The magnificent dark blue sedan about the third car back is the one-of-two Frua-bodied Quattroporte custom built for the Aga Khan; it certainly inspired later Quattroportes to follow, yet is a bit of a design leader unto its own.
Among my very favorite car shows in the world is Concorso Italiano, which takes place on the Monterey Peninsula each August, all wrapped up in the Monterey Car Week that encompasses the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Rolex Motor Sports Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Conc Ital is all about Italian cars, bikes, boats, style, food and spirit, and I love it. The folks that put on this fabulous gathering have decided to birth it a cousin in Southern California, called Desert Concorso. The location is the Shadow Mountain Resort in Palm Desert, and the first annual event was just held, March 30, 2014. Besides the location, the primary philosophical difference between the two events is that Italiano is built around Italian hardware, while the new event in Palm Desert is open to all European machines, from Italy, England, Germany, Spain and anywhere else over there that we’re likely to think of as European. And it was one rockin day.
No car show is complete without a great roundup of Ferraris, and Desert Concorso had them. The brownish skyline isn’t smog, it was due to a nasty desert windstorm about ten miles to the north of the show
About 175 cars populated a piece of the Shadow Mountain golf course, and the display was spectacular. The field was comprised of many top end show quality cars, and dozens more first rate drivers. Desert Concorso’s charity of choice is a most worthy one, in this case an organization named Desert Arc, dedicated to creating educational and vocational opportunities for people with disabilities of all kind.
One great Maser that doesn’t get enough recognition is the Frua designed Mistral of the 1960s; Available as a coupe or spyder convertible, the Mistral is straight-six powered, handsome, tidy and a joy to drive
The show, among other themes, celebrates Maserati’s upcoming centenary in fine style.
Strolling the Desert Concorso grounds brought to mind a similar show that I used to be involved in putting on; that being the Newporter Invitational Concours d’elegance put on by POCA, the Pantera Owners Club of America. Back in the day, meaning the 1970s and 80s, the Newporter, and later Regency, was built around exotic, sports and GT cars only, and was a lot like the Desert Concorso in many ways. This is the program cover, shot by me, from 1984
Although 2015’s exact date has yet to be finalized, you can bet the show will return next March; to keep up with it all, bookmark www.desertconcorso.com.
And enjoy all these great photos by Kirk Gerbracht
I get by with a little help from my friends; the handsome gent at left is Michael Regalia, one of the game’s premier automotive restorers, who was there with his fabulous original, low mile and unrestored Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Cabriolet Series II. The tan guy in the middle is Chad McQueen, car guy, former racer and son of you know who of the same last name. And the fat guy at right is me
If Darth Vader and Batman had Ferraris, this is what they’d drive; a rare, all black Enzo. This F1-inspired machine is still one of my favorite Ferraris, for its menacing looks, high technology, a real race-derived naturally-aspirated V-12 and general exotic badassness
Every great car show includes the sale and display of fine art and toys for kids of all ages, as did Desert Concorso
My friends at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, USA, located in irvine, CA, always come out to support great car shows. This is a modern replica of the Patentwagen, arguably the first automobile
New McLarens are crowdpleasers to be sure
This Gulf heritage liveried Ford GT isn’t European in any way, so not really sure what is was doing parked on the field next to the Ferraris. But I love it anyway, so I don’t care about the fine points of nationality
Not from Europe, but certainly exotic and fabulous is what I call the transistorized E-Type, Toyota’s memorable 2000GT
More fabulous Masers