The Concours at Pasadera

• Let’s first start off by explaining to our listeners, what is a Concours d’Elegance? Some people might be thinking… is this just another car show?
  • Concours are a competitive event – What does it take to enter? What level of vehicle prep is involved for a Concours?
  • How does one compete? How are vehicles judged? What is the judging criteria? Are there different classes? What types of vehicles are permitted to enter in a Concours?
• History / Origin of the Concours at Pasadera – now celebrating its 4th year.
  • What was the kickoff, what inspired the “Hey, let’s start a Concours” moment?
  • What are some of the more notable moments in Pasadera Concours history? Special guests, special judges, special vehicles…?
  • Tell us about the event poster, a lot goes into that, who is the artist, how is the art layed out?
  • Tell us about the beneficiaries of the Concours.
  • What can guests expect at the Pasadera Concours? Food, music, vendors? Can anyone attend/buy a ticket/enter a car?
  • Tell us about what makes Pasadera a little different from other Concours events. Discuss the size of the event and why that more intimate scale might be appealing to some.
  • What’s in the future for the Pasadera Concours?

and much, much more!

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Gran Touring Motorsports podcast, break Fix, where we’re always fixing the break into something motorsports related. The following episode is brought to us in part by Garage Style Magazine. Since 2007, garage Style Magazine has been the definitive source for car collectors continually delivering information about Automobilia Petroliana events and more.

To learn more about the annual publication and its new website, be sure to follow them on social media at Garage Style Magazine or log onto www.garagestylemagazine.com because after all, what doesn’t belong in your garage.

A juried collection of modern, classic and vintage automobiles gathered from club members and enthusiasts showcased in a luxurious, comfortable setting with awards by Tiffany and company guests. Enjoy an exceptional culinary experience while supporting the countrywide charitable causes of Casa of Monterey County, the [00:01:00] Bridge Addiction Recovery Program, and the Laguna Seka Raceway Foundation.

The concourses at Pasadera launches Car Week on the Monterey Peninsula. And with us tonight is Rick Barnett, chairman of the Concourses at Pasada, to explain the history and future of this beautiful event. So welcome to Break Fix Rick. Glad to be here. Like all good break fix stories. There’s always an origin behind the guests that we have on the show, and in this case, I think there’s a double origin here.

There’s your history as a petrol head, as a concourses participant, but also the founder of one of the newest concourses during Car Week in Monterey. Let’s start off first by explaining to our listeners what is a concourse to elegance. Some people might be thinking, is that just another car show? Concord to Elegance is really a cue for the Pebble Beach event that has been going on now for so many years.

And actually in using that term, it brings me back to my first car show experience. We [00:02:00] decided to take a first time date. To a car show, August 23rd, 1979 at Pebble Beach. It was great. It was a great experience. It was a great date. I thought, I’m gonna take this young girl, Lori Smith, to a car show. We’ll have a good time.

I’ll drop her off that night, Sunday evening, and then that would be it. Little did I know that on Monday we would talk for a couple of hours on the phone, and Tuesday I asked her to marry me. Here we are 43 years later, looking back at the first car show that, uh, that I ever attended, which was at Pebble Beach and the Concord Allegan, Concord Paer, the concept of it started about four and a half, five years ago with club members at Passera who were car enthusiasts that said, why don’t we put together a car show that would represent some of the car collections that exist by PA era members Invite their guests.

And club members and homeowners of the community at Passera to a car show. [00:03:00] It started out with that concept, and it grew before the first event, which happened in 2019. Suddenly we had about 400 people that showed up a lot more than what was originally anticipated. Some great cars, cars from all over the west, and it became an event that not only was.

The kickoff to Car Week, but also something that benefited local charities as well. Today, four years later, going into the fourth anniversary of the Concord at Pasadera, Pasadera continues to launch Car Week this year, August 11th, we’ll be the press party at the club. August 12th. Friday will be the show.

And then Saturday and Sunday, uh, Laguna Seka is our active. Track days for the race course and then Monday Car Week starts to kick off and gets very busy for that following week, and then Pebble Beach closes at that following Sunday. So when I attended with my Now wife, our first car show together, Car [00:04:00] Week was three days.

It was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Today it’s a nine day event. PA Eric kicks off Car week on Friday, the week before Pebble Beach closes car week. That following Sunday. For the listeners that thank, gosh, what is Car Week and Monterey? Last year there were 23 car shows that happened during that nine day period of time.

23 car shows the most active car collector week, if you want to call it that nine day period of time in the entire world. And that’s also followed up by the Monterey Historics as well at Laguna Seka where they actually run some of these vehicles on the track. That’s correct. Some of the cars that are at our event, We’ll leave on Friday night after the club 100 dinner and the following day we will turn right around and become active all during the week at various shows and historic races, et cetera.

Rick, correct me if I’m wrong, if we touch on the origins of concourses and I have participated in some years [00:05:00] prior, you know, helping out, especially with the, the Deutschmark concourse here on the East Coast, the Porsche parades, things like that. I noticed there was a big difference between a concourse and what people are doing now.

You know, the cars and coffee and the local car shows and things like that. Concourses. Is competitive. It’s a judged event. It’s very stressful. I never realized what it was really all about and it stems all the way back to the early days of the automobile in France, where even in some respects that concourses the elegance of, of elegance there was to show off the latest and greatest bespoke models coming out of all these different manufacturers.

Does Concourse today still follow in that same model? Is it still competitive? What is it like now, let’s say a hundred years later? Well, it’s interesting. When you say a hundred years, you’re almost right on the first Concor. The D Lagon was held at Vade a back in 1929 at Lake Como, Italy. The tradition of the Concord [00:06:00] Elegance continued on at Pebble Beach.

Starting in 1950 and then continued there to the Hillsborough in 1956. So we’ve seen almost a hundred years of car collector Concord events that have been happening all throughout the world. The Concord Elegance is a, an event that itself has gone through a series of evolutionary identifications. And what I mean by that is there was a period of time early on.

Where the Concorde de Elegance moniker, if you will, was really focused more on the elegant cars that had been chosen by or jury or by the event itself. But as time went on, we see that at Pebble Beach as an example, but truly throughout the world, cars that are honored in various classes are shown and exhibited at the Concorde Elegance events globally, as an example.

Sterling Moss arrived at one [00:07:00] of the events with a Mercedes 300 SL race car. Well, you know, that certainly was not an Elegance car, but it was a race car and it had historic significance. And so these are the kinds of, you might say, evolutionary progress that has happened with the Concorde events. The Concor at Pasadera is unique in that it has each year, much like some of the others, a theme that we focus on.

However, we reach out into the spirit of that theme that might evolve in into other marks or other styles of cars. As an example, and this year it would be a perfect example for 2022. The Concor at Pasadera is celebrating the designers and the coach builders. Of Ferrari. We’re not talking about just Ferrari vehicles.

We’re talking about designers who had an influence on the coach designs of Ferrari or the coach builders [00:08:00] themselves. Of course, many people didn’t realize or don’t realize the fact that Ferrari for many years reached out into various coach builders, uh, GIA. Zagato PanIN Farina. Of course, everyone would recognize that, but there were so many coach builders that contributed to the design and the style of Ferrari.

It was just not PanIN Farina, which of course I think in most cases is the most notable. There were so many different designers, dozens of them that had contributions into the look and feel of Ferrari designers. And coach builders. And so this year for 2022, the Concor at Pasadera celebrates those designers and coach builders of Ferrari.

And so we will see cars dating back into the fifties all the way up to 2022. The most recent Ferraris that are just coming off the line, our guests will be able to see the [00:09:00] evolutionary styles of both the inspiration of the car itself. The brand, the Ferrari, A dream that few people will ever realize, as well as the stylistic changes of, as an example of Bertoni, which is very angular would almost say focused in his design as compared to a PanIN Farina that was much more iCal or emotional, I would say from a wavy standpoint.

And so the guests are going to see in center court this year, 40 different cars. That will range in style from something as simple perhaps as a a 73 Volvo 1800 Es, which of course you wouldn’t expect that to have a Ferrari lineage, but it does. The designer of the Volvo 1800 Es, the inspiration of that car came from a very influential designer that had.

His roots in working at the Ferrari company and so we will see [00:10:00] cars of that style all the way up to GTO o Ferraris that are worth in the millions of dollars. In fact, there are gonna be two cars on exhibit, each one of them, his historic Ferraris that will be worth over 50 million each. Anything from something as simple, if you want to call it that, is a Volvo Sport wagon all the way up to.

A 50 million Ferrari, any of the influences and style designs that could have had an impact on Ferrari or its designers over a number of decades, those are the cars that the people will be able to enjoy and gain a little historic nature of. However, That won’t be the only thing. There is a section of the show that is called the Corvette Corral.

20 Corvettes will be chosen dating back to the C1 era, 19 53, 54, all the way up to the current C eight s that we’re seeing in the dealer showrooms. Each one of them unique. There’s [00:11:00] a story behind each one of them, but they’ll be able to see 20 of those cars in the Corvette corral, the alumni collection, which will be 20 cars.

Chosen from past Concor events that the jury members have chosen as significant contributors to the overall inspiration of this year’s concor event. 20 cars that have been exhibited at past events that will now come back and resurface to show design styles or storyboards of cars that were significant.

That carry over into some influence of this year’s concor event. And then we even have a section called Fairway One, which is sort of an inspirational area as people park their cars to come into the event. There’ll be 20 vehicles that are chosen that are all over the map, everything from maybe a Porsche GT three to a totally restored frame off.

72 Blazer, K [00:12:00] five that has been lifted and very unique. They’ll see 20 cars that seemingly have no rhyme or influence, but technically they have an influence to the overall event. So never more than a hundred cars at the Concord at Paer. But an exciting event for car enthusiasts of all types. This year also marks the 75th birthday for Ferrari, so that’s quite the milestone there as well, to be celebrating that at Pasero.

I like the fact that comparing this Concorde to other ones, you know, maybe single mark, even something like Pebble or Amelia or things like that where they do follow the A A C A or. Or triple C rules. Yeah. That say the car must only be of this, kind of this bespoke ness of these years and things like that.

You’ve opened it up and that allows you to bring in people with modern classics or modern collector cars and mix it in with the vintage or more rare vehicles that are out there. So I I, I really do appreciate that. Cause I think it’s important that we [00:13:00] recognize, and I wanna be clear on this, I think if we understand the future, Of the appreciation of the automobile.

We have to take a regard, if you will. We have to accept what’s happening at the Peterson. The Peterson has decided that as a museum, they were going to connect with Art Center, and so the Peterson and Art Center down in Southern California are. Interconnected. And what the Peterson has decided along with the art center, is that the future of the appreciation of automobiles and the art influences of automobiles need to be attractive to a younger crowd, not just the 60, 65 year old who, uh, is now decided that as a hobby, they’re going to start collecting cars or they’ll turn the hands of time back and now, Jump in their nine 14 and remember the days when they wished they had one and they came out, what were they, $3,500 I think, or the two 40 Z In [00:14:00] 1970, which I think was 36 95, people were jumping out of the showroom floor and running ’em up to Elkhart Lake winning races in the two 40 z.

I think it’s important that we recognize the fact the people of the Peterson and Art Center have decided that the future of the appreciation of automobiles needs to have a focus. For the young as well as for the more mature collector. It’s very important for us at the Concord PA era to be able to design our events each year to attract all ages.

So you’ll see boys and girls that will be between the ages of 8, 10, 12 years old that are at the event, enjoying it. In fact, last year we had the first ever Hot Wheels concord during Car Week, Monterey. And we had everything from full size Hot Wheels cars that drove in to $175,000 Hot Wheels Die cast miniature that Bruce Pascal brought in from [00:15:00] Washington DC and everything in between.

The newest 94 cent Hot Wheels car from Walmart all the way up to $175,000 Beach bomber car from Bruce Pascal and everything be in between. Hot Wheels cars were featured last year. We had a lot of kids that were enjoying that part of the show. So it’s important for us, I think, in the car collector community to recognize that in order for us to be responsible for the future of that culture, that we need to attract all ages, all styles.

And all types of vehicles. So since you guys have relaxed the types of cars that can enter the concor, has the judging also changed over the years? Have you taken some things that you’ve learned participating in other ones and modernized them for your event? I don’t want to contradict. I don’t know that that we’ve relaxed as far as the intent of the event.

The event has a definite [00:16:00] intent. Each year, however, as far as, you know, using the word relaxed, yes. I, I mean, the judging is not such that the judges stick a mirror shelf underneath the car to take a look at the exhaust design and so forth to make sure that it fits within the originality of the car, et cetera, et cetera.

That’s not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for interior that has been either restored, either to original or modified, and we can identify it as such. The exterior that has been either original paint with original patina, or if it’s been modified to some degree. In some cases, there are some cars that will be shown that actually don’t have the original.

Color of that particular car will have a concept car. As an example, this year we may have a very unique one-off Ferrari concept car that you really couldn’t judge against because there is no portfolio. To [00:17:00] review on this particular concept card, it’s a one-off from the standpoint that we have relaxed the judging.

I think the judges are interested in the mechanical bay, they’re interested in the interior, they’re interested in the exterior. And if in fact, the car runs suitably and those are the things that they’re after, they’re not going to check whether or not the turn signals go left or right. They’re not going to get into that detail, what they’re looking for.

Is the overall assurance of the intent of the car, and that really is very much the judge’s profile for the event once again this year. So that would also imply if you’re in a competition, it’s not just one class and everybody’s competing in, there’s multiple classes that these cars fall under. How does that break out in a con, a concor like yours?

Last year, the classes that existed that the awards winners participated in were domestic, beginning with 1940 and all the way up to [00:18:00] contemporary Times, dating up to 1989. So I think it was 1942 to 1989. So in domestic and international, Vintage pre-war, so 1941. Earlier that was a particular class competition.

Cars, obviously cars that had been used in races and what the providence was of those races. We wanted to know how they were raced, where they were raced. Commercial we had vans probably would come as no surprise to car collectors. The 1961 panel van. Won last year’s commercial, but this panel van was valued at over $250,000.

So definitely a pristine 1961 Volkswagen panel van. Of course, I still remember the days when those could have been bought off of a car lot for $1,200. Modern, classic. Those were cars from 1990 all the way through to current times. We even had motorcycles last year, which was interesting. We had 10 motorcycles that began in 1939, all the [00:19:00] way up to current times, and then we had Hot Wheels.

So those were the different classes that existed for 2021. Now, today we see that things are different. And what I mean by that is to, in the 2022 event, because we’ve identified this group of cars that have had a design influence either by a coach builder or a designer. That had an influence in Ferrari.

We’ve decided to identify the group of cars by decade, the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties 2000, and then from 2010 to current. And so these are now the groups of cars that the judges will sift through the grouping of cars in the fifties, the grouping of cars in the sixties, and they’ll.

Pick a car that they feel best represents the design, the feel, the emotion of the sixties of the seventies, and that will be the car that wins that particular class. Ultimately moving [00:20:00] on to being into consideration for the best of show. And the Passera Cup, and that’s how that will be rated this year.

Passera Cup is a beautiful cup that was designed by Tiffany, absolutely gorgeous. And each year that cup is awarded to the best of show car. Is there a multi-year champion yet? Well, once a car has won the Passera Cup, it cannot be reentered. It’s a one-off. Do you yourself compete in the concor? Well, I always have a car in there.

I mean, I’d feel like it’d be a sacrilege to be the chairman of the event and not have a car in, but my cars are not up for the kinds of competition that some of these cars that come in legitimately are just abso. Well, as an example, Just to give you perspective, one of the cars that we’ll have coming in this year will be flown over from Paris into the United States and will be exhibited here at the show.

These are car collectors that are very serious about getting their cars in this year’s event. [00:21:00] I’ve got cars in my collection that quite frankly, As a young person, I always looked at, uh, even up to my current age, uh, now in my sixties, and they have always aspired to. I’ve got a 9 14 2 liter, I’ve got a Bentley Arnage, I’ve got a variety of cars, M G B G T, those were all cars that were important to me as I was 16 years old and thinking someday I’m gonna end up with a cool car.

From that point forward, I started collecting the cars. I really like to drive. And so, uh, those are the cars that I have in my collection. So that’s good that you have your own cars in the show. So let me ask you this. From a concourse perspective, we ask this question a lot on the show, you know, what’s the sexiest car of all time you having been going to shows like Pebble Beach since you know, the early days?

What is one of the most gorgeous cars in your opinion? There are a lot of beautiful contemporary cars. If somebody was listening and they have a car that of a particular style or design, and they’re gonna hear me say what I’m gonna say, they go, oh, that guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But I think we [00:22:00] really have to go back.

To the thirties and the forties, and look at the Della Hayes as an example, or the Hispanos, those cars, which were a style of their own. First of all, imagine who the builder was and imagine the shops that they had, and remember that all the bodies were. Individually hammered out, you know, they didn’t come out of a machine or a press, they were individually hammered out.

And then you, you met with the client, and the client would talk about perhaps the style of the fender that they wanted in the back and. Maybe the type of light that they wanted, whether the, some of the metal inside was gold plated or chrome, some of the thirties and forties era, Della Hayes, and then some of the fifties, uh, and, and early sixties, one off Ferrari’s.

And Maseratis those groupings of cars. Boy, you know, it’d be tough to pick one car, but certainly those two eras for me at least, they were [00:23:00] amazing. They absolutely amazing. And the whole car experience. For the buyer was absolutely significant. Just rolling works of art. Of course, we see that today. In fact, earlier today I was talking with, uh, someone from Ohio.

I had a personal experience with this person. Uh, a few years ago we were in San Diego at an event. And he said, gosh, I really wanna buy a Corvette. Never had a Corvette before. I really wanna buy a Corvette, and I want you to tell me what I should buy. And I said, well, here’s what’s gonna happen. I said, the Zuora, which I, you know, we didn’t know what the name was gonna be at the time.

2017, I believe it was 17 or 18, said the Zuora is gonna come out and most likely by design. It will not have a manual transmission. And so my recommendation is that you get a very cool C seven with a seven speed, and if I were going to pick one, I would pick a collector’s edition C seven. Here’s the color and here’s the style that I would pick, which was a gun [00:24:00] metal metallic that was just absolutely cool on that particular car.

And it had a two-tone, blue and black. Leather interior, just magnificent and a seven speed. So I said that if I were gonna design. A Corvette to keep. That would be the car that I would get. The Zuora’s gonna come out, it’s not gonna have a manual transmission, I don’t believe, based on the design. And so I would grab that.

Well, lo and behold, he said, well, let’s go buy one. I said, you’re not gonna buy one. You know you’re not. Where are we gonna get, go to Chicago? You know, we’re in San Diego. It was a Saturday afternoon. I said, well, you know, I’ll call around and talk to a Chevy dealer and find out if they can locate one. Lo and behold, I called my hometown.

I. They said, you won’t believe it. Your car is in Carlsbad, California. Well, we were in San Diego, Carlsbad’s like, what is it? 30 minute Drive? I don’t know. So we jumped in an Uber and drove up to Carlsbad. We walk into the showroom and that car is sitting in there. Bottom line is the car was [00:25:00] bought and shipped to Ohio, and here we are.

I, I was talking to him earlier today. He’s got this seven speed collector’s edition C seven. I don’t think they’ll ever be another manual transmission Corvette, and he’s got one that is truly unique. There again, you know, you say to yourself, well, it’s a C seven. What’s so special about it? Well, you know what, I know I’m getting off on a tangent here.

But I gotta tell you, the wonderful thing about car collecting is that a person can have a 66 Barracuda and another person can have a Willy’s, and another person can have a 3 0 8 G T s Ferrari, and another person can have a 76 El Dorado convertible. And you bring all those people together at a car show and you start them talking about cars and they’re all on the same level playing field.

They love cars. They love the stories behind them. It doesn’t matter that one car’s worth 80,000 and another car’s worth 20,000. They’re all on a level playing field and they’re part of a [00:26:00] collector community that is just special. You bring up a very good point, and I wanted to ask you, what are some of the more notable moments at Pasadera?

What are some of the cars that really stuck out that you were like, wow, this showed up? I mean, obviously you’re behind the scenes, you know, they’re coming just like you were talking about the car coming in from Paris. Yeah. But what are some of those awe inspiring moments like this car has been at our event?

I’ll give you one story that I think everybody will marvel at. I won’t give you the the individual’s name, but let’s, we’ll call him Jim. And Jim, a number of years ago, was at a Ferrari dealership and he walks into the Ferrari dealership, and on the floor is a early sixties, G T O and a luso. They’re both on the floor and the G T O was priced at $8,000 more than the Luso, and he decided, gosh, I just can’t justify that additional $8,000.

So he bought the [00:27:00] Luso instead of the GTO o. And of course, you know, we know today the GTO’s worth the fortune and the Luso is worth a fair amount of money, but. We’re talking about a car that’s in the three to $5 million range, if it’s perfect, versus a car that’s in the 50 to $80 million range. The time there was only an $8,000 difference.

Now let’s move on. Jim drives the car every day, loves the car. It’s a daily driver for him, and absolutely loves the car. And one day he’s driving down the freeway. There’s a truck on the left side, and I think all of us have seen at one time or another, trucks that have lug nuts that stick way out. We’ve seen these chrome wheels on these beautiful semis that, I mean, you can tell the big driver is a car collector himself on his semi.

You know, they’re beautiful colors and beautiful chrome wheels and lug nuts that are sticking out Almost like a gladiator boat of sere spikes. Exactly. Yeah. So these lug nuts are sticking out. And he’s passing the truck on the [00:28:00] right side. In this luso, the truck veers over and the lug nuts grab a hold of the luso from the rear of the car, absolutely trash the car from the rear of the car all the way to the front fender, uh, like a gladiator kind of a thing where it just rips the car apart.

Now the car. Flips ends up in a ditch, flattens the roof. The guy’s in the car, breaks a clavicle, breaks his ribs. I think his hip as well. The car is totally trashed. It’s in the ditch. I mean, a total, you know, the ambulance comes and they bring him to the hospital and the car gets hauled away and uh, you know, is it a junker or whatever?

He won’t see that it gets thrown away and whatever parted out. He gets outta the hospital. I mean, this is now a couple of years later where he is still in rehab and the car is now sitting in its destroyed condition, but the man cannot give up his car. He can’t give it up. And so ultimately, [00:29:00] as he survives and he becomes financially able, he brings the car into a restoration shop and over.

Nearly a decade. The car goes through a total frame up, ground up restoration from its very core and every part and every nut and bolt is restored on this car. And this was last year. Ultimately, the car ends up in Monterey for some final work by a craftsman, and that’s the only way I can call him months.

Into the project, the car is working its way through, hoping that it will be ready in time for it to be able to be displayed somewhere during car week. Understand how long it’s taken the car to bring it to this point, so I get in contact with the project manager of the car. And the project manager tells me that maybe, maybe, maybe the car could be shown at our event, and millions of [00:30:00] dollars have been spent to restore this car to its original condition.

Friday morning, one 30 at night, the project manager completes the car and goes through road testing and everything at about one o’clock in the afternoon on Friday, that day of our event. At one o’clock, the car arrives at our event for exhibit and no one has seen this car, not even the owner who is in Southern California and has not physically been able to come up to the show.

Not even the owner has seen the car through its restoration process and now in its final form. But the project manager brings the car in with his son and the car arrives at Center Court. At one o’clock in the afternoon in time for the show to open at two and for the guests to be able to see this car that has essentially been mothballed for almost a decade and gone through restoration.

And I’m on the [00:31:00] phone with the owner, and the owner is choking up in emotion as I described to him what the car looks like and where the car is and how many people are looking at the car, and how enjoyable it is to have the car at the event. Now that is quite a story. What a special car, what a special journey that went through.

Yeah. I mean the tragedy and rebirth. Yeah. So that also begs the question, do you guys have special guests or special judges that have shown up at Pasadera? Sure. Yeah. If you go onto paer.com, you’ll see two of the judges. There’s one who’s asked to be anonymous. But if you go on to passera.com. You’ll see the listing of judges and also the jury members that will be part of the overall vetting of the cars, and ultimately in the judges’ column, those judges that will be responsible for the overall awards.

So is this the year Jay Leno shows up unannounced? You know, we’d love to have Jay here. I met him at an event, told him that I’d love [00:32:00] to have him arrived. Obviously his schedule’s busy and so we’d love to have him show up, but he’s not on the. Special unannounced guest list. So that’s Seinfeld. Seinfeld does that right now.

We’ll just have to hope. So there’s something else very special about the Paer event, and that’s the event posters themselves. I hear that there’s a ton of work that goes into that. Who’s the artist? How is the art laid out? I mean, I’ve the one over your shoulder. For the listeners that aren’t seeing this in the behind the scenes, it exemplifies the Ford versus Ferrari 66 67 era of Lamonts.

Tell us where the poster came from and the significance of it for the events. Well, the poster inspiration came from my appearing with my now wife in 1979, and I have a copy of the 1979 Concor poster over my desk. I’m looking at it right now. When we decided that I would be in involved with the Concorde here at Pasada as a Christmas gift, she got me a copy of the poster, which I did not [00:33:00] get.

You know, I remember at Pebble when Lori and I arrived there for our first date, I parked about three blocks. From the entrance to a lodge, and I think our entry fee was $35, and I think the poster was either 25 or $35 for the poster. Obviously, times have changed. It’s difficult to park your car, park your car miles away, and then bus in to the Concorde these days.

The poster back then, I didn’t buy. My wife decided a few years ago as a Christmas gift, she would get me the 1979 poster, which at the time was either 25 or $35. I think she paid $375 for the poster. That’s inflation. That’s what all it’s, yeah. Which I was thrilled to get. So, you know, we decided that the poster would be an important part of the event.

Ken Ebert, who’s a friend of mine that has done many posters for the Concor, It has really been an inspiration to me artistically throughout the years. Me coming from now the art exhibition community, which it was my vocation [00:34:00] in 2019. The first poster was created by, uh, Michael Henderson, and it was really the entree to what would become a very important part of the show.

2020 Simon Bull, the celebrated English artist, did the first poster for the Concor at Pasadera, and it was Ford versus Ferrari. That was the first poster and it became an instant collectible piece. There are still a few that are available, but they got gobbled up quick limited edition, both in the artist proof edition where the artist signed the pieces, as well as in the open edition, there were only 500 that were created in an open edition, 100 artist proofs.

So the Ford versus Ferrari. You can see the, the battle that’s going on between the two cars, the Gulf, and then uh, five 12 in the background in each. Situation. The poster shows the center Court of Paer. As if it was a racetrack, and so it obviously been very well received. Then if we go to [00:35:00] 2021, it became interesting in that we wanted to celebrate the back-to-back victory of Porsche at Lamar in 70 71, once again by Simon Bull who was chosen to be the artist that year.

Was entitled Decade of Champions. And if you see that poster, and again it’s on pa era.com, you see the the Dunlop Tire in the backdrop with the PA era tower underneath the Dunlop Tire. And then of course the Lamont track, where we see the nine seventeens, the 5 12 4 gt. And then in the background, the fifth car.

We see the number 49 14 6 that is battling the other four credible behemoths in the front. This poster, which has had a tremendous amount of collectibility by the art collectors, uh, it was just a super poster that was last year’s poster. Now, this year we called on James Caldwell, the son of celebrated architect, James Caldwell.

This is James Caldwell, [00:36:00] the second. James has been the artist of the Concorso Italiano each year for a number of years. We asked James to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Laguna Seka, moving from the forest race out of Pebble Beach over to its first race at Laguna Seka in 1957. And of course, the Ferrari winning the race being battled by the 300 SL in the background.

So if you look at that particular poster, once again, you see the courtyard. Of pa and you see the two Ferraris that are in the center courtyard and in the backdrop we see the corkscrew of, uh, the track and the battle that’s going on back in 1957. So this is a great poster. The originals have been pre-sold.

They’re very expensive, and the collectors that have bought these originals have something that has become very significant in the tens of thousands of dollars. Say exactly how much, but a lot of money that the originals have sold for. So we. [00:37:00] Intend to continue that tradition each year, next year with the 70th anniversary of Corvette.

So what I appreciate about these, you don’t see it often though, especially with being associated with a concord. Normally you’ll see, like you said, pictures of a DHE or a Packard, or a TBO or something. Just very extravagant, very elegant. So far, all of your posters are grounded in motorsports, classic motorsports, iconic moments in time.

That really speaks to me. As a motorsports enthusiast and obviously as a vehicle enthusiast as well. So I wonder, is that going to continue? Is that going to be the tradition or is it always gonna be those moments in racing history, or will it maybe eventually migrate into something else? Well, you know, who knows?

I can only say, well, I mean, honestly, I don’t know. This will be my last year as the point person for the event. Next year there’ll be a new guard that will take on the overall operation of the event as it continues to grow and flourish. I can only say that there has been. A [00:38:00] tremendous amount of appeal of capturing a moment in time, giving significance to it as the challenge of racing excellence.

That’s what Paer has really been about. You’re right. I think that when we look at Pebble and we are going to see, uh, in most cases a stationary car that is not focused on a, a moment in time of racing competition, but in each of the Passera posters, we’re seeing a war. And that’s really what it is. We’re seeing a war going on between automobiles, drivers and manufacturers, and we’ve captured that in each of the three posters that have had a lot of significance.

Will we see that in the future? Probably. But I don’t wanna put a a, a definite on that. So there’s one more important factor about the Concor, which is the beneficiaries of the concor. We highlighted a few of those at the beginning in the intro, but would you like to expand upon that and tell us what they are, why they’re important, how things are distributed?

If we take a look at who the [00:39:00] beneficiaries are, they’ve been chosen each year by someone or some. Thing that we have believed have been significant to the contribution and culture of the Peninsula. You know, if we look at both our sponsors, who the sponsors are, and who the beneficiaries are of the event this year, once again, we’ve chosen the Bridge Restoration Ministry, which is an addiction recovery program for men and women.

Celebrating its 15th year. Very successful program here on the Central Coast that actually has reached out to over 15 states across the United States. Hundreds of graduates that have come through the program and have had their lives changed free of addiction, have drugs and alcohol. So a great program.

Casa. Which is uh, the Court appointed special advocate program that works very closely with children in Need. CASA’s, just a wonderful program. And then finally, the Laguna Seka Raceway Foundation, which is really designed to find [00:40:00] ways of improving not only the style and design of the race course and its original intention, but also the safety of the course for its participants and its guests.

And then of course, we look at the sponsors. We have local sponsors, attorneys, J R G, and Monterey Touring vehicles. And Adobe Winery and Veloce Valuations Porsche Group that is active with us every single year, there are under premier sponsors. These are the people that contribute to the event. People like R P M as an example that put money into the event.

So that the event can happen without them, the event would not exist. It is the confluence of intent from the sponsors as well as the beneficiaries that create such a cultural impact on the peninsula, and people from all over the world are now attending the Concor at Pasadera. And seeing what a difference a little car show can make to many people throughout the world.

I think a lot of us are getting excited [00:41:00] about this little car show You keep talking about for people that are interested in coming to Pasadera as a visitor for the first time. Yeah. What are some of the expectations, food, music, vendors, can anyone attend? How do they buy a ticket? Obviously you’ve already pre-registered for people that wanna enter their cars.

Yeah. But what about if there’s somebody that wants to enter a car for next season? Well, next season’s registration time will be announced after this year’s event. I would just say go to pass itera concor.com and you’ll be able to see continuing up updates on that. As far as what to expect at the event, the entry fee is very reasonable.

$195. What a person gets to experience is. Absolute amazing wines by Adobe that they will get to experience a welcome glass of champagne when they walk through the front gate. And then of course, food that is absolutely second to none. Created by award-winning chefs that will not disappoint anyone who attends the event.

The food is excellent. The camaraderie is [00:42:00] exceptional. Automobiles of many makes and models and styles can be enjoyed by every level of collector, and even if you’re not a car enthusiast, you can come to an event like this and appreciate just the overall experience of the kickoff of Car Week on the Monterey Peninsula, which has been going on since 1950.

I would say that young and old are going to attend this event and walk away with a memorable experience. How does someone get into concourses for the first time? How does somebody get into Pasada? How do they become a concourse enthusiast like you did so many years ago, and then compete with their cars and things like that?

Would you care to give some advice? Does somebody that’s listening to this going, you know, I’m really tired of going to cars and coffee, or, I’m tired of going to my local events. I wanna step it up. I wanna take home a nice award from Tiffany. How do they cross that threshold? Well, if they’re an exhibitor, I would tell ’em not to be bashful.

If they are someone who enjoys automobiles and they [00:43:00] have something special, I would encourage them not to be bashful. Get on passera concord.com. Take a look at the different opportunities to register and get your car on there. Uh, what’s the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is that the jury says no, but you’ve had an opportunity to actually submit a registration to the event.

Be considered. So I would encourage everyone who’s uh, listening to this podcast, don’t be bashful, get online, go to pass eric.com, go to tickets and registration and register your car. Let’s see what the jury thinks. Who would’ve thought that the jury would’ve. Pick a Volvo 1800 Es to be in center court this year, and yet when you take a look at the design history of that car and who the designer was and the influence that they had in conjunction with their time at Ferrari.

It became an obvious pick. There’s an example of, you know, a wolf in sheep’s clothing from a standpoint of an exhibitor this year. As far as a guest [00:44:00] and attending. You know, there’s only so many tickets that are accepted into the show. I would encourage you as a guest to go to passera concor.com, get on ticket and register.

If you’re accepted, then you get to attend an event. That many people, and I don’t want to sound egotistical on this, but many people have said that have attended the Pass at Air Concor. It will be the event that they enjoy most during Car Week because there is a casual elegance about the event because it happens.

As a launch to car week, the busyness and the frenzy of car week doesn’t exist on that Friday. When you attend the Paer Concor, it is a relaxed, enjoyable experience, not rushed. You get to see the purpose, the reason for the event. With the cultural influence, the contributions to the community, the appreciation of the different styles and car, uh, models of cars, there is a relaxed, enjoyable atmosphere of the [00:45:00] event.

And again, people walk away from the concor at PA era can go online and look at the comments that come from the people they look forward to next year. And so the tickets are selling very briskly. And I would say that if you can get a ticket and be part of the event, either as a guest or an exhibitor, Don’t be bashful.

Get online and register. Car care goes hand in hand with concourses and car shows. What’s in your bucket when you go to take care of your vehicles or prep them? Maybe some advice, some tips and tricks you’ve learned over the years for getting your car concor ready. Last year, Don Weiberg from Garage Style Magazine introduced xmal to the event.

It was interesting because there was. Some left over and I ended up using it on my own cars. And I’ve gotta say that the other products that I’ve had in my bucket have stayed in my bucket and I’ve used up the product that Don provided us and I’ve bought more of it. That really has become my [00:46:00] staple in my garage.

I mean, I have eight cars and I can tell you that every one of them has had that product on their paint job or on their Chrome, or on their interior Imal product has really been excellent. I appreciate you bringing that up because we actually had the founder of Xmal on our show, Chuck Bennett a while back, and he explained the history of the product, its evolution, where it’s going in the future.

So if you missed that episode and you’re hearing about Xmal now for the first time, or you’re reading about it on Garage Tile Magazine, be sure to hop over. To our previous episode. You can learn all about xmal that way. Let’s talk about the future just a little bit. You mentioned earlier that you’re on your way out as the president of the Pasadera concourse, but knowing what you know outside of Corvette, what does the next couple of years look like for the concourse?

Anything on the horizon that we should be aware of? I can tell you that the event has continued to grow, and I say grow, I mean in a very responsible manner. Tiffany continues to be involved. The quality of wines, beverages, food continues [00:47:00] to grow in quality and experience. I will tell you there is one thing that will change next year, and it’s a spinoff from this year to kick off Car season.

Monterey Motorsports authored the first tour, the Coasta Copper Blossom Trail tour that took off from the lodge at Pebble Beach and worked its way around the old race course at Pebble around Laguna Seka on up the Central Valley through the Almond Blossom Groves. To the little town of Hilmar where we had lunch and then moved on to the town of Coppers, about an hour outside of Yosemite where the group gathered in preparation for a concor for this year in 2022.

It was an exceptional event. Exceptional event. And so next year, while I won’t be chairing the Concor at Pa Itera, next year we will be hosting the second annual Coasta Copper Blossom Trail tour in March. It’s limited to 60 cars and we had a focus on Ferrari This year, [00:48:00] next year, the focus will be on Corvette and it will coincide with the theme of the Concord at PA era.

You can go on to monterey motorsports.com and find out what’s happening for. Next year’s tour event, and that will be something that will essentially usher in car season each year as a precursor to the Concord PA era. You know, beyond that, I can only tell you that the enthusiasm for the event is at an all time high.

We’re excited about how Concord Passera will continue to evolve and attract exhibitors and guests to its event. That’s said. Rick, as we close out any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you’d like to share that we didn’t cover thus far? I will tell you this, that, you know, I mentioned the sponsors that have been a big part of this year’s event.

I’d like to provide special recognition to both the Pacific region and the Monterey Ferrari clubs that have been involved in this year’s event. They have had a broad [00:49:00] reach. In reaching out to special cars that will be featured at this year’s event. Also veloce valuations and more imports that will be bringing to the event both PanIN Farina and Zagato cars that will be on exhibit and on display.

They are the purveyor. Of some exceptional fine quality automobiles, and of course our Porsche dealer, who is the classic partner dealer for Porsche, has an influence to the car collector community that’s been very substantial. So we’re excited about all of our sponsors and what they bring to the event.

The posters. I would tell all of your listeners if they are still available dating back to 2020, I would grab ahold of them because for just a few dollars you can collect. A piece of art that is absolutely significant in the car collector world. The fourth annual concourses at Pasadera Honors Ferrari’s 75th anniversary and presents the coach builders of [00:50:00] Ferrari like PanIN, Farina, GIA, baritone, SKGL Z, and others designers of Alfa Romeo Lancia, and Aston Martin to name a few.

These masterpieces will be exhibited by decade starting from the 1950s, the August 11th press party honors Ferrari’s wins and class victories at Lamont since 1949 and its Formula One championships through 2022. To learn more about the concourses at Pasadera, be sure to visit www.pasadaconcourses.com and you can follow them on social at Concourse pasada on Facebook and at pasada concourses on Instagram.

So Rick, I can’t thank you enough for coming on the show and sharing your part of the vehicle enthusiast world with our audience teaching us about the world of concourses and the newest, hottest concourses on the block, the concourses at Pasadera. So thank you for everything you’ve done, and we look forward to the coming seasons and continuation of this great event.

It’s been a [00:51:00] real joy to be on this program with you, and I really appreciate the time we’ve spent.

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