America’s best parking lot car show pulls into The Quail

Every year, the collector car show known as The Quail gathers some of the world's rarest vehicles and their wealthy owners onto a golf course in Monterey, Calif., for a day of celebrations. The show itself ranks among the most exclusive in the world, and has become so popular among enthusiasts that even its parking lot turns into a impromptu festival.

Among the highlights at this year's Quail was the largest American gathering of Iso Rivolta vehicles, the Italian sports car builder of the '60s and '70s, whose style left a far greater impression -- especially the Iso Rivolta Grifo -- than its sales would suggest. Piero Rivolta, the heir of the founding family, came with the 1972 Iso Rivolta Varedo, the company's attempt to build a mid-engine sports car comparable to a DeTomaso Pantera, but the firm never managed to pull it off.

Inside the grounds, the show ran from pre-war Alfa Romeos and the oldest Ferrari in existence to a tiny Fiat shaped like a bathtub on wheels, built as a runabout for the Agnelli family compound. Outside the fence, the parking lots overran with Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis of all vintages, allowing the gawkers to compare a modern Ferrari California with a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB side by side, or take notes on how a Bugatti Veyron matches the size of a '57 Chevrolet Bel Air. The best things about Pebble Beach are the accidental juxtapositions, and nothing shows that quite like The Quail.