Monterey

“PEOPLE.  It’s all about the people.”

I heard it at the first Pebble Beach event I ever attended, before it became Monterey Car Week.  My younger self was sure it was pretty much all about THE CARS though.  I loved them and couldn’t get enough of ’em.

As Pebble became Monterey Car Week, and a World Class Event, it seemed pretty obvious  to me it was all about THE MONEY.   

When Ralph Lauren won Best of Show in 1990 with a BUGATTI ATLANTIC (one of 700 or so made and advertised at the time as “The World’s Most Expensive Car”) a writer asked him where he found technicians to work on such exotic automobiles.  Ralph answered, and I’m paraphrasing here, “To win BEST OF SHOW at meets like Monterey, you must have your own World Class shop, with your own World Class craftsmen in each of the disciplines, paint, metal work, mechanical, etc.  If you have to rely on someone else, no matter how well meaning, you’ll never meet the schedule and you’ll never meet the quality level needed to be The Best.”

Yeah, it’s all about THE MONEY, and in the words of the great J. P. Morgan (1837 – 1913):

“If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.” 

Recently, a dear friend of mine gave Don Orosco (1944 – 2020) a critical component (one of two known to exist) that Don needed to win Best of Class in 2001 with the Dick Flint Roadster.  The Roadster award was one of three class wins Don collected over the years at Monterey.

Don was gracious enough to give my friend and me a tour of his restoration shop (yep, it’s World Class) at the Monterey Airport complex the day of the show.  It’s the only time we could get together … and he even introduced us to his wife.  Great guy.

Don was at a cocktail party during the 2006 Goodwood Revival when he heard a big time European collector planned to recapture the FIAT- BARTOLETTI transporter that Lance Reventlow (1936 – 1972) commissioned to haul his Chevy- and Offy-powered Scarab race cars around Europe during a mostly unsuccessful 1960 – 61 race season.

Lance was the son of Barbara Hutton (heir to both the E. F. Hutton and the Woolworth fortunes), son of a Danish Count, stepson to Cary Grant, plus buddies with James Dean. Lance either “got tired” of racing, or Mom pulled the financial plug.  There are two stories.   

He sold his race car shop in Venice CA, complete with FIAT- BARTOLETTI transporter, tools and all the World Class employees, headed by Phil Remington, to Carroll Shelby.  Carroll’s first employee, Pete Brock, moved into an upstairs office. 

Carroll used the transporter to haul Cobras and other automotive icons around Europe. 

It was subsequently used by Lotus, Ford, and others.  It even had a bit part in the movie Le Mans, being repainted Gulf Blue for the Porsche 917 scene, then a quick (possibly in the parking lot) respray in red for a scene with the Ferrari 512.  It was sent across the ocean in the late ‘60s and used by various race teams in the U.S.

Lance died in 1972 in a plane crash while scouting for real estate in Aspen.

Probably the preeminent Scarab collector in the world, Don owned two originals and one faithful replica, and he just couldn’t let that rig get taken back to Europe.   Only problem was, the BARTOLETTI had been sitting in a field behind locked gates for almost 20 years, while heirs to the U Haul fortune fought over it.  They had resisted multiple purchase offers.  The “who do we know” and “who do our friends know” network went into emergency overdrive. Five days and $80,000 dollars later, Don took possession of the transporter.   

BARTOLETTI was an Italian coachbuilding firm that took FIAT and other heavy-duty chassis and made busses and similar industrial bodies for them. Don found that no two BARTOLETTI bodies were alike. The company was long out of business, and whatever blueprints there might have been were long gone also. He had to fabricate many parts based just on period photographs.

When Don built his facility at the Monterey airport, the Building Department let him know that anything he built had to fit into the Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style of the neighborhood.  Certainly nothing that looked like a CAR REPAIR SHOP would be allowed … heaven forbid!

No problem. We’ll just remove this small hill, build our World Class shop complete with oversize spray booth here, then put the hill back in place.  Any air vents, etc., will be disguised as mail boxes or some such thing.  Don hadn’t planned on a vehicle over 38 feet long though, with space around it to work.  Somehow it all fit.

Two years later in 2008 the BARTOLETTI, restored to concourse perfection, made its debut at the Monterey Historics, hauling Don’s three Scarabs.  As it descended pit row, “The place went nuts,” according to one bystander.  The event organizers had to ask Don to move his rig as the crowd around it was blocking the track entrance.

As I think of all the names associated with this story, Don and his staff, Lance (whom I never got to meet), Shelby, and his crew at the Venice shop, gosh it’s getting to be a long list.  Most are no longer with us, but all of the cars they built are a reflection of the people who built them, their personalities, their strengths … and their faults too, I suppose.

So maybe it really is all about THE PEOPLE.  I may be forced to change my mind again…   I’ll let you know how that works out.

Until next time, thanks for listening.

Duane