Pebble Beach Classic Rally – August 2014

My second Pebble Beach in about 20 years. I am struggling to make sense of it.–the effort , money and time that goes into this event which lasts less than a day. There is huge sponsorship, the car companies have multi million dollar stands. All the auction houses are there doing their thing. The public pays $300 for a general admission ticket. All to see a hundred or so interesting and boring cars which by and large are a reflection of how much money their owners have.

The cars are displayed on the fairway of the PB Golf Club, so are dusty. There is no shade.
Competing cars are lined up from 5 am. And the judging starts. The public get access from 10 am. And there are many thousands. It’s a bit like the Melbourne Cup — lots of couples looking as though they had stepped out of the Great Gatsby. Lots of highly improbable breasts on conspicuous display. Later in the day areas of the lawns strewn with empty Krug bottles. A guy wandering around at lunchtime drinking Krug out of the bottle.

The Locals all take showing their cars very seriously. On our Rally from Seattle it was the main topic of conversation.

For a chance at outright success– Best in Show , it seems you need to be a billionaire. It was observed a number of times that the judging was quite political. There has been pressure to award Best in Show to a post war car and yesterday it happened. Best in Show went to a really lovely Ferrari. But to me it could just as easily have gone to any one of 20 cars. The whole thing is pretty bizarre. And a very long day.

- Fitz