After the cars finally left the lodge one headed over to the Ocean Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea for the 10th
annual Concours-on-the-Avenue, the only major free event of an otherwise expensive week. Lined up on the
closed off street about 175 classics could be admired by the thousands of classic car tourists from all over
the world making the trip to Monterey for the week. Traditionally a strong gathering of Porsche could be seen
including a display of the rare 356 Carrera both in closed and open form, several early 911 and a group of
racing Porsches making it over from Laguna Seca where they race in the next days.
Less sportive but as much admired were a couple of transporters and buses from Volkswagen and the Tempo
Bosch-transporter.
But not only German cars could be seen as a line-up of Shelby Cobras and Mustangs plus a bunch of muscle
cars were the favorites of the locals. Varying very much in rarity based on the specification the description of
the cars had to be read very carefully to give the cars the right value, be it because of their original rarity or a
carefully executed modification.
A few exotics from Italy could be seen as well led by a couple of Ferrari ranging from the freshly restored 195
Inter Vignale Coupe to a duo of Daytonas and the Best of Show winning 275 GTB in Giallo Fly. The opponent
from Modena was represented by a single but very exciting Maserati A6G with Frua Coupe bodywork from the
famous former Baillon-Collection of barn finds. Brought back to running condition since the car won the
preservation cup.
Unfortunately without award was another rare example from the Maserati brothers, this time a later OSCA
MT4 Vignale Coupe. The small Coupe was intended for a Le Mans entry and therefore received an
aerodynamic body featuring wheel arches as later seen in the famous pontoon fendered Ferrari 250 TR in
order to give the brakes and the engine a better cooling. Although surrounded all day the car did not even win
its class.
At about 5pm finally all class winners and the BoS were lined-up in front of the Cypress Inn where the
entrants had a final class of champagne before leaving.
Tomorrow the auction houses will start their previews with an unbelievable amount of multi-million dollar cars
including more than ever 8-figure examples from Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Bugatti. Listening to the
conversations in Carmel today not few are very curious whether the market can take this amount of cars at
this level in a time when the buyers are more cautious than in previous year. It remains the question how
much of them will be actually sold and how the market will react on this as Monterey is always an indicator
with the best selection of cars available. We will follow the auctions closely and will keep you up-to-date in
the next days.
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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