I guess I’ll see you there on Wednesday night.
Yup, Gordon McCall is doing it for the 25th time. It started as a BBQ and now it’s the kick-off party for Monterey Car Week. There are still some tickets left at under $650 for McCall’s Motorworks Revival. Actually that’s pretty good value for two hangars of new private jets like Gulfstreams, Hondas, a couple of old DC3s (including one owned by Chiang Kai-shek), new and old exotic cars and owners, three hectares of caviar, champagne and tequila and only 3000 people trying to drink more booze than you.
As Gordon says, “Go to a roaring party and set your week off on the right foot”.
Yes, folks it’s Pebble Beach time where billionaires and even a few millionaires chopper into the home of famous white people like Clint Eastwood, Frank Zappa and Robert Louis Stevenson. Actually Bob doesn’t live there any more but he did like a glass of wine and in fact died while contemplating drinking a glass. Interestingly, Bob was straining to take the cork out of a fine Samoan red when he turned to his wife and asked “Does my face look strange?”, (which is a really dopey question to ask your partner because you already know the kind of smart ass answer you’ll get) and then carked it. I bet Bob would have died for screw tops.
So let’s do the maths. Five serious, serious bike and car auctions, expensive car forums, expensive cars driving up and down the main street of Carmel-by-the-Sea, expensive automobilia, expensive car paintings and the finale, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Out of all the beautiful metal you can see across the week can I just point out one: consignment 7004 at Russo and Steele, a 1965 Bentley Open Wheel Race Car.
Rolls Royce had a policy that “prohibited participation in auto racing”. So when it bought Bentley in 1931 it turned its back on Bentley’s Le Mans record of five wins in seven starts. Australia’s Bernard Rubin drove one of those winning cars. Bentley’s success began in 1924, in the second Le Mans when Canadian John Duff drove his personal car to a win.
After two years with no wins W.O “Wocka” Bentley decided to get the factory involved. As Stuart Husband writes in The Fabulous Bentley Boys: “They were a bunch of wild, fabulously wealthy devil-may-carers, united by a love of insouciance, elegant tailoring, and a need for speed, who established Bentley’s reputation by revving their sports models past the winning posts of 24 Hours of Le Mans”. Ah, sounds like the team at The Australian. Anyway the boys went on to win four in a row.
As you know Bentley did turn up in France to race again for 71 years where the team finished third, then in 2002 for fourth and finally in 2003 where they took first and second. Then owner Volkswagen said “nicht mehr, we can’t have you beating our Audis with their super defeat devices” and goodbye Bentley racing.
OK back to 1965, where Ferrari and Porsche took the top seven spot at Le Mans, the Grateful Dead formed, Bob Menzies was PM, the census worked and Rolls Royce got their apprentices to build two factory exhibition display vehicles, without bodies, as prototypes for their next generation 1966 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and the Bentley T-type. Against company policy, marketing director of Rolls Royce, John Craig, secretly sold the second chassis to Bentley Drivers Club racer, Barry Eastick, to turn it into a racing car. Alan Padgett did the design, the alloy body came from Lyncar Engineering, the 6.23 litre aluminium, dry sump, solid lifter V8 from Rolls Royce. Russo and Steele sold this car in 2008, Gateway Classic Cars had $1.8 million on it last year but my guess is about $780,000 this week. I think I could marry this car. On Thursday 550 classic racers actually race at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Rolex, Mazda? Something weird there.
Peter Mullin will have his 1950 Talbot Type 26 on track, one of the first cars to compete in the new Grand Prix class — Formula One. Pete will be up against Peter Giddings’ 1932 Alfa Romeo Monza, originally built to compete in the Mille Miglia and driven by persons like Tazio Nuvolari, Giovanni Battista, Guidotti, Giuseppe Campari and Rudolf Caracciola. No Welsh in that lot.
Next week we’ll investigate why TR7s were actually sponsored by a bank not a ciggie company; why the Cook and Wallace book on Ford Australia is such a stunner I paid $60 out of my own money for it;
This is a shortened version of the original article. To read the rest go to: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/motoring/tequila-caviar-and-beautiful-metal-engines-purring-at-monterey/news-story/0c9111d9a47b86cf6a5e8890a457a9dc
