MILEAGE : A LOOK AT WHERE WE'VE BEEN

I'm often asked why the Auto and Air event newsletter is filled with news about events outside of the Palm Springs area. The reason is simple, the newsletter is Internet-based, meaning that it is capable of attracting readers from Palm Springs to Peking. Another reason for publishing news about events outside of Palm Springs, is that we are a community of enthusiasts that enjoy driving our cars, and that means that we do, on occasion, have reason to leave our desert paradise.

When it comes to pleasure drives in and around Palm Springs, I recommend two spots. Number one on my list is the drive coming off the I-10 into Palm Springs on Hwy 111at the spot known as Windy Point. There is something close to heaven that happens as you enter Palm Springs before reaching Tramway Road, so it's no secret that I support efforts to preserve this area. I always open my sunroof, roll down the windows and take a deep breath as I make the turns. It's my favorite spot on earth. Second would be the drive from the Palm Springs International Airport heading into downtown on Tahquitz Canyon Way. 365 days of the year, at any hour of the day or night, the view as you are heading straight for the San Jacinto Mountaina is truly breathtaking. It's probably the one area of road that you will actually want to slow down so that you can soak in the pure beauty of the sky, the trees, the mountains, the sun or the stars. I'm sure that it's a teaser peek at heaven.

But like all desert dwellers, you do need to escape the local scene from time to time, and that is where Palm Springs Car Events can help. Below are some of the places I've been lucky enough to visit, and the fine people I've had an opportunity to meet along the way.
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance: The World's Concours
by Bernadine Bogdanovs
Many things change through the years but one thing remains consistent: the sheer awesomeness of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Each year thousands flock to Pebble Beach's 18th fairway to be entranced by the automotive beauty guaranteed to be displayed before them. As you begin your walk through the field of 200 of the worlds most prized and rare automobiles, you are struck with the realization of what this event actually is: the most prestigious automotive event in the world, drawing cognoscenti, journalists, photographers and historians year in year out, decade-after-decade.

I attended my first Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2006. I went again in 2007 against a doctor's orders. I wouldn't dream of missing this event on the third Sunday in August -- a holy day in automotive circles. One simply must experience the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in order to fully understand what it means. The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance may be many things to many people. For the fortunate owners of these incredible vehicles, it is the chance to put them on show for one and all, perchance to win a prize and enhance reputations. However, at its core, it is our country's most elaborate celebration of automotive design and engineering excellence from every era. With the incomparable backdrop of Monterey Bay, in full sun or pleasant overcast (as this year), it is guaranteed to burn images into your consciousness that will stay with you forever.

There is a saying that you never forget your first, and this is certainly true of my first year at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2006. Voisin and Delahaye were the celebrated marques. It was reminiscent of a lawn party from a scene from The Great Gatsby, so opulent that Robert Redford's absence was hardly noticed. Add a collection of historic racecars from the 1950-1956 Pebble Beach Road Races at water's edge, and one could easily conjure the roars of Jag, Alfa, Kurtis, Allard, Porsche and Ferrari from the sound of waves crashing on the shore.

2010 marked the 60-year anniversary of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and, as always, a "Who's Who" of the automotive world was in attendance. A surprise attendee this year was Academy Award-winning film director, Roger Corman, who shared insight into the early years of his film career shooting action scenes at the Road Races in the '50s. Governor Schwartzenegger was another surprise guest who I'm certain must have asked himself why he waited so long to experience one of California's most fabulous events.

The organizers of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance amaze and impress the world by continuing to produce what could easily be considered a once-in-a-lifetime show each and every year, an event that has now, after sixty years, become unrivalled and truly deserving of the title, "the world's Concours."


Above Left: Academy Award-winning Director Roger Corman reminisces about the early Road Races at Pebble Beach with
 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Historian Bob Devlin. Above Right: Governor Schwartzenegger at the 2010 Pebble Beach
Concours d'Elegance. A future judge of European Classics . . . or Muscle Cars?



Pictured at the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance with their 1935 Duesenberg convertible
coupe are longtime winter residents of Palm Springs, Barbara and William Parfet

Do not ever consider attending the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance if you aren't prepared to make this event a part of your annual summer plans for the rest of your life. After making the drive from Palm Springs to Monterey the past three years, I'm convinced that once you attend this event, you're hooked. Valentino Balboni, chief test driver at Lamborghini and a judge at the 2008 event, described the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance to a group of reporters as "a paradise." The best indication however that the event will have you thinking like Balboni, was when I witnessed a group of attendees being asked to raise their hands if they were attending the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance for the first time. The show of hands in a crowd of nearly 100 was one. One poor gentleman, totally unaware that he was about to surrender his free will to an event that would take control of his life for one Sunday every August for the rest of his life.

The 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance kicked off a year-long celebration commemorating the 100-year anniversary of GM. Since the previous year celebrated Duesenberg, Aston Martin, Auburn and Cord, and Delahaye and Voisin, I was thinking that it might be difficult to build excitement for such familiar models as Cadillac and Buick. I was never so mistaken. GM pulled out all the stops and the crowds were so deep on the 18th green at Pebble Beach one would have thought that Warren Buffett was there looking for someone to share his lunch with.


Pictured above, Jay Leno entertained car lovers outside the only fully restored GM Futureliner. Custom-built for the Motorama tours, the Futurliners traveled the country with 32 support vehicles showcasing GMs cars of the future. The Futureliners provided Americans with a glimpse of the latest scientific and technological products. Items like television, stereophonic sound systems, and microwave ovens were all part of the excitement that Motorama brought to Americans eager to see what the future held for consumers in the post-war era. Pebble Beach re-created 50s excitement by showcasing a display of GMs concept cars from the Henry Ford Museum, and the private collection of Joe Bortz of Chicago. Ed Welburn, Vice President of GMs global design shared stories about how the Motorama show, and one particular Cadillac Cyclone, cemented his decision at the young age of eight to pursue a career in automobile design. Welburns memorable 1959 Cadillac Cyclone was there for spectators to marvel at, along with the four Firebird concepts, on display as a complete collection for the first time ever.


Every year I select my own personal favorite from the field of 175 cars. This year, it was an unrestored Horch (above left) that was driven by a German officer during the WWII. The car was brought to the U.S. not long after the war, and has remained untouched for over sixty years. It was on display at Pebble Beach looking exactly as one might have expected it to look driving on a foggy snow-lined road in Germany during the height of WWII. Another favorite of mine was a Cadillac (above right) once owned by Cecil B. DeMille. Prominently displayed as I entered Balboni's paradise, DeMille's Cad is now owned by the Nethercutt Museum. In the rear seat there is a speaking device that allowed the rear seat passengers to communicate with the driver via a dictaphone that resembled a 1920s telephone. In the midst of these automobiles that took me to another place and time, was the Lamborghini Reventon. Inspired by the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, for a mere one million euros you can soar on four wheels.


The best advice I can give anyone considering attending the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, is don't do it unless you're prepared to make this paradise a part of your annual summer holiday. As for me, if the day ever comes when I do not want to be on the Monterey Peninsula in the middle of August . . . check my pulse.