2008 Tour d'Elegance
It's car week in Monterey County. It happens every year, and every year it gets bigger. There are classic car shows, classic car auctions and classic car racing at Laguna.
The fanciest of the classic car shows is the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, which takes place on Sunday on the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach. To stand a chance of winning the classic car competition, participants really need to get the bonus points available for taking part in the Tour d'Elegance on the preceding Thursday (ie, today!)
Around 100 or so classic cars take to the roads around Pebble Beach, driving down scenic Highway 1 and hopefully ending up back where they started from.
The tour is sponsored by Mercedes, so the first few cars through after the Mercedes F1 Safety Car (complete with flashing lights! - hey, they are the sponsor) are all classic Mercedes.
This is my second time watching the tour on the local roads and the second time that the first car through is driven by Stirling Moss.
There are all sorts of cars in the field, all trying to gain those extra concours point by taking part in the tour. Below is a car I really liked, a 1907 Itala 36/45 Peking to Paris. I was watching near the start of the tour, hopefully it made it all the way through!
So how do I know it's a 1907 Itala - well, in a move similar to the Tour de France bicycle race, before the cars come through, a Tour car comes through, handing out posters and guides - the guide tells you all the cars that you're going to see.
The poster typically features artwork incorporating a particular car on that year's tour - this year, the poster car is this 1954 Lancia D24 Pinin Farina Spyder.
I do like the racing cars more than the street cars, but they all look splendid driving down the country lanes in and around the Monterey peninsula.
The cars came in three groups - with gaps in between. The gaps gave me chance to look around where I was waiting. Whilst in the position where I was shooting the Itala, I noticed a garter snake about 2 feet away from me in the grass. I noticed it before the batch of cars came through, and then I concentrated on the cars. After the cars had passed, the snake had moved on too.
The morning started foggy (as can be somewhat seen in the Stirling Moss photo), but had pretty much burned off by the time the cars came through - around 9am. However, that didn't stop dew landing on the spider web below, which if viewed at the right angle, the strands really stood out against the green plants in shadow in the background.
So, I got to watch around 100 odd classic cars out for a drive around the country lanes of Monterey county first thing on a Thursday morning - plus I saw a snake - how cool it that?
The fanciest of the classic car shows is the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, which takes place on Sunday on the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach. To stand a chance of winning the classic car competition, participants really need to get the bonus points available for taking part in the Tour d'Elegance on the preceding Thursday (ie, today!)
Around 100 or so classic cars take to the roads around Pebble Beach, driving down scenic Highway 1 and hopefully ending up back where they started from.
The tour is sponsored by Mercedes, so the first few cars through after the Mercedes F1 Safety Car (complete with flashing lights! - hey, they are the sponsor) are all classic Mercedes.
This is my second time watching the tour on the local roads and the second time that the first car through is driven by Stirling Moss.
There are all sorts of cars in the field, all trying to gain those extra concours point by taking part in the tour. Below is a car I really liked, a 1907 Itala 36/45 Peking to Paris. I was watching near the start of the tour, hopefully it made it all the way through!
So how do I know it's a 1907 Itala - well, in a move similar to the Tour de France bicycle race, before the cars come through, a Tour car comes through, handing out posters and guides - the guide tells you all the cars that you're going to see.The poster typically features artwork incorporating a particular car on that year's tour - this year, the poster car is this 1954 Lancia D24 Pinin Farina Spyder.
I do like the racing cars more than the street cars, but they all look splendid driving down the country lanes in and around the Monterey peninsula.The cars came in three groups - with gaps in between. The gaps gave me chance to look around where I was waiting. Whilst in the position where I was shooting the Itala, I noticed a garter snake about 2 feet away from me in the grass. I noticed it before the batch of cars came through, and then I concentrated on the cars. After the cars had passed, the snake had moved on too.
The morning started foggy (as can be somewhat seen in the Stirling Moss photo), but had pretty much burned off by the time the cars came through - around 9am. However, that didn't stop dew landing on the spider web below, which if viewed at the right angle, the strands really stood out against the green plants in shadow in the background.
So, I got to watch around 100 odd classic cars out for a drive around the country lanes of Monterey county first thing on a Thursday morning - plus I saw a snake - how cool it that?
posted by Tim H at 9:35 PM
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