How I Spent
My Summer Vacation (1998)
- a car freak's weekend of wretched excess!
I finally decided to go to Monterey for the Hysterics
(I mean Historics, sorry Steve!) and Pebble Beach, but only because
Alfa Romeo was the featured marque at Concours Italiano and many
of my friends from around the world were coming. Here's a sysnosis
of my trip, with links to photos.
Concours Italiano
Best part of the weekend. Where else could
you see TWO Alfa Tipo 33 Stradales
(above-both from Connecticut, BTW!). The Stradale is one wild
looking car, expecially from the front.
The 6C1750 Gran Sport was a nice one,
and it gets some use. The engine is
the fascinating part to me, with all the lovely aluminum castings.
Want your own Alfa P3 GP car? This
one is a bit small for me!
The Ferrari exhibit was overwhelming. Never
saw so many 275GTSs or 275GTB4s
TOTAL in my life! There were four F40s, an F50, even a P3/4 racecar.
The newer Dinos were dime a dozen, relegated to a back area of
their own!
Alfa sent over a new
156 and Walter deSivla, head of Alfa design and Richard Gadeselli,
VP of PR, introduced it to the crowd. Gadeselli,
deSilva and Keith Martin (Sportscar Market) did the commentary
on most of the cars. The Delta Sierra Alfa Club was giving out
stickers that said "Alfa Come Back" and deSilva stuck
one on the windshield of the 156, then posed with Paolo Vannini,
VP of Corporate Communications for FIAT US for this
photo!
Monterey Historics
The "Hysterics" was certainly an
"event"! The word is that 60-70,ooo people came, including
practically every Porsche west of the Rockies. They made several
exhibition classes of their own, the
factory display was wonderful, and even the Alfa
Romeo Association filled their corral. Honestly, I HATE watching
racing - I prefer to be a participant!
Pebble Beach
Wretched excess personified! Where else would
you find the ItalDesign NAZCA parked
on the STREET in front of a virginal white Bentley coupe? Or
the Alfa Scigehra and Mercedes/Maybach
parked on the lawn? And the show areas were so covered with people
that you couldn't see the cars very well, but, believe it or
not, this is a Corvette, by Scagelleti.
Would I go back? This question
was asked at a electronic survey kiosk at Laguna Seca. And my
answer of "NO" was followed by a query of "WHY?".
But one of the choices was perfect for me: "Been there,
done that!" (Too crowded!)
Ciao, Jim
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