Monterey Car Week Report 2019

Monterey Car Week Report 2019

This was our first time at Monterey Car Week. I would probably best describe Car Week as combination of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival spread out over multiple stunning locations and then supersized in the best American tradition. We arrived on Wednesday late afternoon and departed the following Monday morning (see: McLaren 675LT Spider Road Trip). In between, it was pure petrolhead sensory overload. The amazing thing is it happened at all. Two weeks before Car Week we were sitting in Montana without tickets to any of the key events. Fortunately, a gentleman at McLaren stepped in and was able to help us secure tickets for the two main events, The Quail & Pebble Beach.

Our first full day in Monterey was Thursday. I had a morning test drive with an Aston Martin DBS Volante scheduled so I headed down to their hospitality center in Carmel by the Sea. Car Week traffic turned a 5-mile drive into a 30 minute crawl but at least the traffic was much more interesting than usual with a few Paganis and Koenigseggs scatter in the traffic. Upon arrival at Aston Martin, I was initially turned away from the parking lot (I guess the McLaren 675LT Spider didn’t impress) and was told to go find street parking. It was only after I mentioned that I had a test drive scheduled and would likely miss it if I had to go find street parking that I was finally allowed into the Aston center to park. The DBS Volante was the only test drive I had scheduled for car week which turned out to be a good thing. Given the plethora of activates and traffic, the test drive didn’t offer any opportunities to really get a feel for the car. About the only thing I can tell you about the DBS Volante is its very comfortable and handles traffic well. Post the test drive Mrs. SSO and a couple of friends joined me at the Aston Martin hospitality center. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I had a very interesting conversation with the Director of Aston Martin Special Operations. To say Aston Martin has ambitious plans going forward is an understatement. The Valkyrie and Valhalla are just the start. If they can pull it off it will transform the company. Given Aston Martin’s financial results in the first half of 2019, my question is do they have the financial resources to properly fund their ambitious plans.

From Aston Martin, we headed over to Pininfarina for cocktails and to see the new Pininfarina Battista. As you would expect for a car wearing the Pininfarina badge, it’s gorgeous. At $2.5 mil it’s also not exactly a bargain and I have no idea how well an all-electric car is going to age. The claimed performance figures are off the charts as one would expect for a car with 1900 bhp. While Pininfarina is designing and building the car, Rimac is providing the powertrain and battery pack. I heard that Pininfaria has orders for 25 cars so far and while I wish them well, I think filling the 150 announced build slots will be a major challenge given the price point and electric drive train. While we were there, we also had the opportunity to see a short presentation on the SUV that Pininfaria has in development. The renderings looked stunning, very “yacht on wheels”. I believe the price target is in the $300k range which would make it the “green” alternative to a Bentley Bentayga.

After Pininfaria it was off to the Singer Vehicle Design 10^thAnniversary Party. For the party, Singer rented out a spectacular estate about 15 miles outside of Carmel. The Singer Porsches on display were spectacular. Singer’s build quality is world class and each car Singer touches is a work of art. The food at the party was both excellent and creative. Mrs. SSO even sampled one of the handmade cigars that were being made by a Master Cigar Roller. As good as the Singer Party was, my personal highlight though was following 3 Amigos (@epicwin_F50, @mrtrig, @dennis_akoyaking) in their Ferrari F50s on the way back to Monterey when we were leaving. It had been a long time since I had the pleasure of following a few F50s. I don’t know if they were pushing at all, but in terms of how technology progresses, keeping up with them in the McLaren 675LT Spider was not a problem.

Friday was Quail Day to be followed by cocktails with McLaren at Bernardus Lodge & Spa. As we were warned that the traffic would be horrific, we arrived quite early and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Porsche Center. When the gates opened at 10AM, our first stop was the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus where after multi years of exchanging emails, I finally met the great man. Jim could not have been more welcoming. He spent a considerable amount of time showing us around both the new SCG Boot and the SCG 003S. The fact that the Boot was even at The Quail was impressive given it was only completed the weekend before. I am a big fan of what Jim and his team are aiming to accomplish in the next several years (Ambitious Plans of SCG).

From the SCG area, it was off to Aston Martin to finally see the Valhalla. Good news, Mrs. SSO was impressed. In fact, she jumped into the Valhalla before I even got a chance to. The cockpit layout and ergonomics are outstanding. You feel like you are sitting in a single seat racecar just above the asphalt. I can’t say I loved the front end of the car (the lights looked a bit small) the first time I saw pictures, but it is growing on me. While the gray on the display car helps highlight the carbon fiber roof and wing, I think this is one car that will look good in brighter colors. Probably the best angle to view the Valhalla is from the rear three quarters. From that angle you will definitely not mistake it for anything else on the road. If I had one ask for the Valhalla as it enters the final stages of development, it would be to swap out the V6 for a V8. 6-cylinder British supercars don’t have a great record of success and tend to be highly controversial, even 25 years after they were launched.

The presentation by McLaren was for the new Ultimate Series Roadster, currently designated the P26. From a purely design standpoint, it is just stunning. If the Senna is hard and purposeful, the P26 is all curves and lustful. The number of new cutting edge design elements being incorporated into the P26 is very exciting. I just hope that current homologation rules don’t ruin the purity of the concept. As lap times are not part of the brief, the P26 will have less bhp than the Senna but will also weight less which should make it even better to carve up an empty country road. McLaren indicated that only 399 would be built, making it a rarer than the Senna and only slightly more common than the P1. My only surprise was that the P26 is coming so soon after the Senna. In the past, McLaren had put multiple years in-between the launches of the Ultimate Series cars.

Saturday was our day of rest and we needed it. I overslept the 6AM meet time for a breakfast drive. Hence, we missed out on what would have been a great opportunity to personally meet a few other guys that I have been trading messages with on Instagram. We spent most of the day just touring the area with short stops back at the Aston Martin Center for another look at the Valhalla and at McLaren’s base at Bernardus Lodge & Spa for lunch. At the Aston Martin center we ran into one of my favorite auto journalists, @henrycatchpole. We had a great conversation on EVO Magazine and a few other of his current undertakings. The evening kicked off with cocktails at Bugatti. What I was really interested to see is the place of pride that was given to the Bugatti Centodieci, Bugatti’s homage to the EB110. It wasn’t too long ago that the reborn Bugatti (under VW’s ownership) wanted nothing to do with the EB110s. From Bugatti it was off to the Rimac party to take a quick look at the C_Two. Post our time at Pininfaria, I was quite curious to see what the Battista’s powertrain looked like in its original package.

Following the same “beat the crowds” strategy as we did for The Quail, we headed off early Sunday morning to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Unlike The Quail where tickets are limited, Pebble Beach is open to anyone willing to spend $450 to wander around the 18^thfairway for a few hours. Hence the crowds are much thicker and moving around more of a challenge. Fortunately, we had passes to the McLaren Brand Center which is where we camped for significant portions of the day. Mrs. SSO enjoyed the continuous flowing champagne and the food was not too bad. We had a great conversation with Mika Häkkinen who tried to talk us into adding a McLaren GT to the collection. We also discussed the Pure McLaren Arctic Experience which is now high up on the bucket list of things we definitely would like to do in the next year or two. It was also great catching up with two of my favorite McLaren Dealership Brand Managers and a few members of the McLaren Senior Management Team.

The cars on the lawn at Pebble are truly the best of the best. Each is an automotive work of art. While I am not personally interested in owning the vast majority of these autos, it was still fun to wander among the old Bentleys, Alfas, Ferraris, etc. My favorite car on the field though was without a doubt, Jim Glickenhaus’ stunning 1967 Ferrari 412 P SN 0854. The 412 P is both insanely cool and just drop dead gorgeous. We had another great conversation with Jim and his son Jesse on SCG’s plans. As an added bonus, we finally met @jasdhillon67 and his lovely wife. Jas is a true enthusiast with a wonderful collection. He is the current keeper of the Jaguar XJR-15 (Our Jaguar XJR-15) we owned a few years ago.

In the end it was a wonderful and exhausting several days. I estimated that we actually ended up only going to half of the events that we could of and despite this still felt that we were constantly on the move. The variety of activities is enormous and so are the crowds in general. The variety of rare cars, both modern and vintage, that you see just driving around the Monterey area makes the journey worth it by itself. By far our favorite major event was The Quail and it is the one we would be most likely to return for in future years. I’m very glad we went to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance but one visit is probably enough for us. The number of $1 million plus supercars being presented which are in development by various manufacturers is overwhelming (article on this to follow). Both Aston Martin and McLaren clearly invested heavily and put on very impressive shows for the week.

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September 2019

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McLaren 675LT Spider vs. Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Recently I have been getting a lot of seat time in both the Porsche 911 (997.2) GT3 RS ( Our Porsche 911 GT3 RS ) and the McLaren 675LT Spider ( The Brilliant McLaren 675LT Spider ) in the mountains of Montana. On paper, both are the lightweight, track focused versions of the base 911 and 650S models respectively. Comparing the two, they could not be more different to drive. While both are hugely engaging, how they deliver performance and what they demand from the driver differs significantly.

The first time I drove our McLaren 675LT Spider I got out thinking this was the best car McLaren had built. It felt incredibly well put together and I was comfortable driving it hard very quickly. Confidence inspiring does not even begin to sum it up. The 675LT Spider does exactly what you ask of it, instantly. The car just sticks to the road and the steering is perfectly weighted. You feel like the 675LT Spider is wrapped around you and lets you know exactly what it is doing at all times. It is an easy car to drive fast and it is also quite easy to end up going much faster than you think you are. For a light weight track focused car, the 675LT Spider is exceptionally comfortable and well equipped. Highly sophisticated and polished are two words I would use to describe the 675LT Spider.

If the 675LT Spider is polished, the 911 (997.2) GT3 RS is raw. From the moment you turn the key to the right, it is a loud, vibrating, ball of muscle. Sound deadening in the cabin is minimal, if it exists at all. The clutch is heavy and very exact. The stick shift is stiff and deliberate. It is not one that you stir lazily with your wrist. Changing gears in the GT3 RS is a full arm exercise. The racing buckets wrap around you and keep you firmly planted behind the wheel. Driving the GT3 RS requires a high degree of concentration and driving it hard, requires a fair amount of skill. While the GT3 RS has huge amounts of grip, you never forget that it will bite you quickly if you get it wrong.

Driving the 675LT Spider and 911 GT3 RS back to back over the same roads really highlights the difference between the two cars. On a tight demanding mountain road, rapid progress in the 675LT Spider comes smoothly and with minimal physical effort ( 675LT in Montana) Your hands never move off the steering wheel. Going around a corner, the 675LT Spider stays perfectly flat and there is no feeling of weight moving around behind you. Gear changes are executed with a single flick of the index and middle fingers. A quick short pivot on the heel of your right foot moves you from the accelerator to the brake. Turbo lag is minimal and power is very linear from 2000 rpms right up to the redline. The 675LT Spider feels glued to the pavement and corners on rails. I have never had the rear move out of line.

The 911 GT3 RS requires much harder work to get the best out of it ( GT3 RS in the Mountains). Your right hand is constantly moving from the steering wheel to the gear shift. The clutch is not of the forgiving type so getting the timing right between right hand and left foot is critical. The GT3 RS feels much higher strung so you really feel like you have to be on top of it at all times. Corners are definitely slow in, fast out. You can feel a very slight bit of body roll and you know the engine is hung off the back axle. Power delivery is also very different. Below 4000 rpm, it feels a bit lazy, once you get it into the 5000 rpm and up range, it just flies.

My completely unscientific estimate is that on the same road in the same conditions, I will tend to drive the 675LT Spider about 5 mph faster than the GT3 RS. I put this down completely down too ease of drivability and not at all related to a difference in capability between the two cars. Both are well within their capabilities and have plenty more to give. In many ways I would say that the GT3 RS teaches me to be a better driver because it is constantly asking more from me. On the other hand, the 675LT Spider makes me a more confident driver and just puts a huge smile on my face every time I take it out. Together they are a great diverse pair.

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March 2020

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The Mystery of Supercar Allocations

A not infrequent question I get asked is “how do you get on the list for a limited edition supercar”. As questions go, this is not an easy one to answer. It varies significantly by company and in some cases, the logic completely escapes me. Who gets allocations can also change based on what a particular manufacturer is trying to achieve in terms of developing their customer profile with a specific model.

Of the multitude of supercar manufacturers, in terms of allocation logic, the most straight forward seems to be Ferrari ( Dealing With Ferrari). From what I have seen, Ferrari operates on a strict pay to play model. The more money you spend directly with Ferrari, the higher on the list you will rise. Participating in the Corse Clienti in the Ferrari Challenge Racing Series, XX Program, or as a F1 Clienti all will significantly help your overall standing. Having all your cars certified by Ferrari Classiche is also not a bad idea. It goes without saying that buying every just about new model that rolls out of the gates at Maranello has to be pretty much a given. It would be fascinating to know how many Californias and FFs were purchased by owners just looking to move up Ferraris priority list. The “you need to buy this if you want that” approach I found really annoying and alienating. From what I have been told, owning tens of millions of dollars of Ferrari’s vintage cars really doesn’t count for much as that does little to enrich Ferraris current coffers.

If Ferrari operates on a Machiavellian pay to play philosophy, McLaren seems to be much more based on your overall loyalty and history with the brand. From what I have seen, there are always a small number of build slots that go to supercar collectors who are non-McLaren owners to bring them into the brand. I’ve never had McLaren either directly or indirectly indicate that I needed to buy a certain new model if I wanted to be on the allocation list for the next limited-edition supercar. Even with multiple McLarens ( Our McLaren History) in the garage, does this mean I have been able to acquire every new McLaren I’ve wanted? No, I didn’t make the cut for the Speedtail. From what I understand via talking to other owners, the 106 Speedtail build slots were offered in order of priority to owners of F1 heritage racecars, F1 road cars, P1 GTRs, and then P1 owners. My guess is very few of the last group made the cut. In my case, I was told I was on the waitlist which I took as a very polite way of saying no. Based on how the decisions were made, I did think the outcome was fair.

Porsche is one manufacturer I really don’t understand when it comes to the allocation game. Based on a very abrupt and less than fruitful experience on the 911R, pay to play now seems to be the order of the day. However, when Porsche was having a very hard time filling 918 build slots, I couldn’t get the local Porsche dealers to return a phone call in either the UK, or shortly thereafter, when we had moved to the US ( Our Porsche History). Unusual for a German company, there doesn’t seem to be a standard process or approach.

In my limited experience, Aston Martin seems to operate under a similar philosophy to McLaren. Like McLaren, there are a few build slots that are given to supercar collectors who are non-Aston Martin owners to bring them on board with the majority going to loyal customers. As the recipient of one of the former for an AM-RB Valhalla build slot ( AM-RB Project 003), I’m quite grateful that Aston Martin takes this approach and I sure it will lead to also adding one of their production models to the garage in the near future. Also saying “no” once doesn’t seem to lead to being declared “persona non grata” as I did pass on the One-77 several years ago.

Amongst the smaller manufacturers, I really have no idea how either Pagani or Koenigsegg operate at this point. Asking prices on their used cars seemed to have eclipsed the latest models in some cases. It’s hard to tell how realistic these prices are as multiple cars seem to move from dealer to dealer at increasing values without seeming to ever find a private home ( Supercar Market Q2 2019). In both cases, cars are built to order, but how hard it is to be allowed to place an order I just don’t know. Ford would also fall into the “I have no idea” category. While I know a number of the Ford GTs went to loyal long term Ford customers who will really cherish and enjoy the car, GTs also seemed to be used as a reward for owners of the larger dealerships, with a number of build slots then going to YouTube and Instagram celebrities based on some sort of projected PR value that Ford might realize.

As a new small supercar manufacturer, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG) is still in the early stages of building up its customer based so getting a build slot is a straight forward affair ( Ambitous Plans of SCG). However, as awareness grows and given the bespoke hand-built nature of the cars, it will be a year or two before you can expect delivery. One thing SCG has done which I find quite clever and innovative is to designate a certain number of early build slots for each model as “Founders” editions. With a “Founders” build slot you get access to the development details and testing progress on that model. Personally, think it is quite a cool added bonus for petrolheads.

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June 2019

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LaFerrari, P1, 918: No Longer the New New Thing

I woke up this morning to an auction alert on a 2015 McLaren P1. The P1 had failed to sell at a high bid of $1.12M against an estimate of $1.23M-$1.46M. The low end of the estimate is roughly 50% of the asking prices on P1s just 3 years ago. Clearly the P1 is no longer the new, must have, thing. Looking at the other two members of this decades Supercar “Holy Trinity” Porsche 918s have dropped by at least 30% from their highs and LaFerraris are down close to $1 million. Of the three, only the LaFerrari is still selling for considerably more than its original list price. All three have now reached that awkward age where they just another used limited edition supercar.

During this same period, McLaren F1s have continued to appreciate at a rapid clip. At this point you will not get any change from $20 million for a F1. Carrera GTs and F50s have doubled in the last five years while F40s have continued to appreciate steadily. What these “winners” all seem to have in common is outstanding analogue focused engineering, designs that are both timeless yet still seem to improve with age, and require a fair amount of skill to drive well. The one model from the last generation that has fallen back in price is the Enzo. The last few auction sales of Enzos are over a million dollars off their high sales in 2016. The other limited-edition supercar that hasn’t appreciated over this period is the Porsche 959.

When looking at all nine of these supercars, they basically fall into two groups; technology showcases and analogue masterpieces. The former are all falling in value with the latter continuing to appreciate. The problem with cutting edge technology is what is cutting edge today, isn’t tomorrow. In fact, it can feel quite antiquated quickly. The Enzos F1 gearbox feels hopelessly slow vs. today’s dual clutch paddle boxes. Compared to the brilliant 6 speed manual gearbox in the F50, the Enzos F1 is a bit of a turd. The batteries in the McLaren P1 are also a well know issue. The P1 battery pack will need replacement at some point and for about the same cost you could pick up a mint Ferrari 430 Scuderia. While I’m not quite as close to the 918 or LaFerrari battery pack situation, I have to believe it is a similar story. Let the battery die on your LaFerrari and you will need a tow truck to get it back to the dealer. The four-wheel drive and suspension system on the 959 are more candidates for the antiquated list.

The other challenge the technology showcase supercars have is they are no longer at the top of the charts on performance. The new Ferrari SF90 Stradale will lap Fiorano faster than a LaFerrari and a McLaren Senna will have a lovely view of a P1 in its rearview mirror driving around Silverstone. Once this performance halo is gone, the car loses the new new thing luster and thus a part of its valuation premium.

Looking forward, my guess would be that the Enzo, LaFerrari, P1 and 918 will continue to slide south in value to a bit below the original list prices before starting to trend back up as they age from latest thing to collectable classic. The “must have” crew has moved on which is saturating the market for all of these formerly “latest” models. Given the much higher production numbers on the F40 & Carrera GT, values will hold or appreciate slightly. There are always a few of each on the market so supply and demand seem balanced. It’s the McLaren F1 and Ferrari F50 that still have appreciation potential. They are each aging brilliantly and there is nothing dated about either. Low production numbers make finding a mint one for sale a challenge. I’m still kicking myself for the £700k F1 I passed on back in 2004.

Tag: #porsche