EVENTS: Monterey Historics, Part 05 — Sights & Sounds

138_Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka

The Monterey Historics car week is one of the world’s great automotive events, and 2014 was a milestone year for Japanese classics. After all, seminal Nihon steel made strong showings at auctions, iconic Japanese cars raced at Laguna Seca, and Japanese automakers even held news-making unveilings there. All of that, however was merely a blink-and-you-missed-it blip on the larger radar of the traditional classic world.

Though there’s a lot of non-Japanese content in this article, we think it’s important to show some of our younger readers the larger scope of what goes on at an event like the Monterey Historics and how the J-tin figures into the big picture.

1466_Toyota 2000GT

For 358 days out of the year Monterey is a sleepy little piece of land jutting into the Pacific and known mainly for its aquarium. Then for one crazy week in mid-August, the world’s richest car collectors descend upon it like top hat-wearing locusts and the entire peninsula is overrun with exotics. Ferrari 458 Italias become as commonplace as Altimas, so ubiquitous that no one even gives them a second glance.

01-0976_Lexus-LS460-FSport

Our steed for the week was the flagshippiest car you can buy from a Japanese automaker today, a Lexus LS in tricked out F Sport trim. When the Lexus brand debuted, the idea of a $40,000 Japanese car was unfathomable. Now, 25 years later, we were driving around in an $87,000 Toyota while classic ones traded for over $1 million. Times have changed, but there’s still a long way to go.

45-1155_Lexus SC400

One of the keystone events of the Historics is The Quail, a gathering of rare classics and race cars. On the way there, a few miles out of Monterey, we tailed a bone stock and completely mint Lexus SC 400 for a bit, driven by a hotshoe lady who’s probably owned it since new. It is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful Toyotas ever built, but we wondered if it would ever find a place inside the gates at a Monterey show.

The parking area of The Quail is located on what is normally the resort’s golf course. The grass is softer and its fibers finer than the carpet in our own living rooms. We parked way in the back, but if we had known Lexuses were allowed to crash the Bentley Reserved Parking area, we would’ve saved ourselves a long walk.

Any car you could imagine was present at the Quail, as long as it didn’t hail from Japan. Everything from a Porsche 906 to a 1970 Chrysler Barracuda originally raced in France was parked on the lawn, and there were enough old Formula One racers and 1950s Ferraris to fill a dozen museum galleries.

Our friends from the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles brought a one-off 1954 Plymouth Explorer Concept, resplendent in green and penned by Luigi Segre at the famous Italian design house Carrozzeria Ghia. It’s a pity it was never produced, as it is even more stunning than Segre’s most famous creation, the VW Karmann Ghia.

52-1165_Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge

Though the show was smaller than Toyotafest, Every European automaker you can name, plus Infiniti and Lincoln, had a display in hopes of courting the well-heeled clientele. Porsche built a makeshift structure nicer than many luxury homes, while Bugatti showed off one of each Legends Edition Veyrons arranged in a six-car semicircle, $18 million’s worth of VAG machinery.

In that elite company Nissan displayed the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge concept, a Skyline sedan with an R35 GT-R engine. The company swears it’s going into production, but the date is unknown. They also showed a QX80, the SUV formerly known as the QX56, in a deep plum metallic reminiscent of the midnight purple R33s that once haunted Japan’s expressways. To woo the one percent, Infiniti even distributed branded chocolates.

56-1172Honda 70

The only properly classic Japanese machine in all of this was a Honda bike, which wasn’t even on display. It was being used to ferry supplies to and from a tent, probably because they couldn’t get into the Bentley Reserved Parking area.

Now, Japanese classics have been shown at The Quail before, but they were all there on account of one man, Tom Knudsen. Tom showed his Honda S800 and Toyota 2000GT in previous years but this year we brought his hakosuka to the Rolex Motorsports Reunion instead, and without him there was no J-tin at The Quail.

There are Japanese classics in Monterey, but they’re usually on outside looking in. While accompanying Tom to a gathering for Ferrari dealers that evening, we saw a beautiful Datsun 240Z relegated to a row of parallel parked cars outside the Quail Lodge. Turns out, it belonged to Jim Daniels whom we met over prancing horse hors d’oeuvres. The rims are ultra-light BBS racing wheels so rare that, according to Jim, even BBS USA couldn’t believe he had found them.

36-1219_Datsun 510 BRE_

A wrong turn in downtown Monterey led to a chance encounter with one of the finest BRE 510 replicas we’d ever laid eyes on. It was built from loads of NOS parts and looked exactly the part (We’ll have an in-depth article on this car in the coming weeks). Like Jim’s 240Z, this 510 would be a shoe-in for an award at JCCS, but there was no Monterey event that would host it.

39-1352_Datsun 510_

You never know who you’re going to run into at Monterey, and a chance encounter with Adam Carolla and his entourage led to an invite to a screening of Winning, Carolla’s documentary about Paul Newman. He showed only about 15 minutes, but from what we saw it looked fantastic, with buckets of old Nissan racing footage. Outside the theater sat another Datsun 510, opposite a slick 1970 Mustang parked across the street.

Such is Monterey. An evening stroll turns up a stately British Jag wearing Japanese Riken Turbo wheels, a Hilux-based Chinook camper (there’s a pretty good chance it was not part of the festivities), and the only NSX we saw all week, a gleaming chuuki specimen. Considering their affordable supercar appeal, their absence was surprising. Likewise, go to any typical Cars & Coffee meet and R35 GT-Rs will abound, but our informal tally noted far more Italian bulls than Godzillas, which had a grand total of one.

Outside the Gooding & Co. auctions a festively colored Honda Z600 mingled with Porsches and Range Rovers. We received quizzical looks while drooling over a kitted out, quasi-VIP Toyota Sienna on HRE 943Rs. Why the drool? Because a venue where multi-million dollar Maseratis trade hands like Van Goghs is the last place we expected to see something that stepped out of the pages of Wagonist.

77-1510_Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance

The main event of the week, the one that started it all, was the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance. Translated from French, it means simply a “competition of elegance” and this particular one is considered one of the most prestigious car shows in the world. If you think the new JCCS rules are stiff, the PBCD’E’s are — to steal a line from the great Armando Iannucci — harder than a diamond dildo.

Cars are judged on not only style, rarity and authenticity, but and history as well. If a car is missing a period correct Magneti Marelli sparkplug or rocks an accessory belt from, God forbid, Pep Boys, then you might as well set it on fire in front of the judges. All cars must cross the award stage under its own power, and if you have trouble getting a 1970s Japanese car to run properly, imagine an Italian twice as old.

Pebble Beach parking area

Since there is no parking at the Concours proper, spectators must first park at the beach of pebbles itself and catch a shuttle from the most scenic bus stop in the world.

The coach then drops you half a mile away so you can run a gauntlet of huge luxury car displays encompassing everything from McLaren to Cadillac. Unlike The Quail, there are no actual automaker booths inside the show, so forcing attendees to march through a village of pavilions is the only way to appease the automakers. Infiniti’s presence could not be missed, as they had built a massive two-story dealership atop a pile of wood chips.

18-1180_Lexus Crafted Line_

Lexus had a similarly impressive setup overlooking Carmel Bay. Keep in mind that the structures are temporary and will be taken down as soon as the show is over.

Lexus used the opportunity to debut their Crafted Line, which takes all the F Sport models and slathers them in Ultra White paint. Contrasting Obsidian highlights finish the exterior mirrors, door handles, wheels and grilles while interiors get flashes of red across normally black leather. The overall look evokes traditional Japanese art and minimalism rather well.

86-1520_ToyotaFT-1

Once we arrived at the grounds, we were assaulted with even more manufacturer displays at what has come to be known as the Concept Car Lawn. The Toyota FT-1 Graphite was the sole Japanese car, and it took less than 30 seconds before we overheard someone saying, “It doesn’t look like any Toyota I’ve ever seen.”

The PBCD’E is a strange place. The combined value of the machinery on display is more than some nations’ GDPs, but the food stand’s $8 hamburgers taste worse than a McDouble. To get the best seats some spectators arrive at 4:30am, a club that has informally been dubbed the Dawn Patrol. Some years ago, classic car insurance company Hagerty got the bright idea to arrive before sunrise to distribute free coffee and a limited supply of “Dawn Patrol” caps. It is amazing what lengths millionaires will go through to score a $10 hat.

Aside from Montgomery Burnses in golf pants, the field is flush with OMs, Ruxtons, Voisins, and a dozen other marques no one’s heard of. These are intermixed with more commonly known nameplates like Rolls Royces and, this year, 18 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossas. Racing provenance is prized, as are coachbuilt one-offs, and the competition is fierce. To put the show in perspective, 2014 was only the second time a post-war car took the top award since the event began in 1950, and a first ever victory for a Ferrari.

The sole Japanese car was a brand new Infiniti Q50 that was raffled off by Shiro Nakamura. It was painful to see how hard Toyota and Nissan try to get a foot in the door, and the truth is they have no seat at the table.

It has nothing to do with rarity, price, quality, or even style. If Toyota had skinned a car like the Alfa Romeo Pinin Farina 6C 2500 Cabriolet or the 1964 Lancia Sport Prototipo Zagato, they’d be ridiculed incessantly. Change the badge and it’s hailed as a hero.

With the right emblem comes all the history and pedigree accumulated over decades of engineering, motorsports, and design. Unfortunately, the heritage of Japanese cars is all but unknown to the Ralph Laurens of the world.

048-Leno GTR_Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka Jay Leno

When the festivities were over we headed back to Laguna Seca to pick up Tom’s car. It was then we realized that perhaps the Japanese car that made the most impact all week was the very Skyline we were going to pick up. And as we learned from the Nissan PR team, the hakosuka was quite the hit. It received more attention than anything else they had on display, including a brand new 595hp GT-R NISMO that’s not in showrooms yet. Even a talk show host or something stopped by to check it out.

015_Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka

As we were leaving we ran into Jim Froula and his tribute to Motoharu Kurosawa’s Works GT-R. The opportunity to photograph two hakosuka, one in street trim and one in race livery, on the hallowed tarmac of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca proved too tempting to resist.

307_Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka

It’s strange, though. A car like the GT-R should technically check all the boxes with the Monterey set. It’s got a proven battle record, rarity, killer good looks, and even a modern supercar-killing successor. But few at Monterey knew of its existence prior to seeing one in the flesh, and even then it’s easy to dismiss as “just a Nissan.” Really, the primary thing holding it back is an utter lack of awareness of Japanese motoring history.

241_Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka

The task of educating naysayers is not a small one, but we here at JNC hope we are doing our part. And as for the automakers, they can set up all the pop-up showrooms they want, but this is the kind of thing that will ultimately move new Nissans and Infinitis. It may look like an old Datsun, but a dab of heritage is worth mountains of branded chocolates.

For more coverage of the Monterey Historics, see Part 01 — Bringing a Skyline GT-R to the NISMO displayPart 02 — The AuctionsPart 03 — Rolex Motorsports Reunion, Part 04 — Running a vintage IMSA 240Z, and the Toyota FT-1 Graphite debut.

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14 Responses to EVENTS: Monterey Historics, Part 05 — Sights & Sounds

  1. Alan T says:

    “A car like the GT-R should technically check all the boxes with the Monterey set. It’s got a proven battle record, rarity, killer good looks, and even a modern supercar-killing successor. But few at Monterey were even aware of its existence, and the primary thing holding it back is an utter lack of awareness of Japanese motoring history.”

    And, ironically enough, a fundamental lack of knowledge on Japanese motoring history – and the C10 GT-R’s race history in particular – is the very thing that allowed Froula’s “tribute” car to run at Laguna Seca.

  2. Kane says:

    Amazing article man !, realy good read.

  3. Steve says:

    The main reason nobody in the U.S. knows much about how awesome Japanese cars are is because of Reagan and automotive manufacturers being in bed together to limit or outright ban many cars from Japan (and even Europe) from being imported as everybody would’ve realized how superior they were and not bought any crappy American rustbuckets.

    I sure do hate protectionism.

    • LTDScott says:

      Ask most Americans outside of the dry west coast about any older Japanese car model, and they’ll likely say “I haven’t seen one of those in years, they all rusted away.” The fact is, early Japanese cars were not superior to early American cars in terms of being used on American roads. It took Toyota 20+ years in the American market to gain a reputation of quality. I think your perspective is clouded by favoritism.

  4. RainMeister says:

    “And as for the automakers, they can set up all the pop-up showrooms they want, but this is the kind of thing that will ultimately move new Nissans and Infinitis. It may look like an old Datsun, but a dab of heritage is worth mountains of branded chocolates.”

    Couldn’t have been better stated. Other manufacturers like Porsche, Mercedes and Alfa Romeo have brought tractor loads of historic race cars from their home museums for the Monterey Historics. That’s the level of commitment necessary to get the attention of otherwise jaded fans who attend these events.

    Imagine Nissan showing up with R-series racers from the ’60s, some real championship winning GTRs, the IMSA dominating Zs and prototypes from the ’90s, and a sprinkling of their LeMans racers, just like at the NISMO Festival. THAT would generate some SERIOUS interest.

    • Ben Hsu says:

      That would be truly epic. It’s just unfortunate that those cars live in Japan. We rarely get to see them here.

    • Jim Daniels says:

      Nissan is stepping up and playing with the big boys. Now, it is time to bring out the toys. Nissan will need to educate the American population of it’s race history and bring the cars that made the history to the large events. So unknowing people start asking questions. Cars like the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge concept need to be built with more of everything and cost less than the competitors .

      The Nissan garage at The Monterey Motorsports Reunion had a NISMO GT-R and NISMO 370Z both great modern cars. However, the car gathering all the attention at that booth was tucked away in the back with the hood down not showing the S20 motor of Tom’s GT-R. Nissan needs more in the Public Relations department or at least a change of gears. Go BIG

  5. pete240z says:

    Wow, just wow!

  6. Jim Daniels says:

    Ben,
    Thanks for posting some photos of my 240Z on your site, I am honored. For my car to be in the same story as the other cars you photoed that were at Monterey is truly an honor.

    Having a 240Z at Monterey is interesting. As has been mentioned Japanese brands are not represented here unless Tom Knudsen is showing off some of his toys. However, Approximately 3 years ago Tom invited Steve Pettersen of Pettersen Motorworks and myself down to The Quail for the showing of his Toyota 2000 GT. Steve and I drove down in his 240Z. All over town we got thumbs up from people. When we parked the car people would come over and talk to you about the Z.

    This year Steve and I drove my Z to Monterey. We called Tom upon arrival and he said he had some guys that really were into Japanese cars with him. He did not tell us it was the guys from this web page.

    We parked at The Quail and people started looking at the Z as we parked. When we would walk back to the Z there were people looking at my car and talking about it. This again seemed odd for an event that has Italian exotics and German super cars everywhere you look. People are attracted to a 240Z.

    It is not a mistake it happened to Steve and I twice on different years in two different 240Z. It was fun to see peoples reactions and talk with them about the Z they once owned. Wait, this is starting to sound like anytime someone is driving a Z. At gas stations people walk up to you and start telling you they had one just like this. But this is one of the biggest most prestigious car shows/weeks in the world and this is just a 240Z.

    Here is my thought on this topic. How many people grew up driving Italian exotics or German super cars? Nobody from my neighborhood. Now, how many people grew up owning, driving, or dreaming that they could possibly own a Datsun 240Z someday.

    I have had a few Ferrari owners tell me that their first sports car was a 240Z. Not many people get to walk up to a Ferrari owner (OK you could stop right there) and say what a beautiful restoration, it looks just like the one I drove to High School or College. However, a Datsun 240Z they were everywhere and the people that drive them are usually friendly. Datsuns were meant to be driven unlike the Italian exotics of the same era.

    People will always have a sweet spot for the cars they grew up with and desired at the time of their youth. There is a large portion of people that were driving Japanese cars starting in the 1970s and can now afford to possible own their dream machine 45 years later. Japanese cars are just starting to be valued as they should.

  7. alvin says:

    Thanks for putting us in the middle of the action Ben! This is great for those of us that have not experienced the “finer” side of the Historics 🙂

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