Concorso Italiano 2009

I too got the email....

I wrote them,and asked "WHERE".

I received this:

Larry,

The event will not be at the airport again, we will announce our new location once we've signed a contract...hopefully that will be very soon!

Thank you for your patience,

Also note that they have moved up the $85 ticket cutoff to end of May instead of end of June, eliminated the $90 ticket and moved straight up to $100 after May 31st.

I'm excited about this year-my 16 year old daughter has expressed a real interest in going. Makes the old man proud!!

Cool, lets wait and see what they come up with...

As I didn't go last year I cannot recall what Italian car exhibitor price was, but I seem to recall when I went in 2006 it was quite a bit less than $125 for the early bird registration.

Julian

I spoke to a lady with Concorso and she would not tell me the location but did say they should be signing contracts by next week and that it is a beautiful place where the cars would be displayed "on the grass again".
Who is planning on attending?

quote:

I seem to recall when I went in 2006 it was quite a bit less than $125 for the early bird registration.

The early bird registration for exhibitors was $75 in 2008.

quote:

Originally posted by garth66:
The early bird registration for exhibitors was $75 in 2008.

That's what I thought, $125 is a big jump, but $75 was probably too much of a bargain for 2 people plus car. Then again keeping the exhibitor costs low encourages more cars which in turn brings in the paying spectators. Although I bet most of the attendance is always from car exhibitors.

I'll be going, especially if it's on grass again.

Julian

I am planning on attending. Jim

Email I received today:

Dear Fellow Enthusiast,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tom McDowell. I recently acquired the Concorso Italiano from Jack and Leslie Wadsworth. For many years, the Concorso has been a trend setting show with many traditional aspects that all have anticipated and enjoyed each year. From humble beginnings in the early 90s evolved a special camaraderie that most of you have shared. The founders, Frank and Janet Mandarano, brought in legendary Italian personalities who were honored to be part of the experience of being with you, their fans, in a one-on-one basis on a lush green lawn surrounded by the cars they had designed, raced, or engineered.

I understand well, that great moment when Piero Ferrari, Sergio Pininfarina and Luigi Chinetti Jr. drove up on stage with Piero driving the 3-seat Ferrari Dino Concept and the three of them began discussing their fathers and their lives in their father's business. The huge audience gathered in and around the overflowing bleachers. Their questions were answered - all in good humor - and the cacophony from the paparazzi cameras signaled this was something very special, and it was!

We, the new Concorso owners, believe that holding the 2008 event at the Marina airport was an unfortunate decision. It will not happen again. We seek to quickly return the Concorso experience back to the one you have known in the past.

I have now been the owner of CI for two weeks and have had time to speak with several past guests, and read the letters and press reports. Clearly, many of you take a more personal interest in this gathering of fellow enthusiasts and perhaps have a "protective" and/or somewhat "territorial" feeling about it. You may even feel cheated or let down.

Like many of you, I am not pleased with this unwelcome turn of events and vow here and now to correct Concorso Italiano. It will be steered back to its core beginning-to a place we all enjoyed for the right reasons.

SO AFTER ALL THE TALKING IS DONE WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?

We plan to return Concorso to a beautiful golf course on the peninsula in 2009. A classic car should always be displayed on a green lawn. The venue will be agreed upon shortly. Our goals for the provision of a wonderful dining experience at a reasonable cost and the experience you all should expect, are at the forefront of our minds.

That said, we would like to hear directly from you about your own expectations and special things you might like to see at this very special event. We want to know what you, the true enthusiasts, are thinking. Please email us at ci@concorso.com or call (425) 742-0632. We are most serious about making Concorso Italiano the first-rate experience for you, your families, and your friends that it has been in the past. We will be listening. And we plan to make the 2009 gathering one to remember.

Very truly yours,
Tom McDowell
Mercer Island WA.

So the e-mail I got today says the new venue is The Laguna Seca Golf Ranch, which is just down the road from Laguna Seca Raceway.

Puts a new twist on what to do, especially for those (like me) who tend to stay out in Salinas. I guess it's far enough inland to avoid the cold morning sea fog too.

At the end of the day I'll follow the rest of the DT family, it's more about meeting up with friends than seeing a bunch of F cars.

Julian

It is a nice venue that is close to the track and also to the PCNC's hotel. Traffic maybe somewhat of an issue for people coming in from outside.

I am a bit miffed with the CI folks, through. They continue to ignore Panteras. Other than the awards pages, there is only one picture of a Pantera on their website. It is actually a picture of an F car mislabeled as a Pantera.

FWIW, Tom Tjaarda will be at the La Dolce Vita aka the "alternate Concorso".

PI said it will follow the flow. POCA has no official stand.

I was rather expecting some recognition of the 50th anniversary of DeTomaso, but last time I checked they didn't list it and now I don't see anything listed for this years' focus marques.

George
Any idea which venue PI and POCA are going to support? It would be nice to know before the price increase in June.

Pantera International exists to support DeTomaso owners and further our hobby. I'll support the event that owners want to attend. I've spoken with the concorso folks & explained my position. Everyone is looking at the two big Ferrari clubs, wondering what they will do, because the momentum is with them. You better believe the Concorso's new owner (Tom McDowell) is working hard to get them back to his event. If he could make an announcement that the Ferrari Owners Club & Ferrari Club of America have committed to attending his event, the event at the BlackHorse will die. He's got a lot on his shoulders, I've wished him luck. Unless the two Ferrari clubs make a split decision, one of these events is destined to fail. I'm hoping Tom McDowell can unite everyone, so the clubs don't have to decide between two events. That's crazy.

Mark says POCA remains neutral, thats cool. We need to work together, keep all the DeTomasos in one location. I have some work to do in this regard myself. That's about where everybody outside the Ferari clubs is, we're on hold as the Concorso drama develops.

-G

For those that haven't followed this real close, the financial issue is worthy of note:

THE Concorso is now up to $125 for EARLY registration (through May 31), which allows two people to enter in the car. Raises to $175 after that date.

The NEW event has a $50 per car and driver only early registration (though May 31), with an additional $25 per person entering in the car. Raises to $65 and $35 after that date.

Early/late costs for two people in the car are thus-

$125/$175 at Concorso
$75/$100 at La Dolce Vita

You can easily do the math and realize you'll have to budget higher to attend Concorso.

Most of us know how entry to Black Horse was for the old Concorso - tolerable at best. None of us know how the entry to either of the new events will work out. The new La Dolce Vita event at Black Horse is in a new section so I imagine entry roads will be similar but different. The new Concorso golf course is on the main highway from Monterey to Salinas - the main Laguna Seca Raceway entry road - and that road can be a REAL crawling nightmare at times.

Concorso says they are having a dedicated entry for vendors and exibitors, but a Google look at the golf course left this concept rather unclear to me. The Clubhouse is the upper, "B" marker on this photo. There is one main road to the course entry which can be accessed from either the highway or South Boundary Road to the North, and one potential entry to the far SE corner of the course just off the highway (just off the edge of this photo). Now S Boundary Road is a road for Laguna Seca entry that comes off General Jim Moore Blvd was/is the entry road for Black Horse. I see no other options other than these two.

George, can you perhaps contact them and try to learn just where/how they are doing entrants' entry at the new location?

I'm leaning to the new event at this time. We all admit, themselves included, that Concorso blew it last year.

This old saying keeps coming back to me:

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Larry

I have been chatting with the FCA (Ferrari Club of America) folks. They are playing the wait-and-see game too. Hopefully now that the CI location has been announced, things should start settling out with FCA and others.

I have not heard back from the Ferrari clubs yet. The La Dolce Vita owner said that he expects the Ferrari clubs will endorse Concoro but that many of the members will go to La Dolce Vita.

I have polled the eight POCA chapters within driving distance of Monterey about their preferences. I expected an even split, but everyone has been for La Dolce Vita. Tom Tjaarda and price were the most often mentioned deciding factors. (This was done before the Concorso price reduction announcement.)

POCA will likely endorse La Dolce Vita and help put together something appropriate to commemorate the De Tomaso 50th anniversary.

There are no plans yet for judging, though the event organizers are open to it. That's a lot of work and some expense to organize and run, so I am not up for it. George, what are PI's plans for endorsement? Does PI plan to run a judging event at whatever venue you go with?

quote:

This was done before the Concorso price reduction announcement.)

They dropped pricing to $100/$150 early/late.

Here is the initial list on the La Dolce Vita website.
http://www.montereybayconcours.com/EVENT/features.php

On Monday, their designer should have the full page advert with Jan's car.

My advice to each and every Pantera owner is do not purchase your tickets yet. One of the things Mark mentioned in a post above is that there is indication that BOTH Ferrari clubs shall endorse the Concorso. Remember what I've said from the beginning, the momentum is with those two clubs. The drama is just starting. April will be an interesting month in regards to those two events. Things may look entirely different by the time the month of May rolls around.

-George

quote:

Things may look entirely different by the time the month of May rolls around.

BTW, early registration cuts off May 31 for both events.

I'm strongly, can't see any reason I'll change, leaning to the new event, La Dolce Vita, at Black Horse.

Tom T. is going to be there, their website actually pictures a Pantera, they are celebrating De Tomaso's 50th...pretty well seals the deal for all of us, IMHO.

I really don't give a rat's ass about the Dancing Donkey cars and where THEY decide to go. If I want to see rows of the same car after car, I can go down to my local Ford, Toyota, Chevy dealer.

But waiting for a month or so can't really hurt anything, so as George suggests, I'm not putting my money down quite yet.

Larry

quote:

Originally posted by msm_portata:
POCA will likely endorse La Dolce Vita and help put together something appropriate to commemorate the De Tomaso 50th anniversary.

There are no plans yet for judging, though the event organizers are open to it. That's a lot of work and some expense to organize and run, so I am not up for it. George, what are PI's plans for endorsement? Does PI plan to run a judging event at whatever venue you go with

Originally posted by msm_portata:
Here is the initial list on the La Dolce Vita website.
http://www.montereybayconcours.com/EVENT/features.php

On Monday, their designer should have the full page advert with Jan's car.

So ... I take it that POCA has offically decided to make La Dolce Vita a POCA Sponsored event, but doesn't really want to do the work, judging, running or deal with the costs.

POCA wants Pantera International to do it for them ....

Am I understanding this all correctly ?

quote:

So I take it that POCA has offically decided to make this a POCA event

Endorse is just that; he is not trying to make it a POCA event. The endorsement is only an attempt to direct Pantera owners to one event, the new event (La Dolce Vita) at the old location (Black Horse). His intent is that for unity, Panteras would be best served if we had some direction on which one of the two Concourse events to choose. This would help ensure we have a maximum representation at ONE event, rather than being spread over two peninsula locations. I think this is a good move on Mark's part as President of POCA.

quote:

but doesn't really want to do the work, judging, running or deal with the costs (of a judging event).

Correct, and rightly so.

Traditionally, P.I. has been the recognized club for events during the Monterey weekend. In that capacity, P.I. has been the representative club at the Concorso, and until last year when they decided to drop it after nearly 20 years, P.I hosted a luncheon and Corral at the Laguna Seca Historics.

I, and other members of PCNC, stepped up to the plate and saved the Corral parking tradition at last year's Historics. It was a last minute decision, and being something new to PCNC, it took A LOT of getting-up-to-speed back-room effort. But it needed to be done. Mark was active in that effort, and knows the time, effort and headaches it took to pull it off.

Should there be a desire for a judging at the new event, Mark (probably with last year's Corral efforts still well-remembered) has decided it will not be organized by POCA.

quote:

POCA wants George and I to do (a judging event) for them....

Where did you get the THAT idea?

P.I. has always incorporated a judging at the Concorso; thus it is nothing new to P.I. Should P.I. decide to work with the organizers of Concorso, it seems reasonable to assume P.I. would continue with their handling of a judging event. Mark merely stated POCA was not up to the task of doing such a judging at the new event and asked if P.I. had considered continuing their judging at the new event IF THEY ALSO endorsed La Dolce Vita.

With George not yet ready to endorse either of the two competing events, the issue of ANY judging event at ANY Friday Concourse is up in the air.

Mark is merely wondering what thoughts P.I. has on this issue, and letting it be known that POCA will not be doing one as a POCA-run event.

The De Tomaso Family benefits from having two owner clubs. They each have their own flavors, strengths and weaknesses. Some owners are exclusive to only one club, others like me, support both clubs. POCA has traditionally had the Fun Rally as their premier gathering. P.I. has had the Monterey Weekend as theirs. With the Corral issue of last year, this event-specific distinction has become a bit blurred.

If P.I. decides to move to La Dolce Vita, I would hope they would bring their traditional judging event with them.

And do it all for the De Tomaso Family (not POCA) just as they have been doing for many years.

Just my thoughts - not Mark's, not POCA's, not PCNC's.

Larry

Thanks Larry. That pretty well states it.

To be clear, neither CI nor LDV will be a "POCA-owned" event. I simple want to evaluate the pluses and minuses and make a recommendation. POCA will not take money from either event to steer people there. POCA will provide information about both events in the Newsletter and website.

The net of the judging event is that I already have way too much on my plate to organize a judging event. Even if I had time and energy to spend on it, I would defer to PI who has certainly earned the right to first-refusal to any judging event anywhere in Monterey for all their years of work on the judging event at CI.

Basically, there three options now: PI can run judging event at CI, LDV, or nowhere. It is George's decision. We will certainly support him and get the word out about whatever he decides. If he chooses LDV, we can put up a united program involving PI, POCA, and Tjaarda Designs. If he chooses CI, we will certainly let everyone know. If he chooses not to do it at all, we can all sit back, drink beer, and make comments about Ferrari drivers. :-)

Like nearly everyone I have spoken with including the Adlers, I am going to LDV. If the Ferrari clubs go to CI and LDV folds next year, so be it.

As George recommends, I am going to hold off buying my tickets as there is no downside to doing so.

I am going to write up a note for the May Newsletter with the list of pluses and minuses, so that people can see what they will and will not get in time to be able to make their purchase decision.

quote:

we can all sit back, drink beer, and make comments about Ferrari drivers. :-)

I think we can do that just about anywhere, anytime.

It would have been appropriate for Mark and I to speak privately before any public announcement of a "likely" event choice were made. In light of this Jim's comments are fully understandable, he has my full support. These forums are not the venue for Mark and I to discuss plans.

I had answered Mark's question before he asked it. My plans at the moment are to watch and wait, nothing has changed. I am not going to buy into the drama or the need for a hasty decision. The event is in August, its only March. We have until the end of May before the prices go up. I am in no hurry to make a decision, does that surprise anyone? I'm half Okie, I'm not in a hurry to do anything. I believe anyone in the DeTomaso hobby that has committed to LDV has committed too hastily in light of what is happening with the Concorso since Tom McDowell has come aboard.

Everyone was disappointed in the location of last years Concorso, but all was not negative, that venue did have some positive aspects, the event moved forward in some ways. I asked many attendees if they would return the following year, and surprisingly to me the response was universally yes. Why? Because its not about the venue, its about the gathering, its about seeing old friends, its about the cars, its about passion. Those of you who didn't attend missed out on a good day (and a nice sun burn, ). I think its a shame that we have two events now, with the possibility that they shall create division amongst the various marques, and the clan of Italian car owners as a whole. For this the blame lies solidly on the upstarts.

What about loyalty. The Concorso organizers have given the clan of Italian car owners 23 years of memorable events. They screwed up last year, so do we now abandon them? Or do we admit that everyone screws up every now and then, and give them a second chance, like an old friend? I would be ashamed to tell anyone that I am abandoning the Concorso because they screwed up once in 23 years. It wasn't a malicious screw up, they didn't fool anybody, they announced the event was being held at an airport long before they collected any money. Don't the preceding 22 years they didn't screw up count for something? In my book they do. Everyone who has expressed unhappiness with last years event has asked the Concorso to return to the greens. Well .... its done just that. Tom McDowell has only been on board a few short weeks, and already he's inked a contract with a golf course; and judging from Mark's earlier comment, it appears he has the support of the Ferrari clubs. I say WOW! and kudos Mr. McDowell. He's given us what we asked for, but now that's not enough? If the LDV had not been established, wouldn't everyone be excited that the Concorso was returning to the greens? Give Tom McDowell a chance. What if in the next few weeks the 50th anniversary of the founding of DeTomaso becomes part of the Concorso program? April is going to be a month of change in regards to these two events. From my point of view there's many aspects to my decision regarding which event I shall attend, including a test of my character.

Whichever event has the momentum, whichever event the majority of Italian car owners & spectators shall be attending, that's the event where our marque needs to have representation.

-George ... watching and waiting

George,

Have you, or anyone else, contacted either group to see if they will include a celebration of 50 years of DeTomaso in their programs? I am sure that this would be of extreme interest to people trying to figure out which event to go to. I also know that doing these shows is an incredible undertaking that is not to be poo pooed, but then again, a landmark like a 50 year anniversary should have some weight too -- it is an opportunity that comes along once.

I understand the loyalty aspect of the Concorso, but an acknowledgement of 50 years would have to be weighed against either venue. Wouldn't it be something if both places had a 50 year celebration!

I would also agree on your assessment of waiting to see what develops. Makes sense -- there is no reason to rush to decision at this point.

May the best event win.

Sounds like the VHS vs. Betamax or the Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD format wars of years ago. Unsettling would be a good word -- until one can see which event has it together the best.

quote:

see if they will include a celebration of 50 years of DeTomaso in their programs?

Already a done deal for the La Dolce Vita event.

Also, an on the green display of Tom's cars, right next to the designated display area for our cars.

Link to the LDV website:

http://www.montereybayconcours.com/

Larry

still not registering 2511 for either event, but still leaning to LDV

Just got a note that FCA - Pacific Region has endorsed the CI event.

Julian

Yup, it's offical
Ferrari Club Makes it Official and Joins Concorso Italiano

quote:

Originally posted by Joules5:
Just got a note that FCA - Pacific Region has endorsed the CI event.

Julian

So if both places do this 50 year celebration, does that mean they get 25 years each ?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DeMopuar:
I understand the loyalty aspect of the Concorso, but an acknowledgement of 50 years would have to be weighed against either venue. Wouldn't it be something if both places had a 50 year celebration!

That's probably the best idea I've heard yet.

quote:

Originally posted by LF - TP 2511:

quote:

we can all sit back, drink beer, and make comments about Ferrari drivers. :-)

I think we can do that just about anywhere, anytime.

Is there any question...

quote:

Originally posted by garth66:
Is there any question...

Nice!

quote:

So if both places do this 50 year celebration

Note:

At this time, only LDV is honoring De Tomaso for their 50th.

LDV is also honoring the designs of Tom T.

Tom is also scheduled to attend LDV, too.

Larry

That's about to change from what I've heard.

quote:

Originally posted by LF - TP 2511:

quote:

So if both places do this 50 year celebration

Note:
At this time, only LDV is honoring De Tomaso for their 50th.
LDV is also honoring the designs of Tom T.
Tom is attending LDV, too.
Larry

I know the guy that owns Laguna Seca Golf Club and he informs me that Concorso is confirmed for 09 at his course under new ownership. He said that they are attempting to bring back some of the magic of the early years all in a classic golf course setting, instead of that god awful Marina airport. I have tickets to the Quail and I am thinking of selling them so I can go back to my roots and attend Concorso.

Just received this.

I just received the following letters and am delighted to announce that Lamborghini Club America and Valentino Balboni will be joining us this year.

Tom McDowell
President
Concorso Italiano

quote:

Lamborghini Club America and Valentino Balbo

Well, Lambo OC and their tight, sweet little tarts is DOA, and I really can do without the hip hop/disco club 'dudes' who tool in with their lime green Lambos.

And as for Valentino Balbo........

who?

Still heavily leaning to the new event, La Dolce Vita, at Black Horse.

I want Tom to sign some stuff for me.


Larry