Back in 1950, long before it was fashionable to be a car collector, one of the first sports car road races was held in the Del Monte Forest on the Monterey Peninsula. On that same weekend, the first-ever Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance was held.

The big race of the weekend was won by a kid from Santa Monica only a few years my senior. I was 16 and wide-eyed watching Phil Hill pilot his Jaguar XK120 roadster on the beautiful, challenging and dangerous, tree-lined course.

Phil Hill went on to become Formula One world champion, driving for Ferrari, in 1961.  The Concours d’Elegance is now the number one show of its type in the world. Phil Hill, back then, exhibited the 1931 Pierce-Arrow that had been in his family since new. He won a ribbon.

Fast forward to 2005. We’re all a little older. We were considered odd, playing with those sports cars back then. Now we’re mainstream.

Phil Hill’s son, Derek, is pursuing an international driving career, an expensive pursuit. To help out, a group led by Bill Harlan of Meadowood in St. Helena, and Bruce Meyer, the Beverly Hills car collector, invited a small group of friends to Meadowood to honor Phil and to hold a little auction to aid Derek Hill.

About 30 “teams” accepted, bringing an interesting variety of cars for the planned “drive through the wine country.” Arturo & Deborah Keller, who hosted lunch during the drive and served their Keller Estate wines, drove their new Mercedes-McLaren SLR, only recently delivered to them by San Rafael Mercedes-Benz dealer Roland Bacci.

Brunno & Urannia Ristow brought their one-of-a-kind Ferrari, which Bruno found in South Africa 29 years ago. Ed & Sherri Gilbertson of San Francisco (he’s the chief judge of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance) brought their late model Ferrari Spider. There were no fewer than three Porsche 959 coupes, and a one-off Aston Martin Zagato of the early ’90s and plenty of other “eye-candy.” Noted collectors Brandon Wang and Chip Conner flew in from Hong Kong.

Larry & Debbie Mindel of Poggio restaurant in Sausalito brought their 1958 Lancia Aurelia Spider, the second-oldest car present. Larry and I have each owned our cars for four or five years, and have had every kind of trouble with them that you can imagine. But on this occasion, both of the cars performed faultlessly and even led us to expect an end to our frustrations.

My wife, Esta, joined me in our 1928 Alfa Romeo 6c 1500 Sport Zagato spider, giving us a claim to the car with the longest name, and the uncontested oldest. Driving an almost-80-year-old car on public roads, keeping up with newish cars, and coping with traffic is instructive. Those old cars were good in the context of their time, but it’s hard to imagine until you’ve driven one, how primitive even the thoroughbreds were.

First, this one has right-hand drive, so you shift with your left hand. The gears are not synchronized, meaning that unless your shift timing and sequence are perfect, you hear expensive-sounding grinding noises. The accelerator is the middle pedal — worth keeping in mind — and the right-most pedal actuates cable (non-hydraulic, non-disc, non-power) brakes.

The acceleration is slow and top speed is only 80 mph, but if you do all the foregoing correctly, you can stay with the traffic. It’s good to allow plenty of space for braking.

Most of you reading this can be forgiven for failing to understand how all this could be fun, especially if you factor in the cost of acquisition and maintenance.

Meadowood served an exquisite dinner, including Harlan Estate wines, and the auction raised over $50,000 for Derek’s pursuit of his driving career.

All in all, a far cry from that 1950 gathering at Pebble Beach, when every participant was surely regarded as an oddball by his friends and neighbors.

What To Do With That Old Car That’s Been In Your Family Forever

In recent months, some readers, finding themselves with a cherished old car, have wondered how to dispose of it. For info and suggestions, phone me at 415-479-9950 during business hours, with a description of your vehicle.