Let’s Talk about Concorso Italiano
Concorso Italiano is held during Monterey Car Week, the third week of August every year. It was the first event that I attended way back in the early 90s. Back then it was a very informal event held at the Quail Lodge and Country Club in Carmel Valley. It was started by members of the Maserati Club that just wanted to get together with other Maserati owners that were also attending the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It grew in popularity and eventually included all Italian car and motorcycle marques and was a celebration of all things Italian. As with many popular car events, it outgrew the Quail venue and had to find a new home. After fits and starts, it landed at Black Horse and Bayonet Golf Course in Seaside, but by that time, the prices of hotels and other expenses had risen to levels that excluded my little group of enthusiasts and we stopped going around 2001. In 2017 the Alfa Romeo Owners Club decided that Concorso would be an event on the West Coast where we might be able to attract some new members. AROSC (the SoCal chapter) and Alfa Romeo Association had been representing the Alfa Romeo brand and it seemed like a great fit along with a new presence at Amelia Island concours that year.
It was fun to be able to go back and experience Monterey again, but the experience was so very different. The Concorso organization has changed hands recently and the emphasis is now on a “CI Experience” rather than focusing on the enjoyment of the cars and the people and the costs involved with attending have risen to levels that are once again precluding the enthusiasts with smaller entertainment budgets. That and an organizer that is seemingly uninterested in working with the AROC-US group has caused us to bypass the event this year.
Pictures in this gallery are from a few years.
