There are so few roads in scarcely-populated West Texas that we can’t do an event there every year without repeating parts of the route. So every five years or so, after we’ve all forgotten the route details, we shift Texas 1000 from the picturesque Hill Country of Central Texas to the monumental landscape West of the Pecos.
The Mille Miglia is a transcendent and transformative experience. When you are driving down a narrow road on top a ridge in Tuscany, with valleys stretching below on either side and the smell of the farms on the air coming into the car it’s easy to forget city traffic jams and overheating 65 year old cars.
To do something completely different, after a dozen years rallying around Western Virginia and West Virginia, we moved Mountain Mille 300 miles South. The rally took place just a week after Hurricane Matthew, but the storm affected coastal North Carolina and not the western mountains. Even better, the weather for the rally was perfect.
If the sounds of the screaming engines and screeching tires from a vintage automobile rally are still echoing in your ears, it’s a safe bet you were not on the six-day Rolls-Royce Owners Club (RROC) Fall Tour through some of the most beautiful costal and inland areas near San Luis Obispo.
Taking place on the grounds of the nation’s oldest continuously active foxhunt, this nationally-recognized concours has undeniable class. Now in its 20th year, this weekend’s event will be bigger and better curated than ever, featuring over 100 distinguished automobiles and motorbikes.
This Friday, June 24th, marks the Vintage Sports Car Club of America’s annual Spring Rallye, with an extra E for elegance. Similar to its youthful cousin, the Sports Car Club of America, the VSCCA is a venerable institution that promotes the acquisition, use, and appreciation of sports cars.
This past April, 25th-28th, the west coast’s tribute to the historic Mille Miglia wound its way though 1000 miles of California countryside. Now in its 26th year, the California Mille is a vintage road rally for cars that would have been eligible for the original Italian street race.
This week, residents of southern and central California are being treated to the rattle and hum of the 26th anniversary of the California Mille. The drive amounts to 1,000 miles of the best backroads in California, through the hills and beside the Pacific Coast.
Usually, we hold our Texas event in November, when it’s still warm and sunny but there’s not much going on in the rest of the U.S. vintage car world. This year, knowing that the famous Hill Country spring wild flowers would be especially brilliant thanks to El Nino winter rains, we scheduled our Texas Bluebonnets for April 3 through April 8.
