8/15/08
Tomyang.net Monterey Party, and Quail

Photo A. Lazanoff
On Thursday night, I kicked off the Monterey weekend with the usual Tomyang.net West Coast Cocktail Party. The Mariposa Inn on Munras renovated the breakfast room since last year, so it was nice to break it in with some old friends and some new ones.

Photo A. Lazanoff
John Bishop, pictured left, came all the way from Melbourne Australia. He brought samples of parts he had reproduced for the 365GTC/4. He has remade the round trim pieces on the seat backs that break so easily, along with billet aluminum speaker grilles to replace the flimsy plastic ones that crack the first time an errant foot touches them when getting in and out of a C/4.

Photo A. Lazanoff
Some of the party spilled outside to look at some of the Vintage Ferraris that drove into Monterey. John’s PF coupe was in good company parked next to Art’s short nose 275GTB.

For me, Friday was all about the wonderful automotive event at Quail. If it wasn’t for Rudy, a fellow tomyang.netter, I wouldn’t have been able to attend. The Quail event is becoming the hottest ticket on Friday of the Monterey Weekend. Admission is limited, and previous attendees are given the opportunity to purchase tickets first, so when the few tickets that are left go on sale to the general public they sell out within an hour.

The Quail Event is outstanding, with spectacular cars, excellent food and drink available all for the price of a ticket. Because the admission is limited, lines are never too long to get anything, including some of the more popular food tents.

If I had to find one complaint about the Quail event, it would be the loss of the more common car show feel. Almost every car at this event was invited to participate because it represented the best of the category. There’s no room for several examples of each model to attend, so there is less chance of comparison or swapping of stories. If I wanted to attend a “normal” car show, Concorso would have been the only choice, but the general consensus in Monterey about the Concorso Event held on an airport tarmac was not too enthusiastic. No one seemed to want to be parked on an exposed tarmac all day with very little shade.

The coolest display at Quail Lodge was the “Bay Area Engine Modelers” booth. They had several working miniature engines that they fired up for interested gear heads. Everything from single cylinder engines to flat head V-8s were represented on their tables.

Many of these engine kits were manufactured in the U.K. where interest is high, but there is still a fair amount of work to build a working engine. Most of these guys started with life sized cars, but turned to working models when they were looking for something different.

Just a reminder, I’m looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

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