In the agriculture-rich central valley of California, it takes a bit more than a shiny new sports car to raise a crowd on a blistering hot summer afternoon. The sun’s way too unforgiving, and shade trees are as scarce as iced-cappuccino vendors.
What got the good folks of Atascadero excited on an otherwise quiet August afternoon was the unexpected arrival at the local Texaco of 50 Lamborghinis, headed north from Orange County to the Monterey Peninsula to take part in the Monterey Classic Car Weekend. The convoy of high-performance Diablos–together worth around $12 million–was being led by racing legend Mario Andretti, who pulled in to the station behind an escort of California Highway Patrol officers on motorcycles.
“Within five minutes, more than 500 people showed up,” said Mark Guest, after arriving at the Quail Lodge Resort, site of this year’s Concours Italiano. “They sold out of disposable cameras.”
The 390-mile Running of the Bulls was staged, in part, to honor longtime Lamborghini enthusiast Andretti and to mark the Italian car company’s 35th anniversary. The event gave dealers and select owners a chance to road test their vehicles, along with 20 special-edition Monterey Diablo SV’s created for the ride.
“People see these cars and are immediately drawn to them,” said Guest, a recent Lamborghini convert whose auto collection has included 512M and 355 Berlinetta Ferraris. “I think the Ferrari has become sort of an accepted status symbol–at least where I come from in Newport Beach and probably even Chicago. Lamborghinis are a shock symbol . . . there’s a real difference.
“I feel it when I pass people or when they walk up to the car. They always say, `Wow, what is that!’ “
Considering that these machines are powered by 530-horsepower V-12 engines and 5-speed manual transmissions–and can go from zero to 100 miles per hour in 8.6 seconds–two questions arose: How closely did the drivers adhere to the posted speed limits, and, if they did, was it possible to contain all that force in one or two gears?
“This car, as soon as it’s broken in, is supposed to be able to do the legal speed limit in first gear, so it’s not too hard to air it out in first and second,” said Guest. “But, yesterday, there were times I was driving 55 to 60 m.p.h., and I was in fifth gear. The air conditioning and stereo were on, and my girlfriend was napping.”
Some of the participants were reluctant to brag about how fast their CHP escorts let them go, fearing they might not be allowed to repeat the experience next year. By lagging the pack, however, drivers occasionally were allowed to hit 130 m.p.h. and more to get back into formation.
On the evening before the Running of the Bulls, Ray W. Grimm Jr. bid $6,400 at a charity auction to drive to Carmel in the company of Andretti.
“Having the chance to ride with Mario for a few hours was one of the highlights of my life,” said Grimm, whose love affair with Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. began 23 years ago, with the purchase of a 1967 400 GT, for $13,600. “At times, we couldn’t go quite as fast as we wanted–being the lead car, we were pushing the CHP the whole way–but we did get up to 100 m.p.h. a couple of times.”
The organizer of the benefit and caravan was Vik Keuylian, president of Las Vegas-based Exclusive Inc., sole U.S. distributor of the marque. A Lamborghini tractor he donated to the auction brought in $19,000 for Childhelp USA.
Sitting in the Lamborghini tent at the following day’s Concours Italiano, Keuylian explained how it took a while for the automaker’s products to become street legal in this country. People wishing to import a Lamborghini in the ’70s had to meet stringent EPA emissions guidelines, which often would reduce the effectiveness of the racing engines.
Modern electronics eventually rectified the problem, and the sleek, powerful “Raging Bulls,” whose reputation had reached mystical levels among sports-car buffs, started showing up on American roads. There now are 13 dealers in this country, including Classic Motors Ltd. in St. Charles.
“A few weeks ago, Audi bought Lamborghini, which is a very positive move for us in the United States,” said Keuylian. “They’re going to start introducing new products (including a `Baby Diablo,’ for around $100,000), which will be very good for the U.S. market. In 1997, there were only about 45 or 50 Lamborghinis imported, but, this year, we plan to bring in about 120 cars.”
The two models available here are the rear-wheel-drive SV, which comes in at $229,000, and the variable four-wheel-drive Roadster, which starts at $280,000 or $285,000 (with a wing), not counting luxury, sales and gas-guzzler taxes and license.
“In my opinion, Lamborghini is the ultimate exotic car,” said Keuylian. Indeed, each one takes about 450 hours to build.
An important side benefit of the Running of the Bulls, said one dealer, was being able to put the cars on the road for other motorists to see in motion– especially alongside the Ferraris, Porsches and Alfa Romeos heading to the Monterey Classic Car Weekend.
Lamborghini owners tend to elevate their vehicles to “garage art,” and rarely put the pedal to the metal. Boxer Evander Holyfield, he said, has one hanging on a wall in his Atlanta mansion.
While well intended, the thought of a Diablo being stuck in midair must border on heresy for anyone who loves to get behind the wheel of their prized sports car on weekends or for gatherings of the tribe such as Concours Italiano.
If the Lamborghini contingent made most of the noise upon arriving at the convocation, the Raging Bulls had to content themselves with sharing the spotlight with the 450 Ferraris, Maseratis, Fiats, DeTamasos, Lancias, Abarths, Etceterinis and various antique motorcycles and scooters on display. Then, too, Alfa Romeo was the feature marque, with some 200 specimens represented.
Concours Italiano kicks off the Monterey Classic Car Weekend, which also includes the Concours d’Elegance, at Pebble Beach; the Monterey Historic Auto Races, at Laguna Seca; the Blackhawk Collection exhibition, at the Peter Hay Golf Course; and three major auctions of classic and antique cars. Tens of thousands of car enthusiasts descend on the Monterey Peninsula each year to admire the work of highly skilled restorers, enjoy the races or network with fellow gearheads.
Thomas R. Coady traveled from Paxton, Ill., to Pebble Beach, where he put his one-of-a-kind 1962 Maserati 3500 Frua 2 + 2 on display before the demanding judges of the Concours d’Elegance.
“My love for Italian cars comes from my wife, who’s an artist and taught me to appreciate the artistic aspect of the car, as opposed to the zero-to-60 routine,” said Coady, who owns several Maseratis and Ferraris. “Looking at it from the artistic standpoint, this particular car, which is a one-off, is perfectly balanced. If you look at the car from the rear quarter, then walk clear around the car, there’s no one point that adds to, or subtracts from, the artistic beauty of the car.
“The Maseratis all were fantastic touring cars, and they also built great race cars.”
Paolo Vannini, vice president of corporate communications for Fiat U.S.A., put it a different way –Italian cars are “sexy.”
“Somehow, it’s the heritage of our country,” he suggested. ” We’ve had artists like Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raffaello, so this sense of art and the classics is very much a part of the people.”
Though the company started introducing its products in the U.S. in 1902, new cars carrying the Fiat logo no longer are sold in this country. It does, however, own Ferrari, which was well represented at both concourses.
Not surprisingly, most of the 750 Ferraris sold in the U.S.– about 25 percent of the automaker’s annual output– end up in California. It seemed as if a good portion of the owners were on hand to compare notes.
Clusters of red-shirted aficionados would follow judges as they inspected the autos, studying the instruments on the dashboard, caressing the upholstery and peering into the engine compartment. Occasionally, the pack would congregate around a vehicle–its hood open–waiting to hear the throaty roar from chrome pipes.
Ferrari restorer Mike Regalia is a veteran of these affairs, and, this time, he brought with him a red 1972 246 GT Dino with California vanity plates, “LIL DINO.” It sat alongside a 1974 Dino with the plates reading, “VRROOM.”
“I think there were about 2,600 or 2,700 Dino coupes made over the course of time,” said Regalia, who spent most of the day answering questions from collectors. “It’s not extremely rare in the Ferrari world, but it’s one of Pininfarina’s most beautiful designs. They’re just a nice little car–a good-driving car.
“We did the paint, the upholstery, the suspension, the engine-compartment detail and, basically, all the detailing on the car.”
Concourses are where newly restored autos are introduced–in some cases, reintroduced after years under wraps–like debutantes. After being judged and fawned over, some cars go back to their owners’ garages, while others are put on the auction block.
“This Dino was a nice 16,000-mile, one-owner car that was purchased in January, and it’s taken this long to freshen it up and bring it to almost perfect condition,” Regalia said. “After the concours, it will become a daily driver for the owner–it won’t just be a show car. When you do one to this magnitude, you want to show them at first, and, then, you just drive them.”
While Ferraris and Lamborghinis can draw a crowd anywhere, it was Alfa Romeo’s turn to hog the spotlight this year. Though they’re no longer sold in the U.S., the loyalty shown to the automaker–and to specific models ranging from a 1928 Mille Miglia Speciale to the hot new Alfa Spider and 156–was impressive.
“Alfa isn’t a shape, it’s a passion,” said Steve Richards, president of the San Jose-based Alfa Romeo Association of Northern California, which has 2,000 members around the world. “It was the passion for driving and spirit of competition that brought Alfa from its early days to the Alfa Romeos we see today–like the 156, which just won the European Car of the Year Award. It’s a beautiful car, wonderful to drive.”
Richards owns several Alfas, including a 1981 GTV 6, a 1989 Milano Verde, a 1959 Spider Veloce and a 1966 Giulia Super TI.
“The letters in Alfa stand for Always Looking For Another,” Richards quipped. “The people who are die-hard Alfa Romeo fans–the people who hold to the passion and spirit of the car–want them back.”
Strolling along the car-laden fairways of the Quail Lodge Resort, Atlanta resident Paul Spruell, who races a 1965 Gran Turismo Alleggerita and sells Lamborghinis and Lotuses, reignited a love affair with Alfas that began in 1961, when he bought his first Giulietta. When he came upon an immaculately refurbished example of that car, he said, “I started remembering what it was like when I first got it and rushes of emotion flooded over me.”
Being one of the world’s oldest automakers, Alfa can provide its enthusiasts with a rich tradition on which to form opinions and allegiances. What seemed to distinguish its cars from others in competition or on display on the peninsula was the variety of designs, sizes and shapes–no two models looked exactly alike.
“They’ve been doing it for so long, but Alfa never produced many of anything until the ’50s and ’60s,” said Spruell, who participated in the Running of the Bulls with his son. “And, they were so creative with their cars. Their designers had free rein to pursue their artistic, mechanical and engineering impulses.
“If it couldn’t be beautiful, they didn’t want to build it.”
Next year, Fiat, which will be celebrating its centennial, will be the honored marque of Concours Italiano, which, henceforth, will be known as Concorso Italiano. The automotive and industrial design and engineering firm of I.D.E.A will be the featured design house. In 2000, Ferrari will be feted.
