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The Quail Lodge - 16th of August

One of the many highlights during the Monterey Car Week is the annual Quail Motorsport Gathering, traditionally held on Friday at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley. Now in its 11th edition the very exclusive event was again sold out well in advance despite high entrance fees but the visitors get a lot for their money. Unlike the other events during the week this garden party is not only about classic cars but more about luxury life style in general including good food and wine, luxury accessories and supercars. Attracting a wealthy public this is also the place for the sports car manufacturer to show their latest toys.
As in previous years Bugatti used the exclusive surrounding in front of the Lodge to introduce their latest special edition of the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, the Jean-Pierre Wimille. Inspired by the Le Mans winning Bugatti T57 Tank brought over from the Simeone Collection in Philadelphia the first of a small series of Veyrons livered in two tone blue featured some styling elements in the interior to remember the Bugatti history including the Le Mans track layout between the seats or the famous Elephant of the Royale styled by Rembrandt Bugatti.
Just next to it the VW-brands sister Bentley presented their new model range with the 2002 Le Mans entry Bentley EXP Speed 8 as eye catcher in front. Just on the other side of the field the latest Le Mans prototype of Audi, the R18 E-tron Ultra Lightweight could be seen.
Other supercars included the new Lamborghini Veneno, the McLaren MP4-12C or a the Galpin GTR1, based on the Ford GT this car has more than 1000 hp. BMW even took the chance to unveil their latest concept, the BMW M4 during the gathering showing the importance of the event.

But certainly the centre of interest for many of the car addicted visitors was again the superb line-up of classics in the middle of the show field. Although not seriously a concours in the common sense there were some classes including pre and post war sports and racing car but also special classes. To build the bridge from the surrounding new models to the classics was the supercar class including some of the most interesting high performance cars of the past year. This included the very rare Ferrari F50 GT and the car on show was the first of a small production of 3 examples. Once developed for racing in the GT class the car never made it to the track but was rather sold to some prominent Ferrari collectors. Just next to the F50 GT was the main attraction of the class, the two one-off Ferrari P4/5. Commissioned by Jim Glickenhaus at Pininfarina the road going P4/5 is based on the Ferrari Enzo and is a well-known entry on various shows in the past. After the success of the road version the Scuderia Glickenhaus built a race version that was entered at the Nürburgring 24 hours in 2011 and 2012 with an impressive 12th place for a private team.
Two more Ferrari were entered in this class with a 288 GTO and more important the 288 GTO Evoluzione model that shares some history with the F50 GT as it was also intended for race purposes but never drove in anger. The car was built to Group B specification based on the normal 288 GTO serving as homologation series but unfortunately the Group B faded existence due to several severe accidents before the Evoluzione finished development. On the other side the Evoluzione later served as base for the upcoming F40 as one can easily see from the exterior.
Ferrari itself had again its own class named “The Great Ferrari” including coach build models from the early 1950s to the serial production cars from the early 1970s. The earliest car was a 1950 166 Inter featuring the stylish Touring Berlinetta design on a chassis intended for road use. Following the 2 litre version of the 166 was the 2.5 Litre model of the 212 Inter (Road cars) and Export (Race chassis). One of each was presented at the Quail with the wonderful 212 Export Vignale Coupe (0092E) that was once raced by Phil Hill in the Carrera Panamericana and the 212 Inter Pinin Farina Cabriolet (0235EU). The later car was restored by Ferrari Classiche a few year ago and was shown since on several Concours and shows for its owner or to demonstrate the work of the Ferrari Classiche restoration department.
One of the most iconic models of the early Ferrari history is without doubt the 250 TR Pontoon Fender named TestaRossa due to the red competition cylinder head covers of the race model. Chassis 0756TR has an all American race history and today used in vintage racing by the present owner and awarded with the Best in Class this Friday in Carmel. In addition to the early cars two 250 GT Series II Cabriolet were shown plus a line- up of 5 275 GTB in different colours.
But another highlight for the Ferraristi was presented before the winners’ ceremony as 7 times F1 world champion Michael Schumacher had one of its rare appearances at classic car events. Together with his former Team Manager and toady´s FIA president Jean Todt he was chatting on the main stage interviewed by Alain de Cadenet. When seeing him later walking the streets in Monterey following the RM evening Auction it is easy to see why Schumacher prefers the US for vacation as he could walk here very incognito just recognized by European tourists as few Americans are really into F1. Nevertheless most of the spectators at the Quail were pleasant surprised by his casual and sovereign appearance dealing with the questions from the public.

But certainly not just Ferrari had its own class as just as in Pebble Beach later that week both Aston Martin and Lamborghini celebrated their jubilees, without the strict directive of the concours the displays even span a wider range of the history of both manufacturers.
Lamborghini featured the most important models including a 350 GT, no less than 3 Miura, a duo of Countach and a Diablo. Best in class was the dark metallic blue Miura S of the host himself, Sir Michael Kadoorie.
A larger display was the 100 years celebration of Aston Martin. Unfortunately just one pre-war car was on show but the displayed T-Model is a very interesting early example of the Bertelli year. Built in 1928 this car lead from the long chassis tourer versions to the later short chassis International, as this is based on the touring chassis, but shorter to fit a sporting 2 seater body. The car was found in a very sorry estate some years ago and is restored back to its original specification.
The first car after the war bearing the David Brown initials was the DB2, no less than 3 of them were presented including two Drop Head Coupe. Being a very early and a very late example one could see the design development of the first cars from a three piece grill to the later one piece that was also used on the later DB2/4 versions. The DB2/4 was represented by a very special bodied Touring Spider (AM300/1163), being one of just three examples this was the first cooperation of Aston Martin and Touring that should lead to the later DB4 series.
The racing line of Aston Martin was represented with the second factory team car DB3S. Together with the first and the last one of the DB3S shown in Pebble this might have been the first time all these cars were that close together during these days at Monterey.
After the official race program of the 1950s Aston Martin built customer GT cars for private teams based on the new DB4. The DB4 GT today is one of the most sought after GT cars with good examples well over 2 Million $ as shown by RM in the evening and the Quail had three of them including an even rarer Zagato variation. The display was rounded off by three Convertible versions of the DB4 and DB5, all of them in red.

Another special display was designated to the work of designer Peter Brock. Brock was a young student at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles when he became the youngest designer at General Motors. His first styling study became the prototype of the later Corvette Stingray; the racer based on his early design was shown at the Quail. After leaving GM Brock joined Carroll Shelby in his newly founded Shelby American to design logos, accessories (for the Shelby GT350) and more famous the Daytona Coupé. Carroll Shelby was running the Cobra project on the international circuits and soon realized that the open version had disadvantages against the competing Ferrari on fast tracks. Over the winter of 1964 six cars were prepared for the 1965 racing season, one of them was presented at the Quail, more important this car was awarded Best of Show at the end of the days with a proud Peter Brock accepting the trophy for his work.

Within the last decade the Motorsport Gathering became one of the “must see “events during the car week. Although it is one of the most exclusive and most expensive with very limited tickets on pre-sale it is well worth the visit as one could enjoy a great variety of cars in a very relaxing atmosphere. Unlike the other events it is less crowded and one could actually see the cars between all the people. With good food and some wine aside this is also a place to visit by those who are less into cars or a good possibility to bring the history of some of the classics to those more interested in the modern supercars. In association with the Quail Bonhams was again the official auction of the event with its sale on Friday afternoon giving a good result including several high profile lots that might be a welcome entrant at next year’s events.
As the Concorso Italiano will move to another day (Saturday instead of Friday) next year people will even have the possibility to visit both events although they do not really attract the same public.

Report & Images … Peter Singhof www.ClassicCarPhotography.de <http://www.ClassicCarPhotography.de/>


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