Thursday of Monterey week, I was up early to watch the beginning of the Pebble Beach Tour.

I was so focused on taking pictures of the cars that I didn’t realize it was Dave Olimpi photo bombing me!

Steve Hill and I found the perfect spot to watch the cars go by and have breakfast at the Pebble Beach Lodge.

We headed over to the Gooding and Company Auction preview just up the path from the Pebble Beach Lodge.

This 250GTE caught my eye and seemed like the auction estimates were in line.

The details looked largely correct and only needed some minor fettering.

Here’s the serial number for the train spotters out there.

Here was an interesting car. It was a Corvair that was bodied my Pininfarina. They were really into the 4 headlight look in the 60s, but I really liked the lines of the rest of the car.

I liked the thin pillars and sleek lines of this car.

I thought it was a visually interesting car.

There was a nicely restored Ferrari 330 GTC on display, but I soon found a problem.

It always amazes me when I find another GTC that has not had the front suspension reinforced. There was a factory recall that I’ve been shouting about for many years, and still there are shops that are clueless or don’t seem to worry about the suspension collapsing. “Oh these cars don’t get driven that much anyway!” is what I hear, but what if someone takes the car out and drives it spiritedly and the suspension breaks? FIX THE PROBLEM! I hope whomever buys this car hears about this issue and immediately has the car welded. It’s just a couple hour job.

Here’s the serial number to this GTC. Please let the new owner know. It could save their life!

I popped over to the Legends of the Autobahn car show in Monterey. Since Porsche has their own car show this weekend, the rest of the German fans held their own show.

I definitely felt the crowd was a little younger, and BMWs and Audis tend to attract a younger demographic. There’s also a move towards what I call “Singer-ing” and car which is the act of re-imagining an older car with modern components and more horsepower. Singer did it first with back dating Porsche 911s, and every year I go to Monterey, I see another make or model with the Singer Effect.

I think people like the classic shapes of the old cars, but the narrow tires and low horsepower doesn’t stir the soul of the new enthusiast. They want the modern conveniences of A/C, Blu-tooth, and modern seats wrapped in a classic shape, but maybe flared a little to accept wider tires.

Fuel injection and an ECU controlled mapping makes for reliability and more horsepower than ever could be imagined 40 years ago.

I was pretty tired by the evening since I was up at nearly dawn, but I rallied and did a fly by Peter Kumar’s rental house for the Gullwing cocktail party. Peter had a SII 250GT Cabriolet as the guest of honor, and it’s condition was fitting for a Gullwing Party!

The guests were from all over the world, and I felt they were all dealers who have been working with Kumar for decades. It felt like I was in shark tank or salesman’s convention. I left early to get some sleep and to save myself from selling my car! Thanks for the invite Peter!