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Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance...it's all about the timing...

After Wednesday night's dinner (where we wound up at a table sitting next to Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Saarsgaard), we departed the Peterson aerie early in the morning and after a stop for croissants and coffee at Big Sur Bakery, we headed north up Highway One toward our first appointment in Carmel.

It is indeed about the timing, as the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance tour had commenced and a number of entrants were on the road, racking up miles and additional tiebreaker points toward Sunday's big show. It was quite an impressive showing of automobiles...
Ho hum, just a Bugatti being chased by three Mercedes Benzes...

 

I don't know what it is, but it sure looks cool and Italian...

A Bugatti, a Duesenburg, and a Rolls-Royce

If you squint a little, you can see this car's (Ghia?) influence on the Volvo P1800.

My kind of traffic jam....

Slow is an understatement with the cars in the oncoming lane (the Ferrari moved right along)

the Ferrari's mirror kind of obscures the grille of the car behind the Mercedes-Benz 300SL, but that's a Mercedes/AMG SLS hiding back there.

Yes, that's a Bugatti Atlantic in the background....

A couple of Ferraris chase down a venerable Tatra....

The road to Big Sur

Last week I had the opportunity to head to Carmel and Big Sur to work an event that was part of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. I'll be posting more shots over the next couple of days, but here some from the drive up along the 101 and the first day of visits:

Just south of Santa Maria, this Porsche GT-3RS appeared as a fast moving dot in the rearview mirror. He was moving right along around 90-100 mph, a pace either gutsy or foolhardy, given the thoroughness the CHP uses on that stretch of the road.

While in San Luis Obispo, I came up on this beautifully maintained Jaguar XKE:
The driver looked kind of familiar, probably one of my mother's friends.

Around Greenfield I passed the first (of many) transporters I saw that day. I don't know if this was headed to Pebble Beach or not, but this pile of metal looks like it's got lots of potential, given enough time and/or money:

Upon reaching Big Sur, we stopped at the Post Ranch Inn. After seeing some nice cars (Mercedes SLRs, old Alfas, etc) at the Highlands Inn and Nepenthe, the parking lot at the Post Ranch Inn was a nice way to get into the "ho-hum, it's just another Ferrari" mode:
This brought to mind the "Top Gear" episode from a couple of years ago where they debate the merits of the Ferrari F-40 vs. the Ferrari Enzo. Me, I'd be happy with either...FWIW, I'd also be just fine with the Porsche GT-3RS (the same one that passed me earlier that morning) or the Aston Martin. 

The real stunner had pulled in next to us in the lower parking lot. Possibly an early 1950s Ferrari 212:
It was immaculately detailed - I'm not sure I would have been comfortable leaving this in the gravelly parking lot, but maybe the owner has other, more serious cars to drive than this one.

I loved the look of the dashboard:
and the curved backside strikes me as walking a tighrope between awkward and elegant.
After viewing these cars, we reluctantly got back into the SUV we were driving and headed on down the hill to the next stop.

BMW Mules/Biggest Loser Marathon

Sometimes you just want to go to the hardware store but then events conspire against you to make it just a little more difficult than it should be. Take Monday, for instance....lots of traffic on PCH, people driving slowly in the fast lane to get a better glimpse of the water. Can't blame 'em, but I was in a hurry. It was just past Sycamore Cove where I spotted the BMW mule convoy:

These cars are out regularly, testing new innards for BMW. The bodies are taped-over (or maybe taped together at this stage) but it's the telemetry inside that matters.

There's usually 3-6 cars driving along at any given time. I suspect they drive a regular route to better get information on how a particular car's system holds up over time. It's all kind of mysterious but necessary. I would think that testing cars in this area is a little easier than say, working Death Valley, but maybe it's a fun job.

At the end of the above stretch of road, things came to a halt. They were filming a marathon for "The Biggest Loser" TV show and it was ending at Sycamore Canyon. The crew shadowing the contestants was sizable and mainly driving Priuses (Priui?)

Note the Highway Patrol presence, both in cars and on motorcycles - there were lots more where these came from...  Here's a shot of another runner with Mugu Rock in the background. In general, it's not a car commercial unless it's got Mugu Rock in it somewhere (at least not a California car commercial).

All in all, a slight delay in my travels is a small price to pay to live so close to such glamour. Right. I just hope that filming TV shows, movies, educational film strips, whatever brings enough money into the area (and to the State of California) that it justifies the hassle and irritation it cause the locals. At least the CHP officers are probably making some overtime money...

T-Day drive

Sometimes a guy's just gotta go for a drive. It's not exactly a testosterone thing, but there something about seeing new roads, hearing the sound of the motor at high revs, and being in places where there's no cel phone signal. It's one way to help maintain one's sanity, I guess.(Santa Cruz Island in background)

California State Route 33 begins at the 101 freeway in Ventura and goes up through the hills of the Los Padres National Forest to Highway 166, the gateway to the Cuyama Valley. The adventurous (and those with plenty of time on their hands) can take 33 all the up to Westley, where it joins the 5 and a greater semblance of civilization.

Civilization was not what I was seeking, but the solitude that comes from driving a bunch of empty back roads on a beautiful day. The weather cooperated, as did the other drivers who might otherwise be out on the road; after leaving the town of Ojai, I didn't encounter another car (and just a few motorcycles) for another three hours.

Hwy 33 is a lot of fun to drive, with freshly paved road throughout the Ventura County section of the drive. You gain about 5000 feet of elevation once you leave 101, and on a day like yesterday, the views are stunning. The R32 is an ideal car for such roads, with its all-wheel drive to keep you out of trouble, you can be aggressive without being too dangerous. The recently added Bilstein PSS9s were great- a noticeable step up from the previous coilovers (HPA SHSs) and once they'd been dialed in a bit, offered plenty of sticking ability to the road (the R-compound tires on the car right now also helped).

Once crossing over the top of the hill to the Kern County side, the terrain changes, initially with lots of pine trees but then becoming more desert-like. This section of the road has been paved very recently, making the trip down the hill even more enjoyable.

At the foot of the hill, instead of continuing on to Cuyama (or even New Cuyama!), I veered off onto Lockwood Valley road. This continues through the foothills toward Stauffer and Lake of the Woods, two destinations I'd never heard of.  There are sections of this stretch where there are plenty of twisties to be experienced, plus there are plenty of spots with warnings about flooding and snow problems. Not an issue yesterday, and the tremendous visability enabled me to open it up a bit when the road opened up.

I stayed on the road through Frazier Park and got onto the 5 and headed south until I picked up 138, following it past Quail Lake, whereupon I was inspired by a couple of slow-moving cars ahead of me to check out the Old Ridge Route. I'd never heard of this road before (I must not watch enough Huell Howser ), but it was a wide, nicely-curved road leading up the hill from Hwy 138 and it looked promising. Toward the top of the hill there's a sign indicating the historical significance of the road, and that made it look even more promising...

Or not so much...a little way further, and the wide, swoopy road became not much more than a poorly paved stagecoach road. The weather hasn't been kind to this stretch, but it was obvious that work has been done to resuscitate the route. I stuck with it for about five miles, but then saw a sign indicating that the road was closed another five miles into it. Given the quality of the road (or lack of same), I decided that it would be a good thing to turn around and return to 138 while there was still sunlight.

138 is long and straight and pretty boring. It does what a road is supposed to do, which is to get you from Point A to Point B. The desert is beautiful around sunset, providing you're heading away from the sun. 

Driving down the road, you see a lot of houses along dirt roads leading from 138. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of commerce going on out there, and it seems like an awfully long way to the market. Quiet and solitude is one thing, but the heat of the high desert can be suffocating, and it's the sort of place that I think would be tough to live in. Then again, off in the distance you can see the hillside that's home to the Willow Springs Raceway, so at least you'd have some recreation close by. 

The drive back home was gloriously uneventful - not a lot of traffic, and what traffic there was didn't seem to be too concerned with hogging the fast lane. The drive was about 260 miles round trip and took about 5 hours and was tremendously relaxing. I should probably do this sort of thing more often...

San Juan Bautista to King City, 13 April, 2009

It's 64 miles between San Juan Bautista and King City if you stay on Highway 101. It's an okay route, taking you past the bustling metropoli of Salinas, Soledad, Chualar, and Greenfield before finally arriving at the oasis of freeway gas stations and fast food joints visible in King City. On the other hand, if you veer off the freeway at San Juan Bautista (home of one of the California Missions) and head to Hollister (site of the 1947 biker shindig that was documented in "The Wild One"), you'll be able to enjoy another one of the state's best drives. And the kicker is that this route adds a mere four miles to the length of the otherwise dullsville drive down the 101. 

I stopped in Hollister to make some phone calls and noticed that my car had reached a mileage semi-milestone: 

There's something about documenting the mileage numbers that end in a lot of zeroes that I don't know why they're more important than random numbers, but here it is. What it does remind me of is the fact that I've got 2K left on the warranty, so if anything big is going to break, I hope it happens real soon. 

Heading south out of Hollister is CA 25 (also listed as the Airline Highway), a two-lane road that attracts lots of motorcycle riders and probably a lot of CHP officers on the weekends but is very open at 9:30 on a Monday morning. On the entire stretch I encountered four cars, and the road's long straights and broad vistas make passing very easy to accomplish. Just past the County Fairgrounds, I passed some extensive vineyard plantings. 

San Benito County has always been the home (at least in my mind) of smaller, boutique producers such as Calera and Enz Vineyards, but in reality, it was at one time home to Almaden, one of the state's more influential wineries in the last century. This vineyard in Paicines is now owned by Diageo, having purchased it from whoever owned it before Heublein, who bought it from Almaden. I shouldn't have been surprised, as the area was once the source of much of the fruit that went into Almaden wines, so the fountain of juice coming from this 700 acre vineyard and into bottles of Sterling and BV has some historical precedent in addition to its medicinal use. The other wineries in the area are up off the valley floor and aren't visible from the road (or I just wasn't paying any attention).

Heading further south from the vineyards you pass the Pinnacles National Monument, some impressive looking rocks, on the other side of which are the original vineyard plantings of Chalone, as well as Michael Michaud's winery. Here the road starts to open up even more, with long-range views of the road up ahead, set among vast meadows and plains. 

The quality of the pavement is pretty good, and with the great view and empty roads, there's a slight tendency to hit the accelerator pedal pretty hard. There are few sharp curves and the two-lane road is wide enough to accommodate just about any car that can attain any speed. I'd like to think that this is the sort of road that an older 12-cylinder Ferrari was designed for. 

The turnoff heading toward King City takes you up and over the hill, with a marvelous view once you get up to the top:

After some easy twisties in the hill, it's a gradual drop into King City, a town that's based around agriculture. 

I stopped for gas and headed toward my Santa Maria meeting on 101. It was an exceptional morning of driving, definitely removing the "just a commuter" aspect from the journey. 

Skyline Therapy, 13 April, 2009

I had an amazing trip yesterday morning from Petaluma down to Malibu. It was incredible not only for the driving but for the spring scenery, my favorite season in California.

I left Petaluma around 6 AM. The sun was just coming up and there was very little traffic all the way into San Francisco. the Golden Gate bridge this early in the morning is a wondrous sight, all the more so when it's almost devoid of other cars. 

Not having anything set up until a noon appointment in Santa Maria, I took 25th street through San Francisco, down past UCSF to 280. The radio station was talking about all sorts of mayhem occurring on the other freeways, but things were definitely going my way as I went down the peninsula and took the turnoff for Skyline Boulevard, or State Route 35. This one of the state's finest roads to drive, particularly early in the morning when the lack of school busses, bicyclists, county sheriffs, and tourists makes it possible to open open it up a bit. 

Once leaving 280, the trip along Skyline is about 35 miles of pure enjoyment until you've reached Highway 17 and you descend into Los Gatos and onto 85 toward Gilroy. This is an excruciatingly beautiful route, with lots of twisting curves through a redwood forest, occasionally broken up by broad vistas overlooking the entire southern part of the SF bay. There were patches of fog to heighten the driving experience and taking this detour (it's a mere 30 miles if you were to stay on the 280) was a very relaxing experience.

There's something definitely therapeutic about spirited driving (that's what they call it in the car magazines, right?) in a VW R32 on an empty road and under ideal conditions. Skyline is fairly wide and with excellent sightlines, at least until you get a little past Big Basin Road, at which point it narrows to about a lane and-a-half (watch out for slow-moving garbage trucks!) and the sharp corners start to come about every 50 feet. The houses along this stretch seem to be owned either by old hippies or by dot.com moguls (not that the two groups are mutually exclusive) but it seems like it's a part of town where you live if you don't thrive on dealing with civilization often. Following Skyline all the way to Black Road, I made it down to Highway 17 by a little before 8 AM. Twisty, curvy, and downhill...driving doesn't get much better than this (a GPS might have come in handy though).