MONTEREY HISTORICS/PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA AUGUST 12TH TO 15TH, 2010

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Milo Grant
5 years ago
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1 MONTEREY HISTORICS/PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA AUGUST 12TH TO 15TH, 2010

Monterey Historics/Pebble Beach August 12th-15th, 2010 I ve just returned from a five day trip to California, to visit the Monterey Historics, view the auction scene and take in the concours at

2 Monterey Historics/Pebble Beach August 12th-15th, 2010 I ve just returned from a five day trip to California, to visit the Monterey Historics, view the auction scene and take in the concours at Pebble Beach so, in chronological order, here s what happened from my perspective. Bonham s Auction, Thursday, August 12th: This was primarily an auction of the late Mike Amalfitano s cars, mainly racing Porsches and of interest to me, as an aficionado of these cars. What were startling were the prices realized by the Porsche spares, offered before the cars. Eight used 908 brake rotors went for $3000, a 917 transmission (gearbox) rear cover fetched $5800, a ZF steering rack (used) $2000, and two 917 rear wheels brought $8500. Then came the heavy hitters; a Porsche 917 titanium axle joint made $11000, as did one, repeat ONE! 917 rear upright. However, this was totally put in the shade by two 917 front uprights, which fetched $30,000. That's correct, thirty thousand dollars for a pair of uprights. After this, a 917 fuel injection pump at $25,000 seemed tame. Oh my Gawd... Page 1

3 Then came Mike Amalfitano s cars. All were superbly maintained and in great condition. A Ferrari F40 made $34,5000 (all these prices before premiums, by the way), a 2008 GT2, with just 1,317 miles on it brought $ (cheap, I thought) and an interesting and rare Carrera 4 lightweight made $115,000 (only twenty built). Then came a carbon fiber-tubbed 962 at $440,000 (about right in today s World, I thought) and an exquisite fetched $720,000. Finally, up came the 917 Interserie Spyder that, in a previous incarnation, had been a Gulf-JW Automotive Coupe, which had been driven at Le Mans in 1970 (and crashed) by David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood. That fetched $3.6M, which, with premiums, amounted to $4.1M. Page 2

4 Monterey Historics: The trip from downtown Carmel, where I was staying, to the Laguna Seca racetrack, took ninety minutes to cover fourteen miles. The real culprit was Concorso Italiana, held just a few miles from Laguna Seca. Once past that bottleneck, traffic thinned out on the Friday morning and in I went. The paddock was full, with just about every exotic racecar you could imagine. From pre- First World war monsters up to GTP/Group C cars, plus a large marquee, which sheltered over thirty Bugattis. Never seen so many of them in one place before. Predator Performance, my local team from Largo, Florida, were there in force, with sundry Lola T70s, a McLaren M1 and a Porsche 962 to run. I strolled the paddock, said hi to a lot of old friends and left by mid-afternoon. That evening, I visited RM Auction s site in Monterey to watch a packed house bidding on some very desirable cars. Page 3

Saturday saw me re-visiting Laguna Seca with Chris and Frances, two friends. Round the paddock we went again with Chris, a most knowledgeable man where pre-war Bugattis (and a lot more!

5 Saturday saw me re-visiting Laguna Seca with Chris and Frances, two friends. Round the paddock we went again with Chris, a most knowledgeable man where pre-war Bugattis (and a lot more!) were concerned, being intrigued by the Bugatti tent. Oh, I almost forgot, there was also a tented enclosure displaying the race cars of Dan Gurney - Boy there were some great cars there - Lolas, Toyotas, Eagles plus... Sunday was an early start (5 a.m.) in order to get ready and get out to the Pebble Beach Concours. I d last been about ten years ago and it was all very much the same, a bunch of very desirable cars parked on the lawn, whilst erudite judges went around marking them. As readers to this site probably know, I m not interested in concours events. The very idea that someone can receive a trophy for owning a clean car leaves me singularly unimpressed! Page 4

However, there was one vehicle that intrigued me. It was the ex-bert Munro streamlined Indian motorbike that featured in that wonderful movie, The World's fastest Indian.

6 However, there was one vehicle that intrigued me. It was the ex-bert Munro streamlined Indian motorbike that featured in that wonderful movie, The World's fastest Indian. I expect you ve seen it but if you haven t, please do. I ve seen it four times at least and would do so again, if it comes around. Next morning at 4 a.m., I said goodbye to Carmel and headed back to San Jose airport, arriving back home at 6 p.m. that evening. I m just recovering! Page 5

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19 Site Contents John Starkey 2010 Page 18

LOLA S T600 GROUND-EFFECTS SPORTS-PROTOTYPE SERIES

LOLA S T600 GROUND-EFFECTS SPORTS-PROTOTYPE SERIES Lola s T600 Ground-Effects Sports-Prototype Series Lola has had a long association with building long distance sports prototype racing cars. Probably