Ron Knipper starts out his report on the Pebble Beach Concours with
the following:
>At the last minute, I decided to take some vacation and attend the
>Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach last Sunday. I kick myself for
>not planning ahead and going for the entire weekend. Saturday
>there were vintage car races at Laguna Seca including one sponsored
>by my car club (AMOC). Oh, well...
I can't help but find this humorous, though certainly not at Ron's
expense. And I thought I'd take a minute to talk about these "vintage
car races" on "Saturday."
The Monterey Historic Auto Races celebrated their 18th running this
year with a tribute to five-time World Driving Champion Juan Manuel
Fangio, who turned 80 earlier this year. In the past, the Historics
have honored specific individual marques who have contributed to the
sport over the past hundred years, including such famous nameplates
as Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, and even such comparatively
little-known marques as Allard (the 1990 honoree).
The Historics are, to some people, the crown to a weekend of antique and
classic car mania that descends on Monterey the third weekend in August,
and includes the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, a number of auctions
in and around Monterey, and -- in an interesting twist -- antique
tractor pulls in Watsonville this year. Originally devised by Steve
Earle, the Historics have become the most prestigious vintage car event
in the country, possibly the world. It's the kind of event at which you
can get tired of seeing Bugattis, Ferraris, Cad-Allards, and other common
sports or racing cars of the last century, and at which you seek
out the truly unusual specialist cars, like the Tanner T-5, the Nardi
Crosley, the Huffaker Healey, or the Giaur. Where else can you expect
to see a pair of Jowett Jupiter convertibles dicing through the famous
Corkscrew, or watch Fangio's Maserati 250F roaring like a Goliath beetle
among a pack of honeybee Cooper-Climax 1.5L F1 cars, Lotus 18s and 22s,
and Formula Juniors of the late Fifties and early Sixties?
The level of driving skill varies, from enthusiastic owner-restorers who
can't tell a late apex from a latex ape through retired greats such as
Stirling Moss (who drove one of the Aston Martin Le Mans team cars in
last year's climactic Saturday race) and George Follmer (who drove a
Lola T-70 this past Sunday). The level of car preparation, on the other
hand, is often equal to that shown at the Pebble Beach Concours, and in
fact there is a special trophy for the car that performs the best on
a given weekend in both venues.
The Historics take place over three days, allowing track time for all
participants in 14 groups of vintage cars arranged roughly by era and
displacement (or at least performance potential). Friday's events are
all practice sessions for the members of groups 1A through 7A (the cars
that race on Saturday) and 1B through 7B (the cars that race on Sunday).
Saturday morning sees practice sessions begin at 9:00 AM, with racing
starting at 1:00 PM, after the lunch break. Races are only ten laps
long, giving enough time for the cars to stretch their legs without
risking excessive wear. The first groups are the oldest cars, with
1A typically including prewar sports and touring cars, 1B including
prewar Grand Prix and racing cars, and the remaining groups through
the day progressing in time to end up with big-bore sports-racing
cars of the Fifties and early Sixties, such as D Type Jaguars,
the Le Mans Aston Martins previously mentioned, the Cunningham C4R
that contested Le Mans, one-offs like the Parkinson-Jaguar Special
or the HWM "Stovebolt Chevy" Special driven by Kirk Douglas in the
early scenes of "The Racers," and of course various versions of Max
Balchowsky's factory-sponsored ringer, Ol' Yeller.
My personal favorites are the Sunday cars, though. This year, group 1B
included postwar formula cars, and the previously mentioned 250F driven
by Fangio to his fifth (and fourth successive) world championship was
part of the group. So was the 1961 Cooper-Climax entered by Sir Jack
Brabham in some Midwestern oval event thirty years ago, and which is said
to have had no small effect on the nature of cars that contest that particular
track to this day. Other race groups that day included one for sports and
GT cars from 1957-1962, which was chock-full of Lotus Elites (the original
ones), a pair of historically significant Sprites (one, a Sebring Sprite,
campaigned by Stan Huntley of FASPEC, the other, PMO 200, a famous Sprite
with coupe bodywork prepared originally by John Sprinzel and driven by
Stirling Moss in the 4-hour and 12-hour races at Sebring in 1961), and
this year highlighted by a blindingly fast MGA Twin Cam. Other groups
included sports-racing cars of the early Sixties, such as the Lotus 19
and 23, Elva Mk VIIs, and Huffaker Genies; one group, my favorite because
it's the most like the class I run in the SCCA's club racing program,
included Elva Couriers, Porsche 356s, Lotus Sevens and was dominated
this year by a pair of Lotus 26Rs who ran away from third place, Butch
Gilbert (the builder of my race car) in an MGB-powered Elva Courier.
The best part about the Historics, though, are the surprises. For me,
these ranged from competitive -- seeing Butch's name in the program, in
the same race with Peter Egan's Lotus Seven famous from his Road & Track
articles -- to personal -- camping across the way from one of my closest
friends from my southern California Healey Club days, Tom Colby of
Speedwell Engineering, or seeing a number of network friends at and
around the race track (some spectating, some working the course as
SCCA flagging and communication workers). But probably the most interesting
surprise this year came during the demonstration lap in which Fangio took
out his 1955-winning Mercedes W196 GP car. Preceded by a camera car,
a 560SL with a photographer leaning over the roll bar to snap stills of
Fangio in the silver behemoth, the Argentinian was champing at the bit,
getting on the throttle to run up behind the camera car, then letting
off to slide back. One of my friends, Jack Poller, was flagging in
turn 10 and gave the passing flag to the camera car. On the next lap,
I heard the camera car's tires squeal yet again in the Corkscrew, where
I had chosen to sit that day (still my favorite place on or off the asphalt
there). But on this lap the squeal held up all through the short straight
leading into turn 9, and as the cars disappeared under the bridge I saw
Fangio holding back; I heard the camera car's tires squeal louder and
louder, until the sound was drowned out by the throats of the crowd on
the far side of the hill rising in a roaring cheer. The announcers told
us that the camera car had spun off at the left-hand side of the exit of
turn 9, and that Fangio had motored past with a wave and a grin. On
his next visit to the Corkscrew -- which came much sooner than his
previous circuits -- he was on the gas harder and earlier than before,
and still wore a grin wide enough to drive a transporter through. With
the Benz sounding as though it was at full throttle, its desmodromic
growl changing to a basso shriek as he rocketed past the scrub oaks and
the golden hillside, Fangio turned to the crowd, flashed that cool smile
under his blue fabric helmet, and -- while negotiating the entry to turn
9, where the camera car had spun, the maestro took one hand off the
wheel and waved to the crowd, who had risen to give him a thunderous
standing ovation.
>All considered, it was a good experience. Next year, if I can
>only go for 1 day, I will probably opt for the vintage car
>races at Laguna Seca on Saturday. If I can do the entire
>weekend, I would go to the Concours again.
At least once, Ron, pack your tent and sleeping bag into the
Aston, plan on leaving on Thursday so that you can get a decent
campsite, and stay at the track for the entire weekend. You'll
end up with cramps in your shoulders from sleeping on rocks,
a sunburned nose and itchy eyes from the dry grass, woodsmoke and
oak trees, but to smell that heavenly blend of Castrol R and
extra-rich mixtures being processed by the finest racing engines
ever to grace this occasionally wonderful planet, it's worth it.
This is a pilgrimage that every vintage car enthusiast should
plan on making at least once, and with you a mere 350-mile round
trip away, you have no excuse for not showing up for the whole
event next year.
Be seeing you!
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