Monterey 2006 Pictures

[BMW.WilliamsF1Team]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

This ought to keep most of you busy for a while:

McLarens in Monterey - 2006

I'll be back with a quick overview later on.

>8^)
ER

Wow, incredible shots! How many F1s have you seen so far? It seems like everywhere you go, there's always 2!

[Le Man]

Absolutely brilliant Erik,

Your pics are so good, it makes me feel like I,m actually there!!

(I want that yellow F1 so bad now)

[mini magic]

Erik, nice shots. I see you're making good use of the polarizer. They are tricky to actually use correctly. Thats a lot of shots, even by my standards...

Good work

[Peloton25]

My quick overview turned into a short story. Actually, I'm not even capable of telling a short story it seems so here's the long version:

I left my house for Monterey at 5AM Saturday morning and arrived shortly after 8AM. Just after I passed the entrance to Laguna Seca two McLaren SLRs running nose-to-tail passed me going in the other direction and no more than a minute later there was a Bugatti Veyron headed the other way on the road. Already knowing to expect that sort of thing I wasn't really surprised, but it was a great way to start the day.

I went straight to the RM Auction location in downtown Monterey so that I'd be sure to get a good look at #014. Ironically it was the first car I stumbled upon walking in. I took lots of photos of it before wandering amongst the rest of the cars they were planning to sell that night, then I headed out to Pebble Beach to scope out the things they had going on that day. When I first got there I ran into Richard (#068 owner) who mentioned that if I was going to be at the Historics that afternoon that he could introduce me to the owner of #016. Being there was already my plan, but the offer to get an introduction like that was quite cool.

Most of the Concours cars were still tucked away in their protective transporters, but they were rolling out the concept cars on the putting green by the Lodge. I got a close look at the Ferrari P4/5 and spoke with its owner, thanking him for undertaking the project. That car is really quite a sight to behold - looking much better than the photos depict, although I already liked it in photos. There were some cars displayed up by the equestrian center and a lot of traffic moving around. I don't recognize very many celebrities, but at one point I passed George Lucas who was there with his son. I left Pebble for Laguna Seca around 1PM. When I got over to the track I found the F1 with the help of Daan/sauc3 who I hung out with for the rest of the day and through the evening.

Richard was there already and introduced me to the owner of #016 who's name is not "Joe Smith". The three of us chatted for a while with Richard boasting wildly about my F1 knowledge which was very flattering, and then the owner of #016 offered to let me have a closer look at the car. That would have been great, but the moment the doors were opened the car got mobbed by people and we had to close it up quite fast. The sun was high overhead and the car had a shadow from the awning it was next to, so taking decent photos was fairly impossible. The owner mentioned that the car has about 20,000 miles on it now and that he does drive it which was great to hear.

In talking with him further I learned that he also owns chassis #042, the former Carl Beal F1. It was actually kind of funny because he said his other F1 was #040 and I was rather shocked by that since I didn't think there'd be any reason for flemke to have sold his car. It turns out that the owner of #016 & #042 knows #040’s owner very well and was simply mistaken on the chassis number. I cleared things up quickly when he mentioned the car was red and he had to laugh that I'd know the chassis number of the car he owns better than he does. Anyway, he's a very nice gentleman who prefers to remain private so for anyone who is interested in knowing his name you are on your own.

I wandered around the track with Daan for a while - he had a media pass and was able to take some great shots with the access that provided. We stayed until the Toyota F1 car had done it's afternoon round of hot laps in an attempt to set a new track record at Laguna Seca - that was very cool to see. Then we left and headed to watch the RM auction that evening back in downtown Monterey. Shortly after getting there someone approached me and asked if I was Peloton25, then tried to get me to guess who he was. My brain wasn’t really working at the moment or I’d have noticed the large “SDSU” logo on his sweatshirt, but it turned out to be MalkaJB. It was cool to put a face to the name with him and compare notes on all the crazy stuff we had seen that day. The yellow F1 crossed the stage at about 10PM and it was very exciting to be there and see it go. The last shot in that series is who the camera keyed in on when the car sold. I didn't recognize him and didn't stick around to find out who he was. A lot of people send representatives to the auction to do their bidding for them so he might not even be the car's new owner. I only hope that whoever ends up with the car is passionate about the F1 and that he gets some good use out of the car.

After looking over #014 very closely throughout the day I have to say its condition wasn't quite as bad as some have suggested it would be, but it's far from "cream puff" status. There are some issues with the paint that I keyed in on in some of the photos. Under the engine cover there are areas where the gold foil has come off or been peeled away. The glass seems to have some issues from the film that is embedded for demisting the windows. The most glaring problem with the car that I saw though is the suede on the dash and door panels which no longer fits snug and looks a bit sad. All in all though, the car looks like it would be a great driver for someone, and if they are interested in spending the money for a proper respray and refit that will really bring up the overall quality of the car.

Sunday morning I started the day back at the Historic Races. The Monterey Peninsula is normally overcast in the mornings and luckily it was that day as well. I took another 60 or so photos of #016, some with the flash and some without in an effort to capture what is an incredibly unique paint color on the car. I had discussed the paint with the owner the previous day and he confirmed that the car still wears it's original "Aubergine" paint color. He said that the car's first owner was Japanese and they had spec'd out the color to sample, in the end deciding to call it Aubergine even though it looks more grey or gun metal. If you catch the right angle in the right light you can see the purplish tinge that the paint has and hopefully some of my pictures will show that. I have to say that I really love the color quite a bit - it's unique and it's beautiful. The only downside is that most people will look at the car and think it's simply grey. The interior on the car is also original, showing a little bit of wear in some spots, but for the sheer fact that there are fewer and fewer "original" F1s left in the world I would certainly leave it as is for now.

I walked around the paddock a while longer and then took off for Pebble Beach again. I had never been to the Concours d'Elegance, but the show was really quite spectacular. Everywhere you turn there is another beautiful car with an incredible history. The crowd was lively and Jay Leno was invited on stage to handle the Charity Raffle prizes. He ended up auctioning off packages of 4 VIP tickets to the Tonight Show, along with a private tour of his garages in Burbank for $5,500 a piece and I'm fairly certain he found 5 people to take him up on that offer. Of course I was also interested, but my checking account balance was a little low that day and I didn’t think Jay would take a credit card.

My pick to win Pebble ended up as the "Best of Show" which was really cool. One of the other contenders for the top prize was a beautiful old Alfa Romeo that belonged to Miles Collier. He was also one of the judges of the show so it's kind of surprising he didn't win. I never had an opportunity to speak with him unfortunately - I was hoping to get his side of the story on the Wyclef situation. If you pick up this month Sports Car Market magazine you'll find a two page article that he wrote about a 1,000 mile trip across Montana with his wife in his McLaren F1. Daan secured me a free copy from the Media Center at Pebble and I'll try to get it scanned soon so I can share. Rather amusingly the article mentions that his F1 was formerly Thomas Bscher's, but once again there is no mention of Wyclef owning the car. The article also claims that $300,000 was spent on returning the car to "perfection" by the factory including $70,000 of which for the paint job alone. Wow!

At the end of the show I met up with several regulars from Supercars.net and UltimateCarPage.com who were taking shots of the winners along the coastline. It was really great to put some faces with their names as well. Ron Kimball was also there shooting the cars and in the midst of a break in the action I told him how much I love his work. Had I been thinking clearly I would have asked him if he could recall the details of the bright silver F1 he shot, but I think I have someone who can eventually do that for me.

I stayed at the show so long that the shuttle buses out to the parking area had stopped running. I think my car was parked about 5 miles away and I wasn't looking forward to the hike. Four of the guys from SC.net who were still there offered me a ride to my car and then invited me to join them downtown for dinner in Carmel. It was already about 8PM and I still had a long drive ahead of me but I took them up on the offer and had a wonderful meal before heading back home. It was really a wonderful weekend from start to finish. Big thanks to all the people who helped, directly or indirectly, to make it special. I'm already looking forward to next year, but hopefully I'll be able to stretch the trip out the full four days so I can attend all the events.

I will try to get all my other shots from the weekend up in the next few days. If there's anything in the F1 album that you'd like to have a little larger, just let me know. I took them all at 2048x1536 resolution.

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

Thanks everyone - I'm glad to be able to share for those who couldn't make it. I wish I could have gotten more of the details on #016, but they were having a hard enough time keeping people a safe distance from the car with it all closed up. The few times it was opened, everyone was stopping in their tracks for a closer look.

Originally Posted by BMW.WilliamsF1Team

Wow, incredible shots! How many F1s have you seen so far? It seems like everywhere you go, there's always 2!

I think I am up to 12 now - XP4, #014, #015, #016, #067, #068 and GTRs #20R, #21R, #22R, #23R, #27R & #28R at the Laguna Seca round of the FIA GT Championship back in 1997. That was long before I was really paying close attention to F1s and I didn't even bring a camera with me that weekend.

Originally Posted by mini magic

Erik, nice shots. I see you're making good use of the polarizer. They are tricky to actually use correctly.

Funny story about the polarizer - I dropped mine on the ground, shattering the glass at the beginning of the day on Saturday and almost had to make due without it for the weekend. Thankfully there was a very nice camera store in downtown Monterey that sold me a new one, identical to the one I had before, for only $10. I don't recall exactly what I paid for the first one, but it was at least $40. If you are ever in Monterey and need something for your camera I highly recommend Green's Camera World on Alvarado St.

>8^)
ER

[mini magic]

$10? Lucky. I paid $110 for mine! You've almost tied me for McLarens

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by mini magic

$10? Lucky. I paid $110 for mine!

Well, it's only 58mm, but I was rather shocked by the price. It was in a bin they had of other used filters - they had them all screwed together by size. Still though - I expected a used one was going to cost more than it did.

Originally Posted by mini magic

You've almost tied me for McLarens

The difference is, when I see an F1 I actually post photos so that others get to "see it" too.

>8^)
ER

[ArchangelGTR]

As always, your stories are a treat to read Erik. Thanks for posting that as well as the accompanying photos of the trip. I'll have to reserve a night to download all those.

People keep telling me I need to go, and I keep telling myself, I'll make it out to the Pebble Beach Concours. And each year it gets more and more interesting.

[Patster]

a great read as always... thanks Erik

[Peloton25]

Here's round two - another 255 images all taken on Saturday at the various events. Don't get too excited about any of these F1 shots in this album as they're all duplicates from the other one.

Monterey 2006 - Saturday, what a day!

I have Sunday's shots (~500 of them) all optimized, but Imagestation continues to give me grief trying to get them uploaded.

>8^)
ER

[MalkaJB]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

My brain wasn’t really working at the moment or I’d have noticed the large “SDSU” logo on his sweatshirt, but it turned out to be MalkaJB.

Sorry pal, but I actually go to UCSD. Again, no worries.

Originally Posted by Peloton25

I don't recognize very many celebrities, but at one point I passed George Lucas who was there with his son.

So that was Lucas! I actually joked with a friend about how a guy who just passed us looked exactly like George Lucas. Funny...

[F1FREAKZILLA]

Peloton did you get any pics of the Veyron--As far as i know SVAG had the only one there but i could easily be wrong

[Sauc3]

Originally Posted by F1FREAKZILLA

Peloton did you get any pics of the Veyron--As far as i know SVAG had the only one there but i could easily be wrong

I saw 4 of them, but there are reports of up to 7 in the area at one point, just not all there from the same source.

I had a good time with Erik, with the exception of walking several hundred metres along a 30ish foot high embankment at the track, only to realise that it wasn't an actual "media accessible" area.

I have plenty of shots in total, but my uncle's computer doesn't really have photoshop or anything similar to properly work with them. Will get 'round to that when I have some more software available to me.

Favourite thing of the trip? Probably getting in everywhere for free
Also listening to two F1 owners talking about the charactaristics of their cars over 200mph was a very nice thing. Oh and I can attest to the fact that once Erik gets his F1, he'll be a good driver in it, although he'd need the sat-nav installed so he wouldn't get lost all the time.

Hopefully I can convince my dad to go crazy again and make the trip over a second time, and I hope to see the same/more people there. (I'll see what I can do - however limited - as far as pictures go now)

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by MalkaJB

Sorry pal, but I actually go to UCSD. Again, no worries.

<smacks head>

Originally Posted by F1FREAKZILLA

Peloton did you get any pics of the Veyron--As far as i know SVAG had the only one there but i could easily be wrong

I saw a total of 3 and photographed each one. They are in my Sunday pictures. All of the ones that I saw wore VW MFG license plates, so I really don't think that any of them were owned by an individual. I'm not sure if SVAG had one around or not, but the three that I saw were Black/Black over tan, Burgundy/Brown over grey, and Silver/White over creme.

Originally Posted by Sauc3

...although he'd need the sat-nav installed so he wouldn't get lost all the time.

Hey - you weren't exactly a walking "Thomas Guide" yourself. It's not my fault the street layout around Monterey looks like spaghetti when viewed from overhead.

>8^)
ER

[Sauc3]

As I said, the programs are crappy, so I can't be held accountable for the quality of the pics. I have a feeling the first two are a bit dark?




And this one just 'cause you don't see it every day.

Originally Posted by Peloton25

Hey - you weren't exactly a walking "Thomas Guide" yourself. It's not my fault the street layout around Monterey looks like spaghetti when viewed from overhead.

As well as from the ground.
I'm still annoyed the F430 didn't go through the tunnel. Your little 4 only JUST made up for the sound there could've been.