Concourso Italiano 2004 - Piss Poor Planning

I paid big money for the VIP tickets and had to park farther away then if I showed up for regular spectator parking. If you sell 1500 tickets to park in a VIP lot and you have 1000 spaces, and you don't tell anybody before they buy them that this is the case, I think that is a fraud!

The expensive lunch was terrible. Cold, food, pick over food and crowded.

I will not be back.

 

Hi Luke,

Didn't mean my post to come off as a flame, but now reading it again I can see how I left that impression. Sorry guys. I guess I wrongly assumed that a lot of the cars appearing at shows in Monterey don't get as much use as others and if a car comes out only a few times a year coooling issues may sneak up on the owners. But thanks for setting the record straight about the small fans simply not being able to keep up with modern traffic jam conditions. Your idea of an aftermarket fan may upset the purests but it sure sounds like a great idea to me and if/when I too get a 60s Ferrari I will do the same (retaining stock parts for the future of course).

 

No big deal, Richard.
....i will try a shroud and an override switch first.....
Today, i took it out for a shake down, and I could not get it to go past 200, no matter how long I sat there idling. Go figure.....Italian Gremlins.

 

Friends,

I can understand all your grief as i was stuck in traffic at 5:00 pm for 2 hours on PCH and Carmel Valley road on the 12th, but it takes a little homework in advance to get it right. I reserved a motel 5 minutes from the track and CI in Seaside and posted the info here. My wife and a couple of good friends went across the street and had way too many drinks but the bartender gave us some really good advice on the "best" way how to get the the CI, the same road but from the opposite direction, not one car was in front of us, same thing to the track but going the other way on the same road, no traffic. We showed up at Pebble beach at 5:000 am no crowds and no fuss, we did get blocked in at PB and I had to be creative so we could get out, dont ask, dont tell

Rob

My friend who we drove up with and stayed up the road sat for 2 hours in traffic following the CI road map, sometimes bending the rules helps......... I am not a morning person but learned aa valuable lesson this last weekend, the early car gets the worm!

Rob

 

Yep, that was a big part of the problem... they make traffic rules but then don't bother to enforce them! That results in major friction in the flow, slowing everybody down... and huge backups for the people following the rules... and huge advantages to those ignoring the rules. And of course that results in a lot of angry people.

We had corral parking... we planned to show up at 8am... an hour before the gates were supposed to open. When we got there, the back up was all the way down General Jim Moore, back through the goofy route through the town, down 12th, to one block from the highway. I'm sure by 8:15 the backup was onto the highway.

It would have been much shorter to have exited at the main Fort Ord exit rather than 12th... but we didn't "cheat" because we figured (hoped) they would be forcing that traffic into the spectator parking areas. Unfortunately they did NOT, so all those cheaters just merged in, cutting 30minutes off the line up there. We also didn't take in the vendor route (the opposite direction), again figuring (hoping) they would disallow anyone turning left to merge into the corral/exhibitor flow. Wrong again...

There was absolutely no traffic control and hideous flow into the park... augment that with allowing the cheater merging and you end up with absolutely ridiculous back-ups.

That's definitely a huge deterrent to me returning to CI... the event itself was great... but whoever was in charge of the incoming traffic flow should be fired.

 

Wealthy people + inconvience = wrath

Just tell a rich guy, "No, you can't do that..." and see what I mean .


I have an idea: next year I will go and charter a large helicopter and rent out seats with direct taxi service from the hotels to the greens.

 

I felt sorry for this guy... The pic doesn't really show how rough it was and all the roots and crap that kept catching on the car.

 

I trucked my car all the way from Massachustetts, paid for premium passes, entered my car and was very dissapointed in the lack of organization. We left the hotel at 7:30 and didn't get positioned until 10:00 (yes, I followed the instructions to a tee) and was positioned at the far end of the fairway away from the F355s where I was supposed to be.

When you consider that this is a for profit event, it makes one very angry. No appologies were ever offered. I think CI 2005 should be boycoted.

 

We (those who went to CI-2003) thought that 2004 should also have been boycotted as the move to the new location in 2003 did NOT go smoothly not enough food, parking, bussing (to and from parking) porta potties, and cars parked in a rambling clusterf!ck of a jumble. With the new owners in place we gave it another chance (plus it being the F week blah blah blah). I can't say I had it as bad as others - I was parked @ 7:15am or so (exhibitor), but I knew what would have happened if I had gotten there much later.

Maybe the event has outgrown itself.

New owners, come to Fchat and respond!

 

Here is a reply I received from the head man, printed with his permission:

Dear James;

First of all thank you for your input on the event this year. I share your frustration and I am working with the City of Seaside police as well as the P.O.M. and C.H.P. to rectify the traffic problems.

I think it’s important to point out that there was probably a world record number, certainly a U.S. record, of Ferrari’s (575 - 600) exhibited that day. We also had record number of vendors, sponsors, volunteers, etc. and we had as many as 1,700 cars on display that day. In addition to the obvious traffic associated with the event that day, we were also dealing with the local residences, commuters, and military personnel. All of these factors compounded the management of the traffic.

Once inside the event I truly hope you enjoyed the Beautiful Cars, the stage presentations, the food, and the beautiful day. For those who purchased or upgraded to a Gold Class, there were other benefits. Gold Class ticket holders received access to the Club House, a Gold Class Hospitality Luncheon on the green or in the Club House, and the special order restrooms and comfort stations (restroom trailers) that we brought in specifically for the Gold Class ticket holders. Our team over-estimated the amount of available parking in the Reserved and VIP parking areas, but I want to assure you that it was not our original design or desire to have to re-route these guests into our on-site overflow parking area.

We bought this company from the previous owners and took over in March of 2004 what we thought was a well thought out traffic and parking solution. We went over logistics, catering, food vendor, and restroom issues over and over and on several occasions we met with the police departments as well as the volunteer groups that would be assisting us at this year’s event. Even though we were dealing with record numbers of attendees in all areas, it is clear that we need to address the coordination of these different groups to insure a better entry and parking process for the future.

It is our intention to have this event is running smooth and efficient to accommodate our guests, clients and exhibitors and we will work tirelessly to rectify these issues.

Best Regards,

Jack Wadsworth

President

Concorso Italiano

 

in other words: we were in way over our head, and assumed the previous guys had all the details covered.

 

Too bad Bill Graham is no longer with us. He'd know how to handle this.

 

Jack,

I had wonderful time there, my car was FCA judged and awarded the silver for the gt4 class. I understand peoples frustration as most Italian cars dont like waiting in lines, however we did some homework and talked to the locals and came in from Broadway in Seaside and at 8:00 there were no cars in front of us at all. Maybe a better plan for next year is to route cars from both directions on Gen M. road? I had heard horror stories from last year and was pleasantly suprised with the ease of entry. I know we came early and entered from a different direction, but I thought the event was very good. Anyone who attended the previous events at the Quail Lodge knows the very long times in and out on Cramel Valley Road. Keep up the good work strive for continous improvement and everything will work out.

Thanks again for one of the most memorable days in my Ferrari's history!!

Robert Garven

 

I got a late start and arrived at the entrance at 11:00am.

I came from the opposite direction (cut across from North Freemont) and I was the ONLY car in my lane!! The cops could have let me make a left into the gate and it would have painless, no wait at all! But he wouldn't let me. Seemed pretty stupid at the time (because I litterally was the only car coming from that direction), but I guess it did indicate some degree of empathy on the cop's part to the 300-odd cars waiting in line to get into the gate that had driven-in from the other direction.

My 1970 365GT's cooling system was no way going to deal with going to the back of that line, so I went over to the track (via some pretty cool roads) to get my will-call tickets. It was then that I learned that the tix were not at the track but at a hotel in Seaside, so the CI debacle was great for me, because I would have really been pissed to learn of the off-site will-call thing on Saturday morning! (Still don't know if that was my oversight, but I sure as hell didn't notice that little bit of intel on the Laguna website when I purchased my tix...)

So, the end? I went back to CI at about 1:30-2:00-ish thinking the lines would be only half gone, but there was no line at all and I went right in, smooth as glass! Also, being a 365GT owner, I got to use my humongous trunk to fit my absolutely pristine 1982 Colnago bike (it's nice to have at least one Italian vehicle of mine to be a 100-pointer) and even was able to cut my parking lot-to-greens time dramatically, as well as helped navigate the show (note, this is not the hot tip when accompanied by a wife or girlfriend!).

And, yes, I had to park on some grass and drive through a little dirt, I can't believe some people complained about that. FYI, most driveways in the European countryside are dirt or gravel. Trust me, unless you're a complete moron, the cars can take a little off-roading at .006 miles per hour...

So the morale of this story? If you are not showing a car, go a little later in the day and have a more relaxed time (also gives an excuse to drink heavily on Thursday night).

And since the powers that be are reading this site, I'm sure they'll fix the knucklehead stuff that CAN be fixed (special lane for exhibitors, more attendants, allow traffic in via multiple entrances, etc.). Some of the other inconveniences we'll just have to accept due to the sheer popularity of the event, if we want to see the cars. (The snob in me hated Pink Floyd after Dark Side of the Moon sold a gizzillion records, so I just stopped listening to them. As for CI, I don't care what it was like years ago, I wanna see the cars!)

And what cars!!! Jeez! The only thing that was missing was a class for my Colnago - I could have won Best of Show for the 22 year-old bike with 46 year-old engine class.

Anyway, old news by now....

Ciao.