s/n 0905 GT 250 GT LWB Tour de France

s/n 0030 MT 340 America

s/n 1235 GT - 250 GT LWB California

s/n 1048 512F

s/n 0034M 166 MM Barchetta

s/n 0383 GT 250 GT LWB

s/n 0156E 250 Sport

s/n 0736 TR 250 Testa Rossa

s/n 0680 MDTR 625 TRC (V12)

s/n 041S 1950 166 Inter Stablimenti Farina Coupe

Monterey Moments
by John Elliott
15.9.00

Summer 2000 saw the Elliotts' third visit to Monterey. The weekend at Carmel, Laguna and Pebble Beach was to provide the conclusion to a two week touring trip in the South Western States, encompassing the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion plus Yosemite National Parks. It was a full but most enjoyable holiday.

We arrived in Monterey on the afternoon of Thursday 17th August. First task was to call at the Laguna Seca base in the Embassy Suites to collect my ticket for Saturday.

Friday was an early start for the drive down to Carmel and Quail Lodge for the Concorso Italiano. The setting of this glamorous golf and country club is now well established for this event. The Ferrari display is organised by the Pacific Region of the Ferrari Club of America and contained a small display of 'vintage' Ferrari's plus a large gathering of 308's which were celebrating 25 years, since it was first introduced at the October 1975 Paris Auto Salon.

Maserati was the featured marque at both the Concorso, the Monterey Historic Races and also at Pebble Beach. I guess that if it isn't Ferrari then Maserati is a good alternative and second choice. Now that it is under the Ferrari umbrella one can perhaps regard it with a little more favour and sympathy! For me, it is again the early cars from the 1950's and early '60's, which provide the most interest.

The Concorso was also celebrating 35 years of Lamborghini Miura and there was a fine gathering of this tipo on the lawns together with every other Italian manufacturer you can think of.

I was initially a little disappointed with the turn out of early Ferraris. Our own Concours at Castle Ashby, this year, was of a far higher quality. However, a couple of 250 California's from David Smith of Bellevue, Washington, (s/n 1431 GT) and from Betz and Peter's (s/n 1235 GT) provided a good starting point. This later car was the 20th LWB steel bodied California built but perhaps has more racing history than many of the alloy bodied spyders. It was campaigned by Ottavio Randaccio during 1959 and 1960 in many European races and hill climbs.

I had a chat with Fred Peters when looking at his other entry, a 1958 LWB 250 TdF, (s/n 0905 GT). This is a fairly standard single vent car with a limited racing pedigree, having participated in the 1958 Targa Florio with Ferraro. A second LWB 250 TdF appeared later in the morning. This was also a 1958 car, which now belongs to Dr. Ron Bosuttil, having previously been part of the Matsuda collection in Japan. S/N 0967 GT was first sold direct to the U.S.A. and may have been raced by Richie Ginther in some California events of that period.

A couple of other cars of interest included the 166 MM Barchetta (s/n 0058M) of Zambrano and a 250 Boano (s/n 0625 GT) of John Zambetti.

The California sunshine was glorious but for some reason they'd parked all these cars in the shade which didn't help the amateur photographer.

The Concorso is rather like the Coy's event at Silverstone, in that there is always a large collection of vendor stalls to visit. That is if you can refer to Girard-Perregaux , Schedoni or Ferrari of Beverley Hills as mere vendors! The Monterey weekend is also a major auction period, with large sales from Brooks, Christies and RM Auctions. Brooks were holding their sale at Quail Lodge so I had a quick look at what they had on offer. Although much was happening at this event and there was much to see and do I decided to move on.

Blackhawke Museum always exhibit a selection of cars for sale on the golf course just above Pebble Beach. They had two fine early cars available (at the right price!). A 212 Barchetta (s/n 0158 ED) and a notable 340 America, (s/n 0030 MT). This 340 was the first Lampredi V12 sports car. It was shown at the 1950 Paris Salon and was actively raced by Giannino and Vittorio Marzotto in a whole host of events in the early 1950's. For many years in the 1990's it was in the care of Peter Markowski in Vermont. The 212 Export was the seventh of seven built and again had a fairly active early race history with Luigi Bordonaro before moving to the U.S. in the late 1950's.

Saturday meant a trip up the Salinas road to Laguna Seca for the first day of the historic race event. I left my wife and daughter in their hotel bed and set off in the Californian fog. I was certainly earlier than my last visit in 1998 and I found I was able to park in the area above the Paddock. It was cold and damp to start with and the shorts looked a little foolish but the sun soon broke through. I spent a most enjoyable day in the company of my good friend Alan Boe.

We first had to hunt down a 166 Barchetta (s/n 0034M), which had been brought over from Spain by Juan Quintano. This is another ex Marzotto car but this time Paolo is down as the first owner. It was rebodied by Fantuzzi but has been with Quintano since the early 1980's.Other cars of interest included some of the regular campaigners at Laguna including David Love with his 250 Testa Rossa (s/n 0754TR), Lou Sellyei Jr. with 250 Testa Rossa (s/n 0756 TR), the 625 TRC (s/n 0680 MDTR) of Michael Callahan, and two 250 GT SWB Berlinettas of Jerry Lynch (s/n 2095 GT) and Bob Bodin (s/n 2291 GT). A couple of 512's were entered for the FIA Manufacturers Championship Cars of 1964-71, these being the ex Filipinetti car of Tom Hollfelder (s/n 1048), and s/n 1004 of John Giordano.

Unfortunately the very nice blue 1954 250 Europa/TdF GT (s/n 0383 GT) is largely a recreation since the original car experienced a couple of extensive garage fires. Nevertheless it still looks the part and is today campaigned by Richard Mattei while the 1958 250 LWB TdF is s/n 0895 GT of Syd Silverman. Again Maserati were the featured manufacturer with a nice selection of cars in the marquee and a strong entry of the red trident in various races.

The icing on the cake of this weekend of motoring pleasure is a visit to the Pebble Beach Concours on the 18th fairway of the world famous golf course on the Sunday morning. In this millennium year the event was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. I think it is worth emphasising that this event is not just about Ferraris although the Prancing Horse has had its own class now for many years. It's about style, classic automobiles, and masterpieces of motoring elegance. I'm sure for some it is also a must on the American social scene. "Make sure you get there early" I was told, so I made it on to the fairways by 7.15am. Even then I was not the first but to take some decent photographs the early start was worthwhile. There were nine cars in Class M for Ferraris, four of which were for display only and were not being judged. These were a 1957 410 Superamerica PF Coupe (s/n 0719SA), a 1952 212 Inter PF Cabriolet (s/n 0177EL), a 1958 250 Testa Rossa Spyder, (s/n 0736TR), and the 1962 250 GTO (s/n 3729GT) previously owned by our Chairman, Jack Sears.

I had last seen the Testa Rossa at a Donington track day in the early 1980's when it was red and owned by the Harrison's. Now it has been restored to its Ecurie Belge colours of yellow by its current owner John McCaw.

The five cars under the scrutiny of Alan Boe and his team of judges were a 1950 166 Inter Stablimenti Farina Coupe (s/n 041S), a 1960 Series II 250 GT PF Cabriolet (s/n 1939 GT), a 1952 250 Vignale Sports Coupe (s/n 0156ET), a 1957 250 Series I Cabriolet (s/n 0739 GT) and a 1959 LWB Spyder California (s/n 1525 GT). Awarded first in class was Zambrano's beautiful little berlinetta (s/n 0156ET), a car which came first in the 1952 Mille Miglia with Bracco and Rolfo. It is a car with a superb racing history and it was also the prototype in many respects for all the 250 series cars which were to follow. Second was John Lee's Series I Spyder (s/n 0737 GT) and third the 250 California of John Kalikow (s/n 1525GT). The Chinetti Award for best Ferrari at Pebble Beach was awarded to John Lee's Spyder and the Most Elegeant Open Car in the Entire Concours went to Kalikow's LWB California. T

The setting at Pebble Beach is just magnificent and this year the weather was kind with sunshine from the early hours. Maserati was again a featured car along with the Teardrop Talbot Lago's (7 examples) and the 'Boattail Designs' of American and European pre-war cars. There was also a display of Best of Show Winners, which included one Bugatti Type 41 Royale, and a collection of Pebble Beach Road Race Cars from the 1950-56 period. These included a 1952 340 Mexico Vignale Spyder (s/n 0228AT) and the 1953 340 MM Vignale Spyder (s/n 0350M).

By the end of the morning it was becoming very crowded and difficult to take photographs so I decided it was time to leave even though prize giving was still to take place.

If you have never been to Monterey for these events and you like old cars and Ferraris in particular then you must plan to go at least once in a lifetime. 2004 is the year to put in your advance diary for like 1984 and 1994 the Ferrari Club of America will hold their annual Concours to coincide with the Monterey weekend. In 1994 there was a strong UK and FOC presence but perhaps for 2004 the club can arrange an even larger representation!

Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.