Concorso Italiano 2012

I've attended a couple times in the past (with friends cars) but not this year. A weak economy has impacted the ability of those of us far away to attend, which hurts the ability to deal with the high costs. Hotels are crazy expensive, as are the entry fees for virtually all of the Monterey events. It's well worth the cost for the unparalleled experience, IMHO, but not if you can't cover the VISA bill the month after.

How to fix things to get more cars to come? More networking between owners, a stronger economy and free shipping for DeTomaso cars over 1,000 miles away! OK, that won't happen, but it would be nice if it did. The POCA e-mail list had very little chatter. Almost none here on the board. In our group, the more we communicate, the more we get together to do things as a group.

Also, vendor involvement might be good—especially if they (at least PIM, Wilkinson, Hall and the other few in Cal/NorCal) leveraged their mail/e-mail contacts and helped promote it in return for some display time at the event (or a reduction in their fees). Not sure if that is possible, but it might work. I hope to be there next year.

Mark

Hi Dave & Linda!

I'm sorry I missed you in Monterey two weeks ago.

The annual Monterey Weekend is the preeminent automotive event in the world. Attracting more DeTomaso cars to the event can only serve to raise the stature of our Marque. The automotive eyes of the world are focused on Monterey during the third weekend in August and we need them to see DeTomaso cars. Do you remember the year there were over 200 DeTomaso's at the POCA Fun Rally in Las Vegas? If I recall, it was the Fun Rally's 10th Anniversary. Imagine having 200 DeTomaso cars driving around the Monterey Peninsula during "the weekend"!

I can only think of one way to accomplish that: POCA moves the Annual Fun Rally to the Monterey Weekend. There is strength in numbers and with POCA behind it, I'm sure a huge event could be organized, that the Automotive community would sit-up and take notice of. Such an event would surely attract more DeTomaso owners (and Vendor displays) than the two separate events combined. Sure, some owners would complain about the cost and others would complaint about the lack of an open track day but all things considered, it would do more to raise DeTomaso awareness than any other thing we owners could ever do.

My 2 cents.

Word has it event attendance was down all together, it wasn't just the DeTomaso corral.

We had 33 exhibitors this year, down from 43 last year. Its not unusual to have one pre-registered exhibitor not make it, but this year there were 5 pre-registered no-shows which is an unusually high number. Even if the no-shows had made it, we would have still been down 5 exhibitors from last year.

In years past the Concorso has emailed event flyers to me at least once per month that I could post on the forums to advertise. This year they didn't do that. Instead they took it upon themselves to email exhibitors from previous years directly. Over and over and over.

Was this the reason event attendance was down, or is it just the economy? I'm not smart enough to answer that question. However, I'll make one observation: If they only email past exhibitors they won't attract new exhibitors.

I think the gate fee for spectators is too high. I also think the magnitude in which Monterey hotel rates go up that week is tantamount to robbery. Its very opportunistic and unfriendly of them to rob Monterey visitors in that manner, especially in economic times like these. The mayor, city council and chamber of commerce should be ashamed of themselves for letting this happen. I'm sure the hotel rates keep some owners from exhibiting. I book my rooms far enough away from Monterey that the rates don't go up. Each of you could do the same thing.

I would like to get the word out to everyone that even though we were on the west side of the event, furthest from the entry gate, the corral conditions this year were the best ever. I thought the location might have been responsible for a reduced amount of spectator traffic; but later I learned event attendance was down in general. Our location exposed us however to a nice ocean breeze that kept us cool on a sunny day.

The corral was lined with trees, and beneath the trees were a generous amount of tables and chairs for comfortable seating in the shade. Food vendors were nearby, as was the stage show. A generous amount of under-utilized porta-toilets were nearby too. I never had to stand in line. The hospitality pavillion had coffee and pastries for all the exhibitors. Parking space for the exhibitors was generous with plenty of room between vehicles and large aisles between rows of cars.

The Concorso is an energy charged event in a beautiful park-like setting. The food is good. There are Italian sports cars from all eras; non-sports cars too. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Alfas, Lancias, Bizzarinis, Bugattis, Abarths, Cizetas, Paganis, Intermeccanicas, Isos, Fiats, and Innocentis. There's Italian motorcycles too. They began offering a corral for non-Italian cars a couple of years ago, and that corral was HUGE this year, full of British, German, Japanese and American machinery. If you like sports cars from all nations, you WILL enjoy the Concorso Italiano. Guys ... there's plenty of gorgeous women there, and they serve BEER! Sports cars, women and beer. Heaven. They serve wine for the wives too. And there's a fashion show!

I offer sincere thanks to all who exhibited this year ... I wish I had more time to sit a spell and visit with each of you. There were at least 4 original owners there ... Gary Spratling, John Buckman, Dale Sweitzer and Doc Stewart. John attends every year, driving his car from San Diego. Each of you are special to me, in ways I don't express. As DeTomaso enthusiasts we have a common bond.

I also want to invite everyone to attend or exhibit next year. I promise you our corral will be a pleasant place to be as well. You'll have a good time seeing all the DeTomaso vehicles, as well as meeting and visiting with the other owners. I'll be there to organize popular judging, and with a bunch of trophies to hand out. I'm going to try to have a gift of some sort for all exhibitors next year.

-G

George,

I agree with you, the prices you have to pay for anything and everything during the Monterey weekend, are ridiculous. Twenty years ago, I said the Monterey weekend would soon become a victim of its own success. I guess I was wrong. It seems to me, however; there's strength in numbers. I stayed with the Lamborghini Club of America this past year, and paid a reasonable amount for a very nice hotel room. The Motel 6 down the street would have been much more expensive. LCA booked three hotels and naturally, the cheapest one filled up first. I was too late for that one but managed to squeeze into the medium priced hotel. It was still pretty reasonable. That being said, LCA gets these cheap rates because they book entire hotels a year in advance. Things like that are much easier to do when the manufacturer is involved and supports the club during the event.

As far as the Concours Italiana is concerned, the ticket price is outrageous, for what it is. Hopefully, their attendance was down this past year, so they re-visit their gate prices.

I still think there's no better way to raise the stature of the DeTomaso marque than to have a strong showing during the Monterey weekend. That would be to everyone's benefit. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the ONLY way to accomplish that would be to move the POCA Fun Rally to the Monterey Weekend.

David

I look forward to the Monterey weekend every year, the combination of the Concorso with the Monterey Reunion (Historic racing) couldn't present better venues, so much so my wife even comes to this one each year!

Costs are not prohibitive in my mind, especially if you enter an Italian car early which includes entry for two people. Now that the event is out at the Laguna Golf Ranch it is a much easier and less congested commute in from Salinas and that is where I choose to stay. Salinas is more geared to motel chain options, but correspondingly cheaper, especially if booked far enough in advance. Most hotels have no penalty up to around 48 hrs before arrival, so no excuse not to plan ahead. I made my reservations in February and paid a little over $400 for the 4 nights.

The Monterey Reunion tickets were around $115 for the weekend through Larry Finch at PCNC which included the corral parking. That's two full days of nostalgia, the smell of race gas and full pit access to get up close and personal with some of the World's most significant race cars.

Taking a lead from Mike Drew Pebble Beach is accessible for nothing if you are prepared to get up at 4 am and head down before the officials arrive. I'm told it is the best time to be there and view the cars as they arrive and drive onto the lawns.

Outside of the mainstream events there is so much else going on, I went to Baja Cantina on Thursday evening, which is an informal car show, with an eclectic mix of cars coming and going. I did resist the urge to attend any of the auctions as those entry costs are exorbitant unless you plan on buying something to offset.

Julian