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McCall’s Motorworks Revival

McCall’s Motorworks Revival is the beginning of  the illustrious Monterey Car Week. Two words describe McCall’s Motorworks Revival, serious coin. Gordon McCall and his wife Molly have put together a shopping spree that rivals Rodeo Drive. McCall has put together an event of style and elegance, of classic and new, of priceless and priced to sell. It is the life of luxury under one airport hangar.

The beauty of this exclusive event is that it caters to only 3,000 people. It is well worth the $625 for the VIP ticket to shop in the style in which these party-goers are accustomed. There is a potpourri of exquisite items for sale; whether it is an exquisite sculpture from the artist Mark Russo of the Foundry Michelangelo for your foyer, or a Winston’s Estate Jewelers 35-carat yellow diamond for your pinkie, this is the place to buy them. You literally walk the red carpet, and the champagne is flowing freely. To the right is a rare B-25 bomber as well as the iconic P-51 Mustang.

Parked on the tarmac is a Gulfstream G500, Dassault Falcon’s 900 LX, Legacy 500 and Phenom 300E light business jet from Embraer, the single-engine Piper M600 cabin-class turboprop airplane, the PC-12 NG midsize turboprop airplane from Pilatus Aircraft and Textron Aviation’s display of the Cessna Citation Longitude super-midsize business jet. Each plane is cuter than the next, all looking like puppies in a store saying take me, take me. By the end of the night, the adoption fee of less than $43 million is paid, and the new owners fly home in style.

ROUSH Performance

The tarmac at the Monterey Jet Center is full of priceless historic cars, and vehicle debuts including a Gulf Racing-inspired Stage 3 Mustang from ROUSH Performance for automotive enthusiast Wade Kawasaki.

Guinness stout with a picture of your face in the foam

When one is weary, they can grab a caviar encrusted cracker, or stop for a sumptuous rib with truffle potato and relax while they sip on their 2017 Bernardus Carbernet. Walk past the Fords, the RUFs, a one-of-two 1978 BMW 320 Turbo, an exacting replica of the 1935 Bugatti Aerolithe built on an original Bugatti Type 57 chassis and grab a Guinness stout. Make that a Guinness stout with a picture of your face in the foam. That’s the attention to detail I’m talking about, the type of detail that this group would have at their parties. I laughed about the face on foam Ripple machine instead of your face in your beer. The Guinness guy told me the Ripple machine was $5,000, as though that was expensive. People sneeze wrong here, and they lose $5,000. A case of good wine here could cost $5,000. This Ripple machine is probably the most fun for the least amount of money at this event. Hell, I could almost afford the Ripple machine. Ever the practical person, I bought a case of 2017 Bernardus Cabernet Sauvignon instead.

The luxury watchmakers Bremont, Eberhard & Co., H. Moser & Cie., Kerbedanz, Reservoir Watch S.A., Chronoswiss A.G., were in attendance. I loved the simple elegance of the Moser watches, and the fuselage inspired watch holder by Bremont. I had the most fun with Reservoir’s founder Francois Moreau. Over a glass of Adobe Road Winery, he told me the history behind some of his watches.

Reservoir watches are created in  La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the same little city with the most wonderful watch museum. The little town with the buildings built to the sky. They remind me of a housing project in New York City, but the buildings are skinny. Why skinny? Because the watch workers of yore worked from sunup to sundown, by the light of the sun through the windows. Reservoir watches are Swiss-made, French-inspired mimicking the passing of time by speedometers from the automobiles of Bugattis and Minis.

The evening was a beautiful passing of time.