8/19/06
Monterey ’06 IV

Saturday at Monterey usually finds me at Laguna Seca attending the Historic Races. It’s a great mix of cars, and you never know what you might find parked in the paddock area. I don’t think any of these full size American vehicles would see much of this Lotus Elan in traffic!

The Historic Races still has a “grass roots” feeling with some of it’s participants, even though many racers bring huge semi tractor trailers and support crews. It’s still nice, however, to see people driving their mobile homes and towing their race cars to the track.

I admired this Gullwing Mercedes for a while, just looking at all the great details of this car.

I loved the European 50s design to the interior.

As I walked through the paddock, I also stopped to look at interesting mechanical things as well. These drum brakes were on a 50s vintage Corvette. Not being familiar with these cars, I’m not sure if the cooling fins were period correct, but it was neat to see a solution to the problem of cooling brake drums on a track!

Of course there were plenty of Ferraris to look at. Here was a 1967 312 F1 car, very similar to one I saw at François’ shop.

The local car clubs also take this opportunity to meet at the track, so there was plenty of nice cars parked in the car club parking areas. I’ve always loved the look of the Mangusta. It’s lines are subtle and simple when compared to its younger sister, the Pantara, but the understatement of the body hides the powerful V-8 out back!

I also love the way the engine bay hinges open from the sides.

I met up with Rick Moseley, a fellow Ferrari owner and crew chief/mechanic of a Trans AM Cobra owned by his friend Carl. They even brought me onto pit lane to watch Carl run with the other Trans AM cars.

Before Carl’s run, the Toyota Formula One car was scheduled to go out for another run, so I was up close to al the action!

Ricardo Zonta easily shattered the all time track record with the high tech F1 car, and it was nice to hear the screaming F1 engine echoing off the hills of Laguna Seca.

After the track I attended the annual 250GTE party in Pacific Grove. Len Miller, the former keeper of the GTE Registry, hosted it at his house along with Bill Preston, the current keeper of the register. After the party, I was invited to join Len and about 15 people to dinner at one of Len’s favorite restaurants in town. It’s always an interesting night of good food, drink, and conversation. This year I was seated next to Gerald Roush, the founder of Ferrari Market Letter. His knowledge of specific cars is amazing, even without the aid of his extensive computer files! I was lucky to have the opportunity to spend some time with Gerald. Thanks Len for inviting me to dinner!

Sunday is usually spent at Pebble Beach, but this year I decided to break with tradition and spend the day back at Laguna Seca. The Concours D’elegance at Pebble Beach gets so crowded by late morning, that seeing the cars up close and unobstructed requires a very early arrival. I was having more fun at the track, so I decided to go back for Sunday. It was a nice relaxed way to wind up hectic few days in Monterey!

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