One of the best parts of the trip (besides free cheese and wine) is the Italiano, always nice event and very relaxing. Beautiful cars that are often not in the same place at one time, and I am not just talking about the Prancing Horse’s. Can I say Ferrari without being in some sort of trademark violation? Well loads of nice cars, Ferrari, Lamborghini’s, Alfa’s etc. This year was a completely different feel. It was on the Air Field near the ocean (Monterey Airport??). In any case, the event was once step away from going to a car swap meet. The tarmac was not a proper place for these cars. Some were in the gravel and it just lost the mystic of the Blackhawk golf course with the rolling hills. Many people had the same feeling, including the vendors, many of which were absent, including many food vendor. Yes, no sausage sandwich for me. That sounded bad, but it is a necessary part of the Italiano.

On to the Historics…

Was only at Laguna Secca for a short while on Saturday. I was hoping to catch some of the non-chitty chitty bang bang cars racing, but that was a wash. All the T/A and related cars I like are later in the afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday. So ate my free food at the Mazda hospitality suite, said hello to famed automotive designer Ian Callum. Then off with a beer to looks at some cars. Line to the pictures is above for those that want to see. I didn’t shoot a lot, but enough to get the general idea of what was in the paddock (that is pits for the yanks). I really missed catching the T/A races, but the entourage had to make it back for the Auctions. Oh well, more free drinks and nice cars to look at.

Watched a bidding war for 7.2 million dollar Bugatti, and various other cars blow through the many auctions. And let’s not forget the very interesting collection of people that show up to these events. People watching is almost as much fun as the car watching aspect.

Monterey Historics and Italiano Concorso 2008

Monterey Historics and Italiano Concorso 2008
The two sets are Obvious, but just in case, the titles are “Monterey Historics 2008″ and the “Italiano Concorso 2008″.

Lot’s of random pictures of cars…