Carmel/Salinas, 16th of August
Today the Monterey Car Week went into the crunch mode with no
less than three concours at the same time. The annual Quail
Motorsport Gathering was held on the golf course of the Quail
Lodge were the Quail Rally started earlier this week. One of the
most exclusive events during the week with ticket prices of
several hundred dollars was again sold out well in advance as this
is more a garden party with some cars as the gathering has
several catering areas where the visitor could enjoy superb food
and wine looking at cars. But this does not mean that the cars
are subsidiary as the field was again packed with spectacular
classes. As in many events this year the featured marques were
Aston Martin and Lamborghini, the former one celebrating its
centenary, the later one its 50th anniversary (under the motto
“100 years of innovation in half of the time”).
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Several Aston Martin ranging from a very early T-type of 1928 to
the latest models included a nice selection of cars from the David
Brown era including a DG4 GT Zagato and a “normal” DB4 GT.
Lamborghini on the other side ranged from the 350 GT to the new
Veneno on the company´s own booth. The class was finally won
by the Miura S of the host Sir Michael Kadoorie.
Beside the very popular Ferrari class and sports/race cars from
the post war year’s special classes included the work of Pete
Brock who worked for GM designing the concept of the Corvette
Stingray, but he is best known for the famous Shelby Daytona
Coupé, one of these finally won the Best of Show award.
A special display was also dedicated to the Mullin Automotive
Museum including the Bugatti T54 and the Talbot-Lago T26 Grand
Sport.
But the Quail was not the only event in the area as just a few
miles to the coast the “Legends of the Autobahn” concours was
dedicated to German cars. As this is the newest of the events on
Friday one had to decide to go to this or to the Laguna Seca golf
course that features the Concorso Italiano dedicated to Italian
cars. Unlike the very exclusive Quail event this is rather a club
meeting with hundreds of cars lined up sorted by make and type.
Beside the endless rows of modern Ferrari and Lamborghini
several classics are presented in larger numbers like the Ferrari
365 series or the Dino 246, other classes included the Alfa
Romeo GT Junior, Duetto. Unfortunately the time is very limited
during the day and one is almost overwhelmed by the amount of
cars when heading back to the Quail for the winners ceremony.
Just before the presentation of the class awards and the BoS at
the Quail known historic racer and presenter Alain de Cadenet
had the pleasure to interview one of the most successful
partnerships in Formula 1 with former Ferrari Team principle Jean
Todt and 7 times world champion Michael Schumacher. As few
Americans know much about Fomula 1 Michael Schumacher was
even able to walk around very undisturbed as he was later seen
on the streets of Monterey after the RM Auction.
This also leads to the final chapter of the day as RM held the first
of two auction days in the Portola Plaza hotel in centre Monterey.
Those who stayed till the end of the Quail might have missed
some of the first lots as a massive traffic jam on Highway 1
towards Monterey delayed the arrival of many bidders.
Highlights of the first day were the sale of the Mercedes-Benz 540
K Special Roadster at a hammer price of 6.8 Million Dollar
making this the second highest price of the day following the 8.25
Million Dollar of the top lot, the Ferrari 375 MM. The only high
estimated lot that was not sold on the block was the Jaguar
D-Type but reportingly it was sold post auction.
Tomorrow will see the first of the races at the Rolex Monterey
Motorsport Reunion with all the A-groups followed by the
B-groups on Sunday. RM will have its second sales day and
Gooding will join in with their first auction.
Report & Images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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