Monterey Car Week 2016

Or as I call it? Fentanyl Week.

Nothing hurts in Car Week.  Everyone is friendly, chatty, and never rushed when discussing the auto di momento.  Like Fentanyl, Car Week is strong, almost pure, addictive, really expensive, but the hangover is brutal.

The car owners don’t get hangovers from Car Week because it’s what they do in August.  They have plenty of other events and venues around the world that keep them busy all year.  From Davos Switzerland in January for the World Economic Summit and fondue, the Singapore Yacht Show, the Monaco Grand Prix, French Open, Venice Film Festival, Pebble Beach, on and on.  My first days as a Car Week Junkie were enlightening because I encountered people that saved and restored the cars we normally dream about and they brought them for anyone to see.  I thought I was going to be tip toeing around snobs that don’t even own a socket set.  I was 99% wrong.  Car people have a deep appreciation for a great looking car that runs and drives regardless of the cost or sacrifice.  This applies no matter how many zeroes commas are in the portfolio.

Each August produces a new group of cars and people to the show but there were a few folks that bring a different car each year.  Discussions about finding the right fender or why they like their car, their photo albums that cover a 10 or 20-year process to the simple love of cars.  I would be in one of these chats and then casually ask about their collection.  1, 5, 30, 50, 100+ cars, all with their own story.  Passionate people with the resources to not only preserve a car(s) but the open and sharing nature to bring them from the four corners of the earth so we can all enjoy them.  They are just like me when it comes to car addiction but there are very wealthy.  I drink water from the garden hose and they pass out $600 bottles of wine but is all the same to me.                                              

It’s been written countless times – the sensual energy of the Central Coast, the cars, the people, the depth of the experience, and the memories.  Someday I’ll sneak in to Ville de Este or Amelia Island and state here that they too are awesome.  But I’m talking about Monterey Car Week 2016 because it’s June and I’m getting the itch.

I am a volunteering junkie.  I sign up for events just so I can get close to the action.  I don’t spectate anything very well and without the exclusive and extraordinary sights, sounds, and smells I’m not enjoying myself.

So it goes in Car Week – I need to be in it.  Not adjacent to it, not in the vicinity of it, not just perusing the Carmel Pinecone.  The interested get near it and grab a Pinecone from the paper rack but the addicted show up with a 1959 Unicorn, or pay $350 to walk in, or like me sign up to help.

In the course of these past eight years I have built a small team of junkies that would experience the best of Car Week with me.  There are dozens of stories.  Billionaires in 501’s, simmering rivalries from WWII, slackers, celebrities, $24 hamburgers, 1’s of 1, the last one, the first one, a King’s Rolls-Royce, a $39M Red Head, salt of the earth truckers, jerks, Maharaja’s, stunners..oh, a giant mechanical swan that pooped, thousand-aires, ex-con’s, and it goes on.

This year I am on a program or a diet of sorts.  I can only get high for 2 days, maybe 3.  Isn’t the weight of a hangover really heavy after a certain age?  Maybe I will enjoy the smaller portion?  Maybe the message of moderation from the wife is really better?  She’s been right a lot but I am the guy with the G-Rated addiction that delivers the high of highs.

Visit this website as the celebration gets closer http://www.montereycarweek.com/  These folks have all of the information, dates, maps, all of it.