Quail Lodge, 18th of August, 2017

It´s Friday! And this is the day of the annual Quail Lodge Motorsport Gathering at the Peninsula Hotel of Sir Michael Kadoorie. None of the other events of the Monterey Car Week symbolizes more the combination of society and cars like the Quail does. Although the Jet Center Party is the first social event of the week the Motorsport Gathering is more about atmosphere, food and wine than about cars and therefore attracts a wide variety of visitors from the wealthy car collector to the wealthy society member of area. Tickets are usually sold out very well in advance although by that time it is usually not even clear what can be seen on the green in front of the Lodge. By experience one could expect both classes from pre- post-war racing as well as an own class for the prancing horse but as many events at the peninsula there is always a special theme that stands out for the other events.

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Last year it was the 50th anniversary celebration of the Lamborghini Miura, this year a line-up of Devins was seen. Ferrari celebrating its 70th anniversary this year certainly played a very prominent role with no less than 3 California Spider, a 250 GT SWB and even rarer the 250 GT Interim were seen on the green. But the Quail is not only about old cars, it also features many Supercars as they even attract more admiration among the spectators than the pre-war coach built examples that might be nice to look at but that do not drive the “want have” nerves of many of the bystanders. After having am extensive lunch at one of the themed catering areas ranging from oriental food to French and Italian specialties as well as Caviar and lots of Champagne the visitors are in very good mood to have a look at the cars. When the awards are given out many of the spectators where a little bit tipsy and every car running over the stage was fanatically welcomed and admired. As there is actually no judging it is left to the entrants themselves to cast their vote for the winners of their class and at the end one has to be named Best of Show and this was a very stylish ATS 2500 GT. Unlike in previous years there was no rush out of the field as the opening hours of the bars on the green were prolonged to keep the spectators from leaving the car park all at once making the drive back to Monterey a traffic nightmare.

Going over to RM it seem that the important buyers all made their way to the Portola Plaza to see the Aston Martin collection going over the block. Some of the most iconic Astons both pre- and post-war were offered by the Canadian Auction company certainly headlined by the 1959 Aston Martin DBR1 that won the Nuerburgring 1000km in the hands of Sir Stirling Moss. After a very strong result for the DB4GT Prototype before the DBR1 set up a heated battle on the telephone finally climbing over the 20 million dollar marque with exactly 20.5 mio hammer price showing that the market for top cars is still strong despite the correction of the market over the last weeks.

Finally also one of the more unusual Ferrari, the 212 Export “Uovo” found a new home at over 4 mio dollar giving RM a strong first day of their two days sale. Apparently Bonhams had more difficulties with their offering as several high priced remained unsold although the McLaren F1 sold very well showing that the Supercars from the last decades are getting closer to the classics of the pre-war and early post-war years.
Tomorrow will be the only opportunity to visit the track for a few hours in this action packed week, at the same time Gooding &Company will have their second day and for the first time a day time auction in Pebble before RM will round of the offering with their second evening.




Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de