I've shot hundreds of picture and I'll be getting them up soon.

 

My dad and I drove through the redwoods on our way down also. We also had a tragic moment on our trip, which I will be posting about as soon as they upload to photobucket!

 

nice, this should be good.

 

subscribed!!

 

We just completed day 3 and it’s now early in the morning on day 4. We were up early yesterday morning in preparation for receiving the cars. Waiting across the street from the front drive of the Fairmont was the Reliable Carriers truck ready to offload.





The Ultimate Aero is an extremely tight fit and almost two inches wider than a Murcielago at 82”. The width of the deck to the four inch rails is about 83” so the Murcielago can make it off without too much problem but you have to inch it out. The UA, because it’s so wide has to be lifted over the rail height on both sides using several 2X4s and even then it’s an extremely difficult process because of how the body flairs past the tires. You literally inch the cars out of the truck and it’s not a process undertaken by the carrier and instead he directs you to drive it off and nothing is more unnerving than to back off onto a platform with a 7’ drop. The entire process went very smoothly.










We had to spend about an hour getting the cars cleaned up and ready for the week. Not much else happened during the day, but it was nice to not be moving for a day. We did make a quick trip to the mall and that was uneventful. Junus and I both had a lot of e-mail to catch up on and just pin down plans for the week at Monterey.

This is a good time to explain how this all works. I’m fairly active on a handful of forums, some I mostly just read, others I post rather often depending on the topic and the level of discussion. When I wanted to write something in real time, I knew I’d have a very limited amount of time and there are actually three others who work behind the scenes. It starts with my assistant Kim who’s been terrific at coordinating all the schedules, reservations, logistics, and is an overall pleasant person. After working with me for almost thirteen years now, she still makes me look good with others around me. Every guy I know wants to marry her but she’s already married and has been for a long time. A typical conversation after first introduction, “Is she...?” “Yea, she’s married...”



Second, we wanted to get as much content on this drive as possible and not just one or two pictures. Christian D and Tyler W are working behind the scenes on this side of it. I upload all photos (and soon we will have some video) to a central site and they go through all of it and filter out the relevant pictures. This saves me a ton of time so I can focus on writing. This is not easy managing this many forums and without their help this would all be a lot less content. A giant thanks to all three for making this work this week.

Now, back to the story.

As usual, the Fairmont San Jose was extremely professional and knew exactly what cars needed to go where and why. They really know their stuff and can’t do enough for exotic owners. They just can’t do enough for you and this is every Fairmont, so if you’re a car guy traveling with that special car, or want to see incredible cars, go to a Fairmont. Within car circles, it’s where I see the most interesting stuff. They didn’t pay me to say this either. It’s just an amazing place when it comes to customer service.







Meanwhile, the wonderful experience at the Fairmont is in sharp contrast to the poorly managed Hotel Valencia on Santana Row who charged us $20.00 to park in front of their hotel for three hours. That’s not terribly unreasonable until we were ready to depart just before our time expired. A bunch of hotel patrons where standing looking at the cars and we were stuck answering the usual car questions. As I walked over to retrieve our keys, the valet captain said it would be another $20.00 for running over the time by less than 15 minutes! They saw is standing in front of our cars and they could easily have said we were going to run over on our time and they would have to charge us. That would have been the professional, courteous thing to do, but no, not at the Hotel Valencia. What a scam. What horrible customer service too. I have no plans to ever stay at the Hotel Valencia. I know if I were manager, I’d fire that guy in a heartbeat for such narrow minded thinking. Even the Fairmont understands that top of the mind awareness is really important to the restaurant and hotel trade, and to have that you’ve got to create positive memorable experiences. Hotel Valencia would rather get the twenty bucks and I’d rather not ever go back so I paid my toll, thank you. Hotel Valencia sucks.

Last night as we pulled into the Fairmont, someone was there with a beautiful balloon white 16M Scuderia. I was parking my SV when they came out to the circle at the Fairmont, got in their car and left. It’s really unusual for exotic owners to not chat for a few minutes, but he just left without saying a word. That actually doesn’t happen very often. I didn’t get a chance to look at or photograph his car. Most exotic owners are extremely nice people and love to chat, especially about cars. The guys who are the real pricks are the ones who borrowed the car or rented it. Somehow, they think they have to act that way or something. I don’t get it.

Today is the first day of the Giro. Vic just flew in and will be my passenger. I’ll write more and respond to more threads when we arrive at the hotel.

 

Good stuff so far, subscribed for more!

 

Day 4

The Fairmont was beginning to fill up with serious car guys with large collections who were there taking it easy, getting business done before heading over to Monterey. It was a lot of fun chatting with everyone before we left the hotel around noon. There was a guy wearing a giant wrestling belt and he was carrying a second one. Apparently there was wrestling going on someplace near the hotel so I asked if I could borrow the belts for a picture. I just want to make it clear I didn’t win those belts.

We were running low on gas and there were surprisingly few gas stations on 29. We finally got to one but the pump wasn’t working properly. We managed to pump a whopping $0.30 in the tank. That worked out to 0.087 gallons of gas. Enough to shorten a walk to the next gas station by about 4,582 feet, which was about the distance to the next station. We were very low and the pump would only allow us to add $75.00 in gas. Isn’t that amazing that the gas or credit card companies can’t trust you to buy more than $75.00 in gas? Who picked that number? Did they do some scientific study? Why $75? Seems completely arbitrary and just short of a full tank, just enough to annoy the hell out of me. It’s like going to dinner and finding out that I’m only good for 95% of whatever I want to eat. I then had to add another three bucks just to fill it so it took three tries to fill the car.



We made it up to Solage in Calistoga around 3:00 PM, roughly an hour before check in. When we arrived we were immediately directed to a sectioned off area of the parking lot at the Solage. There were a hand full of cars from Canada, and a few from other parts of the US. There were few from California. I’m guessing they will arrive later. I’d guess there are about fifteen cars here already. I don’t know how many in total. I’ve yet to meet anyone other than the folks checking us in. So far everything has gone smoothly and Lamborghini seems to be doing a terrific job with organizing everyone.











I’m sitting outside in the sun as I write this. I’m going to brulet my own head if I stay outside much longer. More later...

 

Day 5

It’s now very early in the morning here on Day 5 of the trip. I’ve had very little sleep from the day we left Seattle and it’s starting to catch up with me. We’ve got to be at breakfast at 7:00 AM and engines start at 8 AM sharp. It will be a full day for sure. Lots to do. I’ll write more as I can and I apologize for not getting responses out. I’m writing this in email form- sending it off to Christian who’s then posting it for me so we can get this all to you as quickly as possible.



Evening at the Giro-
The event kicked off with a welcome from management followed by a terrific dinner. Everything about it was outstanding. It was nice to have the open conversation about the brand and where it’s going. What was interesting about the Giro was the cross section of participants. They come in all shapes, sizes, and types and there is no way to stereotype this group. About the only thing they have in common is they love their cars. Everyone who’s attending this year’s Giro is an enthusiast first. That’s why they are willing to spend the money to attend and Lamborghini takes it seriously. You get the impression that if there is a way to do it better, they will do it.

First time I’ve met Wolfgang Hoffmann who took over for Pietro to run US
operations:



I had to roast at least one marshmallow:



Symbolic of San Diego brought up a Rosso Vik Superleggera that was one of the most stunning cars I’ve seen in a long time. I think it’s the combination of the carbon fiber, deep red paint and black accents. It’s unquestionably the event stealer for me. The yellow car is also stunning, but that red in that particular model is really something. Everything about it is gorgeous.



There was no talk about anything in the works, but I don’t think the group was expecting it either. What was also interesting about the Giro is that nobody seems to know each other. Manfred said it was all new faces. This year’s Giro came from the request for less travel from place to place where you have to be up early to check out every morning. Instead they decided to keep the group in one resort location and drive from there making it easy for people to relax a bit more yet still take in the driving time.






Somehow cars always look better on the lawn:




Every car gets their own little cabin. This is the courtyard view. The rooms are actually very nice.




One of the very few remaining SV's not in some owner's hands:




Dinner! Perfect!

 

Some random pictures from our drive down:

Not much room in the SV for clothes during the Giro unless you’re going to
wear nothing but thongs. I’m guessing this trunk will hold over 1000 thongs.




This is what I'm using to both write and upload pictures. I'm using a Sprint 4G MyFi and an inverter to keep the laptop powered. Both get the job done.





Neat old Plymouth cop car between Grant's Pass and Crescent City. Still had the old radio in it too.




Bubblicious Water Mellon gum tastes EXACTLY like shampoo. I did have to seeif I could blow a bubble. I could actually made a decent size but feared hitting a tree and that would be tough to explain.




I made up a snack pack for the friends of mine who were driving Highway 1 inthe fog. I left the little gift pack at a convenience store in Leggett with a note. Ifigured the snacks would give them a better reason to blow chunks.




Here’s where we left the littke care package in Liggett for my friends who wouldbe driving Highway 1 two days later.




This is what happens when you have a chainsaw and way too much time on your hands.




I’ve driven by this bull**** store for many years and never stopped. They finallygot me however I didn’t get suckered into buying a chainsaw anything.




What to do with that old stump you yanked out of the back yard? One man's waste is another man's fountain.






Two room suite at the Fairmont before I jump on the bed.




Typical accommodations at the Fairmont. Over the top for what you expect. Like I said, they treat me very well.




My trusty daily driver and a better distance car than my Phantom.





Notice the lack of gap between the rear wheels? There is less than a half of an inch of clearance on either side. I passed the precision slow driving course.




I was thinking of these bad boys for Concorso.




Dinner on Santana Row.

 

Are you and your friend staying at the Super 8 motel? We drove past and saw the Aero arriving about 8:45pm today (the 11th). That is one mean looking and sounding car!