Only 1 911 and NO 356s at Pre-Historics!?

[Jay Laifman]

What's the deal? We have been going to the Pre-Historics for YEARS. Always love the 356s, 911s and other great cars. This year there were about half the normal number of cars, and NO 356s! There was 1, yes 1, 911. A 904 and two 550s. Sure, nice to see the 904 and 550s. But, no 356s!???

Now, we only went on Saturday. There were maybe 3 "big" 911s, like 935s and such. Maybe they were to run on Sunday. But, still that's a small number and before they would run on Saturday too.

And, we cannot make the full Historics this weekend. Any idea if there will be a full slate of 356s and 911s for the Historics?

And, there was obviously the new Ferrari folks who are new and took up 3 practice runs and 3 races - and it was sure nice to see the F1s screaming around. (New to the weekend, and new Ferrari cars, not classics). But, we go there for the classic cars, not a bunch of new Ferrari owners - a whole different breed if you know what I mean. More Ferraris went off the course than the classics - kind of shows the different types of owners. Actually, I think there was only 1 off for all the classic cars, and close to 10 offs for the new Ferraris. Admittedly, if they want to be throwing their cars around like that, I'm all for watching it!

Still pissed about all the classics being bumped for the Ferraris though.

[homemade 911]

For the whole pre-historics/historics setup. yes, the Ferrari Challenge activity took up a lot of the pre-historics weekend, with the resultant change in format, crowd, etc.

The Historics proper should have a nicer balance of the classic stuff - the theme this year is "35 years of the Historics" ( No "Celebrated marque" this year). The run groups are all filled with an interesting mix of cars...We'll be there with a dark blue '63 vette sting ray roadster that "Mr. Corvette" Dick Guldstrand himself, will be driving.

If you're walking around the paddock - see if you can't spot us. Car #56. Stop and say hello to Dick, along with Doug Hooper (another Corvette legend) who will also be pitted with us, driving a '64 roadster for Fred Yeakel.

Corvettes on a Porsche board? Yeah I know...but before you get the knives out, just know that I'm a true-blue Porsche guy, who also gets involved with historical vettes during the Monterey weekends.

See yawl up there...
Cheers
R/Thom

[donporfi]

They announced that there were no access to general public for the pre historics. I wanted to go but would not risk to make a trip and have no access.

[Jay Laifman]

For what it's worth, when we got there on Saturday, there was a big sign saying "No access to paddock except registered participants." We drove up anyway. We were in my Viper Green 1973 911 in case anyone saw us. They let us sign in and register.

But, when we drove by on Sunday (as we were leaving the Carmel area), we could see there was a whole different set up with security stopping people. I don't know if they were preventing people from going up.

If this is how they are going to do it, what a bummer. We've been going to the pre-Historics for probably close to 10 years now. It's always been such a relaxed, uncrowded experience. My kids have sat in so many of the race cars, and have lots of fun stuff from people there. Just last year, we were standing there chatting with this older gentleman about how really nice his Mustang sounded - it was really smooth, with a nice scream, so unV8 like. He told us how it was an X pipe he has on there, but that he can't fit on his Corvettes. He then went into his trailer, which I hadn't really paid attention to, and came out with this neat red hats for my kids, which he then signed "Vic." I had no idea we were chatting with Vic Edelbrock. Maybe, had I paid attention to the huge red trailer with "EDELBROCK" plastered across it, I might have known!

With experiences like that, I can't believe it is going to change. What a huge bummer.

[TRE Cup]

The organizers of the races are in a complex situation. Noise limits, local resident groups, forecasting the economy, quality of field, racer qualifications, and tons of other stuff... oh yeah, make money

Steve has always appreciated the Porsche racers, but we seem to be just that much more competitive than others ( a 906 that pulled the wheels off the ground when drag racing a Gran Sport Corvette up the straight? SURE- that has a 2 liter !) As the historic races are supposed to be a show where competitors and spectators enjoy the event, hard competition is NOT encouraged ! If you even scratch your car along the pit wall from too much exuberance, you will be asked to leave.

So your experience last weekend is not a surprise. The event was partially sold to the Ferrari Challenge boys (who bring $$$ to the promotor) and since they race for points/championship their equal cars are driven by un equal drivers, going off track will be a normal occurence.
This event is supposed to be for the competitors and a warm up for the event's staff for the big one this weekend. It was never meant to be for spectators. They were tolerated in the past, but apparently much less now

[Jay Laifman]

It's funny. In the 10 or so years that we have been going, the spectators have never been more than a dozen or so cars, really nothing. Then this year, with all the apparent news that spectators won't be allowed (which I never noticed), the crowd was the biggest I've ever seen. Still no one in the stands. But, easily 20 or so up at the corkscrow and more cars parked than ever before. But, maybe those were all the Ferrari folks.

Who is Steve? And how do I track him down next year to figure out if we should drive over there?

For a few years, I was a member of HMSA and would monitor it and get in that way. Are they still involved?

[TRE Cup]

Steve Earle, owner of the event. Cris Vandagriff runs the event for him now. (and coronado and wine country)
Add in the concours today and tomorrow in Carmel and this is turning into a 2 week car orgy

hook up with some of the teams that go each year and "crew"
That way you can still enjoy the pre -historics