Monterey 1996

The Ride Up to Monterey

By: Wally Clark

We had about twenty cars join in our ride to the Monterey Historics on Thrusday, August 15th. We had everything from a new F355 to several Dinos, led the way by Judd?s 365 GTC, up the 101 to the San Marcos Pass road and back to the 101 near Santa Maria and on to San Luis Obispo. Only a few construction zones slowed the procession, one in the San Marcos Pass and one just before Pismo Beach.

Ferraris stop on the way up to Monterey from the Los Angeles area.

After picking up a few Ferraris on the way, we all made it to San Luis Obispo for a lunch stop at Café Roma in old town near the Amtrack station. The lunch was fabulous and everyone enjoyed the atmosphere and the company! Our thanks to Maria Rizzo and her staff at Café Roma for setting up a great lunch. We will have to do it again next year!

The Monterey Weekend

By: Tino Mingori

Writing up something about the Monterey weekend is a difficult task because so much goes on over the weekend, that any one person can only describe a few activities. Also there is the fact that the weekend is extensively covered by the professional automotive publications.

Nevertheless, here are some personal reflections on Monterey as we experienced it this year.

An F40 graces the picture in front of the tent of our sister region, the Pacific Region of the FCA, at the Councours Italiana

After driving through smoke from brush fires west of Highway 5, we arrived in the Monterey area around 10AM on Friday in time to drive directly to the Concours Italiana and park in the (dare I say it) BMW paddock. We used the fact that BMW was the featured marque to justify motoring in the comfort and convenience of our ?91 M5. No worries about luggage space. Just chuck it in the back seat if it doesn?t fit in the trunk. (If this admission bothers you, just ask our president, Tom Brockmiller, what he drove.) Anyhow, we entered the Concours area and after 5 minutes went back to the car for our jackets. The skies were sunny and clear, but the temperatures were decidedly cool. Of course, with the BMW there was plenty of room to pack ample cool weather gear. Lucky us. The concours contained the usual display of sparkling Italian machinery surrounded by vendors with lots of neat stuff. I managed to find and buy an old issue of Cavallino that our dog, Vito, had eaten a few months back. It was one that was sorely missed because it featured a Daytona like the one we had left back in LA. The rest of the day was devoted to the very enjoyable activities of seeing old friends (both people and cars) and meeting some new ones (both people and cars).

A blue with yellow stripe GTO holds of a silver 250 SWB through the corkscrew .

After an excellent dinner served on the green (arranged by the Pacific Region), Shin Takei let me sit in the beautiful Mercedes gullwing he had brought to the event. I had never been in a gullwing before, and it was quite an experience getting in and out. Leaving Quail Lodge late and missing all the traffic was great.

A gorgeous red GTO navigates down the corkscrew during the historic races. <

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