A perspective on Monterey Week

The end of Monterey Week is always a bittersweet affair for me.

It's a year's worth of preparation and anticipation that leads to eight to 10 days of long days and longer nights filled with both work and fun.

For me, 2012 was the third consecutive year of jumping on a plane and heading out West for the festivities.

The “work” portion consisted of organizing and preparing for the Italian Stampede, an Italian-vehicle-only 300-mile drive from Los Angeles up north to Monterey. This year, our group of 105 cars was the largest Italian-car-only run to Monterey on record. The 300-mile trip was made without incident or infraction, but it required months of planning and days of panic-fueled preparation to go off in such a manner.

Our arrival on the Monterey Peninsula marked the beginning of the “fun” portion of the trip.

If you've never been to the week-long celebration, you should know that schedule of events can be brutal, depending on your appetite for automotive-goodness. Making it to every event requires planning and dedication.

If sipping champagne and playing rich is your preferred method of relaxation, there is no shortage of opportunities for such festivities.

Want to check out rare classics both on and off the racetrack? No problem. How about a tour of the latest private jets one hour and a look at some eight-figure auction items the next? The whole week plays to the automotive aficionado who is struck with ADHD. Monterey is your automotive-themed oyster.

But as the week comes to a close with confetti cannons announcing the Best of Show on the 18th green at Pebble Beach, there is always a bit of sadness to accompany the falling party favors.

You realize that it is only a matter of hours before friends both new and old take to the road that will carry them back to reality. This author's mix of both new and old friends had our annual “going-away dinner” in Salinas. We got nostalgic, laughed and remembered those who left us since last year. There have been a few.

But aside from the cars, the good times, the memories and a look to the future, the most enjoyable part of Monterey's car week is the people.

The stories, cars and events are nothing without the people who plan, participate in and enjoy them. It's only 357 days till the next trip, and I can't wait.

Photo provided by Dirk Abinakad of Supercarfocus.com

Monterey car week is packed with car shows, vintage racing and auctions. Autoweek will be there providing streaming photo galleries and live coverage of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, historic racing at Laguna Seca, the Monterey car auctions and plenty more. Go to Autoweek's Pebble Beach home page for complete coverage and live updates.

By David Arnouts