Monterey 2012
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Getting There
Monday morning I drove the 428 miles to Crescent City, OR. Things started out well, but the temperatures soon spiked to the mid 90's, making for a very uncomfortable drive. Within an hour of arriving at the hotel, temps hit 97F so I laid low the rest of the day..
Leaving the hotel at 6am the next morning, I stopped at the nearby Shell station to fill up. While talking to the attendant about my car and the patents he is working on for a modular vehicle (I don’t know why I attract these people, but I do), I broke a cardinal rule of cars with side exhausts. Yes, after 11 years of ownership, I finally burned myself on the exhaust secondaries while leaning over the car to clean the windscreen. The wound blistered, then popped by the time I arrived in Santa Cruz, requiring a super-sized Band-Aid for the next 2 weeks. It should form a nice 1x2 scar right above the ankle. Now I just need to think of a good story to tell people about how it happened. It should highlight bravery, danger, and toughness, so nothing based on reality.
If the drive to Crescent City was uncomfortable, then the best way to characterize the 451 mile trip to Santa Cruz is miserable. It was equally hot, but upon hitting the Bay Area, construction traffic loomed. It was well over 90F, and took about 30 minutes to go 2 miles. The transmission tunnel soon became too hot to touch, baking me in a rolling oven. The heat also did something to the car's drivability. The engine started idling really poorly, but given my fatigue after arriving at the hotel, I opted to ignore it. The next morning, I drove to Seaside to attend Automobilia Monterey. The drivability at low speeds (25-30mph) had gone to hell. The Westfield’s low end torque coupled with extremely light weight means only the slightest throttle opening is required to run at low speeds, rendering travel through town a problem. Eventually I pulled into a NAPA, hooked up the laptop and logged some data which revealed the engine was extremely lean at idle and very light throttle opening. Increasing fueling at load site zero below 1500rpm was a bandaid, so I bought a can of carb cleaner to later test for an air leak around the throttle bodies.
Being There
The reason for staying in Santa Cruz rather closer to Monterey was because Ed had shipped his car to our friend Tom’s house. Ed was flying in on Wednesday afternoon, and the plan was to pick up the car after he arrived, then drive the 45 miles to Monterey the next morning. Tom would join us with his Caterham for the first day of the tour when we headed back from Car Week. The pickup went well, so the next morning we headed to Monterey, dropped off our luggage at the hotel, and headed to Carmel-by-the-Sea to view the Pebble Beach cars that participated in the Tour d’Elegance. Carmel is their lunch stop, which places the cars there from about 11:30 to 2:00 when they head back to PB. The crowd was massive. This represented an opportunity to see most of the PB cars for free rather than pay the $200 ticket for the actual concours, so bargain seekers like us arrived in droves. Unfortunately that meant picture taking was extremely difficult, but we still saw some incredible things and had great time.
Later that day I tested the throttle bodies for air leaks, but found none. Next I did some full throttle data logs to make sure everything was okay there, and it was, so whatever was impacting drivability was limited to light throttle application, and full throttle 3rd gear passes – of which there are many on a tour – wouldn’t endanger the engine. That night we checked out the RM and Russo and Steele auctions. There were some interesting cars at RM, but Russo & Steels was kind of “eh.”
The next day was The Quail. As you know, the ticket prices are absolutely ridiculous at $450/person and extremely difficult to get thanks to the lottery system, but after attending, I have to say it’s worth it. The crowd is limited so it is very easy to view the cars, and take pictures, and you are given full access to everything. Car on a pedestal? Climb right up for a closer look! New multi-hundred thousand car on display? Have a seat, see if you like it!
The quality of vehicles was just stunning. Far too many interesting cars to list, but it was quite simply the best collection I’ve ever seen. There were also some manufacturers who were displaying their cars: Koeniggsegg, Pagani, McLaren (a one-off for a client in Asia) Lamborghini (the new SUV, and the Sesto Elemento show car), and more pedestrian marks such as BMW (new 7 series) Range Rover, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Bugatti, and a few others I’m forgetting. It’s also a very different crowd. The money on the field was beyond comprehension. To put it in perspective, Gulfstream was present and brought a 25’ long section of a G4 or G5 to entice buyers. Lear Jet did them one better and brought the entire jet! Food and booze were plentiful. There were 4 or 5 "food experiences" (Cuban, Asian, Italian, British Pub, and maybe one other) set up around the grounds that were catered by accomplished chefs, and a number of stations to order various forms of alcohol: wine, beer, champagne, beer, and the hard stuff. Everything is included in the ticket and you can have as much as you want. Apparently the uber wealthy drink early and often.
The Vintech was there and it is absolutely stunning. We talked to the company principals for about half an hour and came away deeply impressed. I want one. Badly. The car was flawless, with no short cuts visible anywhere, yet the entire project, from the first sketch to completion including building a custom engine with the block milled from a solid piece of billet, took only 8 months. If you aren’t familiar with the car, do a search. Several people wanted to buy a production version or that particular car, but Porsche is very protective of their designs, and even though this isn’t a copy, they played hardball with Vintech and told then they cannot produce it, nor sell the show car. Interestingly, that was never their intent. They manufacture show cars for manufacturers, and this was simply an exercise to showcase their capabilities to the world. One of the gentleman who approached them stating he wanted to buy the car, had an interesting response when told they were unable to sell it; “Fine, then I want to buy your company.” Like I said, the money there was beyond comprehension.
Bonham’s Auction was also at the Quail, and was included with our tickets. Some neat stuff there including a Tatra, which I had never seen before in the flesh. We watched GT40 start out at $1M and quickly go to $2M before the gavel fell. Wow...
Legend’s of the Autobahn was about 2 miles down the road, so we stopped off on the way back to catch the last 30 minutes. Unfortunately while queued up behind a car waiting for someone to exit a spot, an idiot in a Buick Lacrosse backed into Ed’s front wing, breaking it into several pieces. This is a carbon fiber item manufactured by a company no longer in business, so a big PITA.
Next up that day was Pebble Beach. Although the concours is Sunday, Friday is a free day with access to the Automobilia show (where we saw Per Sang – the rep was truly surprised that we were familiar with the company), many manufacturers’ displays, and the Concept Lawn where several recent concept cars were on display. Gooding & Co was also there, and I happened to score free tickets (normally $100, but still worth it). The cars at the auction were incredible. Some really interesting vehicles and several that sold for very big money (2 went for over $11M!)
Saturday and Sunday were spent at Laguna Seca. Typical fun time, although Sunday was strangely dead. Not many spectators and the corral lot where we were parked was effectively empty.
Leaving There
Day 1: Santa Cruz to Gualala
Monday morning, we packed up the cars and headed up to Santa Cruz to meet Tom. The roads in the mountains above that town are simply epic. Highway 1 north of the Golden Gate Bridge is nearly as good. We drove REALLY hard most of the day. Ed wisely hung back just a bit and made up time on the straights, but Tom & I were going for it. Really felt like a track day. Historically, I’ve always lamented the body roll in the Westfield, and am constantly considering adding anti-roll bars, but when I took this trip 2 years ago, I remember thinking to myself that the handling was perfect as-is. After Day 1, I felt the same way. The car’s grip and playfulness in the corners on bac roads is simply mind boggling. There is a tiny amount of off-throttle oversteer on corner entry, but a bit of throttle quickly sorts that out and results in truly impressive speed. We were taking it easy between the corners, keeping the cars mostly in 4th and 5th, and just letting the cars’ abundant low end torque pull us out. Really can’t imagine better handling for those kind of roads.
Day 2: Gualala to Willow Creek
The next day, Tom returned home and Ed & I continued on. It was really foggy in the morning, keeping speeds down due to a combination of limited visibility and damp roads. But once we started to rise into the hills and get further inland, the fog lifted, the roads dried, and an amazing set of corners beckoned. We stopped off in Garberville for lunch, then headed for the stretch of road that we didn’t enjoy on the 2010 trip. It was a little rough and there were about 10 sections of gravel, ranging from 30’-100’ long over the next several miles. We soon learned that things changed dramatically over the intervening 2 years – and not for the better. The road was simply dreadful. We had to idle through some sections in first gear, and were constantly swerving to avoid car swallowing potholes and frost heaves that tried to jettison us skyward. The car was shaken so badly that at the end of the day I discovered 3 nuts on two of the gauges had backed out despite the fact that they each had a lock washer, and – this one really amazes me since I didn’t know it was possible – a zip tie that was holding wires together behind the dash came undone and fell to the floor.
We finally got through that hell and made our way to Willow Creek, the apparent home of Big Foot. Everything in that town was named after the furry guy: Bigfoot Motel (where we stayed), Big Foot Market, Big Foot Burgers, etc. The town was a pit and the motel wasn’t much better. Pretty area though.
Day 3: Willow Creek to Crescent, OR
The drive out of Willow Creek was incredible. One road strung together back-to-back switchbacks of consistent size that literally felt like we were running a slalom course. Lots and lots of fun. At the first gas stop I noticed that my front tires were pretty shot. I am running a lot of camber (-2.5 deg) to compensate for the lack of camber gain and ARB in the front suspension. Although the tires weren’t wearing evenly under normal conditions, it was a lot less biased to the inside that you would expect, and entirely acceptable. I assumed that when driving really hard, the wear would even out a bit. I was wrong. The inside was wearing even more than normal. In fact the wear was bad enough that I was wondering if the tires would cord before I got home. Turns out that the wear since that point was minimal. Bottom line, we drove so damn hard the first 1-1/2 days that it basically was the equivalent of a few track days from a tire wear perspective. Ed and I also discovered that our right tires were visibly more worn than those on the left side of the car. The working theory is that a left hand corner is typically less blind than a right hand corner, so is taken with even more speed, and hence harder on the tires. Replacement tires were ordered from the road and the upcoming alignment will feature a slightly more conservative camber setting up front.
The rest of the day was pretty boring aside from the trip to Crater Lake, thanks to Oregon roads that are arrow straight. In fact there was one section where you could see the road from one peak to another with no deviation from dead ahead. Checking the odometer, that stretch was exactly 10 miles long. (sigh)
Day 4: Crescent to Morton, WA
We had planned to avoid about 75 miles of boring, arrow straight OR-97 in the morning and head West into the Three Sisters Wilderness area, but it was very foggy in that direction and there were fires, so we opted to avoid the smoke and limited visibility and just head north. Very boring morning, but when we approached the WA border the roads began to change and we had some fun. Really great roads approaching our overnight stop in Morton.
Day 5: Morton to Winthrop
We headed towards Rainier in the morning, which the forecast stated would be socked in by fog. As usual, the meteorologists got it wrong. It was clear, but very, very cold. Despite the gloves I was losing feelings in my fingers, and I was beginning to regret my choice of shorts. Fortunately, however, I had the foresight to wear my heavy jacket and a sweatshirt underneath, so at least my core was warm. The park ranger at Rainier took my money and waived me through, but as Ed followed, he took the extra time to tell him “No racing.” Although he didn’t say anything to me, I guess when he saw Ed and realized there were two of us, he decided a warning was in order. To our credit we didn’t race. In fact neither one of us cared who finished first, we simply treated the day like a Driver’s Ed event. Poor tires…
Day 6: Winthrop to home
Very uneventful half day, although the Westfield’s light throttle running issues grew, so anything less than 50mph was a bit annoying.
Being Back
This was a great trip. Car overload in Monterey, stunning scenery across three states, incredible roads, lots of G’s, no tickets, and numerous smiles. The cars were a draw wherever we went and although we heard a lot of the usual questions/comments, including “What are those?” “Is it legal to drive them on the freeway?” “What did you pay for it?” (gave a great answer to one particularly nosey guy who wouldn’t let it go and who smiled and walked away laughing after I answered “A lot more than my wife thinks.”) “Looks like fun.” “Can I have a ride?” we did get a new one that neither Ed nor I had heard before, “So are those built on a Fiero chassis?” “Um..yeah. Yeah, the engine is right there behind the seats.”
The car took a beating over the 3k mile journey. The tires have already been discussed, my steering rack showed signs of wear before I left and definitely needs replacement, the driver’s side rear wing was sandblasted significantly more on this trip than during the body’s first 22k miles, the driver's seat has a constant squeak, and I still have the rough low speed running issue to short (pretty sure it’s the TPS). I also spent way too much on this adventure (see my answer above given to the nosey guy), but despite all that it was well worth it.
Monday morning I drove the 428 miles to Crescent City, OR. Things started out well, but the temperatures soon spiked to the mid 90's, making for a very uncomfortable drive. Within an hour of arriving at the hotel, temps hit 97F so I laid low the rest of the day..
Leaving the hotel at 6am the next morning, I stopped at the nearby Shell station to fill up. While talking to the attendant about my car and the patents he is working on for a modular vehicle (I don’t know why I attract these people, but I do), I broke a cardinal rule of cars with side exhausts. Yes, after 11 years of ownership, I finally burned myself on the exhaust secondaries while leaning over the car to clean the windscreen. The wound blistered, then popped by the time I arrived in Santa Cruz, requiring a super-sized Band-Aid for the next 2 weeks. It should form a nice 1x2 scar right above the ankle. Now I just need to think of a good story to tell people about how it happened. It should highlight bravery, danger, and toughness, so nothing based on reality.
If the drive to Crescent City was uncomfortable, then the best way to characterize the 451 mile trip to Santa Cruz is miserable. It was equally hot, but upon hitting the Bay Area, construction traffic loomed. It was well over 90F, and took about 30 minutes to go 2 miles. The transmission tunnel soon became too hot to touch, baking me in a rolling oven. The heat also did something to the car's drivability. The engine started idling really poorly, but given my fatigue after arriving at the hotel, I opted to ignore it. The next morning, I drove to Seaside to attend Automobilia Monterey. The drivability at low speeds (25-30mph) had gone to hell. The Westfield’s low end torque coupled with extremely light weight means only the slightest throttle opening is required to run at low speeds, rendering travel through town a problem. Eventually I pulled into a NAPA, hooked up the laptop and logged some data which revealed the engine was extremely lean at idle and very light throttle opening. Increasing fueling at load site zero below 1500rpm was a bandaid, so I bought a can of carb cleaner to later test for an air leak around the throttle bodies.
Being There
The reason for staying in Santa Cruz rather closer to Monterey was because Ed had shipped his car to our friend Tom’s house. Ed was flying in on Wednesday afternoon, and the plan was to pick up the car after he arrived, then drive the 45 miles to Monterey the next morning. Tom would join us with his Caterham for the first day of the tour when we headed back from Car Week. The pickup went well, so the next morning we headed to Monterey, dropped off our luggage at the hotel, and headed to Carmel-by-the-Sea to view the Pebble Beach cars that participated in the Tour d’Elegance. Carmel is their lunch stop, which places the cars there from about 11:30 to 2:00 when they head back to PB. The crowd was massive. This represented an opportunity to see most of the PB cars for free rather than pay the $200 ticket for the actual concours, so bargain seekers like us arrived in droves. Unfortunately that meant picture taking was extremely difficult, but we still saw some incredible things and had great time.
Later that day I tested the throttle bodies for air leaks, but found none. Next I did some full throttle data logs to make sure everything was okay there, and it was, so whatever was impacting drivability was limited to light throttle application, and full throttle 3rd gear passes – of which there are many on a tour – wouldn’t endanger the engine. That night we checked out the RM and Russo and Steele auctions. There were some interesting cars at RM, but Russo & Steels was kind of “eh.”
The next day was The Quail. As you know, the ticket prices are absolutely ridiculous at $450/person and extremely difficult to get thanks to the lottery system, but after attending, I have to say it’s worth it. The crowd is limited so it is very easy to view the cars, and take pictures, and you are given full access to everything. Car on a pedestal? Climb right up for a closer look! New multi-hundred thousand car on display? Have a seat, see if you like it!
The quality of vehicles was just stunning. Far too many interesting cars to list, but it was quite simply the best collection I’ve ever seen. There were also some manufacturers who were displaying their cars: Koeniggsegg, Pagani, McLaren (a one-off for a client in Asia) Lamborghini (the new SUV, and the Sesto Elemento show car), and more pedestrian marks such as BMW (new 7 series) Range Rover, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Bugatti, and a few others I’m forgetting. It’s also a very different crowd. The money on the field was beyond comprehension. To put it in perspective, Gulfstream was present and brought a 25’ long section of a G4 or G5 to entice buyers. Lear Jet did them one better and brought the entire jet! Food and booze were plentiful. There were 4 or 5 "food experiences" (Cuban, Asian, Italian, British Pub, and maybe one other) set up around the grounds that were catered by accomplished chefs, and a number of stations to order various forms of alcohol: wine, beer, champagne, beer, and the hard stuff. Everything is included in the ticket and you can have as much as you want. Apparently the uber wealthy drink early and often.
The Vintech was there and it is absolutely stunning. We talked to the company principals for about half an hour and came away deeply impressed. I want one. Badly. The car was flawless, with no short cuts visible anywhere, yet the entire project, from the first sketch to completion including building a custom engine with the block milled from a solid piece of billet, took only 8 months. If you aren’t familiar with the car, do a search. Several people wanted to buy a production version or that particular car, but Porsche is very protective of their designs, and even though this isn’t a copy, they played hardball with Vintech and told then they cannot produce it, nor sell the show car. Interestingly, that was never their intent. They manufacture show cars for manufacturers, and this was simply an exercise to showcase their capabilities to the world. One of the gentleman who approached them stating he wanted to buy the car, had an interesting response when told they were unable to sell it; “Fine, then I want to buy your company.” Like I said, the money there was beyond comprehension.
Bonham’s Auction was also at the Quail, and was included with our tickets. Some neat stuff there including a Tatra, which I had never seen before in the flesh. We watched GT40 start out at $1M and quickly go to $2M before the gavel fell. Wow...
Legend’s of the Autobahn was about 2 miles down the road, so we stopped off on the way back to catch the last 30 minutes. Unfortunately while queued up behind a car waiting for someone to exit a spot, an idiot in a Buick Lacrosse backed into Ed’s front wing, breaking it into several pieces. This is a carbon fiber item manufactured by a company no longer in business, so a big PITA.
Next up that day was Pebble Beach. Although the concours is Sunday, Friday is a free day with access to the Automobilia show (where we saw Per Sang – the rep was truly surprised that we were familiar with the company), many manufacturers’ displays, and the Concept Lawn where several recent concept cars were on display. Gooding & Co was also there, and I happened to score free tickets (normally $100, but still worth it). The cars at the auction were incredible. Some really interesting vehicles and several that sold for very big money (2 went for over $11M!)
Saturday and Sunday were spent at Laguna Seca. Typical fun time, although Sunday was strangely dead. Not many spectators and the corral lot where we were parked was effectively empty.
Leaving There
Day 1: Santa Cruz to Gualala
Monday morning, we packed up the cars and headed up to Santa Cruz to meet Tom. The roads in the mountains above that town are simply epic. Highway 1 north of the Golden Gate Bridge is nearly as good. We drove REALLY hard most of the day. Ed wisely hung back just a bit and made up time on the straights, but Tom & I were going for it. Really felt like a track day. Historically, I’ve always lamented the body roll in the Westfield, and am constantly considering adding anti-roll bars, but when I took this trip 2 years ago, I remember thinking to myself that the handling was perfect as-is. After Day 1, I felt the same way. The car’s grip and playfulness in the corners on bac roads is simply mind boggling. There is a tiny amount of off-throttle oversteer on corner entry, but a bit of throttle quickly sorts that out and results in truly impressive speed. We were taking it easy between the corners, keeping the cars mostly in 4th and 5th, and just letting the cars’ abundant low end torque pull us out. Really can’t imagine better handling for those kind of roads.
Day 2: Gualala to Willow Creek
The next day, Tom returned home and Ed & I continued on. It was really foggy in the morning, keeping speeds down due to a combination of limited visibility and damp roads. But once we started to rise into the hills and get further inland, the fog lifted, the roads dried, and an amazing set of corners beckoned. We stopped off in Garberville for lunch, then headed for the stretch of road that we didn’t enjoy on the 2010 trip. It was a little rough and there were about 10 sections of gravel, ranging from 30’-100’ long over the next several miles. We soon learned that things changed dramatically over the intervening 2 years – and not for the better. The road was simply dreadful. We had to idle through some sections in first gear, and were constantly swerving to avoid car swallowing potholes and frost heaves that tried to jettison us skyward. The car was shaken so badly that at the end of the day I discovered 3 nuts on two of the gauges had backed out despite the fact that they each had a lock washer, and – this one really amazes me since I didn’t know it was possible – a zip tie that was holding wires together behind the dash came undone and fell to the floor.
We finally got through that hell and made our way to Willow Creek, the apparent home of Big Foot. Everything in that town was named after the furry guy: Bigfoot Motel (where we stayed), Big Foot Market, Big Foot Burgers, etc. The town was a pit and the motel wasn’t much better. Pretty area though.
Day 3: Willow Creek to Crescent, OR
The drive out of Willow Creek was incredible. One road strung together back-to-back switchbacks of consistent size that literally felt like we were running a slalom course. Lots and lots of fun. At the first gas stop I noticed that my front tires were pretty shot. I am running a lot of camber (-2.5 deg) to compensate for the lack of camber gain and ARB in the front suspension. Although the tires weren’t wearing evenly under normal conditions, it was a lot less biased to the inside that you would expect, and entirely acceptable. I assumed that when driving really hard, the wear would even out a bit. I was wrong. The inside was wearing even more than normal. In fact the wear was bad enough that I was wondering if the tires would cord before I got home. Turns out that the wear since that point was minimal. Bottom line, we drove so damn hard the first 1-1/2 days that it basically was the equivalent of a few track days from a tire wear perspective. Ed and I also discovered that our right tires were visibly more worn than those on the left side of the car. The working theory is that a left hand corner is typically less blind than a right hand corner, so is taken with even more speed, and hence harder on the tires. Replacement tires were ordered from the road and the upcoming alignment will feature a slightly more conservative camber setting up front.
The rest of the day was pretty boring aside from the trip to Crater Lake, thanks to Oregon roads that are arrow straight. In fact there was one section where you could see the road from one peak to another with no deviation from dead ahead. Checking the odometer, that stretch was exactly 10 miles long. (sigh)
Day 4: Crescent to Morton, WA
We had planned to avoid about 75 miles of boring, arrow straight OR-97 in the morning and head West into the Three Sisters Wilderness area, but it was very foggy in that direction and there were fires, so we opted to avoid the smoke and limited visibility and just head north. Very boring morning, but when we approached the WA border the roads began to change and we had some fun. Really great roads approaching our overnight stop in Morton.
Day 5: Morton to Winthrop
We headed towards Rainier in the morning, which the forecast stated would be socked in by fog. As usual, the meteorologists got it wrong. It was clear, but very, very cold. Despite the gloves I was losing feelings in my fingers, and I was beginning to regret my choice of shorts. Fortunately, however, I had the foresight to wear my heavy jacket and a sweatshirt underneath, so at least my core was warm. The park ranger at Rainier took my money and waived me through, but as Ed followed, he took the extra time to tell him “No racing.” Although he didn’t say anything to me, I guess when he saw Ed and realized there were two of us, he decided a warning was in order. To our credit we didn’t race. In fact neither one of us cared who finished first, we simply treated the day like a Driver’s Ed event. Poor tires…
Day 6: Winthrop to home
Very uneventful half day, although the Westfield’s light throttle running issues grew, so anything less than 50mph was a bit annoying.
Being Back
This was a great trip. Car overload in Monterey, stunning scenery across three states, incredible roads, lots of G’s, no tickets, and numerous smiles. The cars were a draw wherever we went and although we heard a lot of the usual questions/comments, including “What are those?” “Is it legal to drive them on the freeway?” “What did you pay for it?” (gave a great answer to one particularly nosey guy who wouldn’t let it go and who smiled and walked away laughing after I answered “A lot more than my wife thinks.”) “Looks like fun.” “Can I have a ride?” we did get a new one that neither Ed nor I had heard before, “So are those built on a Fiero chassis?” “Um..yeah. Yeah, the engine is right there behind the seats.”
The car took a beating over the 3k mile journey. The tires have already been discussed, my steering rack showed signs of wear before I left and definitely needs replacement, the driver’s side rear wing was sandblasted significantly more on this trip than during the body’s first 22k miles, the driver's seat has a constant squeak, and I still have the rough low speed running issue to short (pretty sure it’s the TPS). I also spent way too much on this adventure (see my answer above given to the nosey guy), but despite all that it was well worth it.
