20 replies to this topic

[Chris12]

I am considering heading down to Monterey for their yearly "Car Week" (August 11-17). Is anyone here going?

[biosurfer1]

Yep...just not sure when. I'd like to take my mom to the "Mini" car show but being on a Wednesday makes it tough. Always a good time though!

[az968]

Going to be there Thurs thru Sunday for Motorsports Reunion. Friday is the Porsche Werks Reunion show.

http://www.sportscar...rey-week-event/

[Chris Vais]

I usually go to the historic races, both days, but we have been told to expect an early wine grape harvest that could begin in mid August so I may not make it this year. Wine grapes rule every aspect of my life during harvest.

[az968]

Absolulty right priority! Hopefully the grapes of vais will smile on you this year!

[bombfactory]

I'll be there Wed night thru Sunday morning. Not sure if the 968 will be running in time, but that's the goal. If not I'll be in a rental :-(

[az968]

Here's the web site with info on the Friday event.

http://www.werksreunion.com/

[flash]

trying to work this out. would love to get up there and play for the weekend.

[flash]

got the green light from the boss. beginning working out details now.

planning on being up there for friday and saturday.

[flash]

well, this is turning out to be a bit more complicated than i expected. having a really hard time finding a hotel anywhere in the area. that's just crazy! i may have to wait until a couple of days before the event, and hope to snag a cancellation. i'm definitely not going to get something way the heck out of the way, or something $1700 a night.

we'll see

[ds968]

I might go for a day trip but still depends on a lot of things, won't know until about two or three days ahead . For those of you that haven't been there before , the last 10 miles before reaching the venue can take well over 1 hour.

[ds968]

McLaren supposedly will have the soon to be released P1 GTR there. And Lamborghini will bring a Veneno. And Ferrari..what else but the La Ferrari . Can't stand the looks of either one of those, but to see the engineering feat each one of them represents , up close and personal is nonetheless tempting.. Actually, no new car anyone could bring there would ever make me drool, but when it comes to some 50s and 60s Ferraris and Maseratis and Astons and even a handful of a Alfas, I could just stand and stare at those ( and drool ) for hours on end ..

[bombfactory]

Flash you have to book for the next year's event as soon as possible after the current year's event is over. Usually rooms are available for the next year about 30 days after car week is over. We've been able to snag some killer deals with this method the past few years, but for this year it seems all the hotels in the area (as well as the online booking sites) are up on the game and jacked their rates accordingly from the start. Even six months out the prices are ridiculous, if anything is still available that is. We stayed at a place in Salinas once that wasn't bad, but I know that's not your style :-) Sometimes rooms pop up at the last minute due to cancellations - keep looking!

[flash]

just not that interested. for me, it would be an afternoon, and maybe a dinner. it's just a car show. been there done that. not worth dealing with the traffic.

[bombfactory]

Yes this will likely be my last year at car week for a while. Perhaps I'll revisit it a few years down the road, as I do enjoy the pomp and circumstance - and the photo ops - of the whole thing, but the costs are getting outrageous and the traffic is too. It's sad because having a cool car to cruise around Monterey during car week was one of the main reasons I bought the 968. I've been up there twice with it in the four years I've owned it - the other two years it's been down for repairs so I had to take the M3. No 968 in Monterey again this year either. It's still dead :-(

[flash]

yeah - i would go up there any time other than car week. believe it or not, i just don't enjoy car shows. once in a while i'll go to one, but after an hour, i'm looking for the bar

[ds968]

A few things we missed seeing there :

http://www.sportscar...port-photos/12/

https://autos.yahoo....8670-slideshow/

Edited by ds968, 18 August 2014 - 06:16 PM.

[Davbert55]

I was in Carmel/Monterey from Wednesday through Friday. Saw the Small Car show in Pacific Grove, the Blessing of the Cars at the Carmel Mission on Wednesday, the Concours tour through Carmel and their brief stay on Ocean Avenue on Thursday, Werks Reunion and the Mecum auction on Friday. The number of 968s I saw during the three days I attended other than the one I was in? ONE. It was a great looking 94 cab at the Werks Reunion. I'm estimating their were 6 924 - 944 - 968 series cars at the Werks show. Similar number of 914's. Two or three 928s. Hundreds of 911s though.

The most interesting (not the most exotic) car I saw at the Werks Reunion was a 914-6 race car that emulated a 911 in body style but underneath was pure bread 914-6 mid-engine muscle with race prepared tub and front and rear clips with suspension that just asked to be driven at a very high speed. I'm sure Carrera owners watching it race would be applauding (unknowing it is a 914-6) it's competence.

The mid-engine and front engine Porsche contingent did get good field position at the show.

It sounds like I'm a little bitter about the front engine, four cylinder turnout/acknowledgement. Might be some truth to that.

[flash]

i'm now really glad i didn't jump through hoops to go.

[bombfactory]

Since ticket prices for Sunday's concourse have now moved into the 'stupid money' catagory - to keep us riff-raff types out I presume - I drove up Wednesday to catch the concourse cars in Carmel during the Tour de Elegance. I won't be doing it again. By the time the cars arrived at noon, the waiting crowd was enormous and swarmed the cars en mass as soon as they stopped moving. A decent view of any of the cars was nearly impossible. Taking photos - forget about it:

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Friday was the Legends of the Autobahn event, which moved to a new venue this year. Unless you were showing your car or paid for the corral, you were forced to enter the golf course via the back way, which involved: sitting in bumper to bumper traffic to get to the front gate, being told you couldn't enter this way, being handed directions on how to get in the back way, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic again going back the way you came, finding the right turnoff, off-roading it a bit, following signs through a very nice neighborhood above the golf course, off-roading it some more through dirty, dusty and rough scrub (my car is not set up for this!) to finally reach the dirty, dusty parking area adjacent to the fairway where the event has been set up. Oh, and then paying the parking guy $20 for the privilge of going on this little adventure.

With Porsche removed from the mix this year, the Legends event was quite a bit smaller. Flash, you could do it in an hour. There was some nice BMW hardware to sit in - an i8 (very hard to get in and out of) and a new M4 (very drool-worthy). I'm not really an Audi guy, but they showed some S and RS models that looked pretty bad-ass. The Nicklaus golf facility is very nice, and other than the parking situation, the event was first rate.

Back on the former Legends of the Autobahn site, the PCA put on its inaugural 'Werks Reunion' - a Porsche-only event. And it was HUGE! Porsches Porsches everywhere - and we were a bit late getting there. I'll have to agree that the water-pumper contingent was a little under-represented, but if you're a 911 fan, this is your new heaven.

Saturday we headed down 17 mile drive to the Inn at Spanish Bay for Retro Auto, then over to Pebble Beach to wander around a bit and take in the sights. There were a few cars already on the 18th fairway:

 fairway.jpg   74.86KB   0 downloads

but the real action was on the putting green, which turns into a concept car display during for the concours. While I was there, Mercedes brought out their awesome Gran Tourismo video game concept:

 photo(2).JPG   63.73KB   0 downloads

and at the same time the new Maserati Alfieri drove up and parked nearby:

 photo(3).JPG   76.28KB   0 downloads

If you're a car guy, it's worth doing Monterey car week at least once. Start looking NOW for a hotel room for next year though!

Edited by bombfactory, 20 August 2014 - 08:54 AM.