So via a traffic jam and a Jaguar F-Type R to Quail Lodge (it's a golf course, inevitably) for A Motorsports Gathering. And a first sense of the scope and scale of Pebble Beach. Here you see a gaggle of De Tomaso Panteras abandoned at the roadside, their owners opting to walk the rest of the way into the event, and such sights as a dusty, battered and endearingly ratty Miura parked next to an Aston Martin V12 Zagato. Is that a Ferrari 166? Yes it is. And a 458 Speciale, precariously parked on the edge of a bunker? Yup. All six Bugatti Veyron Legend cars in one place? That too.
The impossible possible; Singer makes brown desirable
Parking the F-Type on a manicured golf lawn was at least in keeping with the spirit of the event, the temptation to do turf ripping donuts on the putting green probably not. Temptation I've so far successfully avoided but it's early days yet.
A Motorsports Gathering is a relatively small event compared with Pebble proper, so I'm told, and a nice warm-up for the main event. Wandering around I found Rob from Singer busy courting potential customers with three cars on the stand, one of which was painted what on any other car would be an unflattering shade of tan. "Yeah, it's kind of baby s**t brown isn't it!" laughed Rob, the car stunning all the same. Takes some balls to pull a colour like that off but Singer kind of operates in its own league there. Fair play.
From there I wandered over to Hennessey to have a poke around the Venom. Looking inside and seeing familiar a Elise/Exige cabin (albeit trimmed rather nicely) makes the outrageousness of what lies in the engine bay even more insane. It's worth showing off though, the finish and workmanship under the rear clam - gold lined, a la McLaren F1 - really is top notch. Chatting with affable comms boss Doug Kott he said this was car number 11, Venoms finding homes here in the US, in the Gulf and with one in the Czech Republic. He likened the Anglo-American build (chassis are built in Silverstone, engines and assembly in Texas) to the spirit of the AC Cobra while admitting supercharger conversions for Corvettes are the bread and butter. He likes the C7, there being a queue of 30 or so cars outside the workshop awaiting the Hennessey treatment. 1,000hp 'vettes? F!@# yeah!
Supercars on golf courses - standard round here
While the cars within the compound were stunning it was almost more interesting nosing about the car parks and watching attendees come and go. While wandering along the perimeter I saw an F50, F40 and McLaren F1 arrive in convoy and it barely raised an eyebrow. There are some style police around though - when we got back to our F-Type the grubby Prius parked alongside seemed to have gained a ticket for, well, not being exotic enough. Or not having a V8. Or something like that. Our kind of traffic wardens in these parts it'd seem.
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