Once I was out of the garage, and on my way out of the city, I was heading back to Livermore to get a couple hours of sleep. I had to go to Livermore since I was meeting up with my friend Rob at his house around 4:45 am so we could leave around 5:00 am. I ended up sleeping in my car for 2 hours, woke up, changed my clothes, brushed my teeth and drove over to his house. The Ferrari was in the driveway and warming up. After a little bit, it was time to go. We stopped for a quick top off of the fuel, then we were on our way.
We drove down to San Jose and got off the freeway so we could meet up with a few other that wanted to caravan down to the event. We grabbed some coffee and then waited for quite a while. I'm not sure when the others started showing up, but we were there for at least an hour. Once everyone had arrived, off we went once again. We then drove to Gilroy and exited the freeway again. We were picking up 1 more person. Once that was done, back on 101 we went.
I had decided it would be easier to take the group through Salinas and head in on 68 rather than go the longer route out and around through Seaside and then back in on 68. Well, we ended up stuck in a little bit of traffic. It wasn't to bad, but not knowing how the traffic was coming in from the West, I think it was still the better choice. I always drive this way when I go to the track, so it was the choice I made.
We did manage to get to Laguna Seca Golf Ranch at a decent time, and once we were in, it was all smiles. We walked around pretty much 90% of the day. The other 10% was talking to others that were attending the event. I took quite a bit of video and not to many photos. I was being pretty picky about what I wanted to photograph. But, when I found something of interest, I was snapping away. The highlight for me was the Ferrari F50 GT that was sitting there outside the Ferrari Hospitality tent. The F50 GT was flanked with an F50 on each side. I had been wanting to see one of these for several years, and finally I had. I went back to this beast several times throughout the day to try and get better shots. But it all depended on who would stay out of the view of the camera. IT SUCKS not having a wide angle lens. But, I managed to get a lot of pics of it anyways.
It was nice to walk around this show for once and meet others that were as passionate about being here as I was. I was finally able to put faces with names of those of whom frequent certain forum sites. Maybe next time it won't be as brief as it was. The one person that I did get to spend more than a brief moment with this year was the infamous Valentino Balboni, the master of all Lamborghini drivers. Last year I managed to meet him and get my AUTOart Lamborghini Countach signed, as well as the box, and a few photographs with him. This time around I was able to get another photo taken with him, as well as getting some video of him speaking some great words. I'll be adding the video to my Youtube once I get through all the video I have. Check out what I do have so far.
More show highlights for me - The beautiful 1952 Ferrari 212/225 Barchetta that was brought in by The Petersen Museum. This was the Ferrari that Enzo had given to Ford. This car was stunning. Then there were the 250 Berlinetta Lussos. This has been one of my favorite 250 series Ferraris for years. As far as Lamborghini goes, I would have to sat that seeing the several examples of Miuras on display was a treasure. Then there was the latest Lamborghini, The Aventador. I wish I had spent more time looking this car over. But I didn't. For some reason every year I always feel rushed. It just seems like there isn't enough time in the day to really look everything over to appreciate it as much as I would like to. Oh Well! There's always next year right?
Well once that was all over, it was time to head into Carmel for a great dinner at Little Napoli. Rob and I, along with another Ferraristi, Jeff, along with his girlfriend had dinner here last year with a few others. However, this year it was just the 4 of us. We talked for a long time about various things, finished dinner, then went next door to the Wine Bar that is part of Little Napoli. We were there for quite some time, talking some more, and viewing the cars and people wandering around outside. After dinner, it was time to have Rob take me to the track and drop me off as I didn't want to go all the way back home just to be back at the track early in the morning to volunteer for another weekend. I was dropped off, and away home the friends went.
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| Ferrari F50GT |
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| The Henry Ford 1952 Ferrari 212/225 Barchetta |
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| Matte Black Lamborghini Aventador |
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