Concours on the Avenue 2016, Monterey Car Week

For the true Monterey Car Week fanatic the festivities start well before the launch party Wednesday night. One of the newest additions to the car show roster is Concours on the Avenue. Located in Carmel-By-The-Sea, near Carmel Valley, Concours on the Avenue Stretches from the start of Ocean Avenue shopping to the very end.

Watching the cars drive in to take their places for the day mimics the Pebble Beach Concours on a smaller scale and not nearly as early. With both sides of the street lined with classic street and race cars, I set out to find significant examples to highlight. Below are three that each have a unique story.

1965 Shelby G.T. 350 R

As the story goes, in 1964 Shelby took standard Mustangs and turned them into high-performance machines. Peter Brock and the original Venice crew then took the Shelby and turned it into a race car. There were a number of items that never made it onto the cars due to budget restrictions, lack of Ford approval or simply time.

Forty-eight years later at a SEMA show dinner, a bunch of the original crew talked about what they would have done if those previous restrictions didn’t take the place of the ingenuity of the crew and what they wanted to accomplish. So the journey began to recreate what could have been. They took two K-code Mustangs and made them into the dream teams true intentions for the car.

Luckily Brock kept a lot of files, which helped the team be able to re-create a lot of the original intended improvements including the IRS, the front and rear brake ducts and the special rear window.

1953 Porsche Outlaw

This Porsche went through a long build of four years, just finishing the month before Monterey. It was built as an Outlaw, or hot rod Porsche. It was built to pay homage to the early Le Mans cars. The car is powered by a 356 engine that has also been hot rodded with a 911 fan shroud, wheels from a 928 S, titanium shifter box, four wheel disc brakes, and LED lighting.

1966 Shelby Cobra 427

One of the early 427s, the owner has had the car for nearly two years. Having a poster on the bedroom wall of a Shelby Cobra all through high school and College, the owner had been searching for one his whole life. Finally able to obtain one, he found this car up in Canada and knew it was the one.

Having done very little to the car since purchasing it, this Cobra is all original. Having passed through many owners before, the car had been several different colors even with a hood scoop and side pipes. The gentlemen in Canada that they purchased from did the research and returned it to its stock form. The owner and his wife drive and enjoy the car often.