As I write these words I am about to leave for my 25th Cars Week in Pebble Beach/Monterey/Carmel/Laguna Seca, California. It is an undescribable string of days. Known as “Car Week” it should more aptly be called “People Week”. It truly is a place in time…
Where people come together to share their passion and enthusiasm for automobiles.
There are two groups of automotive enthusiasts. The restoration fan who wants and needs everything on a vehicle to be perfect. Then there are those who appreciate a preserved vehicle. A vehicle that is unrestored, original, softened with time, and that which carries a patina of its history.
There in lies the difference between hard-side luggage guys and duffle-bag travelers.
I’ve always been a hard-side luggage guy. Obsessing over perfection to the point of not using my collector cars, or even my daily driver, for fear of that rock chip, scuff, or racked up mileage. A lot of my ego has been tied in to the obsession of having a “perfect” car. It’s time I address my insecurities. It’s time for a change. It’s time to trade in my Rimowa for a Suixtil.
I’m going to try and be more of a duffle-bag car guy.
So while I am walking among the thousands of cars and people this week on the lawns, at the track, and down the streets, I am going to enjoy more those cars that carry their battle scars, their history of use, their patina. I will admire the work of those perfect restorations but I’ll equally admire those memory marks that quietly tell a story of life on the road, the track, and the trail. I suspect their owners had a little more fun along the way.
What are you? A hard-side luggage guy or a duffle-bag traveler?
Thank you to Cars Yeah guest and Pebble Beach Judge Peter Hageman for the inspiration of this story.