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Monterey, 12 August 2009

One of the highlight social evenings, on the crowded schedule that makes up the Monterey historic week, is Gordon McCall's Airport Party at the Jet Centre at Monterey Airport. The party is always a glittering affair, and there were certainly no signs of recession amidst the classic and modern cars, motorcycles, private jets and historic aircraft, that shared the tarmac with cocktail bars and delectable food stations.

Of the modern cars, the one with highest presence was the new four door Porsche Panamera, with a number of the model variants on display. In fact it was one of the cars that you were most likely to see driving around Monterey during the week, as Porsche had a large temporary showroom/test drive centre in the grounds of The Quail in Carmel Valley. It was the natural venue to present the new model, as they were the featured marque at the historic race meeting at Laguna Seca, so there was an abundance of Porsche clients in town for the gathering. However, I digress! The event also had many other desirable vehicles in attendance, including some rarely seen in public, like the Blastolene Brothers two monster creations, “Piss'd Off Pete” and the “Indy Special”, both finished in gleaming polished aluminium. The former was started up, and its twin supercharger V12 Peterbilt diesel truck engine quite literally shook the ground, much to the delight of attendees in close proximity.

Porsches racing heritage was represented by a trio of possibly their most successful models from the seventies to the nineties, a 917, a 956 and a 962, with the Carrera GT based Gemballa Mirage GT with a lurid orange paint job also attracting a lot of attention. The private jets were accessible to view (and purchase/lease!), whilst they and the historic aircraft provided a splendid backdrop for the wide variety of vehicles on display. Apart from those already mentioned, these included the new Lotus Evora and Morgan Aero SuperSport, then there were classic Ferraris like the 250 GT SWB berlinetta and 400 Superamerica Coupé, through to muscle cars like the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac GTO. There were also custom cars and hot rods, plus to balance the equation, a VW Microbus, and the 1956 Fiat Bartoletti bodied race transporter, originally used Maserati, then by Lance Reventlow's Scarab race team in1960, in whose livery it was finished.

Keith Bluemel


08/2009

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