Every August, a group of car collectors makes the journey from Seattle to Carmel, CA for the Pebble Beach Concours. A road trip is rarely newsworthy, except when it is made in cars that are rarely seen out of their climate-controlled garages, much less on the coastal roads of Washington, Oregon and California.
The trip starts Tuesday, and already about 10 classics are parked in the garage beneath the Woodmark Hotel in Kirkland. In addition to the rare and gigantic Duesenberg seen here, there was a Pierce Arrow, a bright green Packard Twelve, a 1920s Rolls, a Lagonda Drophead Coupe, a gorgeous right-hand drive Delahaye and a 1930s Lincoln sedan in three different shades of purple. Beside these behemoths was nestled a diminutive 1964(?) Porsche 356 SC coupe and, my favorite Ferrari of all time, the achingly beautiful 250 GT Lusso. Unfortunately, the Lusso was under a car cover, but there was no mistaking it characteristic lines. In all, well over $2 million in vehicles just sitting there for the perusing.
The boy was giddy with it all, dashing from car to car to check out the anachronisms that give these cars their charm: the enormous headlights, grilles as tall as him and the swooping fenders he flew his hands inches above in reluctant deference to my request to “not touch the cars that cost more than our house.”
It was a quick stop on the way to the airport, one we snuck into the schedule when my friend, Pete, reminded me this morning that the annual pilgrimage to the Monterey Peninsula leaves this week.
I’ll be in Monterey again on the 19th for the craziness, and will definitely be keeping my eyes out for the incredible cars we saw today.
