Visits
 Monterey Historics and Pebble Beach Concours 2007 - Another year, another amazing week in Monterey. For collector car aficionados, the third week of August means only one thing – Pebble Beach. That’s the annual pilgrimage to the Monterey Peninsula to ogle some of the greatest vehicles from throughout automotive history, a chance to see some of your favorite vehicular icons from across the globe. Whether your tastes run to exotic supercars, museum headliners, vintage racers or even hot rods, there is something for everyone in and around Monterey. Read More… |
 Frank’s Goodwood Memoirs 2007 (digest) - Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Today is the day. I’m finally on my way to the Goodwood Festival of Speed! I’m a little anxious about such a long trip so far from home, especially to a country I’ve never visited. I know I’ll have difficulty with the language, but I’ll be with Jeremy, who is practically a native. Luckily, the shuttle to LAX for my direct flight to Heathrow arrives 1.5 hours late, putting me instantly at ease. It also puts us on the 405 right at 3PM. Thank God rush hour traffic doesn’t start until 2:30. Thank God for the carpool lane as well. Whoops. Carpool lane jammed too. At this rate I’ll still have a full 4.2 minutes to check in, drop my bags, get through security and walk to the gate. Traffic eases and sensing my anxiety about arriving late, the Prime Time shuttle driver puts the pedal to the metal and shows that those vans are remarkably resilient, gliding along the center divider without even sparking at over 100 mph. Read More… |
 A day with Noble Cars… “Wow”, I thought, hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock with such gusto I nearly knocked it off the nightstand, “What time is it again?” As I squinted across the pillow, I could just make out the numbers, “5:45”. “Boy, I must really be dedicated…or crazy.”About fifteen minutes later, Oli arrives, having already driven three hours from the far South-West Coast of the UK up to my temporary abode near London. Ahead of us lies a nearly one hundred fifty mile drive to visit what may be one of the most prolific British sports car companies of the current time. Formed only about five years ago, Noble Cars, UK produces two (soon to be three) of the most impressive driver-focused vehicles currently on the road – the M12 GTO3R and the M400. In early 2006, Noble will add the new, more “useable” sports car, the M14. We’re scheduled to meet with Simon Hucknall, Noble’s Press Manager, shortly before 11am for a look into the company behind the cars. |
 So you want to buy a racecar? As you may have noticed, festivalofspeed.net is an organization devoted to all things motorsport – with special focus on “grassroots” and niche events, organizations and vehicles. In our opinion, perhaps the most “grassroots” motorsport activity an individual can pursue is the owning and operating of their own racecar. While there are countless avenues to pursue with regard to getting involved in “spec” or “club” racing, we have noticed a great void of information related to purchasing and running vintage racing cars. With this in mind, we approached CarsInternational.com, one of the premier resellers of vintage and historically significant race cars in the world. Fortunately, Paul and Jonathan were very happy to speak with us and share a small portion of the wealth of knowledge they’ve accumulated from decades in the business. Read More… |
 Indy with Andy During lunch one afternoon with my good friend Jeff and his wife, talking about cars and such, I mentioned that my 25th wedding anniversary was coming up. In response, Jeffrey asked me if I wanted to go the Indy 500 with my wife, Jane, as an anniversary gift.Let me think about this for about a minute: “Honey, how about we go to the Indy 500 for your 25th wedding anniversary?” or “Jane, what kind of clothes do you think people wear to the Indy 500?” or…someone help me here.
Fortunately, Jane said OK. Might have been because Ashley and Danica were going to be there. What does it matter, though, right? Read More… |
 Questions and answers with Lord March Having attended Goodwood’s Festival of Speed for five consecutive years now, Festivalofspeed.net decided that it was time to find out the “behind the scenes” aspect of organizing such a seamless function. Having witnessed the rock-solid organization of all of the “main event” functions such as the timed runs, exhibition runs, the new forest rally stage, as well as all the support functions of catering, shops, Cartier Style et Luxe, vendor displays and overall paddock orgnazation, one would expect (as we did) literally hundreds of people to be involved in the formative months leading up to the event. Read More… |
 A visit to Pagani - It’s a beautifully warm, sunny day in Northern Italy as Oli and I gather ourselves together, check out of the hotel and begin our journey to see one of Italy’s premier automobile manufacturers, Pagani Automobili in Modena. Truly, today has been a day we’ve been looking forward to for several weeks, ever since speaking with Roberta Bicocchi and making arrangements for our visit. Experiences like these are truly “once-in-a-lifetime”, and everyone at Pagani went to considerable effort to accommodate our needs and answer our questions during the visit. Read More… |
 Goodwood Festival of Speed 2005 - When you reach the parking areas for the Festival, the first thing you notice is the wide expanse of pasture allocated for parking. This is your first clue that the event has reached mammoth proportions. At this point, you have the option to hop on one of the “tractor taxis” to the event, or walk the approximate quarter of a mile to the front gates. While most people seem to prefer the mechanized transport, it is somewhat of a surprise how many people elect to walk – especially nutters like yours truly, lugging over 50lbs of camera equipment on his back. Read More… |
 Special Vehicle Concepts - If we were to play a word association game with names like Jaguar, Suburban, Hummer, Land Rover and Cadillac, terms like “speedy” or “dynamic” probably wouldn’t be the first terms that sprang to your mind.Indeed, most of these names are associated with “heavy”, “big”, “slow” or “utilitarian”. So, you might ask, why would Oli and Jeremy head down to Costa Mesa to visit a company who works with these cars (and several others) on a daily basis? Read More… |
