Yahoo Autos R&T at The Quail: a Recap
We're just shaking off the cumulative hangovers (literal and metaphorical) from another long, effervescent weekend spent in Monterey, for Pebble Beach Car Week. As ever, the festivities kicked off with The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, where R&T had a booth to celebrate the launch of our latest issue.
If you didn't drop by to drink all our champagne and grab an armful of R&T swag, well, put it on the calendar for next year. (Maybe snagging a ticket was an issue. Just remember we gave away some tickets to our R&T Founders. If that butters your biscuit, you can sign up for a membership here.)
There was much caviar chomping and champagne swilling at the R&T booth, but mostly there was gawking at a lawn full of the hottest metal on planet earth. From a fleet of charming Sixties Minis, to Giugiaro's many angular landmarks, and modern hypercar unveils by the dozen; the Quail had the best of everything. (The highlight, for me, was a chance encounter with a woman in big sunglasses and a Texas Longhorns cap named "Renee," who clued me in to Austin's best BBQ joints, then seemed genuinely curious when I explained Phil Remington's improvements to the Shelby Cobra's steering. I'd later find out Renee's last name was Zellweger. Yes, I'm a buffoon.)
Attendees at the R&T booth had the opportunity to see the new Range Rover Sport up close, resplendent in deep red paint. We'll throw that in our dream two-car JLR garage, right next to any of the Jaguar D-Types that showed up for the event.
Of course, there was manufacturer activity aplenty. McLaren ripped the cover off its Solus GT hypercar, which was the subject of much speculation. The Solus is a ball of hyperbole: 10,000 rpm, 830 hp, sixty in less than 2.5 seconds, less weight than a cubic yard of gravel. Just 25 of these multimillion-dollar hypercars will be made and (an early version of) one of them sat at the Quail. Rad.
Porsche brought out its latest GT3 RS, affixed with enough wing to emasculate a DC3. This was another long-anticipated vehicle from Porsche, one met with a huge crowd at The Quail. After finally seeing it in the flesh metal, we can't wait to come to grips with the RS later this year. Stay tuned for that one.
Of course, seas of special vintage race cars were invited to attend The Quail. If a Marlboro liveried F40 LM (one of the 19 LM's ever built) doesn't set off your nostalgia alarm, there were hundreds of others. Private owners brought out a fleet of M cars that sat central to the show, from the mid-engine M1 on up through the company's more modern iterations. Oddball entries tucked into the show's corners, like an Alfa Romeo 6C pickup conversion that ferried racing bicycles in-period and smelled just like the inside of a wheat truck (be still, my beating redneck heart).
For everyone who made it out to see us in Monterey, we'd like to offer up a big "thank you!" You, the reader, are the real fabric of this publication, and it's a point which is never lost on us. I rarely speak for anyone but myself, but I'm confident the rest of R&T's staff shares in my gratitude. Events like the Quail (and our many R&T experiences) tend to define the year for R&T's editors, as well as its marketing and advertising staff, who work so hard behind the scenes to make the magazine run smoothly.
For anyone else who missed out this year, we hope to see you next year. For everyone who made it out to the Quail to see us (or connected with this magazine's editors anywhere else this weekend), we offer one final "thanks." You make R&T possible and we're grateful for your enthusiasm.
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