the living relative. Anyway, whatever. At that point, the car was freed up. And now I’m not quite arguing that that car should have remained in unrestored condition. There’s not, that’s not good history.

That’s just [00:11:00] a terrible history. And most racing cars, they have these fresh lives. Most of these, you know, Great cars like Packards and Duesenbergs and all this kind of stuff. They were mistreated and shabby and they’re lucky to have survived. So I’m not saying that every time I see a Pebble Beach quality restoration, I’m like, get, get out of my face.

No, not, not at all. Right. I, I, I can appreciate that as well. I’m just saying that if you are comparing a fresh restoration with a car, which has seen it all. In the case of the winning car, it’s a 39, I think. So what it’s, it’s, you know, 80 odd, you know, years old now. Um, yeah. So for me personally, a huge moment that that car won.

Um, and that’s really the headline. And the additional perspective that I can offer is, is that amongst the people I do the Pebble Beach dozenting with that I’m [00:12:00] going to be talking about on this, there was a feeling and a lot of them worked at the Mullin Museum. Um, which recently closed, and we’ll talk about that a little more later on.

But I’ll talk about that wee, the bloody royal wee, so pretentious. I’ll talk about that in a little bit. Um, there’s no team behind me, there’s just me. I guess there’s Eric, isn’t there? There’s poor Eric listening to this prattling editing, isn’t it? Thank you, Eric, and the Motoring Podcast Network. Shit, I completely lost my train of thought.

This is the moment, isn’t it, where you, uh, where I would normally add in some, uh, So some music.[00:13:00]

Look, anyway, right, what am I talking about here? I’m talking about the importance of preservation cards, aren’t I? That’s really what I was talking about. And how pleased I am this preservation card won and how, oh, I know what I was going to say. So the mulling guys, The Mullen guys were sad and and indeed felt it was unjustified.

The car that came out of the Mullen collection and has since been restored, um, Tabalaga or a Delahaye, one of these French things. It was done in two. I’ll show a picture. It was done in two tone like blue and turquoise. It was, um, Um, not to my taste, should we say, you know, it was, it, it really was, it was Uh, you know, I was familiar with the Mullen Museum.

I was involved in doing the orientation museum, uh, orientation stuff. I had no interest in Bugatti’s before and, and I left feeling like, you know, you know, one day maybe I too would do a [00:14:00] type 57. I just like that rakish. body style and a lot of the other French racing cars I knew nothing about before being involved with that collection.

And I really learned a lot. So thank you very much, Peter Mullen, for putting that collection together and displaying it in that way and comparing it with with French art. But you know what? It’s not my, it’s not my shtick. Um, so to see a battered old racing car beat that. Um, you know, one guy said to me and it’s a valid point is, you know, I just don’t see how that Bugatti was more elegant than, you know, the Mullin.

Bugatti Dele Haye, whatever the devil it is, Alba Largo, whatever the devil it was. Um, it was a fast car for about 10 minutes in the immediate post war period before like Ferrari and Porsche really got their skates on, Maserati, those kind of guys, not a fast [00:15:00] car by modern standards, but was fast in period.

And, you know, I get why people like them. They’re just not my shtick.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Very pleased that People Won by Preservation Car. Um, and I guess the other headline, um, in the sort of pedal community, if you will, that’s really pretentious, doesn’t it? But, you know, the talk, uh, uh, you know, that I, I had various conversations around this theme with, with different people.

And of course the weekend was, uh, the, with Bigatti winning. It equalizes them with Mercedes as having won the most pebble beaches and as I, as I said to my tour groups, you know, if, [00:16:00] if, if you are, you know, if Mercedes of 111 and if, uh, Bugatti of, of 110, does that, does that mean Mercedes are a more elegant mark than, Bugatti.

I don’t know. I never thought of it in those times before because this is the first year this sort of that Mercedes had overtaken Bugatti. I think, I think Bugatti led for, for, uh, for a long time. Um, I in the car itself, I did get close to it. Um, on the field walk that we do, we don’t do right first thing in the morning.

I did get really close to the car and, and you know, it’s everything that’s awesome about a vintage sports car club race meeting, except this is a super rare Bugatti. Um, the wheels are just You know, that’s that’s the thing. If you look at photographs of it, just look at the detail. It’s it’s that Bugatti thing where the closer you look, the more [00:17:00] incredible the detail is stood back.

It’s elegant taken up close. It’s elegant. Each individual component is elegant. And now all these things have been working together in harmony. And it’s this beautiful history. So, uh, you know, I’m pleased that that car won. Yeah. So now from the sublime or from the from the sublime to the ridiculous or maybe from the ridiculous to the sublime.

I’m not sure. I’m sitting here now looking at my back from the dead 775 across the country from Minnesota in the winter Kawasaki ZX10. Um, I bought it because uh, Many years ago, we had this trip to Miami. I’m thinking these two things are not connected, but I’m telling you, they completely are. Many years ago, I had this trip to Miami.

On the [00:18:00] trip, we were in the Windward Art District. If you’ve never been there, go. It’s bloody awesome. It’s, it’s street art. It’s, it’s, it’s people talk about, you know, it’s, I’ll tell you what it is. It’s what Venice in L. A. used to be before Google. Came and corporatized it, or if you’re a Bay Area person, what the Mission District was before, you know, the, the tech money in invaded and changed the character as it has in the last sort of 15, 20 years.

And I, I confess I’m part of that. Right. Well, I, you know, I’m here based on a tech sales career, and my wife has, has done a, a, a, an ad sales career. So, you know, it, it, it’s, uh, uh, you know, it is what it is. You can come and stone me for. Blighting our society down the line and what the devil was I talking about the ZX10.

The ZX10 is, is, is back. So it always ran, but first it leaked oil and then it seemed to just stop that and it had oil in it. And, you know, [00:19:00] it also appeared to have had a water leak. It’d been downed. That’s why 775. I’ve been on copart a lot and I felt like I could, I could buy it. And why did I buy a wrecked one?

Why copart? Well, and it, because of this thing that You know, Miami Windward Art District. I, uh, uh, went there years ago with my wife. Whilst we’re looking at all this avant garde art, there was a Kawasaki ZZR600, which some clown had hand painted. It was a shitty job. It was a shitty work of art. You know, it was like when you go around a high school.

I’m going to be doing a lot of art display. You know, there’s glimmers of talent in one or two pieces, but most of it you just like Jesus, right? I don’t want to be harsh on high school. I mean, high school art learning, aren’t you? But you know, this is how I felt with a lot of this windward stuff and this bike was was, but this is why it’s worthwhile.

I left feeling like one not a great motorcycle. [00:20:00] put a motorcycle up like plinth why not be a ZZR 1200 not the 600 like this just seemed like a bit like and and anyway like what a weird subject to to pick not a particularly elegant motorcycle like what was going on and people who would walk past really elegant motorcycles parked at the curb, you know, Ducati’s, um, you know, modern architectural sports bikes like an H2.

They walk right past that because it’s on the street. Those people, they’re going, hmm, and scratching their chin and, you know, Sipping on their fucking lattes, um, looking at this bike and and I was like, you know what I’ve been watching too much of that fashion show with with my wife and and that fashion design show with Heidi Klum what they always do like an avant garde week and I was like, you know, I’m going to do some avant garde collecting.

I’m just going to collect what [00:21:00] I want around the sports bike world because to me, it is art. Here it is as art with a paint job on it. You know, for me, it’s art as, as is. So there’s a number of projects. My, this jigsaw farm project that I’m involved with with Aaron at the moment is of course a big, uh, a part of that.

But, but, uh, so anyway, so I bought this bike in like 2016, right at the end of 2016. It was cheap because, um, it was. It was Christmas time, the auction actually closed and I won the bike when I was on vacation in England, like seeing my parents and it wasn’t a particularly good trip for a whole bunch of different reasons and not least because I was half concentrating on trying to pay for this wrecked sports bike that was going to cost me more to transport than I paid for.

And I also had to organize the transport and, um, anyway, so it had a fraught beginning, not least because I sort of had a [00:22:00] falling out with the truck driver because they agreed to transport it and then were like, yeah, you’re going to need a forklift to get it off the truck. And I was like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Need a forklift. Like, I paid for the truck, but I paid for the bike to be delivered to my house in San Francisco. to be dropped in Livermore, which is a clear hour and a half more in the rush hour away from my house. And I have no means of getting it here. Like, what are we, what are we talking about? So, so the trucker and I had a, had a falling out.

I would handle it differently now. Anyway, the long and short was he dropped it in Lodi and he got there and dropped it off before I got there. So, uh, uh, and when I got there, although the kickstand was down, when I raised the kickstand, the bike, Didn’t want to fall over. It sunk in the mud that much. I had to call my friend Wayne.

And now I do like the pebble beachy stuff with with normally and lives in Lodi. I had to call him to help me push it out of [00:23:00] the mud and into the storage unit. And it wouldn’t start at that time. It said it ran on the listing. But having come across the country in the middle of winter in the week between Christmas and New Year.

In an on an open flatbed truck, the dampness had got into it and it wouldn’t run, but I just let it sit in the storage unit and a couple of weeks later when I was over in the storage unit, I stuck a key in it and it fired up as I said, it’s I was happy about that, but it did leak oil and as I said, it had been down.

So did things like check the frame and all of that kind of stuff. And, and, uh, yeah, as I say, that was 2016 and one way or another with other bikes in the way and, and me being, you know, scared to ride it and, and, you know, the smell of oil, it taking a while, but over the years, I guess it’s just, um, the fluid leaks have stopped.

And the other day [00:24:00] I was like, you know what, I’m going to really try and get it sorted out. And, uh, I guess the reason why I decided I wasn’t gonna write it was because the clutch was was not working right. But I was just able to just played with it and fiddled with it and realized I could put it back together again and make it work properly.

And I did that. And, uh, Then I felt, well, well, the next step is to ride it. And there were a few bits of like loose plastic on it. Like, you know, the plastic on one side was missing. So where it holds the indicator, the metal bracket was swinging around. So I like, you know, dealt with that, like took it off or zip tie the wires or, or, or whatever, just dealt with that.

And, uh. Yeah, I’ve got out and uh and add a little turn around the block and I should say over the years I’ve stockpiled parts on it and I always had a vision to do a kind of like Harlequin pattern with the body work on it because uh [00:25:00] I guess it’s been down, resurrected and then downed again before I bought it.

It has 28 just coming up to 29, 000 miles on it. So I bought a bunch of, you know, cheap plastic, cheap Chinese bits for it. Also like an authentic, it’s got one authentic black side panel that says ninja and another authentic green side panel that said ninja. So, uh, but I also got like the peachy orange to go on one side, which I thought might work, but it doesn’t.

Um, bloke who had it before me, the headlights are green. It’s got these little like spotlights and they’re green and the tail light is green as well. It has, uh, although most of the body work is black, um, the tank is green. So it has this sort of mismatched kind of, of, of color going on. Really cool. Always wanted to, to do that.

Actually looking at it now, I [00:26:00] probably should just, just, just done black. And then it just would have just looked sinister because it would have been black and, but for the green, but for the green tank. But we, uh. Maybe I’ll, uh, maybe I’ll swap those parts out later on. Anyway, those things, uh, uh, are neither here nor there because, uh, in the spirit of avant garde collecting, I’ve left the Copart sticker on it.

Um, it’s fully insured. It’s fully legally registered. Um, I, uh, bought two new tires for it. I bought a new chain for it and spark plugs and oil. So, the work is done and and it’s back. So, what I’m excited about this bike is that I believe this bike is peak analog. Um, by that, I mean that any bike that came before was not, uh, did not make as much power.

It makes 180 horsepower with ram air at 180 miles an hour. That’s the I remembered about it when it was new. So cool. Um, [00:27:00] you know, the gixxer of the same era made a buck sixty. You know, they’re not there. The gap is, is huge in, in terms of, of actual power. The Honda and the Yam, they were, they weren’t in the ballpark at that time in, in 2005.

Um, at the time it had a reputation for having a head shake, that ZX 10, the C, the C1, because it was, uh, it was clear that the Kawasaki came back with more power and a shorter chassis and a bike that was feisty, And hard to ride, you know, just at the time all the TT guys were using Hondas. They were definitely not using ZX10s.

Um, that’s obviously subsequently changed a lot. So, uh, . So, yeah, so, um, peak analog in terms of, of, and after that, or I say peak analog ’cause after that a BS right, everything had a BS traction control. And it first came in, in [00:28:00] 2006, that that’s when the, uh, the K six jigsaw tha had switchable, you know, switchable controls on your, under your thumb like engine mode controls.

Like, I remember feeling like ew at the time, like, ew, um, really weird. Um. Since then, I quite like the idea of ABS. Don’t have a bike with it, but absolutely would ride a bike with ABS, although I think it might spoil me, that’s what BMW guys have said. One guy said to me, you know, you’ve got ABS. If it’s damp, you can just break in the turn.

You can break when the bike’s leaned over and I was like, fucking hell. Yes, you can, because you try and do that on one of these and it does not turn out well, even if you’re not really going very fast. And if you’re going fast, you know, you are very, uh, Uh, committed, which, uh, so yeah, so, um, awesome bike.

Awesome to have it back. Awesome that I resurrected this copark wreck, which I thought was not a wreck, which I thought could come [00:29:00] back. And here it is back and, and riding and, and being alive and being part of the collection. Absolutely. Awesome. It’s only taken me eight years, hasn’t it? So, uh, hopefully I’ll get the other Coparts stuff moving.

The other Coparts stuff I bought years ago moving, moving more quickly than that. So. Having positioned the ZX10 there, I’m going to share a story that my buddy was out on a little test ride with it, and he was at a stoplight, he was at a stoplight and had a guy on an H2, the Top Gun, you know, Maverick.

Bike. Pulled up alongside him. And if you don’t know these bikes, they are supercharged. It’s a motorcycle with a supercharger. And if you’ve driven a car with a supercharger, you know it, it makes a linear power all the way through the rev range. So it turns, [00:30:00] um, you know, a bike, which is, uh, you know, a bike like mine.

Like mine, which are fast in a straight line, but you know, flickable as well. It turns that into even more of a high speed straight line missile. So as fast around the track as is the X 10 ridden well, no. Can it lean and go around corners better than a Harley? Yes, it can. Um, but, you know, really, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s a power bike, the, the, the Kawasaki H2.

So, broke on one of these, pulls up alongside John, and when the lights turned green, he totally blew John off. Yeah, so, uh, he, he had a brain out moment and took off, took off after the guy. Basically, there was a moment where on the straight, the other guy was ahead, but by the time they came to a twisty section and I know the piece of road quite [00:31:00] well, it’s, it’s a, um, it’s right by the ocean and it’s a dual carriageway and it sweeps right downhill and then the line tightens.

And if you know the curve, it’s exciting because it’s two curves, right? It’s a gentle one and then you actively need to really get the bike lower. And there’s a concrete wall and there’s always cars around because it’s like a freeway. And then and then it leads left and the road sweeps left and it opens out.

Um, you can go faster through the left hander and there’s the ocean on the left and it’s on the right hand side there. And it’s just. It’s super picturesque. It’s one of those like, this is why I moved to California moments. Well, we’re down there. Uh, this fella didn’t have as much bottle as, as John and down onto the flat, uh, John just left him in, in the dust.

And uh, when he dropped the bike off, he explained that he’d had this, [00:32:00] this moment, um, mentioned a number that he’d seen on the speedo that I’m not going to share. But. The point he made was how effortlessly he got there. He kept comparing it with his R1, which is one of his like all time favorite, like, you know, out of my cold dead hands kind of of a motorcycle.

He kept comparing it with with with that.

yes. So, having not having been ridden, wrecked, rebuilt by a bloke who John thinks did a really good job. It’s got this full brox exhaust on it and all of that. I wasn’t sure about the quality of the job because of the green lights and all that, but John thinks the bloke that did the work really knew what he was doing.

He thinks the exhaust had a proper tune on it. So, um, Go me. I, uh, I really got a great bike there and got exactly what, [00:33:00] what I wanted. It’s the most awesome piece of, of avant garde collecting. And now, um, you know, I had one ride on it where I thought, is this piece of shit actually okay? And the answer was yes.

And I had another ride on it where, um, you know, sports bike speeds were attained. Right. And, uh, Without me planning to do it, I had no plastic on it then, which normally, that kind of speed, you know, you, the, the power, you need the plastic, right? You feel like you’re going to be pulled off it. Not, not that bike.

I don’t know if it just got there really far. I just, it was just effortless. Didn’t get out of third gear. Um, I just was actually testing the gearbox that was at that moment and there was a straight bit. So, you know, I came in the throttle a bit more and, and, you know, it’s just a liter bike, isn’t it? In the power band, like, that was how it, uh, how it happened that first time.

I went fast on it without really meaning to because it was like shitty old tires at that time and had an old chain and all of that. [00:34:00] Anyway, um. And just for that, like, hot minute, hot moment, right? So, so that was why I was like, you know what, I’ve got to get all the stuff done on it. Cause this bike basically is, is, uh, it’s fine to drive one of those moments, but I think, um, a little bit more so than that.

And the bloke didn’t stay with him. The bloke just fell off the back of him. Um, and I’m like, wow, is this the reality that, that, um, having sat for all those years, And now I’ve been resurrected that in one of the first rides, you’re going to blow off, uh, you know, you’re going to blow off Top Gun. Um, the answer is yes.

So, uh, yeah, the legend, uh, the legend around the spattered ZX10 grows. And, uh, I’m really excited that it’s alive. And, uh, and has joined the fleet.[00:35:00]

So why all this relentless prattling about the Kawasaki ZX 10? What does that have to do with with Pebble Beach? Well, it’s this whole thing about collecting connoisseurship. And what does it really mean to be elegant? What is elegant? At the end of my last pod, I talked about some work that I’d done with the Haggerty Junior Judging Program at the, at the Hillsborough Encore, where, um, I’d been asked to be involved in, in the program as a, as a docent.

And, um, I, uh, you know, the, the suggestion was that you found half a dozen cars and you talked a little bit about them and then you had them pick from those half dozen cars. And, you [00:36:00] know, that was, I really made a point of delivering pithy messages and comparing different cars together. And candidly, I had the unfair advantage of being able to consult with a, uh, with a nine year old, um, you know, my son, who is there with me, about what we should do or compare and contrast.

So we did some of the things that I thought was cool and some of the things that he thought was cool and some of the things that we agreed both to do. with both thought was cool and and uh, as such that the whole, um, you know, that the whole thing worked really well. But, but when you’ve got small children, you know, and you say to them, this is a concord elegance.

We’re judging elegance. Um, what does elegance mean? You can say to adults, we’re judging elegance. That’s why I say to the people who are right due to a sort of bevel beach. What did I say to these kids? Uh, uh, uh, uh, Hillsborough. I said that basically they’re judging [00:37:00] coolness. You’re judging coolness. Now that’s why the preserved Bugatti with all the dings and scratches of a life well lived.

This is way cooler than some gussied up fresh restoration that some cheesedick spent ages picking stones out of the tires for. Like, it just is cooler. Just like some gussied up, modern, fast, showy Kawasaki. All right. Live your Jim. Live your Tom Cruise. Fantasy live your maverick fantasy, right? Because that is the X10 is the real deal in every way, shape or form.

It’s absolutely like uh, uh, Yeah, it’s a splash of cold water in the face. It’s just the. The most it’s what I think is super cool about [00:38:00] cars and bikes and uh, and the motoring experience So yes, I did just delight the multi million dollar pebble beach winning Bugatti race car with my battered salvage title Kawasaki zx10.

Yes. I did just do that

So look I entitled this You Presentation Pebble Beach 2024. What does a Pebble Beach docent do? And in this case, I talked a load of bollocks about Some Pebble Beach cars and some stuff nothing to do with Pebble Beach. Um, Is that kind of what I do at Pebble? Um sort of um [00:39:00] A number of I had a number of serendipitous connections happen, uh, some years ago, I was writing for Gooding, who was seen as the premier, you know, classic car auction house and I connected with, um, I connected with with Pebble Beach.

Um, I was doing some work with my friend Wayne, who I mentioned earlier, who we were doing the docent program at Hillsborough. I mentioned that we did that. And he and I met through the Blackhawk Museum. And at the time, Blackhawk had two floors of cars and we used to do tours around there. And I was a docent there.

And I was involved with Wayne still is involved with with Ironstone, which is an awesome event out in the, uh, you know, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, their, um, big car show attracts all sorts of different cars, kind of like a hot rod show, kind of like a car show, really a great venue and a great event to go to.

Wayne’s always been involved with the racing car [00:40:00] class there and, and, um, So having sort of stood the docent tours up at these different events, we, we, um, started doing them at Pebble Beach as well. And, uh, there was already kind of a program there and Wayne was involved in, in taking that program over. Um, so, um, I am Um, and have been for probably 10 years now, um, a pebble beach volunteer docent.

Um, so what does that mean? It means that on the day of the pebble beach car show, um, instead of buying a ticket and go in there with my wife, um, dressed up to the nines. you know, a civilized hour. Um, I usually get up at three o’clock in the morning and and wear, um, a blue blazer and a white shirt and khaki [00:41:00] trousers and a straw boater and the tie that I get given, which is the tie that all Pebble Beach volunteers wear.

It’s a little bit like Davenport High School for Boys, you know, you have to put the uniform on. And, uh, look the part and, and, you know, represent Davenport High School for boys properly. And in this case, that’s not, you know, beat around the bush, although this is, you know, rich people coming and showing off.

Ultimately, millions of dollars are raised for local, you know, animal and children’s welfare charities. So there is some good coming out of the rich people. Showing off their cars. You know, there is some good, some good coming out of the Pebble Beach show. So what do I do as a docent? So I wanted to make this a bit, a little bit of a day in a life.

Of course, I’ve miserably failed because I’ve bolloxed on about the ZX10 loads first and all of that different, different kind of thing. But this is what a Pebble Beach docent does, right? Because realistically, the reason why I’m able to spend the time doing this is [00:42:00] if I had a proper job, I couldn’t spend the time doing it.

Fundamentally, if, uh, as it is, I’m able to do it because I can take time out of my, uh, out of my schedule. So what do we do? Um, there are two kinds of tickets at Pebble Beach. There’s your basic entry, and then there’s a club dental grants ticket, which provides various sort of benefits for you. It’s a lot more money.

It’s twice as much money. So, you know, more than 1, 000 this year for those club tickets. So for me, um, Um, one of the benefits is a dose of tour. So for me, anybody who stumped up that much to come to the car show, I am going to try and knock it out of the park for them in terms of telling them stories about the cars that are on the lawn.

So, um, what does it look like? Um, early in the morning, you know, you’re done, you’re glad rags and, and, um, drive into, um, Monterey this year. I, I, I, I used to. was I used to be able to lucky. I used to be lucky enough to stay with [00:43:00] people who were closer. And for many years I stayed with with Wayne. But the last couple of years I’ve I’ve been on my own.

And one year I did a motel in Soledad. Um, not to be recommended, but too far away this year I did a golf club in Hollister. So it’s too far away for most people. But you know, I don’t mind the driving and I’m going to talk about that a little bit more. a little bit more later on. It’s also to do with the way that I structure Pebble.

It’s also to do with the fact that I don’t want to spend a lot of money. I mean, you have to spend a lot of money because the Pebble Because accommodation, Purple Beach Week is just absolutely ridiculous. I mean, a motel that’s normally 100 or 150 a night is going to be, uh, 400, 500 a night, literally. So if you’re going to stay there for three or four nights, you, you literally are spending.

Thousands of dollars on the motel. So I, you know, if, if, if, if it’s that, or if it’s drive a bit at the end of the day, thanks, I’m going to do the cheap motel and, and [00:44:00] save myself some money. So, so that’s, uh, that’s very much. So what do I do? I drive in, then you park up in Monterey college is where the volunteer parking is right.

The shuttle bus in first thing in the morning, and then. I’m where I usually we docents usually meet down on the field at 6 30 in the morning for the field tour, because although we see the list of cars early, there’s no substitute for actually walk in the field and knowing where the cars are laid out.

And also for me, that’s my favorite part of the weekend. Increasingly, that’s becoming my favorite part of the weekend because there’s nobody else on the field. There’s like, you know, other volunteers like, you know, directing cars and that kind of thing into place. But there’s, you know, the fences aren’t up yet.

The ticketed guests aren’t arriving yet. So there’s lots of room to look at the cars properly. Um, [00:45:00] And we do a field walk where we share what we’ve learned about the cars. And, and of course, what that means is you are learning off. people who have a really deep, passionate understanding of the cast. So, you know, I can do a schtick about Maserati, but listening to the guy from the National Automotive Museum in Reno talking about Packard, oh my word, I really learned something.

So, um, Love that experience. And, and look, that’s really what it’s about is, is it’s about a boys club where we’re all just really, really enjoying the toys. And, and on that field walk this morning, we on that field walk this year, we spent a long time with the winning guys, Bugatti. He’s there with his daughter.

Um, he drove it 200 miles that weekend. It went on the tour. [00:46:00] Um, so that, uh, we’ll talk, I’ll talk a little bit more about the format for weekend in a, in a moment. But, um, the point is that the car is being driven in the, in the course of the weekend and, and that, um, You know, my most intimate experience with the car, intimate experience.

I don’t know if it’s absolutely, no, no, my, the, the actual, you know, up close and personal with the car, um, occurred that morning on, on that field walk. And then, um, we have a tour scheduled through the morning to about lunchtime when the field becomes too crowded. Um, and it will be Uh, sponsor group. So last year I did a tour from Sadie’s Benz.

Um, other years, the main sponsor’s Rolex. So, you know, years ago, um, I used to do a tour where, um, it would be the Rolex people and, uh, Wayne’s very tall. So he would be at the front with Jackie Stewart, um, and I would miss Jackie Stewart [00:47:00] stories, which was sad. Um, cause Jackie Stewart’s like the ambassador, the Rolex ambassador.

Um, I’d miss his stories, but I would be at the back with the Rolex dealer’s wives, because the people invited to the hospitality are the best Rolex dealers It used to be. I’m not sure if it still is. And, uh, I, I was, uh, I remember cha uh, it was one of the most enjoyable P beach experiences for me was chatting.

with, with the wives who clearly really were, you know, enjoying themselves in terms of intake of alcohol. Um, and we’re chuckling at my, you know, not very amusing sides. And, and there was a middle aged guy who was coming along with us. It wasn’t, uh, uh, he wasn’t a husband. I didn’t know who he was. He introduced himself to me as, as Stuart, um, Englishman.

Um, we, and I was just talking with them about the cars we were looking at because none of us could hear Jackie Stewart. He was like miles [00:48:00] away and, you know, talking 10 to the dozen and, you know, racing this and racing that they were interested in Ralph Lauren’s cars. They are interested in that whole Pebble Beach thing that, you know, you’re contrasting colors.

Um, and the way the cars were arranged on the law is important. This is an artistic experience. Above all, this is meant to be an artistic experience. So if you’re able to divorce yourself from the speeds and feeds, you have a different experience. And they really appreciated that. And it turned out he was the CEO of Rolex and he really appreciated me delivering something awesome, not just car guy ish for them.

So that’s really what the. You know, this is the pleasurable experience for me as, as, as, you know, doing a Pebble Beach, uh, docent and thing I should say, Mercedes tour that I did, these are the people that were involved in designing the EQS. They’re all under the age of 40. It was all spoke incredible English.

I was [00:49:00] halfway around the tour before I realized that everyone in the tour group was a mother tongue German speaker. There was nobody from Mercedes Benz USA. They were all people from Stuttgart. Um, being able to stand in between a row of Mercedes limousines next to two Vanderbilt Cup Mercedes 60 and 90 horsepower and to be able to talk about those cars and see them be awestruck at their own company’s history and engineering.

That was It was one of the most, you know, as a storyteller, one of the most enjoyable moments I’ve, I’ve, I’ve had, um, I guess this year, my moment for, uh, for, for that happening was, uh, if you, if you watch the video, um, the, uh, mass mistress of ceremonies, Amanda Stretton was driven [00:50:00] across the ramp, um, in one of the through, uh, Maserati’s, um, Um, A6GCS, A6GC, I don’t understand, whatever.

Um, either way, the owner, uh, guy’s named Jonathan Seagal, told all like, you know, linen suit, cigar, you know, she’s big cigar on the go all the time, really like sort of theatrical character, invited me when I had a group this year, invited me to come behind the rope. So I’m talking about how they need to be looking at detail.

and the trunk was up on the car and I pointed out the hood latch on this through a Maserati and he stepped in and was like, do you mind if I step in because this is a unique, this trunk latch is a unique through a feature, and he clearly loved what I’d been saying about look at the elegance in the deep.

He then pointed out another half a dozen little fruiter. touches, which I hadn’t seen. [00:51:00] I didn’t know about. And it’s this connoisseurship and detail. It’s this business of, um, we’re all small boys enjoying these toys together. He’s normally the kind of person who I could, would no more take my port and fly.

But because we’re all here celebrating the awesomeness of Maserati and Frua, um, yeah, so it’s, and at that point you feel, you know, as a tour guide, you feel like you brought the people something which they wouldn’t have gotten if they’d have just bought the normal ticket. If they weren’t, you know, flown out by Mercedes as a thank you the work moving heaven and earth to design a Tesla, Peter, um, Whether it is a Tesla beater or not really needs to be seen, doesn’t it?

But, uh, yeah. So yeah, so there look, I’ve rambled for bloody ages to answer the first bullet point on my on my list here of what does a does a Pebble Beach docent do? He [00:52:00] talks a lot and tells those kind of stories to So Apple is listeners,

but I guess, look, the other reason why I wanted to do this kind of part was looking a little deeper than, than just the Pebble Beach docent experience because I’ve been for years now, I know, um, the whole car week, um, infrastructure around the Pebble Beach car show extremely well. Um, So, it’s my thought as I ramble here to try and share some of the way that I plan my time to make the most of it, not to break the bank, um, to see, you know, as many of the interesting cars and experiences as I can.

Um, I, I would say that in recent years, I would say that in recent years. [00:53:00] I’ve, you know, for many years, I, I was sort of wingman with, with Wayne. Um, And, uh, just in recent years, as my son’s got older, he started coming as well, and that sort of structured what I’ve what I’ve done where he would come along for a couple of days and then I’d usually, you know, usually I have to take him home before then spending the Sunday actually actually doing probably so it’s a it’s a car week and then it’s usually the third week in August and the Pebble Beach show itself on Sunday.

So, you know, the Sunday’s written or whether Sunday’s fall for me so. Um, you know, when we usually I used to try and come down on a Tuesday or something like that, usually we come down on a on a Wednesday and I’ll talk about what happens sort of day to day in, uh, As I move through my, uh, my bullet points here.

So, so where did the sort of, what were the origins of Pebble Beach? Well, um, you know, there’s a book by a guy called Bob Devlin, [00:54:00] um, that tells the story of, of the Pebble Beach, of the Pebble Beach show, um, it really in, in detail, but, um, gloriously, it begins with some road races. It begins with, um, And that begins with, with horse races.

So in other words, you know, it’s Monterey, it’s Cannery Row, it’s, you know, Steinbeck and the Tin Lizzies coming, coming west. So in that era, the man from Del Monte, he put the fruit in cans, right? That’s basically what he, what he did, Cannery Row, and he got bloody rich doing it. Now in front of his house, he used to have this, this is if I remember correctly, horse like loop, You know, so people would have horse races around it.

Well, they’d race jalopies around there, what they call jalopies, you know, what we would maybe call like primitive sprint cars, like, you know, not like a modern, like winged sprint car, like an old fashioned 30s sprint car, which is like, you know, a Ford Model A. You know, with stripped body and fenders and, and, you know, but, you know, in the, [00:55:00] uh, and, you know, in an oval, like a, a roundy round in, in an oval, well, post war, the thought was, can we do something that’s a little bit more European in character?

You know, we’ve got these cool European sports cars. Can we do something that’s a little bit more European character? And and there are a number of these kind of road races around us. There were ones at the airport in Santa Barbara. There was a track up in North Northern California here. Candlestick Park, you know, the Niners stadium.

Before, you know, the car part used to be used for, for, for racing. I had a friend at the Blackhawk who was involved in, in racing a candlestick. Um, So there’d been lots of different racing venues, uh, in and around. I mean, believe it or not, the, the Golden Gate Park there was a a, a track there and, and, and the Pebble Beach track was, was part of this, this kind of, of, of spirit.

So, um, there were road races there in the early fifties and, and really it’s illustrative of. of the fact that, um, you know, the [00:56:00] people running Pebble Beach, I think, realized that the cars were getting faster and there was a, wasn’t it, Ernie McAfee or Jack McAfee had an accident and that’s what put paid to, to the racing there.

Now, you can still drive the course now. Um, I have been, uh, you can still drive the course now. It, it’s, it’s around, you know, it, it’s around the back of Pebble Beach Lodge. If you could, you know, if you Google it up, you won’t be able to believe how narrow. The lanes are if you’re an Englishman listening to this, uh, think of like racing on English B roads with trees on each side.

Um, uh, you know, there is barely room for two cars to pass. Um, what kind of cars raced? Well, the first race was won by Phil Hill in a, uh, Uh, Jaguar XK120, early Ferraris, but most people had, um, you know, Ken, we know Ken Miles, don’t we, from Ford versus Ferrari, um, you might remember the line [00:57:00] in Ford versus Ferrari, um, about, uh, about, um, uh, winning the SCCA championship in some piece of shit he built himself.

Yeah. A car was called the Flying Shingle, it was a modified MG. And one of the races that he won was, uh, the pebble beach road races with the with the flying shingle. Um, so it was these kind of little narrow tire, you know, sub 200 horsepower. Um, you know, probably sub 150 horsepower. Um, little hot rods that you could, you know, our logs, that kind of thing that you could, um, have some fun sliding around the Ferrari.

I remember was owned by, uh, uh, William Kimberley of the Kimberley, you know, like Kimberley. Station not stationary product like toiletry products like I’m gonna have to dub in whatever kind of products is what products is it? Um, anyway, the XK [00:58:00] 120. I have a personal collection with the the XK 120. I’ve actually driven the course as a passenger in Phil Hills winning XK.

It’s called 120. One of my really cooler Pebble Beach experiences. I’m I’m uh acquainted with the owner. I’ve not seen him for years and years which one of the uh one of the most interesting car guys I’ve I’ve I’ve ever met. Um if I tell you that he got into a grapple with his local nice, you know, nice part of the valley town council.

Like over, you know, the city, over junk cars in the driveway. And, uh, in conversation, it came out that, that he, he argued that it couldn’t be a junk car since it was a Ferrari, but then subsequently admitted that it was up on bricks. So if you imagine this [00:59:00] really nicey neighborhood with the car with not, and this wasn’t the only car on the driver.

There’s tons of, of when, when normally. When you do, you know, the, the, the pickup and drop off for, you know, the trucks, the truck marshalling for, for Pebble Beach, um, it’s all these orange Kenworth’s and Peter builds from like reliable, the hue, you know, 18 wheeler, like double decker transporters, he had this XK one 20, he had it, it was a closed trailer, but he was towing it behind is like 95 F one 50.

That was, uh, That was how this guy got really cool guy. Um, the kind of person who wouldn’t want me to name him, um, on the pod here. So I Sean, but, but really, thank you, sir, for that ride. And, and thank you for your passion in preserving the car and thank you for probably not [01:00:00] realizing it, but being kind of a mental figure for me in terms of a do the car guy thing and just doing it.

Be eccentric like Dennis Jenkinson and don’t give a shit what people think. Fight the city. It’s a Ferrari. How can it be a junk car in the driveway? It’s a Ferrari for God’s sake. Thank you, drive through.

So that was the road races. So what the devil did the road races have to do with the show? Well, after the road races, they used to, you know, park the cars up and have a show and judge which car was was best. Um, and the show, you know, evolved and, and gained momentum, and I think now is, is when it’s important that we talk about, um, we talk about bloody pretentious.

Now, it’s important that I talk about Don Williams, um, uh, from the, of the Blackhawk collection. Um, he and I [01:01:00] don’t share the same aesthetic. I’ve talked about that before. Um, but I realized the other day that the, you know, much as, as. The Phil Hill XK 120 guy, um, provided, uh, mentorship within the hobby for me without realizing that I realized that, uh, uh, Don Williams did as well because my first involvement with, Uh, the old car community in the in the Bay Area here was at the Black Hawk Museum, um, and it was a docent program that they ran there.

And I should credit Nora Wagner, who at the time was was running the docent program. And really, because of the way that she structured and led what she did, it meant that people like myself and Wayne became friends and and had, um, a pattern then to take towards being docents at other places. There was a blueprint, there was a structure, we had credibility and, and, and so it started with, with the Blackhawk.

So, uh, what is the, the Blackhawk Museum? Well, if you Google it up, it’s cars floating in a [01:02:00] vacuum set against this black marble. It’s often, you know, Pebble Beachy winning cars, you know, Duesenbergs and Packards and, you know, that kind of thing. Right. Um, and, and, You know, Don Williams was very much part of this movement with Bill Harrah of, you know, Harrah’s casinos.

He was very much one of these people who in the 1950s saw the Duesenbergs and the Packards, saw the Olympian cars on used car lots for less money than a new Chevy. Like a, do you want a 50 Ford or a 29 Duesenberg in need of some work? I mean, literally, that’s, that’s what was, was happening. I mean, I know a guy who has a lovely pack car that he bought off a used car lot in Nevada in 1968, even as late as that.

It was, you know, it was still. This 38 Packard was a classic car, but it was on a [01:03:00] used car lot and not loved, not treated in the way that, you know, these Olympian cars, you know, you, you see them being treated. No, it was just being treated as a, as a, as a used car. Maybe the way that we treat, you know, Rolls Royce Silver Shadows or, or, you know, You know, 90s Rolls Royce is that was sort of the seeing that Don Williams was like, no, these are great cars.

The craftsmanship is greater than it was. They’re often completely individual with the, um, you know, individual body styles, individual color schemes, completely built to order. These things need to be preserved and loved and, and. So people started doing that, and the Pebble Beach Concourse became the outlet for that.

And I think we should mention the guy who’s won Pebble more than anybody else, J. B. Nethercutt. Um, he has a museum down in Sylmar, which to my shame, I’ve never been to. What he collected [01:04:00] was fading Americanas. So the Dusenberg fits alongside the Duke boxes and the faded, you know, Hollywood memorabilia, right?

That, that this is, is part of, of, of a glorious Americana, which is, which is going away. So that’s what, what Never cut. And, and Williams was sort of, uh, we never cut more than Williams was, was part of Williams is a restored a crap out of a car. You know, he would definitely have restored Eva bronze Mercedes seven 70.

Make no mistake, he would’ve restored it. So, um, so now you’ve got guys like Williams and Nethercutt competing for the most perfectly restored cars and you have the beginning of a formal judging and Pebble Beach coming along as, as, as we, uh, as, as we know it, uh, continues. today. Um, so through all these years, of course, the cars that are winning a shiny and have got fresh white wall tires and all [01:05:00] of that.

And I should just just pause and say, and now, of course, we have a preservation car winning. That’s the, that’s the contrast, right? That you’ve got all of these, uh, uh, shiny cars winning and now that the preservation car winning. I just want to talk a little bit about the shiny car aesthetic, right? Because I’ve been cynical about it up to now, and I want to contextualize it because, um, Don Williams used to tell a story about walking in Geneva.

Having had dinner with a guy called Ken Baring, who financed the Black Hawk Museum. So Ken was a successful entrepreneur and businessman who became interested in car collecting and I guess bought cars off Don Williams and used Don Williams as a as a kind of car consultant. But as so often in these situations, you know, they became friends.

And, you know, I used to go to the Geneva Motor Show every year. So this story really resonated with me. And if you’ve been to Geneva, you know what it’s like. You have the fondue. And then you’re going to walk back to the hotel. It’s Geneva. It’s [01:06:00] not a driving city. It’s a walking city and and you’re walking and you’re looking at the, there’s the fountain, you know, the big fountain that spits up and you know, you may be, you’re probably looking at the Porsches parked on the street and you’re also looking at the jewelers in the window, right?

You just. browsing. That’s what they were doing. And it came to them, wouldn’t it be a great idea to display cars in the same environment as a jeweler? Wouldn’t it be great to have this black background and spotlight, spotlight the people? So that’s why when we as docents used to say, well, can we have like a mannequin so that we can show the dress that people used to wear when they were driving, you know, in 1906 olds curve dash, the answer was used to be no, because, uh, hurts this presentation as a piece of, of jewelry.

It’s like having a hairy arm [01:07:00] behind the watch that you’re trying to sell for 25, 000. Like, no, right, it’s a piece of jewelry. Let’s show it as a piece of, of jewelry. So, um, again, when Don was around, I was sort of cynical about that and now he’s gone. I realized that by having that very clear aesthetic, he helped me define my own Knackered ZX10 aesthetic.

As the Concord evolved, so wraparound events evolved. Now, the classic car auction business was, they reckon, was invented by Christie’s in the early 70s. Um, you know, I don’t want to delve into it, the history of it, of it here. I would just point out the, um, you know, they can, art historians know when an art market was born.

It was in the [01:08:00] 1780s. They could nail it and they can nail it because there didn’t used to be auctions and then afterwards there were auctions beforehand. If you wanted a painting, you either had to do a private transaction or you had to commission it done afterwards. There was an art market and specialists and so around the show inevitably comes the specialists and the consultants who were then selling the cars to the collectors.

And there’s the restoration community and this whole thing. Sort of, of, of, of theater around it. So Christie’s, um, the, the other role there. So the auction house that has the closest relationship with Pebble Beach now is Gooding and, and really, uh, you know, they used to have a tagline ownership. They still use it.

The quality is off. Brand or qualities are style or something like that. And that was always a thing when I was writing for them. What you would look for was why their car was 10 percent more than everybody else’s, because if they had a Porsche 930, you knew there was going to be something about it that was better than the [01:09:00] other cars.

That’s why they were then other guys, you know, nine thirties. It wasn’t just going to be a bog standard, you know, example of that. It was going to be a really great example of what they, uh, of what they had. So, uh, so that’s good. Um, as classic cars emerges an investment class, you’ve got, uh, other auction houses, uh, Bonham’s, um, RM, Sotheby’s.

Hang on a minute.

So other auction houses came, didn’t they? Um, Bonhams. So nowadays, Bonhams have a thing down on a golf course called the Quail. Um, a little bit away. RM and Sotheby’s, they merged a couple of years ago. Um, and they take over [01:10:00] the Portola Hotel in downtown Monterey. Um, Now, why would you look at the auctions if you don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on a car?

Well, because they represent a car show in and of themselves, so part of the Pebble Beach experience isn’t just the hundred cars that are on the lawn at Pebble Beach. It’s seeing the cars at at the at the auctions. There were also other shows. that take place in the proceeding in the preceding week. Many, many of these.

So I mentioned two of them. A German themed one called Legends of the Autobahn, which I’ve not been to for a couple of years, but used to be, uh, a really enjoyable event. And that was the kind of event where, you know, uh, if, if you, you know, a car like my Knackered E55 would be really Um, if I was serious about selling it, I should go to legends and put a note in the window, you know, that would probably it would probably get moved [01:11:00] right there.

And that’s not a bad idea. Um, I’m kind of in love with it again. Don’t want to sell it. Um, there was an Italian event. Um, there is an Italian event called Concorso Italiano. Um, I went a couple of years ago. The tickets were quite expensive. Um, I have a neighbor who was quite hype in the Ferrari community and he judges.

Has judged a concourse. So in the past, I’m not sure if you went this year, he said that the number of cars were down. So I’m not sure if that event is, uh, it feels like that events on the way. Now, an event that’s definitely on the wax is, uh, concourse dilemmas. Which is a event I’ve never been to, although Wayne judges, which is kind of ridiculous that I’ve never been to.

I think, I think I’ve not been because I’ve been focused at that time on doing, um, events with my son, but, but this is, you know, as the name suggests, it’s, it’s related to the 24 hour of lemons and it’s a sort of spoof [01:12:00] concord event. And I think I’ve always felt, you know, I’m not gonna. I don’t want to be going and looking at plenifalience.

Um, when I could be, um, you know, up at Mecham looking at muscle cars, I’d rather, you know, Wayne’s bored of looking at muscle cars. I understand that. I like looking at muscle cars up at Mecham. I’ve got time to Potter all the way around Mecham as as well. And that’s something to realize is that, you know, um, Gooding has 100 cars.

Bonhams have 100 cars. Um, they had a lot of muscle this year, by the way, Bonhams. Um, but Mecham will move, you know, two or three hundred cars every Yeah? I mean, like, is it better for it to be, like, how much of an angle is it, like, most stable? Well, it’s, it’s about the friction of it gripping on the floor. I don’t know.[01:13:00]

Yeah, just let me finish my thought here. What? Just let me finish my thought here. Okay, sorry. Are you hungry for a picnic lunch outside? Yeah. Yeah, I am. Yeah. Yeah, I am. Alright, I’ll get it started.

Meum are gonna be moving 200 cars probably every day. Probably more than that. I mean, I don’t know. I should probably have done my research before. But the point is that with Meum, there’s a rinse and repeat. You could go back every day and see different cuts. Um, , so the shows, the auctions, which are shows in themselves, [01:14:00] then.

There’s an army land, wasn’t there? Just, uh, in the on the Monterey Peninsula, I guess. Years ago, there was that, uh, colonel who was an enthusiast of motor racing and created Laguna Seca. Um, you know, I think I feel like Laguna Seca. I feel like if you survive this far through the pod, Laguna Seca is going to require, you know, no introduction.

Um, there’s so there’s the Monterey historics there. Um, Is this the Goodwood Festival? Well, no, because people aren’t dressing up and the racing is less, you know, gloves off here. If there’s any contact, uh, uh, the, I think they call it the Rolex Monterey historic race, uh, uh, camera, what they call it. Um, but the, the point is that the, you know, it’s the, the racing is less racy.

Um, at the Monterey historics. [01:15:00] Um, but that said, what you get instead is, you know, See his point in Finian Raceway there up in Northern California and Laguna. What they have in common and a number of other California tracks have it is that they’re built in a bowl. So they’re actually designed to be great for the spectators.

So you can see multiple corners and from many places in the track, you get a really great view. It’s like the opposite of standing at the side of the track. You know, cops are the outside of cops at Silverstone, where, you know, they come past and then they’re gone. You see one corner. This is not like that.

These circuits are, are, are really well designed for you to, to, to see all the way around the paddock. It’s also an awesome facility that you could always wander around at, at Laguna. So for the historics, that really makes for, uh, for a, a, a compelling, um. Uh, you know, that makes for a compelling thing. You, you know, I feel like [01:16:00] if you do Pebble Beach, you have to spend some time out at Laguna and I think the best thing about the historic stuff is, is by all means, Pebble Beach weekend is, is great for, for the previous weekend.

weekend before pebble. Um, all the cars racing, but there’s none of the razzmatazz. So if you’re there for the cars and you don’t need the razzmatazz, it’s cheaper and it’s easier to see the cars. So that’s the really, um, sort of compelling, um, compelling feature of the whole like Laguna Monterey weekend.

Um, I also feel like, you know, the thing about Pebble is the, it has this feeling of car guy jamboree, that driving around on the road, you see interesting cars. If you just park up at the side of the road and just sit there, interesting stuff comes past. Um, almost anywhere, wherever you are, um, [01:17:00] and, and that can be anything from like, you know, yeah, the, so it has this feeling of, uh, automotive jamboree.

I would say that in recent years and it’s, you know, it’s a function of the appreciation of, of classic cars, right? That, that it’s become more of a rich guy thing and pebble itself. Um, the people there, you’re conscious that it’s more of a rich person or pretending to be rich person’s lifestyle event.

It’s more of that than, It is a car show, which is a shame because the car show element of it is, is absolutely awesome. And if you are a car guy, there is just so much for you to see that isn’t the, the people who you know are, uh, who, who are there to see and be seen rather than to see the [01:18:00] cars.

Well, I’ve been away and my batteries are recharged and I’ve, uh, got myself an espresso and, and so on. Having. Framed as my usual way, taking bloody ages to frame what I’m going to say, having framed and contextualized and, you know, sizzle reeled for more than an hour. Um, let me, uh, let me now try and talk through a little bit about what I actually did this this time at Purple Beach.

Um, So in, in other years, as I say, I’ve, I’ve done the German car event, Legends of the Autobahn, I’ve done Concorso Italiana, in, in other years, I’ve been invited to charity breakfasts and, and things like that. Um, other events, which are clearly going on, which I’m not [01:19:00] invited to, there’s a lot of Mark specific stuff.

Um, last year I have a spot where I, Park up at the side of the road and I was parked up there watching the traffic go by and 20 McLarens went by, you know, in, uh, in convoy. Um, yeah, Rolls Royce always take over Barnardus, which is a really nice, uh, hotel. Um, Just near Laguna Seca, just over the hill from Laguna Seca, really good road up over the hill to Laguna Seca and Rolls Royce for the last couple of years have been in there.

So literally there’ll be like 20 new Rolls Royces. It’s kind of stupefying. So many of them, they almost didn’t seem ostentatious and excessive last year when I was, uh, I rolled the car park, you see, that’s how I knew that I just on the way past, I turned into Bernard as drove around the car park and had a had a little look that’s, uh, and that’s kind of what I wanted to do with this, [01:20:00] uh, with this.

Um, pod was or at least the second part of the pod was do those kind of little pointers into how to make the most of your time at Pebble Beach if you’re, if you’re going to come. So I mentioned accommodation. Um, obviously the, the best way to do it is just be rich and spend a lot of money and stay somewhere nice and book in advance.

Um, And you know, so if you can stay in, you know, Monterey, that’s awesome. Um, what a lot of people will say to do is, is stay in a part of, of Monterey called Pacific Grove, which is, you know, it’s a little bit more out of the way. It’s a little bit more quiet. Um, I don’t really know why Pacific Grove is forgotten, to be honest, because it’s well placed and all of that.

And if you’ve been to Monterrey and stayed in Monterrey in the past, there’s a sort of drag up a hill, I think the street’s called Munras, and there’s a lot of motels on there. And certainly when I rode a Harley up the [01:21:00] coast years and years ago, I stayed at a motel on Munras there. And last year, Ollie and I, because we came down on the Wednesday, we were able to score a motel.

But. 200 a night, not a very nice one, but a couple of hundred dollars a night right on Munrath’s there. Only for the Wednesday and the Thursday. We wouldn’t have done it for the Friday or the Saturday or the Sunday because those are, you know, so much more, uh, that final weekend is just really when the, when the pricing is really, it’s really premium.

So as I said, so this is my estate in Hollister, whichever you have a look on the map is bloody miles away. Um, It’s Hollister of the clothing brand. The town’s like, you know, all right. It’s like, it’s an interesting town because it’s right on the edge of the Bay Area. So it’s, um, you know, it feels more like rural California than it does, uh, uh, You know, Gilroy, which is very much on the edge of the Bay Area and is the next town up in Gilroy is known for onions.

I don’t know what Hollister’s [01:22:00] known for other than the clothing brand. I don’t know. The clothing brand has to do with the town. The town seemed to be a, you know, fairly small, nice, You know, farming town. Um, so yeah, so the stay in there that worked out quite well. So I said last year I stayed at this motel in Soledad.

Um, I did. Um, I liked the Soledad one because if you have a look on Google Maps, you’ll see that this river road that runs parallel to 101. That’s a really nice road. To move along, if you know the road quite well, kind of think, um, Lincolnshire in England. If, if that’s a useful metaphor for you, you know, open flat can run very fast, can often see a long way up the road, can take racing lines.

Um, so I chose to do that rather than one on one and I chose to give myself, you know, cheap accommodation and a long drive because I don’t mind driving. I hate sitting in traffic, but I don’t mind driving. If I’m driving, I’m, I’m kind of, uh, I’m kind of fine with it. [01:23:00] That’s, uh, that’s our accommodation. That was, uh, so yeah, so this summer at this golf club out in, uh, in Hollister, and I guess the raid was cheap.

I mean, I, it’s still more, it still cost me more than $800 for, uh, you know, the five nights that, that I, uh, I had the place. So, um, you know, you’re not gonna. You know, and you’re not going to escape the weekend without it costing you 1, 000. I think that’s fair to say, even for me as a docent where I’m getting a free ticket to the main show, Pebble Beach itself.

So, um, so, you know, we, uh, uh, you need to pack like California light, right? In terms of the fact that you’re going to be in the car a lot in terms of the fact that. You’re going to be doing events morning, noon and night. So when the sun goes down in California, you need that hoodie. Um, you can still probably get on with the flip flops, but you really need a hoodie.

Um, so having that kind [01:24:00] of stuff like, you know, in the car. Um, the, the two weekends I did hot August nights and then Pebble Beach and put 1, 700 miles. on the car that we were using, and I’ll talk about that a little, you know, a little more down the line. Um, uh, so I always feel like I’m absolutely living in the car, so that means, you know, that thought you have, oh, you know, shall I take the stick shift, no AC, no, you know, shall I take the not interesting, always works, oh, yes, always works with AC, oh, yes.

Automatic transmission. Oh, yes. The traffic. Yes. So although it gores you to go to a car event, driving something that’s, you know, practical sometimes, that’s what I would the advice that I’d offer. I used to use the bullet Mustang. I think I used the Fiesta one year and it was just too uncomfortable to sit in other years.

So the last [01:25:00] three years I’ve used that Mercedes E 55 that, uh, That we have. So that’s, you know, a great car for it because it’s like a comfortable place to be when you’re sitting in traffic, a comfortable place to be for, you know, a long time. Um, so I guess for me, the reason it’s structured like that is because I have to be bowels and forwards to be dropping only off.

And because, you know, I’m a long way away from the venues. That’s part of the reason why there’s always a lot of driving for me. So that first day, um, we, uh, I went with my son and, uh, we bought tickets for RM and went round RM. Um, so this is in the, um, Portola, right in the centre of, of downtown Monterey.

Um, you can walk round for free. You can see a lot of the cars are parked about the side, so you can get a sense of what they look like for free. If you buy a ticket. 30 or 40, I think it cost us. I think Ollie was [01:26:00] free and you get the catalogs as well, which are a really nice souvenir to take away. And more than that, these kinds of auction catalogs, they form a document of the history of individual cars, kind of like a VIN wiki before a non digital VIN wiki really.

And, and, you know, this is the value add that guys like. You know, Rob Byers and Ian Kelleher and David Gooding bring to the industry, right, is that they’re cataloging and understanding of the cars and the owners and who owns what and who wants what is what drives the business there. I wrote for Ian Keller as well, very briefly, so I do know him.

If you’ve been around the classic car space at all and you meet him, you don’t forget him. He’s huge, physically huge and tall, not a fat bastard, just like a big guy, the kind of guy you never would have wanted to tackle on the rugby field. And he has a similar kind of, [01:27:00] uh, I direct personality and you know what I mean?

You do feel like with him. Um, you could do business with him, which if you were buying a multimillion dollar car, you know, that’s that’s the, uh, uh, You know, that’s how you, you know, I see why I see why he’s done well in his career. Put it that way. I first met him on Dutch event in 2006 and then I wrote for him a little bit of the next place that he was at like that kind of time.

It would have been because I remember it conflicting with the tech sales job that I was not motivated by but had at the time. Yeah, uh, so, but he’s not with RM, he’s with these guys, Broad Arrow, and that’s a, uh, an event that I’ve, it’s out at the airport. I’ve never been to that event. I think it’s Highbrow.

I think you need an invite. Um, I’ve not been to, to, uh, Highbrow. I say, you just need to have deeper pockets and grease the right palms. Don’t you have the right invite? I mean, that’s, uh, that’s exactly how it works. That’s how I got to be [01:28:00] a, uh, a docent at Pebble. You know, you just, I just knew the, you know, knew the people who knew the right people really, and I hadn’t had the right experience, you know, I talked about that stuff with the Blackhawk and, um, you know, Don’s involvement, Don Williams involvement in Pebble Beach means that the Blackhawk, a docent at the Blackhawk was more than, you know, a docent at the, uh, who Jimmy Flip, um, it was, uh, uh, you know, it carried, it carried gravitas with the people that, that run, that run Pebble Beach.

And what I should say is what’s been interesting about the whole experience is that, um, You know, we all know, um, State Farm’s Mayhem or State Farm is the, you know, we, the insurance companies have a personification, don’t they? Progressive have Flow and, you know, there’s that Mayhem character. Is that State Farm?

Is that, you know, See, that’s bad that the connection is not there. I remember the character, but not the connection, isn’t it? But, uh, no, bottom line is that the, um, [01:29:00] we, in a mediated age, we increasingly look to personify and put a human face on these things. We advertise faceless products by putting a compelling, memorable, human ish human face on it, right?

Um, In the case of the insurance companies, sort of stereotyped human face, right, really thought of it in those terms for a minute, but it is, uh, it is stereotyped. And, uh, in a sense, a lot of the photographs that you see from pebble nowadays are of docent groups or judges or of the Stanford junior judges.

Because there’s a nice personification and everyone’s wearing the same thing and there is an image play about that. So, um, yeah, so that has been, uh, an interesting transition in the time that I’ve been doing the, uh, the docenting program. So, yeah, anyway, um, So we went around RM. Um, the [01:30:00] headline here is the Tony Paravano, um, I think it’s a Ferrari 410, the big sports racing Ferrari, um, and borderline the most elegant car I’ve ever seen.

It has a slightly longer tail than most other sports racing Ferraris of the era, and that really works for me. Um, Tony Paravano was a, um, Chicago resident of Italian extraction who came west and invested, you know, and having made a lot of money in property. That’s what he told people. He made a lot of money in property, uh, and he bought Ferraris and raced Ferraris out on the on the West Coast.

I think, um, reading between the lines and I don’t want to, you know, libel anybody here, but I’m about to, um, the historian in me having done some. [01:31:00] Pretty limited research, right? I’m not done a lot of research, but I think he was laundering money for the Mafia. I think, um, anyway, he went missing when it came out that he owed the IRS a lot of money.

He disappeared. The implication always is that he disappeared in the Jimmy Hoffa sense of the word and not in there. He ran away and created a new identity for himself. But of course, there is this DB Cooper light flavor. Um, about it. It’s a not car. So, you know, my son who’s very proud of his American heritage.

He loves the fact that love the fact that it was a not car. Um, um, you know, and it’s a big capacity sports racing Ferrari. So it’s, uh, you know, 180, 190 mile an hour, narrow, tired. absolute roaring beast of an automobile. It’s fully the car that looks shazam and then is even more shazam when you tried [01:32:00] it.

Um, You know, and I like him because the sports racing car in theory, it’s something you could use on the road. I mean, you couldn’t really, but you know, so I love that car. I spent ages looking at that car. And and, um, As you is typical me, I like the B side more than the A side because the other thing that they were showcasing that was that you may have seen this if you follow the The hubbub around the classic car world is, uh, um, their RM.

So the bees are offering at some point soon, um, uh, Mercedes W196 Streamliner Stromlin Wagen. I think that’s the, uh, the German pronunciation. So these were the 196 Formula One cars that were given Streamliner bodies. Um, so is it a 300 SLR? Well, it looks a bit like a 300 SLR, but it’s not a 300 SLR because it has a monoposto center driving position and [01:33:00] it’s a, you know, it’s a 2.

5 liter high revving Grand Prix car, not a 3 liter lower revving sports racing car. Um, It’s a different in a different in character. Don’t know about the particular history of the car. Um, the thing that made me smile, um, about it was that it is positioned as being worth up to 70 million. And I read that and then I looked at the Paravano car and had all the thoughts that I’ve just had about the Paravano car and, you know, Ollie needed to pee and we went for a pee and then we bought the catalogs and I came back and spent another five minutes communing with the Paravano car.

And then I suddenly had a thought, where did they pull that 70 million from? I’ll tell you where they pulled that 70 million from. The. Most expensive car to sell at auction before then was that wrecked Ferrari GTO, right at 35, right? [01:34:00] Then there’s the open secret of Dave MacDonald, the weather tech guy, buying the silver GTO for 70, 75 million, something like that, which at the time seemed outrageous, but now totally doesn’t because Mercedes got those people together and auctioned off that Ulaan Haakoub for 140 million, didn’t they?

So if you think of it, you’ve got this 140 million mark, then this 70 million mark, then this 35, and then everything else just, like, straggling behind, right, in terms of most valuable cars, um, ever sold. So, RM picked that 70 because it’s half of 140 and pretty close to what Dave McDonald paid for in that private transaction for that, uh, 250.

Um, I said to Wally, clearly they don’t have a fucking clue what it’s going to bring and who [01:35:00] would? There’s no comps. And that’s the key point about Mercedes 300 SLs and Ferrari GTOs and Bugatti Type 35s. These benchmark cars, Cobras, you know, there’s a limited number of them made and that guarantees, you know, provenance.

There’s provenance on every chassis. Um, and you can compare, right? You can compare, you can say that because that car that 35 million was clearly not a great example, you clearly, if somebody was going to buy a new example of it and a nice example of it, you know, one of the few, I don’t know if there’s more than one silver Testa Rossa, but that is the car that Dave, Dave McDonnell bought, isn’t that silver one.

So it’s very distinctive, right? You are the guy with the silver. [01:36:00] Rossa with the silver GTO, right? Um, you know, I, I feel like, um, you know, so it seemed a lot when he paid it, right, but maybe, you know, 20, it seemed a lot when Chris Evans paid 25 million for that GTO all those years ago in, uh, in, in England, I wonder if he still owns it, I wonder if he does

the last couple of years, what RM have had as Pretty much rivaled what Gooding has had in, in my opinion. Um, Traditionally, Gooding always had the very best cars and RM always had more, and you know, they used to have Elon Musk’s cars and things like that, not Mecham style or, you know, that Drew Alcazar guy before he went [01:37:00] bust, but silver car, not like that, but they were still, um, Drew Alcazar, bloke’s name, wasn’t it?

Um, Anyway, the long and short is, is that in recent years, the caliber of stuff that RM has had has been bloody awesome. Um, they take a car park outside. They also take a couple of floors of the hotel. So you’re like walking around the hotel, you’re like ride up an airport escalator style and come off the top of the escalator.

And there’s, you know, the Oni mint green Ferrari F40 just like bloody park. Um, one year I’d had a bit to drink and was in a like, fuck it and fuck you kind of mood and sat in a 288 GTO. I just opened the door and sat in it. The security guard wasn’t really expecting it and clearly didn’t know whether I was a prospective buyer, so just bloody did it.

Could have done the same with the Duesenberg that was up there as well, but those things have such a regal bearing. Whereas [01:38:00] modern, modern stuff, I feel like I could just, You know, I feel like I could just get in and drive it, you know, even the 288 GTO there. Um, yeah, um, my son loves Chinese food, so after that, we went to the Chinese restaurant that he enjoyed last year and, uh, ordered sufficient Chinese that the following morning when we woke up, we could put it in the microwave and have breakfast, thereby being able to get straight out on the road rather than having to come back.

Mess around with with breakfast with breakfast tomfoolery. So a feature of I’m jumping around here, but, um, one of the reasons why it really pays to engage around accommodation is you can just make life so much easier for yourself if you have a fridge, um, and a microwave, because then you can, you know, then you’re completely independent on food and can live out of the room and save food [01:39:00] easily and do, you know, to do, you know, Take about, you know, carry a box out and actually have somewhere to put it to, you know, finish it up.

And then the next day I know this is like travel 101, but, um, I’ve been guilty of, you know, false false economies in in the past. And this is one of the reasons why, you know, I was more interested in having, um. a certain standard of accommodation than I was in having the, uh, the best price.

I feel like RM, so as I say, I feel like Gooding have always done the very best cars. I feel like RM are doing a lot of cars now, but really with incredible depth. I feel that Bonhams, who used to sort of, I feel like, I used [01:40:00] to feel like the second to, um, Uh, good. Now, II feel like they’ve fallen off a little bit in comparison.

They had a lot of muscle cars. They were doing like a guy’s collection of muscle cars and I didn’t pay to go in because Olly was knackered by the time we got down there on the Friday night. But, um, I just, I don’t know. You know, you can look at bottoms from the outside more easily than the other side just, uh, you know, how to look from the point outside, you know, looked around the field of what they, uh, what they had didn’t look close didn’t sort of see in anything or anything like that to what they did have.

That was really nice that, you know, if it had been my money, what would I have bought? Um, that a nice sort of four speed pistol grip 70 charger in black. 440 cars. So, you know, kind of car that I, you know, really would have bought in period and, you know, we’d love to buy now. I mean, obviously everyone loves the jigsaw hazard 69, but I actually feel like the [01:41:00] 70 is arguably a better shape with the full round bumper there.

So for many years, I’ve said to people, the best way to enjoy pebble is to go On the best event to do a pedal is to go on the Thursday morning to the start of the tour. So in other words, there’s the show on the Sunday afternoon. But as. of the way of just extending the overall car festivities and also as a way of making sure that owners actually do interact with their cars a little bit and rewarding those owners [01:42:00] that do that, um, there is a driving tour.

On the Thursday morning now, if when it comes to judging on the show field, if the scores are equal, but one car has done the tour and the other one hasn’t, the car that’s done the tour, that is actually a deciding factor. So if you’re serious about winning, you need to get yourself out there and get yourself in the car and do the tour.

So the winner. Did did do that. Um, I saw the car that morning. Um, so it sets off at nine o’clock, but the best time to be there is sort of 7 15 7 30 onwards. Um, it’s at the top of the Peter Hay golf course. Um, if that means, you know, if you have a look at your Pebble Beach layout, it’s up the hill, basically from the from the clubhouse near where Mercedes that Mercedes 10 and the whole like, you know, Concourse Village affair it is, um, so the cars set off and drive from there.

They used to go into Carmel and, [01:43:00] you know, park up Carmel and lunchtime and then come back, but that used to turn into such a scrum that they just stopped, uh, they stopped doing that. So now your best chance to see the cars for free is at the start of the tour, or a lot of people sit along the route of the tour.

So as it drives along 17 mile drive out of Uh, uh, out of, um, out of, um, uh, you know, Pebble Beach itself as there’s you drive out of the, um, the sort of little national park, the, uh, Pebble Beach is in as you drive along 70 mile drive. That’s, uh, it’s super picturesque, right? So a lot of people will just park up and do chairs and things like that.

I actually found myself thinking I might do that. This this year. So other years I’ve advised people to go early, see the start of the tour. And I used to love it because, um, you know, I used to try and network with people when I was keen to try and find employment opportunities in space. And I used to try and network with [01:44:00] people and and that was the best opportunity to network.

Because in within the first half an hour of turning up, you would have met everybody I would, you know, I’d have a checklist of people and I would have met all of those people and connected with them and had conversations with them all the while looking at the cars that were potentially, you know, that we’re going to be on the lawn, um, that afternoon.

So it, you know, on the Sunday afternoon. Um, a great event. Um, and I thought I had that pretty down pat, but then last year, because we excessively did RM and then did the Chinese, my son was tired. He was only eight then, wasn’t he? So, uh, I was like, bugger, getting up and going to thingy. I just let him sleep and we just went along there later on.

We went and had some breakfast at the restaurant. Golf club and just did different things that day from, well, I don’t know the years quite liberating actually really well this year, um, I thought, you know what we’ll do. We’ll go along. We’ll look at [01:45:00] good in because good in set up right there is as well right by the start of the tour.

And, and so what I used to do is watch people go off, then do goodie nowadays. What I, what I thought this year was, was, uh, we’ll pass around goodie. Um, he’s a bit more expensive. He’s like 60 or 90 or something like that. Not, not a hundred dollars. I mean, years ago, it used to be that much. Um, and it was worth me trying to get the free arm bands.

Then that’s how you get in. It’s like a colored armband. That’s what, uh, what couldn’t, couldn’t does. But, uh, yeah, I mean, I just bought a catalog this time. Um, He’s got about 100 cars. Um, it was, uh, it was a good show. Ollie and I, Ollie was keen to go around, um, keen to go around that, um, and my thought was afterwards, I’ll look at the tour cars, you know, the cars that are going to be on the lawn as they’re in the car park, you know, restaging, getting back in there, reliable transporters, obviously, you’re not going to see everything, but you are going to see cars driving and, you know, it is an opportunity [01:46:00] to wander around and look at them, um, in a, you know, Quiet kind of setting without there being loads of other bloody people, you know, you can, um, you know, I, I, I, I’ll include a picture of a Jaguar D type that I got a picture of, and it’s, it’s awesome that you can, you know, that the cars are around like that in the car park and it’s that kind of secure environment.

And that is one element of, you know, Pebble Beach that feels quite Goodwood esque, but you can actually get close to the cars and, and, uh, they’re, they’re like sitting around like real cars rather than like, you know, um, million dollar antiques. So, uh, of course, if you don’t do the networking out. In the tour in the morning you end up bumping into people in the tent in Gooding and that’s what happened this year.

So um, I was engaged with uh, oh a guy I remember I know since he graduated college. Um, he’s at the HVA now and was at uh, I guess as the HVA has integrated more with Hagerty. I think [01:47:00] his business card says senior historian or something like that with Hagerty now. But anyway, um, I was catching up with him.

Um, I credit where credit’s due. This is the guy. I’ll name names. Casey Maxson is the guy that put in mind for me to start collecting motorcycles. I told that story about the bike up on the plinth. That set me thinking about the avant garde collecting. It was Casey who said to me, um, probably 2018, 2017, 2018, something like that.

Somebody’s got to start collecting 90 sports bikes. And I flew home from the conference thinking it’s fucking me if me is going to do it because there is nobody else doing it. There is nobody else doing it. Um, because of that, because what we’d been having a conversation about how they would do it cheap, you know, how you could, you know, you could go out at that time, you know, you could still buy, um, a clean, you know, slabby jigsaw for 5, 000, 5, 000.

[01:48:00] Um, obviously that’s, uh, that’s since past and I, I guess I just realized that the, because the bikes were cheap, they were still being ridden by noobs and wrecked and then broken up and I’d realized that because of what I’d seen on Copa and that’s why I wanted to buy the bikes and I save, save some of them in that wonderful.

Um, you know, used unrestored kind of, of, of condition. So, um, yeah, Casey and that exhibit in, in Miami, that really put me down this road to, uh, to, to collecting bikes that, and, uh, really bizarrely, I, I, uh, have done role play games for, for years and years, not too much nowadays. Dungeons and Dragons did a game called Rifts.

My character in Rifts had a hangout where it was like an undercover hangout and I had it as a motorcycle repair shop. That was my, uh, I mean, it’s a science fiction game. So they were like flying motorcycles, but it was basically like, [01:49:00] you know, they’re basically like the sport bikes of the future. So I was like, well, you know, I’ll, and I thought that was, I thought that was cool.

And then I was like, it was a good idea. And then I got to thinking, You know what? It shouldn’t just be your character that could do it. You could do that in real life. Why don’t you do that in real life? And the bikes were cheap and, you know, I was able to eke out the Anyway, so that’s why I ended up with a garage full of, uh, of 90s sports bikes.

So I was talking with Casey. And then Ollie tapped me on the shoulder and was like, uh, this guy’s just asked me if I can go sit in that car over there. And I’m like, what the fuck are you talking about? And he’s like, that one over there, pointing at this 1960 Lotus 18, you know, as in, you know, the car that’s Sterling Moss.

Beat the Ferraris with at Monaco, you know, not that car. It was a green with yellow wheels example, but like a load. So I’m like, yeah, for sure. You can you can go and get in and yes, so, uh, he’s saying the car is they like, because the mechanics like tinkered around with it because he’s so small. [01:50:00] He can touch all the pedals now.

And he’s, you know, he’s doing it. doing his Gran Turismo and he’s doing his uh, uh, karting. So it all tessellated together nicely and what was really superb for me was the, the Gooding guy who’d asked me, said to me whilst he was sat in the car, just came up to me and said, you know, not all kids are, you know, your kids really polite and grateful and that really makes a difference because not all kids are.

I was like, awesome. Awesome. Awesome. This is why we do these things. This is why we’ve been coming for two or three years now. So he said, you know, I want to do Gooding because, uh, he knew what to expect. So this was, uh, talk about inculcating them, uh, young into the very best parts of, uh, of, of the hobby. So yeah, so then we did, as I thought we might, uh, having looked around Gooding, what did Gooding have that was exciting?

I mean, I [01:51:00] flicked the catalog for, uh, 2024 Monterey because the market has been in a place where you felt like people were like, wow, if I’m going to realize my gains, I’ve got to do it now. The investee kind of types. So, you know, there are a shitload of cars on the market and I mean, the raw stats. And again, if you’re faintly interested, you’ll have You know, look this up already, but I think I read Haggerty had a sell through rate, 1, 100 cars, 864 sold, so a sell through rate of 72%, but a sell through rate of less than 50 percent on cars built before 1981.

You heard me right, 1981, not 1961, 1981. 81. So that means that less than 50 percent sell through on muscle shit. Less than 50 percent sell through on really nice [01:52:00] 50s, you know, Bel Air, Chevy Bel Airs, Pontiac Chieftains, that kind of thing, right? Those kind of, you know, Bobby Basic American collector cars.

Those guys not selling. Now, I don’t know what the sell through was on, you know, I don’t know if you broke the demo down further and you looked at what the sell through was on pre war cars, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was below 20%. Um, so yeah, so the worm has turned because You know, the buzz around the, you know, super car y kind of stuff.

I mean, maybe I’m feeling it because that’s what speaks to my son. But, you know, we looked closely at Ferrari Testarossas last year and looked again this year and the prices [01:53:00] are a lot higher. I’m going to show you how to get into a car for less than a hundred this year. I don’t feel like I’ve gained one for, you know, less than 140, maybe on auto trader.

When we were looking, when we were, you know, like if you do auto Tempest, when you do like the search for like across the country, like Testa Rossa for sale, seven cars for sale, all of them were 150 and up, right? And there’s a lot of like, you know, 13 mile owned by the Aga car, you know. And it’s balls waxed by, you know, you know, you know what I mean?

There’s a lot of really gussied cars that wouldn’t have been the right kind of car for us. Um, and very few that would be the right car for us.[01:54:00]

So we went out into the car park and looked at all the cars coming back from the tour. Saw a lot of cars that subsequently we saw at the show. The one that’s standing out in my mind now as I talk about it is, uh, uh, the Cizetta Moroder V16, um, white. It’s a transverse V16, um, When you see the engine cover open and there’s radiators at both ends and the gearbox tacked on like it’s a fucking enormous Austin Mini.

I mean, you have, uh, it really, it’s a piece of theatre. I was way more impressed with that Suzetta Moroder than, than I, uh, than I expected to be.[01:55:00]

In terms of Friday. Um, I had bought us tickets for Laguna Seca. So we, uh, we went there and we spent all day there. Um, the other activity that really is a compelling event to do if you can get hold of tickets is the quail. This is, uh, a car show. The quails like a golf club that’s on Carmel Valley Road, just outside Monterey.

Um, it’s, you know, normally it’s like a, 10 or 15 minute drive. If the traffic’s bad, it can be, you know, more than that. Um, bottoms are always down by the quail. Um, there is a car show down there. Um, it is, I mean, [01:56:00] traditionally I thought the tickets were only available by lottery and they used to be 1, 000. I don’t know if that’s changed.

Um, I used to go right at the end as they were packing up on a Friday night, so I used to go look around Bonhams a little bit and then, um, you know, go and look at, uh, uh, walk into the Quail as they were leaving. You might remember I mentioned it on the pod. There was one year where I, uh, I blagged my way in.

Um, but I guess everyone was wearing nice purple beach attire, and I was wearing this John McGuinness Isle of Man TT shirt. And somebody recognized the shirt, which is why I’d got been given the credentials. He was leaving, I was arriving, but the show was kind of still going on. So I arrived much earlier than I had, uh, uh, other years, and I felt like a total rock star, because I was the only one not dressed to the nines.

Well, these drunk women kept talking to me, and then perhaps in a pinnacle moment, Jensen Button. sneered at me and absolutely looked at me like [01:57:00] I was shit on his shoe, which, uh, uh, cause I have flip flops on as well. He was really nicely dressed as well and was with, uh, with his wife there. She’s a handsome woman.

She was a playboy playmate. I think he’s doing a lot of stuff in America nowadays. I mean, good for him, but, uh, uh, it’s a bit like, uh, um, Yeah, I feel he’s a bit like the royal, you know, he’s like married a Californian one and now he’s out here doing the California thing somewhat, you know, I don’t know. I guess the invitation is the most sincere form of flattery as if anybody’s imitating me, but yeah.

Um, so look, The Quail’s a good show to do, but it’s not beat around the bush. Um, other years, um, there has been, it’s craftsmanship there. Um, it’s high end stuff. It’s where, you know, Lamborghini, web, A few years ago, Bentley launched that continuation blower. Um, I remember one year seeing an all aluminum. You know, freshly recreated pontoon [01:58:00] fender, Testa Rosser.

Um, it’s where last year Lamborghini launched that like revamped reimagined count hash. Um, you know, I, I mean, I guess if money was no object, it would be a good thing to go to. I mean, that guy that I know that owns the, uh. Uh, the Phil Hill Jaguar, um, 120, the Pebble Beach winning car, he was invited one year to show a Maserati Ghibli.

Um, and I said, you know, not being funny, you know, blank, but why you, I mean, and he’s like, cause it’s the most original, clean example and I was like, well, how did the showing go? And he went, I couldn’t find the fucking key. I mean, I kid you not, I kid you not, I turned the place up, my house upside down, I couldn’t find the key to the car.

Eventually, it was brought there on a flatbed without the key because he couldn’t find the key. [01:59:00] Nissan Concepts, I saw there one year, um, really weird, you know, Buck Rogers in the 20th century Nissan Concepts. I, uh, I I filmed, um, or I, I saw, uh, the historic Lancia team loading up, um, an LC2, uh, 037 and a Delta S4 one year.

And I just like stood at the side of the road and watched. Um, one year I was walking and there were a couple who were trying to get what I now recognize to be an indie roadster. Like an off the indie roadster from the fifties loaded and, uh, they needed help with a push and, uh, I helped and they were very grateful.

And looking back, I, I touched a piece of Indianapolis history [02:00:00] without even knowing it. So that’s what’s, uh, so that’s, you know, some snapshots of, uh, of, of the quail. And the other thing to do if you’re around at the quail is. There’s a spot called the Baja Cantina, and it’s an okay place to eat, but mostly there’s a car park there, and there’s always interesting cars in that car park.

That’s going to be more like things like, you know, Datsun 510s than blower Bentleys, but, you know, I’m as interested in a Datsun 510 or, you know, E30 325, that’s the kind of thing that you, that you find there. Um. You need more printing? Yeah. Oh, it’s the same document, but with more pictures. Yeah.

Glickenhaus, Derek Jeter, dirt bike, Honda. You like the NSA? I don’t know, I don’t like it. It’s just the symbol car of Gran Turismo. Yeah, good, good thought. So[02:01:00]

what subject is this that they want this collage on the book? Uh, language arts. The teacher just likes to draw and stuff, so. It’s a fun warm up for homework. It is a fun warm up for homework. Sorry I screwed up your pod again. It’s alright, it’s working out quite well that I’m able to take a little break from it, and like, reposition what I’m gonna say.

I’m worried this one’s gonna be really long, though. Well, it is gonna be really long. Why is, why do, why does anybody care?

Because people listen to [02:02:00] it in bits. You need to do like, chapters, so like, when you’re done drawing you know something? You need to like have a break for a musical interlude and then say like That was our first chapter on blower bentleys. Now we’re moving into scooper But nothing I do is that structured you see you need to get that structured So if you have a five hour one and say your usual two hour one People can listen to it in pieces while they’re riding to their bus through Right on the bus to their work That’s, yeah.

We need to structure in a way that when people have their AirPods on the bus, they can listen to it. Yeah. And like, like, yeah, I need to structure it better. You just structure my pod better. Did you hear that business? Yeah. You pull, you hapless bastards are thinking, yeah, you bloody do. Maybe you don’t, maybe you’re relishing the [02:03:00] free and easy whimsical style that I have.

The other thing that’s along there, right, and it’s, uh, it’s up there by the Baja cantina, is there’s, uh, there’s a breakfast place that does the best briskets and gravy I’ve ever had. And if you’re a Brit, you’re thinking biscuits and gravy? What digestives with gravy on? Like what the f k is that? No, no, this is like an American thing where the gravy is basically like sausages in some kind of unpleasant looking but super tasty like white juice.

And the biscuits, that’s like, they’re like, basically just like, you know, bread. Like some bready kind of stuff that absorbs it. So anyway, it’s Absolutely outstanding and an absolute culinary must do, uh, when you’re when you’re at pebble. I missed it this year, unfortunately, because I just the [02:04:00] whole Hollister thing.

It just took me away from that that area a lot. I only, um. Yeah, I was only along, uh, at Bonhams, uh, that one time with my son, um, because on the Friday we did Laguna, um, on the Saturday on and took him home on the Friday night and on the Saturday, um, I drove back down and I’ll talk about what I did on the Saturday in, uh, in a moment after I’ve talked about, after I’ve talked about Laguna.

See, I do have a structure and a process, don’t I? Good Lord. All right. So the Monterey historics at Laguna Acre, um. So Laguna, as I said earlier, Laguna is a great circuit to spectate. It’s hot. Um, my son’s favorite viewing point is at the Corkscrew. So, you know, other years I’ve, like, struggled up the hill in flip flops, slopping beer everywhere, being like, fucking hell, he can’t be sitting at the bottom of the hill.

Um, but, uh, then once we’ve got up there, of course, it’s been really worth it. And his passion has made it really, has made it really [02:05:00] worthwhile. Well, this year, an old friend of mine, um, Jack Pesso, if you’re ever listed one of the most interesting characters you’re ever going to, uh, ever going to want to meet, um, has an old, has, uh, has had a campsite up there with his son.

Um, Jack’s one of the first people who ever did the Mercedes Sprinter van. He’s like, he was living the van life before anybody else had ever, ever heard of it. Um, You know, literally when I pinged him to be like, you know what, Jack, you still have that campsite because, uh, you know, we might swing by and see if we can see you and hang out with you this this year.

Um, he was when I sent him that text, he was dirt biking in the Sierra Nevadas. You know, that’s how it works. Um, really, uh, uh, I always felt a very skilled rider. I’ve never ridden with him. I just know by talking with him about riding experience. Never somebody who’s overestimated [02:06:00] his, his own skills, won’t ride sports bikes because they scare him.

But if you see him ride a super motard, he just rides so hard. It’s like picking the front wheel out of every, picking up the front wheel out of every corner. And, and, you know, you look at the tires and there is no, There’s no chicken strip on them because the guy grew up on dirt bikes and now it’s like, uh, uh, you know, your channel, all of the frustrations of, of being a, uh, you know, he’s like me in that he swims against the tide.

And when you say to him, but you’re swimming against the tide, you say he just pushes back on the notion that he’s swimming against the tide and won’t see that there’s another way. And I understand that because I am like that myself. I think that’s why, um, I, uh, so having not seen him or spoken properly to him for years, I, I, uh, you know, we’ve gone like that before, where when you spend time together again, you just, we just get on.

And, uh, yeah, so, um, So I hung out [02:07:00] with, uh, with Jack up on his, his sprinter. He did, uh, um, fried up some burgers for us, which, uh, was fucking awesome and lovely. And, uh, you know, we drank beers and, uh, then potted down for me. He was on the outside of turn nine. So if you know the track, um, you do the corkscrew.

You know, so Laguna is awesome, right? There’s the start finish, which is when you’re out of speed, it’s a climb. So turn one is the elbow on the straight where most people use that as the cutoff point. And then, um, you sort of goes light through one and then there’s a descent into a hairpin of number two and then three, four and five.

3 is a right, 4 is a right, 5 is a left, 6 is a left as well. Um, they get progressively faster, and they, they have a wonderful rhythm. The kind of rhythm that [02:08:00] you know about if you’ve played, you know, racing games on the Nürburgring, or if you’re really good on the Nürburgring. That section, um, At the top of the track, you know, after the carousel, Viperman, that kind of section there, um, where it’s left, right, left, right, downhill, faster and faster, um, you know, goading you to put a wheel off the road.

And if you do, it’s it’s a disaster. Yeah, awesome. Awesome. Uh, circuit. Well, Laguna, you then are on that little straight up the hill. And then it’s the corkscrew. So the corkscrew is blind. I’m a motorcycle. You have to flop in without seeing the first apex. And then almost before you’ve seen the first apex, you have to get the bike flopped onto the other side and wind that throttle.

Well, we were, uh, I guess it’s sevens. The is it seven a and B, whatever we were on the A side. Exit of the next turn. So as they come down that and [02:09:00] that’s a really weird turn because the line is sort of in the middle of the road. It’s a really, um, peculiar part of the course. It’s, you know, it’s going to be in a technical circuit.

Um, the coolest part of the whole weekend. The thing I’ll take away from me, which we watched one race of like saloon cars. Like, you know, Lotus Cortinas, and it was like Lotus Cortinas and Alfas, Alfa Giulias going at it, Hammer and Tonks, and Minis, and there was this one car, 44X, and whether it was even when they changed drivers, whoever it was, both drivers had the same style, that the way they turned in, they like, The car physically that the turn in was one of the most incredibly direct, awesome things I’ve seen.

We saw a couple of spins, we saw a couple of cars go into the barrier, sadly. The part I remember is an Alfa doing a full 360 and then finding bottom gear without [02:10:00] going into the gravel and taking off. We did see, um, IMSA cars raced as well, like 80s IMSA cars. So like, you know, um, I rocked that. And, um, you know, the race was won by Mazda RX 7, which came right through the field.

There was a Mustang leading, which it came and passed like Fox body, uh, Mustang, another Fox body Mustang. The guy just got a little bit of understeer and then it understood and it understood and it understood that it was in the gravel and then it was in the barrier and you were like, shit. The. bad. Like it was, it was almost in slow motion.

It was really like hard to hard to watch. Um, so, you know, I had a really good time and got really sunburned without noticing it because it was windy. Um, I know while he had a good time, seemed to get on well with, um, with Jack’s son as well. So that was, uh, was all together. Awesome. When we were sat up at the, uh, at the [02:11:00] campsite at the sort of level below those You know, sort of a camping ship, but there’s also, um, you know, a really nice series one E type, like a fresh restoration series one E type, fixed head, 3A in blue, like a sort of clayey kind of greyish blue.

Um, Ollie said he loved it and I was made up because, uh, as part of me, I started falling back in love with E types. His engagement around E types has made me feel again this would really be an awesome piece of, you know, it’s an antique, a true piece, British antique that I could have and, and enjoy and work with, um, in the way that I have done with these bikes, but where it’s not like, you know, Japanese microwave oven, um, it, it’s, you know, British craftsmanship.

It’s, you know, the same as you carburetors that were on Spitfires for God’s sake. So, um, That excites me, so it’s exciting to me that he [02:12:00] liked that, uh, that e type. Which brings us to the Saturday. It took me five hours to do a drive, which normally takes me two and a half or three. I mean, so that’s the traffic for Pebble Beach on a Saturday.

I have a docent meeting, uh, on the Saturday afternoon, and that always takes place at a place called the Inn at Spanish Bay. Now, as a young and said to me as we were, uh, as I was parking up, is this a place to come to see the supercars and the celebrities? And I said to him, sir, you are correct. This is the place to see the sheer walls, like lying like leaves upon the floor.

Um, not quite like that, but there’s a ways, uh, you know, off a dozen, you know, of the latest hyper supercars parked up with the attendant [02:13:00] teenage fanboys and uh, old fat men with scantily clad young women clinging on their arms. I saw, uh, um, there is a cheese dick LA realty show called Selling, what is it?

Selling Sunset. Anyway, the character in it is called Josh Altman. Google him up. He’s, uh, you know, I actually feel like if I had a beer with him, he’d make me laugh and I’d like him because I feel like I understand, um, his character, but he’s a cheat stick. He, I mean, there are a few people who can carry off a Rolls Royce without it, you know, without it seeming overblown, but Josh Altman is somebody who can carry off a Rolls Royce.

I saw him. There a couple of years ago, um, there was maybe three years in a row where every time I went through reception of the hotel, because we sometimes like somebody says this is a nice little steakhouse there. And I sometimes used to have a meal with with Wayne. It [02:14:00] didn’t used to be quite as round as it is now.

So Wayne and I sometimes after that, those that meeting would go out for have a steak dinner. I, uh, which was nice. I, uh, met a really interesting guy at Hagerty who looks after all of Hagerty’s events, Chapel and Matt. Arendak. Um. I had dinner with him one time, and that was a fascinating just learning about HackerTees vision for, you know, why are they buying all these shows and what they planning to do with them?

And, you know, so I had some idea where they were going with that anyway. So I have, uh, but I was going to say on that there seemed to be three years in a row where I saw Derek Bell. In reception of, uh, the in at Spanish Bay. So went there, had the, uh, the docent meeting, looked at the hypercars. I wandered the car parks.

This is really one to, to wander the car parks in. Um, I can’t remember anything that particularly stood out for me, but I really use it as an opportunity to have a look, see, uh, whatever the latest and greatest, you know, supercars are. knocking around [02:15:00] because this is a good environment to do. I dare say there are better environments to spot supercars.

Pebble Beach weekend. There is a supercar event. Um, I can’t remember which day it is. I went one year. It was absolutely rammed. The free events tend to be rammed. I’d, I would rather pay because that way, you know, you’re actually going to be able to stand back and look at the cards there. Look, I’ve given you another useful little nugget of, uh, of advice.

Um, all right.

Those team will rendezvous with, um, with a meeting point in moves around. Traditionally, we’ve never had a very good spot to meet people or meet each other. [02:16:00] Now we’ve a decent spot just because of some tweaks they’ve made to the design of the field, which is great, right? It means that we’re becoming more important to what Pebble Beach is, not, not less important.

And that’s, you know, that’s not about my ego. That’s about, you know, the stories around the cars are more important than just looking and going in and out. Um, so that’s competitive. Um, the first cars. So, there’s this, there’s this Pebble Beach thing, the dawn patrol, where you like go and you see the cars come onto the lawn right at the beginning.

Um, I, You know, the reality is when it’s too dark, you can’t bloody see, right? So, and the sun is not up until, you know, quarter past six, something like that. So, or at least not up sufficiently for you to be able to see anything. So, um, Yeah, and then [02:17:00] 30 and then we’ll walk the show field, engaging with as many owners as we possibly can and sharing as much knowledge with each other about what we’ve learned.

And I use that time to decide where I’m going to stand. to do the tours that I’m going to do later in the day. Because if you think about it, you might be like, oh, there’s a class of Porsche 917s, I want to talk about them. But if they’re right at the other end of the field, you’re never going to get there, right?

You have to have things to talk about, which are relevant with the people who are, who are really close. The other thing is people always say to you, you know, how do you learn about little cars? Or, you know, do you, one guy asked me this this year, you know, do you, you know, do you each take specific marks?

And I told him no, because, you know, you have to know something about everything. But in reality, you do, right? Is that, you know, this year, the two featured marks were Packard and and [02:18:00] Maserati. Well, the best will in the world, you know, I’m not going to become an expert on Packard overnight, but Maserati, I have a great feel for Maserati anyway.

You know, I know what made the cars great without needing without knowing what a six GCS stands for. I know what made them great. Um, you always learn something fresh at pebbles. So what I would say to you now is, is you may well know that the great sports racing Maseratis of the fifties were six cylinder.

But did you know that they were twin spark? So that meant that in like 1954, they could have a two liter that revved to 8, 000 RPM and made 190 horse. I mean, it’s eye popping stuff, right? It’s just, and, and the scale it’s done on, it’s done on a smaller scale than these big Ferraris and this kind of stuff.

It’s not quite Seata. You know, miniature [02:19:00] scale. It’s not quite, you know, Mila Mila, etcetera special on a Topolino frame. You know, it’s not quite like that. It’s bigger than that. So I said, I said to people, I don’t feel that big enough to be physically big enough to be Pebble Beach winners. But my word.

Sorry, Dana. Are we printing off more? No, I think we’re done. At least I need a break. It’s like, Freaking masterpiece worthy. It’s so, we were just working on it for two and a half hours. I know. It’s so good. I love, as soon as he’s in collaging, I’m like, we’re buying rubber cement. Yeah. Um, so we did a good job.

Your excitement at completing the project is, uh Yeah, we did it together. I’m just feeling it. Yeah! I don’t think Nanny ever wanted to put two and a half minutes on anything much less than a half hour. No, basically it’s like, oh, [02:20:00] it’s a spur of the age, isn’t it? It’s a spur of the age, isn’t it? Right, Doodle, our dinner is very easy to Oh, no, are you recording us?

Yeah. Ay, ay, ay. Our dinner is very easy to make. It can be ready within 15 minutes or 20 minutes. So should I do it? I don’t want to. In 15, not in 15 minutes. Let me finish this up. I have a couple more bullets to do. So, so come upstairs. We’re going to put a show on. I’ll pause it and cook dinner as soon as you come upstairs and then it’ll be ready 20 minutes from that time.

Alright. Made you wait! Roughly about 15 or 20 minutes. We will now return to our wait. I’m not going to it yet then because otherwise it’ll be ready too fast. Yeah, don’t do anything yet, because I’ve still got It’s gonna be really good. I’ve still got one, two, three, four bullets. We’re gonna watch a show.

Ollie, the bi the, the, um The barbecue show isn’t over, it’s the finals. Oh, I thought it was over. [02:21:00] I thought we saw that, like, shitty Can I say say that? I’m saving it, that’s why it was here. Alright, we will now return to our regularly scheduled pod.

So this year, my first tour was 8. 30 in the morning. And typically, um, other years I’ve, I’ve led tours on my own. Um, or maybe I’ve talked and, and other people have, have, you know, newer docents or something like that have shadowed. Um, so this is a, it was unusual for me to, to be in a position where another docent was leading and, and I said to him, how do you want to structure it?

You know, you’re the designated leader. How do you want to structure it? And he said, you [02:22:00] know, um, There’s three of us doing it. Um, you know, I like to talk about this mark and that mark, you know, we’re just so I basically we agreed that he would call on me when when Maserati came around. Well, um, he has a really conversational like easy kind of style.

And although I found the pacing quite slow, um, it worked for the group. And had he not had that conversational style, the incident that I recounted earlier about, you know, spotting the hinge on the Frua Maserati and me talking about it and then the owner stepping in, had there not been that conversational style developed by David the other day.

the other dose and that wouldn’t have happened. So, um, I learned something about tour guiding as as well as, of course, something about the cars by by listening to the other people. So that was, was, uh, was [02:23:00] enjoyable. Um, as we are Doing those tours first thing in the morning, the judging is already taking place.

So that’s how the show works, the judging takes place. And if you’re not aware, there’s two kinds of ways of judging Concorde. There’s the Pebble Beach way, where every car starts with 100 points, and every fault you find is a deduction. And that can literally be as little as a thumbprint on a piece of chrome can count as a, as a half point deduction.

So that’d be harsh, but it can be, um, you’re not likely to win your class, let alone the event outright if you don’t score 100 points. Um, so the judging’s taking place there. Of course, the judges are people who are known as being experts in that, Mark, because, because, When you’re invited to pebble, you can’t come back for 10 years.

Owners perceive it as a one [02:24:00] shot deal quite often to come and either you either win or you don’t. You know, so, so you want to, you know, so there is a sense of competition there. So the judges doing a great job and judging completely fairly and knowing more than the people who’ve restored the cars about, you know, how the car should be.

That’s, uh, Uh, you know, that’s something that the judges have to contend with. So that element of it means that if they’re a bit tetchy and take what they’re doing very seriously, you know, I understand why. Because of the time, money and effort that people put in to getting cars ready, um, it is a mark of respect by the judges to, you know, actually do the job seriously rather than, uh, you know, Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say.

I’m trying to say that the seriousness of the judging reflects the seriousness the, uh, contestants, you know, go to when they’re spending a million [02:25:00] dollars. Some people spend on on a restoration before, you know. In addition to the cost of the car and transporting it there and and, you know, all of all of that stuff.

So, um, the cars divided into classes is about 100 of them. The reason why I like about 100 is you can see about that many more than that. It’s difficult to look properly at that many cars in the course of a day. I think it is possible. But as I get older, I even find 100 quite a lot to work to look at. Um, and I freely confess there are years where I missed the best in show.

Um, You know, not least because I tend to, you know, err on the side of the post war stuff, not the pre war stuff. Um, you know, I’m far more likely to spend time talking about the Ferraris than I am talking about the Duesenbergs. That’s the bottom line there. And when Pebble do something like they did this year, where they have a class of wedge cars, where you’ve got, you know, the Lancia.[02:26:00]

Stratos zero, which is, you know, lower in height than a, uh, four GT 40. It looks like a UFO. You know, when you’ve got a class that there was a vector W two on, on the show field, you know, when you’ve got cars like that on the show field, I want to talk about that and I want to be able to engage people my age and younger.

I’ll leave it to the people. I will let the meter to get excited about. The, the, the Packards and the duesenbergs. Although, although, you know, I did spend some time this year looking at those cars when I had some free time on my own in the afternoon, and, and I really am convinced that, you know, the, that the Don Williams folk are right.

That, that these Olympian casters. Book called the Olympian cars that I was recommended to read years and years ago. It’s an outstanding book, and really, it explains, you know, how the [02:27:00] premier American also European March Mercedes Bentley, you know, the large, you know, Are in the same breath as as the packar.

The peerless as the, the, the duesenbergs, the, I mean, sort of fresh heini would be another, um, you know, there, there’s these, were were cars that were built up to a standard, not down to a price. And, and nobody. builds cars in that way anymore. Nobody builds anything in that way anymore. And it’s right that we glory that kind of, uh, of craftsmanship.

Um, so for me, um, You know, I’ve seen the cars drive across the ramp before, and it’s not like I don’t care who bested show is. It’s that by I, I like to use that time when the cars are around the ramp in the afternoon. I like to use that time to really look at cars on the field that [02:28:00] I’ve not looked properly at.

And this is gonna be a last time to, to look at them because once it gets past lunchtime, you know, you’ve. Been on your feet for six, seven hours at that time, and, and you, you’re starting to feel quite, quite tired. So I find even if I caffeinate and sit down and Reed energize, you know, you, the, the batteries are pretty seriously defeated by, by that time.

Now, what I would say, um, is, is, and in what I’ve really tried to do in recent years is make sure I star energy for Kaza Ferrari.

So as you come down onto the Pebble Beach show field. There’s always, um, you know, as [02:29:00] you come past the golf club, there’s a little field up and to the left, and in recent years, there, um, out on the field, there has been a display of probably about 100 Ferraris. Um, so that’s right. It’s like you, you pay to come to Pebble, but arguably, if you like Ferraris.

The bonus Ferrari show is better than the pedal show if you’re a, if you’re a Ferrari guy, if you’re the kind of guy who thinks that Ferrari F40 is, you know, the most wonderful thing ever, you are likely to be did not need to go anywhere near the actual pedal beat show field, you would be content just being around cars of Ferrari.

Um, They had a special little, I’m going to say class because it’s not a judge show, but they had like clearly and made a special point of [02:30:00] inviting super fasts from the You know, 50s and 60s. Um, so this is kind of the, you know, the F40, F50, Enzo, you know, LaFerrari of, of their time. This was the, you know, the first, the 400 Superfast then the 500 Superfast.

These really were, um, very exclusive, um, aimed at Ferrari’s, you know, most wealthy clients. Um, uh, so produced in. In minuscule numbers, such the, you know, if you like the cars, it’s not long before you begin to recognize, you know, individual chassis numbers, um, you know, individual cars without, you know, without going as far as looking at the chassis numbers, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s that limited a number of them and the same cars come up for sale, you know, because there is a [02:31:00] sense that I think people want to touch these things for a little bit and then, and then let them go.

Um, I want to emphasize two cars are at Casa Ferrari. I want to emphasize the Luigi Kineti Vignale bodied 340 Mexico. It’s, it’s one of three Vignale bodied 340 Mexicos. It’s the only one with a hard top, I believe. Um, Kineti used it to do the Carrera Panamericana. Um, I mean, the history is just stupefying right there, isn’t it?

And it’s not a 250. It’s a 340. And, you know, I did that event with Alain Ducadene all those years ago where we had a Buono 250. And it was, you know, it was a gutsy sports car, but it performed more like a Triumph than it did like, you know, It’s a 56, right? You know, it’s, well, that’s because that’s a 250, right?

A 340, that’s a 300 horsepower [02:32:00] plus 150 mile an hour, you know, scare the shit out of you, proper sports car. Um, Loved it. Spent ages with that car. The styling of it with the high, um, with the high fenders and the way the lights are set and the way there’s the indents in, in the door, it is without question one of the most interestingly styled cars I’ve, I’ve, I’ve seen.

Um, Also, one of the Superfasts, a black convertible, a piece of chrome that went from, you know, the headlight all the way down the fender, down the door, down the rear fender, over the top of the rear wheel arch, and then met the back of the bottom of the tail light. It was like, it was as if, you know, A Ferrari had, you know, had got a dash of [02:33:00] 57 Chevy in his blood.

It, it, I don’t normally like convertibles. This was really, uh, an incredible piece. Um, I said to the, you know, our friend Les that lives down the street there that has the, those 308s, you know, what’s so awesome about that collection of a super fast was you would look at individual elements that individual stylists did.

So, um, the. trailing fender lines on Ferrari 400 Superfasts. They’re doing away with the exposed headlights and going to Perspex. They’re going away from the Perspex and doing pop up lights, which they all did in, in the early 60s. And the fitting of spats, um, the fitting of, Chrome trailing strips around the hood scoop.

These small details, you could see all of these being experimented with and evolving [02:34:00] into then hard design features that came on later cars like the Ferrari 330 GTC, you know, the end of the end of that line of cars before they went, you know, full full wedge. So, um, That was really incredible. You can tell can’t you?

I enjoyed looking at those Ferraris more than I enjoyed looking at a lot of the, a lot of the cars on the, on the show field. They just, uh, yeah, they, they just it’s so, It is that thing that they are beautiful to look at and, you know, when you sat in them and drove them, they would be awesome. So it affects you the way that, you know, a teenage crush does for me.

Now, you know, it has that kind of, uh, of thing going on. I’m on the lawn there. They put up these mirrors and all of these people, all these people are coming along, taking photographs [02:35:00] of themselves in the mirror. And I’m like, And it’s just, in that instant, you’ve got everything, you know, the car is that’s wonderful about Ferrari and the people who are attracted to them is everything that’s sort of, you know, well, the hangers on, the wannabes, it’s anything that’s cool, there’s always hangers on and wannabes, and, yeah, my word, it’s, it’s, uh, fake it till you make it, people, why, why, life’s too short to fake it.

Find a way to be real. Find a way to discover who you really are, for God’s sake. Don’t fake it. A lot of fakey do people there, you know, as they used to say in Private Eye, when other people show you their Rolex, break out your Bolux. B O L U X, which was like a Rolex knockoff, I really always meant to. And to get when you’re bollocks, of course, but I mean, that fake watch looks better than a lot of fake wire.

A lot of real watches that people you see people [02:36:00] wearing nowadays, like my God, anyway, a watch digression, right? A watch digression. Um, you know, one keeps one’s eye firmly at car level, doesn’t one and doesn’t bother. Looking at the people, that’s the way that, uh, that I do it. Quite funny, actually, a lot of people are sort of deferential to me because I’m, like, wearing the Pebble Beach uniform and I wanted to say to them, look, my, my authority does not extend off that field there.

You know, I’m just another punter like you who’s looking at these wonderful Ferraris that I’m never going to be able to afford, you know?

So finally, um, I mentioned it earlier, um, I used that old Mercedes E55 AMG for the trip. Um, it’s passed 160, 000 miles now. [02:37:00] Um, it did it on this, on this trip. I, I used it for August nights. Um, this, uh, which is like a previous pod. If you, you know, you look back a little bit in my, uh, in my catalog as it were.

Um, so yeah, um, So I did Reno really leaned on it quite hard in the Reno trip, leaned on it pretty hard in the Pebble trip, but, but, but less so, and it has not missed a beat. And if I sound surprised by that, it’s because I know I haven’t used it since Pebble Beach last year. And I know that because when I took it out of storage, it had, when I took it out of storage, It had the last year’s registration on it, had August 2023 registration on it.

So I actually stuck a registration sticker on it for it to [02:38:00] be good through, uh, through this year. So it works extremely well for that kind of trip because it’s comfortable and it’s fast and the issues that it has. I guess the main issue that it has is the rust in the roof, which I’ve talked about before, but it’s now like in an L shape, the whole like the rust section is like in an L shape around the top of the sunroof.

And if you catch it in the right light, you can actually see the interior light through the hole in the roof. I mean, how long it takes. Before there’s electrical problems as a result of that. I mean, I’ve ridiculously been lying a cloth over the holes so the condensation doesn’t go in the holes. I mean, it’s so ridiculous.

So I don’t know what I’m going to do with that, uh, that car longer term because it needs a lot of money spending on it really cracks. The windshield is terrible. Cracks in it now. I guess one time the wiper went and look, it’s got one of these like single reach into the corner [02:39:00] wipers. Well, that went and, uh, it, uh, when it, when I twitched it on, it just cracked the window.

I was a little bit cracked anyway, and it’s gotten worse since and, you know, but yeah, so it has a real, um, you know, It just looks really, really tired now. Um, there’s a load of oil coming out around on one of the front wheels as well. I think I mentioned this on another pod, but the point is that I think the wheel bearing’s going away.

So, um, yeah. So probably what I’ll do is just put it back into low die, take the Fiesta back out again, use that for another year and not touch it. But the thing is, every time I get in and drive it, I’m just like, it’s just so comfortable. It’s so much easier to use than, you know, the Fiesta or the Mustang, because they’re both.

You know, stick shift. So yeah, for the school run, you know, just love that bloody Mercedes. So, uh, yeah, enough eulogizing, um, that thing. Um, let me wrap up with, um, [02:40:00] A recommendation of decent road, um, and also a perspective piece on California, right? And it’s, it’s the, the, my, uh, the hotel I was staying at, Hotel Golf Course, whatever, was, uh, right on Highway 25.

And, uh, I thought, Where the, you know, the bit of Highway 25 running south, I thought that looked pretty remote when I was like looking at it on, uh, you know, on, on Google Maps. So I thought the day after the show ended, I thought, you know what I’ll do? I’ll, uh, I’ll, um, you know, I’ll do a bit of a scenic route home and I’ll explore this Highway 25.

Um, if I tell you that As you leave Hollister, you pass a sign that says next services 76 miles, like you’re in the Nevada desert or something, [02:41:00] not in, you know, barely out of the Bay Area in California. Um, That gives you some idea of what that part of the northern central valley of California is, is like this highway 25.

Basically, it takes you to there’s some national parks and things in there, but those are non contiguous non contiguous roads. So I was just doing a, you know, can I. You know, what are these roads like? Can I explore? And I had the most wonderful road trip experience. Um, really wanted to recommend Highway five as a road to explore if you’re in California and doing a road trip by year.

I turned west on, I think, Bittersweet Road, it was called and dropped down into one of the, into King City and then, uh, you know, I actually, I made a real road trip out of it. I then in King City, I crossed over King City and then did that river road that I [02:42:00] was talking about, um, up back towards, I took that north and then, uh, parallel to 101 and then got on, uh, Yeah, we then got on 101 and came home the normal way.

So just for Europeans here, what you have to understand about roads out west here is that there’s like one road, the Mother Road 101, Highway 101, this is the road that connected California’s missions together, um, and that roads turned into like a, Highway or dual carriageway, but every other road off there is like a tributary.

There’s not very many parallel roads. There’s not very many alternative routes. So what you tend to find is that all the traffic is on 101 and it’s not a very good driving experience. But if there are parallel roads, even if they’re much slower, they’re often a really wonderful motoring experience. So, uh, that’s why I like to stay off the highways.

That’s why I would highly recommend Highway [02:43:00] 25 as a part of your Pebble Beach road trip experience. Thank you DriveThru.[02:44:00]

This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brake Fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.

patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the [02:45:00] episode.

Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

  • 00:00 Introduction to Jon Summers
  • 00:44 The Magic of Cars: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance
  • 01:37 The Preservation Car: A Historical Perspective
  • 02:21 The Mercedes 770 and Its Historical Significance
  • 07:37 The Importance of Preservation in Car Collecting
  • 11:52 The Mullen Museum and French Cars
  • 17:27 The Story of the Kawasaki ZX10
  • 35:15 The Philosophy of Collecting and Elegance
  • 37:33 Living the Maverick Fantasy
  • 38:35 The Pebble Beach Docent Experience
  • 42:11 Behind the Scenes at Pebble Beach
  • 53:50 The Origins of Pebble Beach
  • 01:01:07 The Evolution of Classic Car Shows
  • 01:07:35 The Auction Houses and Car Shows
  • 01:14:06 Laguna Seca and Monterey Historics
  • 01:16:37 The Car Guy Jamboree
  • 01:18:11 Reflecting on Pebble Beach
  • 01:19:33 Luxury Cars at Pebble Beach
  • 01:20:14 Accommodation Tips for Pebble Beach
  • 01:20:48 Exploring Monterey and Surrounding Areas
  • 01:23:33 Packing Essentials for California
  • 01:24:18 Choosing the Right Car for the Event
  • 01:25:30 RM Auctions and Classic Car Catalogs
  • 01:29:56 The Tony Paravano Ferrari
  • 01:32:29 The Mercedes W196 Streamliner
  • 01:41:18 The Pebble Beach Tour
  • 01:55:26 The Quail Car Show
  • 02:00:00 Final Thoughts and Reflections
  • 02:03:18 British vs. American Biscuits and Gravy
  • 02:04:06 Laguna Seca Adventures
  • 02:07:14 Corkscrew and Racing Highlights
  • 02:12:04 Pebble Beach Traffic and Supercars
  • 02:21:30 Tour Guiding at Pebble Beach
  • 02:39:54 Exploring California’s Scenic Routes
  • 02:43:05 Conclusion and Sponsor Message

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