A cruise up the coast

Ed. note: Longtime Sun friend John Ready recently talked his way into the 59th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance event and brought back proof of his journey in the form of celebrity sightings, tales of classic cars, and plenty of chest-clutching swooning over the Benzs and Bugattis. While this annual event has come and gone, the drive is always open to someone with a love of the open road. And there’s always next year …

It’s downright lucky to be right here on the Central Coast of California. We’re ideally located about 135 miles south by southeast of the Monterey Peninsula. This means if there’s something worthwhile going on up there, we get to drive up Pacific Coast Highway 1 to be part of it.

Once a year, there are several major automotive events that we informally call the “Monterey Weekend,” spread across 18 different venues. Events range from auctions and races to Sunday’s main event: the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

As my friend Charlie Robinson from Riverside, who comes up here every year, would say, “With all of this going on, why would you just stay at home?”

If you are going to these great events, I strongly suggest that you take a very spirited car. Performance is spoken and applied here. No Volvos, SUVs, crossover trucks, or other road slugs need apply. This is another area where I am lucky. I have three friends—Parvin Russell, Roger Hyde, and Bob Jacobs—from Insane Diego who come up through Santa Maria in their Corvettes for these events.

This year, Parvin and I drove up Highway 1 late Thursday morning, just in time to blend in with the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance as they made their turnaround at Big Sur Lodge.

By the time we got to Carmel, there were several stunning cars lining Ocean Avenue.

I headed over to the Lodge at Pebble Beach on Thursday afternoon and got a good look at the Mercedes Benz tent and car display. They had a replica of the original Benz from 1897, a line up of Mercedes Benz autos progressing through the last century, and several Silver Arrow racecars.

As I was leaving, I saw a Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren SM driving toward me with someone in the passenger’s seat with a jaw almost a big as Jay Leno’s. As they got closer, it became apparent that it was Jay Leno riding shotgun. Who would Jay give up the wheel of this premium ride to, since the company’s only going to make 75 of the roadsters?

It wasn’t till later when I looked closely at the photo I snapped and could see it was Sir Stirling Moss himself. Yes, the SM designation in this limited-edition model stands for Stirling Moss.

There were plenty of auctions going on downtown and great cars to see that evening. The Portola Plaza always has a long lobby full of eye-catching machinery, along with an adjacent ballroom with just enough room to get around the cars on display. The Portola was home to the RM Auction of the Nick Alexander Woodie Collection on Thursday night. There were 52 Ford and Mercury Woodies that sold in one night—more than I’ve seen in a lifetime.

On Friday, Pacific Grove has a Car Show Celebration that lines Lighthouse Avenue. It’s very friendly and informal, with a very good turnout and good quality selection of a wide range of cars. Later in the early evening, they have a local rally tour.

In the afternoon, I was tooling around on the 17 Mile Drive, heading back to get a preview of some of the concept cars, when an electric-blue Cobra-like roadster came right up behind me, but ended up taking a different fork in the road. I found out later this was the new AC Iconic. This car has been conceived, designed and built right here in the United States.

This brand new concept car looks as good with its body panels off as it does with them on. The Iconic has a revolutionary new operating and control system called VEEDOMS. Are you ready for the meaning behind the long acronym? It’s a Virtual Electrical Electronic Device Interface Management System—there, we got through it. It’s a claimed technological breakthrough that replaces all of the traditional wiring harnesses with several of the modules. I met Chris Boracelli, Iconic’s test driver, and asked him if he had recently seen a white Stingray coupe driving around the area. “Yes, with No. 64 in the doors?” “Yep,” sez I. “That’s a nice ride.”

Infiniti Essence

Infiniti had a comparatively large exposition tent on Peter Hay hill. The company was hosting afternoon receptions and multimedia shows to introduce the all-new Infiniti M, a good-looking four-door sedan. Roger Hyde and I went to one of these events, but the car that stole this show was the Essence.

It will take me a long while to get used to the new 22-inch wheels with thin sidewall tires, but the Essence is the first car I’ve seen that handles that with graceful proportions.

I noticed there were no rearview mirrors. All of that will be handled by minicams. The images will be blended by computer, then displayed as a 2-inch ribbon in a panorama on the base of the windshield. It’s a marvelously stunning car visually and technically.

Spyker

These cars out of Holland have put together a creditable LeMans effort. The latest second-generation model, the C8 Aileron is longer and sleeker. The gated toggles on the dash were inspired by Spyker’s aviation heritage. The rosebudding or engine turning may be too reflective if the sun is still high and behind you with the top down.

More events

A preview of the Mecum Auction was held on Friday at the Hyatt Regency at the Del Monte Resort. The most interesting car was a 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe, CSX 2601—the FIA Championship Winner. There’s only one 1965 World Manufacturer’s Champion for GT cars. This is it, and it eventually sold for $7.25 million.

Pebble Beach Concours on Sunday was the main event of the weekend. All of the concept cars were on display on the putting green. On the fringe was the new Porsche Panamera, a black four-door that looks like an over-inflated Zodiac or a bigger VW bug. It’s huge, but when you get inside where you don’t have to look at it, it’s spacious and well appointed.

Fisker Karma Sunset

This is an American car made in Orange County. It has some Aston lines and was designed by Henrik Fisker, who also created the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage. They claim an average annual fuel economy of 100 mpg, 0 to 60 in six seconds, and a 125 mph top speed.

Aston Martin One-77

This is a stunning super car with a 7.3 liter V12 that gets this 3,300-pound carbon fiber monoque-framed beauty from 0 to 60 in less than four seconds and should top out over 200 miles an hour.

Aston Martin is only going to produce 77 of these gorgeous cars from Gaydon, England. This was the first showing of this car in North America.

Bugatti Veyron Sang Bleu

This car is a one-off in honor of the Bugatti centenary year. The Veyron is a W-16 cylinder with four turbos that makes 1,000 horsepower that can smoothly power this car to 250 miles an hour. The Veyron weighs in at around 5,000 pounds and has 10 radiators to get rid of all of the waste heat. The fenders are polished aluminum, and the body is tinted carbon fiber.

The engine configuration is a shuffling together of two V8s to form a W-shaped engine that turns one crankshaft. This car is heavy and bulky and looks much like an Audi, and the Bugatti badged radiator almost appears as an afterthought. There will be very few of these, though I saw a couple easing around the peninsula that weekend. It operates in its own league, and costs $1.4 million.

Jaguar XJL Supersport

This is a trim, sport-looking, four-door sedan, with room in front and back seats for a 6-foot-5 driver or passenger. This Jag has a supercharged 510 horsepower engine and should be able to go like a scalded cat.

Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss

It was on display, as it should be, in all its glory from SLR racing history. Power is from a 5.5-liter supercharged V8. It goes 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds with a top speed of 208 mph.

There will only be 75 of these, and they’re going to the most loyal of SLR customers. This is a true roadster. There is no top.

The main thing

Now on to the fairway and the main Concourse.

The Automotive Fine Arts Society Exhibition is in a tent on the 18th fairway. These artists are the best of the best in the automotive art world. Some only show at this event. You’ll also find shade and good conversations there.

Bentleys were here in strength, since they were one of the honored marks. Bugatti was also honored this year, and the showing included a very rare Bugatti Royale.

This is the first year Pebble Beach included Indy cars, and we got to see the Bardahl Special.

Four Ferrari Testarosa TR 59s that road raced in the late ’50s and early ’60s were brought together for this event.

The Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance Grand Champion was this stunning silver 1937 Horch, Voll, and Ruhrbeck Cabriolet

Jay Leno and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were on the podium and spoke during the awards ceremony. Even the Stig was there! Organizers also announced the creation of the Pebble Beach Phil Hill Scholarships in honor of the Formula 1 World Drivers Champion who passed away after the last Concours at age 81.

We had a real good drive heading home, with a pit stop at Nepenthe for a few minutes. Parvin and I caught up to a newer-model Jag coupe, who was a real driver, and he kept up the pace all the way to San Simeon where he turned off.

The slowest thing about coming back is getting through SLO town. They need a bypass or something.

We pulled off on Betteravia Road when we got to Santa Maria, and I told Parvin, “If you lived here, you would be home by now.” He had to go butt heads with L.A. traffic to get back to San Diego, and was still a long way from home.

Roger Hyde came along a few hours later because he wanted to pass through L.A. under the cover of darkness. He may have set a new unofficial land speed record from Monterey to San Diego that night.

Can you tell John Ready likes cars? Send comments to the executive editor at rmiller@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in Oct 1-8, 2009.