there will be a new event soon. The Concours d'Ignorance - Celebrating the Mundane and truly Awful in the automotive industry.
I have only been twice but there are other ways to see Pebble Beach........sort of. 1. show up in June or July, you won't see cars but you will see a bunch of golfers dressed in ugly pants. 2. On Thursday go to the Blackhawk display and if you walk over to the polo fields/parking lot you will see many of the PB cars being cleaned or worked on. Warning this is a high stress area for the car owners. They have worked on these cars for years, getting them ready for this one event, only to find that they have to prep their cars in a dirty dusty field that is often shroud in wet damp fog. 3. On Thursday go to downtown Carmel before noon and you will see the PB tour. All the cars that are driven on a 60 mile tour stop in Carmel for lunch before going back to the dusty polo field area. 4. Offer to work the PB event. You get to see it all for free, and you get a PB jacket, downside you have to get up at 4:00 am to get down there and work. 5. Get up at 5:00 am and get down near the PB entrance, every car will drive past you. You see it all in an hour and a half. Go back to hotel and wonder why you got up so early, because the whole town including your hotel parking lot is littered with nice cars. 6. Watch it on Hi Def TV a year later sitting in your chair while you sip a beer or glass of whine, wondering why the judges all wear straw hats.
For what it's worth, if anyone is interested in reading the whole thing. I found on line the "Master Plan" for the renovation of the Marina Airport dated Feb. 2008. Obviously the primarly focus of the improvements will be related to Aviation, but there is a lot money that is planned to go into the facility. Here is the link. It is a 35meg file. http://www.ci.marina.ca.us/documents/sdc/Final%20Master%20Plan%20Report.pdf
lol! I think I've been to pebble about 25 times now. It is THE car show, period. Maybe in the world, certainly in the US ('course, I'm sick of it now, so there you go! ;^D ) Fred
John you HAVE to come this year if for no other reason to stop by the Mondial and say hi - It will be nice to see a friendly face on the lawn . . . .
How true. I've been to Monterey a few times (not 25) and while CI is a premier Italian car event, Pebble Beach is vastly superior in almost every way. There are typically quite a few Italian cars there (if that is a requirement for you) including some I haven't seen at Concorso Italiano (I really want an Issota Fraschini someday). I wouldn't dream of not buying a ticket to the main event but there are numerous ways to get close to the cars and meet the owners without spending a dime (beyond the small fortune it cost to go to Monterey in the first place). Frequently some of the finest cars at CI happen to be exhibited by the same people that have some pretty nice stuff at Pebble Beach. You will likely run into people you saw at CI (I had a long conversation with Valentino Balboni last year) and there are always celebrities around (Jay Leno, Ralph Lauren, Phil Hill, Ben Stein, 2NA, Edward Hermann). I can't imagine skipping it. Parking and the crowds are a challenge, but if you do a little research ahead of time and get the "straight dope" on the best way around the "great unwashed" you'll be fine. I've been to a lot of car shows over the years. Few cars you see win prizes at other shows would even be allowed on the property at Pebble Beach. Jay Leno calls it "the millionaires versus the billionaires" and he ain't kidding
Tim, I've only been to that many because I was born in Carmel...went to all the cool CanAm races in the 60s, the start of the historics in the 70s, was at the first (or 2nd?) concorso with my 400GT when there were just 20 cars (maseratis) there in the early-mid-80s, saw the show outgrow Quail in the 90s, and even tried my own gathering with Jack Riddell in the 2000s: http://www.400gt.com/photos/el_estero/Lake_El_Estero.htm http://www.400gt.com/photos/Pebble/my_car_weekend.htm Hey, that's me 'n my buddy Jeff on the front of the Herald! :-D I'll tell you, it changes every year. There is just so much money pouring into the peninsula, from one year to the next you never know what's going to happen. Next year they'll probably have a "flying saucer" class at Pebble. http://www.400gt.com/misc/Untitled-3.jpg ;^D Fred PS: Hey, is that Leno??? http://www.400gt.com/misc/Image0028a.jpg
So what's the latest word on this? According to the CI website, there are at least 350 Italian cars and 150 non-Italian cars registered. Their website states that many attendees do not post their names on the attendee list, so there may be more. Ron
Prompted by your post, I looked just now to see if it had been updated yet (it had)... There appears to be some sort of wing-ding on Thursday evening they've got going on, but the show is still held on Friday: http://www.concorso.com/
They try to hide where is the Friday show. Look on the website very very hard to finally find what they say is location!
Got my packet in the mail yesterday and I'm hoping for the best. I have to leave mid-afternoon anyway to get parked in line for the Pacific Grove rally. Ron
That's our plan as of right now. But that Concorso Gala that night sounds kind of cool and is priced right.
Olay, am I mistaken or is the ad for this year's concorso a photo of Moffet field and not of the Marina airport?
Anyone checked out the new site in the past week? How has the weather and wind been? It's only a few weeks away.
I called and talked to them, and it will be on the "tarmac." Sad to say I will not be attending this event now Their phone #- 1425-742-0632
There is NO chance I am going to this "s%^&show" as a spectator or exhibitor.... In looking at the prices it costs $100 to go. For this price you get to stand around on the tarmac all day in the sun. OR For $200 you can display your car. For those like me with a "non-Italian" I could pay $200 to "display" my car. If I am lucky, at this "parking lot", 20 people may actually wander through the display "lot". 10 of them might actually break their pace as they are walking by. The other 10 would "break wind" and that's about all. And the bonus of it all, is that they might park me between the Fiero and the Subaru WRx that is entered. Ha!! A freaking Fiero is entered. Some guy paid $200 so he could display his Fiero. Classic. He should have taken his entry fee and bought a 2nd one instead.
was there a couple of days ago, place looks pretty awful and the winds were killer.... I'd like to see what plans they have for comfort as there is nothing but worn out facilities and old Fort Ord buildings needing to be torn down. It could be a good way to get a sand blasting before your new paint job!
I guess it took this to finally get everyone else to realize what had been apparently for years. Concorso Italiano blows donkey nuts and was a sh*tshow at best. At least the zoo is gone, and lukcily Quail puts a limit on admissions.