The Quail Is A Motorsports Gathering For The Ages

Text and photography by Cooled Collective

For those lucky enough to make it to the yearly pilgrimage called Monterey Car Week, held in Monterey, California, one highlight of the festivities is The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. It is one of, if not the most prestigious car events in the world. You may have heard that The Quail is a hot ticket item, filled with an endless flow of champagne, diverse international foods, and the most exclusive cars in the game. And if you also heard that you’d get to rub elbows with the world’s elite, then you heard correctly. Should you ever have the opportunity to attend, The Quail is an experience that is not to be missed.

This was my fourth Car Week experience and my first time at this exclusive event; it surely did not disappoint, as the lusted-after vehicles on display were any car enthusiast’s dream. I met with my friend, Ken, and we were lucky enough to have parked in Lot C, which put us right at the gate. Following a trend of electronic ticketing for exclusive events, a paper ticket was not sufficient to gain us entry. Instead, a beautiful bracelet with an RFID chip was the ticket inside.

Our very first stop was, of course, Porsche’s exhibition. Porsche, with all of its design elegance, had an exquisite display of 911s including a rare 993 Turbo S and the brand-new 991.2 Speedster. Also, to help the day flow more smoothly, they had a snack and beverage bar which treated those mid-day hunger pangs. What a way to start the event!

Next on display were various vehicles from iconic movies such as Batman and Herbie. It was very cool to see the Batmobile from Tim Burton’s rendition of Batman.

Parallel to the movie cars was a lineup of various VW Buses from each of the different generations. It was interesting to see how much function and style these historic vans had, both then and now. As you can imagine, this display pulled a lot of attention from the sea of people who had many sentimental ties to these vehicles.

Now if you enjoy Ferraris—especially vintage ones—the Quail has no shortage of ultra-exclusive prancing horses. I am not an expert on Ferrari by any means but from what I could see, one of the more exclusive F-cars was a 250 Dino. If you ask me, there is nothing like looking at a classic Ferrari.

One of the smallest displays was at the legendary RUF tent, where Alois Ruf was greeting fans first hand. Alois is always gracious and so happy to meet fans from all over. When I asked him when the Yellowbird was coming stateside, with a big smile, he said “next year.” So I am very excited to finally be seeing them in California shortly.

One of the biggest draws of the show was this gorgeous McLaren F1 LM in all of its magnificent glory. This legendary masterpiece had a line of fans and photographers all around, as it was being driven up to receive its show award. Just look at this—Bravo, McLaren!

Finally, I spent some time visiting a good friend of mine, Ty, at the Pagani booth. He gladly explained the history of the entire Pagani lineup, including the original Pagani Zonda. It is nice when your buddy is in the marketing department of such a prestigious company—getting the VIP treatment was awesome! They had the all-new Huayra Roadster BC on display, and as you can imagine, it was stunning. Horacio Pagani was also present and I was lucky enough to have photographed their team photo for them. What a day!

Due to time constraints, there were several exhibits that I missed, but The Quail left an impression on me as a first-timer that I will never forget. Thank you to my friend Ken for the gracious invitation as your guest. It was one for the books!

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