IYKYK. IF not, we explain the pic.
Saturday, August 22nd, we are on! 9AM to 11AM (Drivers gates open at 8:00 AM)
Hi y’all! We hope all of you who made the pilgrimage down south to Monterey had a great time and a fun adventure if you caravaned down. We took last week off due to the number of participants and volunteers who make the annual trek down south, making it hard to support the quality and quantity y’all are used to. I did miss the blog as life caught up with me, and I had to make room for my civilian and work life; my apologies for being long-winded, but we've got a lot to cover, lol.
This week Mother Nature has the Thug Weather Center 1 team stressed to the max. They have pulled out every ritual, bribe, and sacrifice they can think of. Even the creepy- I mean, kindly old lady in the “business park” is out of tricks. We have seen the forecast predict, then not predict, rain. Swinging from 0% to 35% chance of rain, back to 0%, cloudy and cool. We are going with 0-ish percent and cloudy, cool as the forecast. That means we are on like Donkey Kong! Normal day in our main lot; gates open at 8 am for drivers.
Heilige Kuh! What a turnout for our double feature, German Day and PACCAR Day! We had over 360 cars between Center Court, 164th, and the Main Lot, just between you and us…that beat Italian Day by a few...so uh…Italian drivers, y’all need to reclaim the throne next year…just sayin'. Seriously, if you missed this one, it was truly a great show for German car enthusiasts. We had Pagodas, a cavalcade of Porsches that covered a wide span of models. We had real 356s and other wonderfully smelling air-cooled models, to the most incredible spec’d GT2, 3, and 4 RS models in the PNW. We had some amazing examples of 3.0 CSLs, including one of the coolest CSL Rally cars and owner in Center, with a host of other BMWs that showed up in force. Not only did we have a collection of classic Mercedes, we also had their modern relatives and their “wolf in a sheep’s clothing” vibe, with all the refined luxury hiding that Mr. Hyde side under the hood. We had so many great examples of Audis with their VW cousins, including our cover girl from last blog, Britta. It truly topped off a great mix of German cars. Thank you to all the drivers and enthusiasts for coming out and sharing your passion with us.
Our friends from PACCAR brought some amazing rigs, and they understood the assignment. Did y’all see the DAF? How cool was that? For those who don’t know, these aren't legal in the US; they're the trucks they use in Europe and other countries around the world, and exceedingly rare to see stateside. The team from PACCAR was on hand to answer all those questions, and after a little “YouTube University,” they demonstrated how the cab tilts. Really cool feature in the horseshoe to see the process and how it tilts! We hope y’all got to see those trucks up close and get to make car noises behind the wheel. Thank you again to everyone who showed up and made it a great show.
I am going to go on a bit of a tangent and cover something that seems to be plaguing the car show scene lately, at pandemic or is it endemic levels? Either way, based on our experiences and a fall down an internet rabbit hole, we feel we need to say something. What’s the issue? It’s Asshats that think they can open doors, get inside, and otherwise violate the sanctity of the unspoken agreement between the drivers who bring cars and the spectators of “look don’t touch”. Recently, there was a gross example of this at Monterey (see “wanted” pic).
IF, you are like us and you cruise the internet for “car porn”, you may have seen the video of the Asshat-ian being in and getting out of the incredibly rare, 1957 Fiat 642 Bartoletti Scuderia Ferrari Race Car Transporter from the Shirley Collection. Whew! That was a mouthful, and I left out the RN2, but for those who might not be as passionate about cars as we are and still see it as “just a car,” context is important. This is more than a cool car; this is a preservation of automotive history and, to us, as significant as a Mona Lisa or a graded 1st edition Pokémon card. Seriously, that market is as insane and passionate as we are. We do hope his intentions and actions while inside were pure of heart, but his exit is what pains all of us. First, he fumbles to find the foot hole with his heel, apparently has bad knees or a fear of heights, then once out, he proceeds to slam, or I should say, seal the door with the latch out!! I can feel the collective wince we all did, just like taking one to the jewels; then he walks off like he just did an epic mic drop with no accountability for his actions, displaying the worst case of “Carvid 26” we have ever seen. We will never understand why, people think it is their right to molest a car on display. Seriously, if someone walked in your front door, sat on your couch, spilled red wine on it, and walked out like no big deal, with an attitude of “why are you so upset?” I am guessing you wouldn’t be happy. Please, please, please, to all of the spectators, do not open or get in the cars without the permission of the owners. Consider this our PSA: Look, don’t touch, and respect other people’s property. Enough of the soapbox; however, expect us to keep sending this message as we continue to watch for displays of blatant Asshattery.
Thank you for sticking with me this far if you did, and now a recap: We are on like Donkey Kong this weekend, Aug 22nd. German Day/PACCAR Day was awesome! German drivers set a challenge to the Italian drivers to beat the car count next year. Any info you have on the Asshat, please reach out to Fred, and look, don’t touch.
One more thing. We owe our drivers an apology for the confusion with the gate on German Day. Unfortunately, we encountered an uncontrollable situation that day, and we had to react. Long story short, there was a crew doing maintenance on buildings outside the purview of RTC management, and it was a surprise to all of us. They were doing testing that required the use of loud diesel-based equipment that produced +400° temps venting to the entrance street. We didn’t want any cars sitting in front of this for an extended time, hence the split gate. While we reacted quickly, admittedly we could’ve done a better job of communicating to the drivers and organizing the cars. Our sincerest apologies to all of you, and thank you for the patience and understanding you showed us. We will never stop expressing our undying appreciation and gratitude to all of the collectors, enthusiasts, spectators, and volunteers who support our show. Thank you all for making our event one of the longest-running weekly gatherings of exotics.
~Chuck