Today was one long day!! From 7am to 10pm non stop... Sometimes this business is actually work..
Bright and early I was off to the track and worked our vendor booth until 3pm... The crowds were decent and we talked to lots of new and old customers.. The day was certainly good for business. Saw a lot of old friends too. The hard part was I HATE being at a race track and not actually racing... That was hard to take..
After the track I went back to the hotel and cleaned up for an informal Jaguar party downtown. This has been a regular event for the last ten years or so. Again met lots of our old customers and had a couple of drinks.
From there I had a quick dinner and went to the RM Auction... IT is amazing the values of collector cars these days... I can remember when if a car reached a bid of $100,000 that was shocking.. Tonight bids of $1,000,000 or more were absolutely common!!
From there I had arranged to meet a knew customer from Alberta, Canada. He and his family were down for this event and he wanted to discuss having XKs Unlimited restore his E Type roadster.. He was very pleasant and after an hour and a half to answer questions it looks like we have another job coming in..
It is very satisfying that after almost 42 years in this business we have such a good world wide reputation... The personal satisfaction and pride in what we do has always been more important to me than the money. I always figured if I did the best I could and treated people right the financial rewards would follow and it seems to have worked out.
This weekend good top quality E Type roadsters were all selling around $350,000 range, so that strong value certainly helps business.....
It has been a rewarding week, fun at times, but also a lot of down time and even though I know my wife is having a wonderful time in Hawaii this week it would have sure been more fun to have her here. Well more fun for me.....
Sunday there are still lots of activities, more racing. Pebble Beach Show, etc but I have had enough so in the morning I am going to get up at the crack of dawn and head down Hwy 1 before the traffic comes out and really enjoy my new toy, the Turbo Porsche!! Hwy 1 from Carmel to San Luis Obispo is still one of the best drivers roads in the world. Last summer riding 7 weeks around Europe we rode some great roads, but none any better than Hwy 1.
Signing off!
Jason
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| The fabulous XKs Unlimited display booth Got lots of compliments how nice it looked. All thanks to our dedicated and talented marketing director, Dave Light... |
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| You never know what you are going to see on the streets of Monterey during Car Week. This hand built monster was very impressive. I am not sure the photo does justice to the size but this beast was at least as long as three normal cars! |
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| It is early evening the excitement of the RM Auction was really heating up. The bidding was on a loud speaker and when you hear bids of 1,2 3,4+ million dollars like it was chump change you have to wonder who are these people and do any of them want to marry one of my daughters???? |
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| Saw this very unusual motorcycle parked on the street. There was no brand and I could not tell for sure but it looked like an electric bike.... pretty cool looking.. |
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| Evening in downtown Monterey.. |
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| A beautiful Rolls Royce convertible I wanted to get for my wife Bonnie but after bidding hit $$$$ they would not take my check.... :( |
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| Amazing cars everywhere and this was just one of many auctions going on all over town.. |
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| A beautiful Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale. I remember in college working in a local SLO sports car shop and we had one of these come in. The man was traveling through town and blew a head gasket. It was my first time removing a head from a Alfa, I think I was 20? I thought the car was great back then and probably could have bought the car from the owner for $500, if I had it... :( |
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| Here was a little bargain my brother-in-law should have picked up, sold for ONLY $24,000,000, such a deal..... |
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