Chris Obert
autocrosser, X driver
Here in town there are two car shows every Saturday morning. I am usually busy on Saturday mornings, but a recent change allows me to attend these shows.
So I took my 850 Spider (because it's also up on ebay and has a bid!), I was hoping to get some local interest in it to drive the bids up to the reserve.
At 7 I arrived at the first show which is a hot rod & classic car show. A few foreign cars do show up, but there are a lot of high boys & chopped rods. The 850 got a nice reception, and a friend that brought his Berlina Corsa replica also got a lot of attention.
At 8:15 we went to my workshop & traded his Berlina Corsa for his Jolly which I had just serviced on Friday, and went back to the rod show. It's amazing how much attention the Jolly will get from car guys.
At 9:15 we left for the other car show. I had never been there before but had heard from the California Melee folks that it was a sports car show, and often the participants take off for an improvised tour afterwards. We got there & found lots of British cars in the parking lot. Matter of fact every single one was British. The 850 got some attention, but the Jolly got lots more. I was talking, and asked one of the guys if there is any advance tour planning so I could determine if I wanted to go on one of the tours with them & plan my time for it. Ends up they do sometimes announce their destination, and that today's tour was going to Bruce Canepa's place (go there if you are ever in Scotts Valley California), and then to an Italian place for lunch. Probably about a 20-25 mile tour... Then the 'organizer' took me aside and told me that they really discourage non British cars from participating in their events and that I would be welcome in a British car, but he would rather not have us participate in our 'normal' cars.
I would be the last one to feel that a Fiat 850 Spider & a Fiat 600 Jolly was normal, but to each his own...
I told him that our local Fiat club puts on tours and encourages members & non members to participate on our tours with whatever vehicle they feel comfortable in driving, and he responded that they discourage it because if it was allowed everyone would show up in their normal cars and not drive their British cars because they can be so hard to drive.
I am so glad I own Italian cars. As soon as my Siata Spring restoration is completed I will bring it on one of their tours just to screw with their heads...
So I took my 850 Spider (because it's also up on ebay and has a bid!), I was hoping to get some local interest in it to drive the bids up to the reserve.
At 7 I arrived at the first show which is a hot rod & classic car show. A few foreign cars do show up, but there are a lot of high boys & chopped rods. The 850 got a nice reception, and a friend that brought his Berlina Corsa replica also got a lot of attention.
At 8:15 we went to my workshop & traded his Berlina Corsa for his Jolly which I had just serviced on Friday, and went back to the rod show. It's amazing how much attention the Jolly will get from car guys.
At 9:15 we left for the other car show. I had never been there before but had heard from the California Melee folks that it was a sports car show, and often the participants take off for an improvised tour afterwards. We got there & found lots of British cars in the parking lot. Matter of fact every single one was British. The 850 got some attention, but the Jolly got lots more. I was talking, and asked one of the guys if there is any advance tour planning so I could determine if I wanted to go on one of the tours with them & plan my time for it. Ends up they do sometimes announce their destination, and that today's tour was going to Bruce Canepa's place (go there if you are ever in Scotts Valley California), and then to an Italian place for lunch. Probably about a 20-25 mile tour... Then the 'organizer' took me aside and told me that they really discourage non British cars from participating in their events and that I would be welcome in a British car, but he would rather not have us participate in our 'normal' cars.
I would be the last one to feel that a Fiat 850 Spider & a Fiat 600 Jolly was normal, but to each his own...
I told him that our local Fiat club puts on tours and encourages members & non members to participate on our tours with whatever vehicle they feel comfortable in driving, and he responded that they discourage it because if it was allowed everyone would show up in their normal cars and not drive their British cars because they can be so hard to drive.
I am so glad I own Italian cars. As soon as my Siata Spring restoration is completed I will bring it on one of their tours just to screw with their heads...