Monterey Memories

Ohmess

Ohmess

I wanna DRIVE!
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So fellow coupsters, whilst the memories are still fresh in our minds, and before we delve too deeply into other elements of our lives, I invite you to post herein anecdotes, stories, memorable quotes and tall tales.

One theme per post please...
 
I begin with a confession. At the Carmel-By-Sea-Concourse, I paused to take a picture of a particularly memorable car. A gorgeous, extremely well dress brunette elides into my viewfinder, and my first thought is "Hey, sweet cheeks! Move along, I am trying to take a picture here!"

As luck would have it, Peter Coomaraswamy is very good with anger management issues, and with his help I was subsequently able to learn to be patient.
 
My cool memory...

I was at the track all day Friday and watched Practice/Qualifying for all of the run groups. That's one advantage of going on Friday. Toward the end of the day I was sitting on the pit wall when they brought out the F1 cars and I noticed a lady with some teenagers talking to the security guard. They made their way in and ended up standing next to me. I noticed that they were all speaking with an English accent, she was wearing an Elf shirt and one of the boys was wearing a Tyrrell shirt so I said hi and asked how their day was going. She told me that her husband (John Delane) is driving the #3 Elf F1 car and the boys with her are the great grand sons of Tyrrell himself! Very very cool. She said she gets to travel all over the world with her husband and he gets to drive at all the iconic F1 tracks when they put on their support series... Monaco, Spa, Mexico, Singapore, all over.

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dang said:
My cool memory...

I was at the track all day Friday and watched Practice/Qualifying for all of the run groups. That's one advantage of going on Friday. Toward the end of the day I was sitting on the pit wall when they brought out the F1 cars and I noticed a lady with some teenagers talking to the security guard. They made their way in and ended up standing next to me. I noticed that they were all speaking with an English accent, she was wearing an Elf shirt and one of the boys was wearing a Tyrrell shirt so I said hi and asked how their day was going. She told me that her husband (John Delane) is driving the #3 Elf F1 car and the boys with her are the great grand sons of Tyrrell himself! Very very cool. She said she gets to travel all over the world with her husband and he gets to drive at all the iconic F1 tracks when they put on their support series... Monaco, Spa, Mexico, Singapore, all over.
Click to expand...

Great story!
 
Aside from the awesome-ness of driving Blue Belle for a solid week (well, except from the one day down with the alternator problem!) I want to first acknowledge my MVP awards go to Chris, Shawn and Collin Macha for their huge efforts in organization and making the east coast gang feel so welcome. A special thanks to Chris for saving my E9 bacon with a new voltage regulator in Salinas upon my arrival in the peninsula. And one of my roomates, Peter Coomaraswamy, for getting a whole new alternator the next day in case my voltage regulator was not the right cure, as well as his unique sense of humor as he got our very important coffee maker to work again. My other room mates - Stan Chamallas, Doug Dolan and Chris Ohmes -- for making the whole event even more special on and off the track and events. My only regret is not spending enough time with Don Lawrence to catch up, but Benji and Peter C gave me several valuable updates! Several bucket list high points -- the drive up with my roomates, Tod Bryant, Chris Auty, Kevin Ladd and his wife Carolyn, occasionally at speeds well above the posted limits....the Carmel Concours while my car was in Salinas but seeing people drool over Chris Ohmes' and Doug's E9s...the Jet Center party which I told Chuck Moss doubled my net wort...too many craft beers over too many days from start to finish....Laguna Seca parade laps with Stan being chased by Paul Cain...and a great dinner party at Tod's place our first night.

A special thanks to Tim Wyman and the Walkers for sure. And I finally met Sven Larson in person. We megasquirt guys need to stick together!

The funniest part of the trip -- having my shoulder belt come off at the roof anchor point and land in my lap as Stan and I drove to pick up his Pebble tickets Sunday morning.

I'm already thinking of celebrating BMW's 101st birthday next year the same way, except completing the highway one drive and actually getting my car into the Carmel Concours this time.

Pictures attached are our beauties in front of our Carmel house and our group having Sunday morning breakfast before the Concours action in Pebble Beach. My son is next to me and we've been going to Monterey since he was 12.
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Hard to pick a favorite, but Friday morning Don asked me to ride with him in the Malaga as it hadn't been tuned. I drove, he tuned, Stella followed in our rental. Since my car wasn't ready, I offered up my parking space to Don and when we arrived at the golf course, Don and Stella did a Chinese firedrill and swapped spots so she could ride in with me and he would park our rental.

So we get to the gate and they ask for my pass. Only problem was, I mistakenly grabbed the one for Laguna Seca. At each checkpoint (and it felt like there were a hundred!) we crossed our fingers as they kept asking "where's your dash card" and we kept looking like idiots. After they inadvertently directed us onto the lawn with the E31's and we had to back up over the cart path bridge, I thought Stella was going to kill me.

We did finally make it to the right spot with the rest of the coupes, only to be greeted by John Iverson who rightly inquired why we were driving his coupe!

So, after all was said and done, I got to drive a coupe onto the lawn and got a first pesto. Lesson in tuning the MS from the master. Oh, and I still have no idea where my pass is.
 
Just to keep things moving along..

I ran into Andrew and Cindy near the Packards on the lawn at Pebble Beach, and while Andrew is recounting how his grandfather taught him to drive in the Packard he owns Cindy starts to take pictures. As I am watching her do this I am thinking "uh, your car pictures are going to look pretty crappy from that angle, and why do you need six pictures from that same angle and why don't you wait a second for Brad Pitt to clear out so you can get a better shot of the car."
 
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Aside from meeting so many coupers, and seeing old friends, I had a fun moment Friday night.

I parked in downtown Monterey near the aquarium. I curb the tires on the hill, and throw the wheel chalk in place (ebrake isn't working). Two gentlemen walk up to my Coupe, and start chatting with my buddy and me.

We walk down the hill chatting about Coupes, and we part ways. As we're leaving, one guy comments how my friends and I are walking dictionaries of BMW's and since we're early 30's and they were late 60's, they got a kick out of seeing a younger generation care about old cars.

So my friend and I are walking to cannery row, and I can't shake the fact that I knew one of the guys. I figured I met him at some event before.

We get to cannery row, and those two guys catch up, and we chat for a few minutes again. They commented how it's great to see younger guys care about cars, and I let him know how I'm just proud to be a good steward to my car. They head out, and we wish them a nice night.

My friend and I finally placed where we knew one guy from. It was James Woods. Really nice guy.
 
Coupes (and a 320i) in the Corkscrew.

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David
'73 3.0CS
Chamonix/ Red Leather


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
The true believers that came from so far away are the heroes.
You all are amazing.
Thank you!
 
So, how cool is it to be lining up to get into the Carmel-By-The-Sea Concours, and to see in your rear view mirror your very favorite car. Whereas I would prefer dark blue over a maroon interior, this particular 275 gtb short nose won best of show.


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We noticed that the green Alpina E12 race car was pushing pretty hard during the races, aggressively hitting the corkscrew each and every time. We saw the driver back in the BMW area so the car must be owned by BMW. We were talking to the driver and asked if he was a factory driver.

"No, I am Andy, I own Alpina". Sure enough, this was THE Andy B the son of the man who started Alpina back in the 60s. Who knew.

After chatting a bit, we went back to the VSR paddock where the Auty Quail winner (shameless name drop there) was staged next to the freshly restored Schnitzer 02. Chris mentioned the story to Mario who suggested that he go get Andy, and bring him back to sign his car. Off goes Auty. Five minutes later, the two of them, Andy still in his race suit, are walking into the VSR paddock. Andy was genuinely interested in the car even taking pictures with his own camera, finally signing Chris' car under the hood.

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I will have a longer report that is in progress but must make several points. I told my housemates (Tod Bryant and Mike Balabon) early in the week that I considered myself "The Luckiest Guy in The Galaxy". The above memory as well as my experience at The Quail were definitely very special, but what was most memorable to me was the idea that I spent an entire week with 2 relative strangers and enjoyed every minute of it. We laughed so hard at things we did and said that we were in tears. It's the personal experiences and the memories they create that allow us all to be so lucky. I will never forget: the sock, the midgets, the soft hands, the wash bay, tire dressings in the dark, and most of all Cardinal Balboni and Luigi Goldberg (the World Famous) Italian, Jewish race driver.
 
Oooof, I might have left the midgets parts out. Too late, I guess. It was a great week that could not be replicated or bested if we tried. We WILL travel together again.

With regard to The Luckiest Guy in The Galaxy, at first I was like, OK whatever dude. But Dear God its true.
 
The Quail run on Friday for lunch, with a dozen CHP motos escourting our 20-car hillclimb over Laureles Grade and a grand entrance before showing at Quail Lodge. A week in the paddock! Meeting CCA and other friends from all over the world face-to-face for the first time, seeing other friends for the first time in decades and feeling like it was just last week. Haven't felt that young in years.

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So yeah, after taking to heart Peter Coomaraswamy's sage advice, the next time a chick wandered into the midst of my picture, I just went with it:

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There is still hope for the human race as long as we keep learning from-and not repeating-our mistakes:-)
Chris, you seem to have gotten over your little "issue".

Just remember; what happens at race week stays on facebook!
 
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