Ed. Note: This is the first part of a three-part series cataloging freelance writer John Ready’s journey and experience at last year’s Pebble Beach Councours d’Elegance. Watch for parts two and three in the arts section in June and July, respectively.
There is a road west of my town named Pacific Coast Highway 1. Younger people with little respect for this road refer to it as PCH. A portion of it, north of here, was featured and shown on the cover of a special summer issue of National Geographic, “The World’s 101 Most Spectacular Scenic Drives.”
There is a world-class, premier automotive event that takes place every year in the Monterey, Carmel, and Pebble Beach area. 2012 was the 62nd year of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. That year the Maharaja cars were featured, along with Cobras and Mercers. There were also more than two-dozen additional very worthwhile car venues, auctions, shows, tours, and events that take place in the surrounding area the same week.
Roger Hyde, a Corvette owner/driver friend of mine from San Diego, has been organizing this Monterey Run to these great car events for about 25 years or so now. Roger drives a red ’65 Corvette Roadster, and I’ve got a ’64 Stingray Coupe. He gave me a call a day before our departure.
“It’s way too hot for me down here in San Diego and I am anxious to get out of town,” he said. “Are you ready to go?”
“Of course, checklist complete, all fueled up, I am locked and loaded,” I said.
There is a driving style called “catch and release.” It’s not just for fishing, but for dealing with slow traffic. You park it for a while and let the slug-mobiles get several miles’ head start; that is “release.” You can already tell what “catch” is.
Roger and I were not really pushing it that hard around Ragged Point on the Pacific Coast Highway 1, but we don’t sound anything like the more civilized tourists. Roger had pulled over in a wide portion off the road to let slow traffic move ahead in the “release” portion of “catch and release.”
Just after we shut down, a red Buick enclave pulled up and three guys enthusiastically piled out of this bus-like vehicle. The three of them greeted us with open hands. We had just met up with the Cobra No. 95 Swiss Racing Team. Their Cobra racecar was flown in from Europe and was already in Monterey; they were just driving to catch up with it. They saw and heard us rumble by Ragged Point, and then jumped in that Buick bus to run up the road to meet us! They had found some kindred spirits.
They were the Cobra’s owner, Chris Firmenic the racecar driver, and the big guy was the Mech. They would be competing in the “All Original 1962-1967 Cobra Race” on Saturday at Laguna Seca. This fortunate episode was a wonderful, enthusiastic preview of the great things to come farther up the road.
We saw a lot more of the Cobras later that week at Laguna Seca. Last year saw more Cobras than ever because we were marking the passing of the Cobra’s creator, Carroll Shelby, who was a flight instructor in the Army Air Corps during World War II and drove for Aston Martin and won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1959.
A friend of mine who once worked for him told me that Shelby would say: “Anybody can make a car go fast by spending a lot of money on it; the real trick is to make it go very fast with very little money.”
This entire concept infuriated Enzo Ferrari, who once said: “They are beating us with a cheap little British car with an American passenger car engine.”
With this design philosophy and great leadership, Shelby went on to win the 1965 FIA Manufacturers World Championship, with an American car, a feat that was never accomplished before or since.
Roger and I said “See you soon!” to the Cobra Swiss Racing Team and the Buick enclave, then continued up the highway in “catch” mode.
We found some long stretches of open road where we could let our small blocks run like they were made to do. I always ride with both windows down to listen to the exhaust note. It’s not a beller or a shriek, but a mellow tone in perfect sync, which is not too rich and not too lean—just right. It’s some kind of continuous steady beat of music to my ears.
Most people complain that you can’t get radio, cell phone reception, and you can’t text or tweet for major portions along this road. That’s all right with me; I am concentrating on driving and enjoying these great world-class views, right here, right now. All these gadgets take your concentration away from what you are doing and where you are. We made great time and only started to encounter traffic when we turned inland into the woods south of Big Sur.
Roger and I made it to Carmel, and we headed down Ocean Avenue to the beach. Great place to stop for a while after a challenging drive. We met up with a Ford GT-40 that discharged its passenger, who did a little dance and drew a crowd.
We got in touch with our friend Bob Jacobs in Pacific Grove, and made our way over to the Mission Ranch in Carmel for dinner, a great place to share car and driving conversations at the end of the day. m
Freelance writer John Ready is already revving his engine for this year’s event. Contact him through Arts Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 23-30, 2013.
