Dear Johan,

Why is Pebble Beach so high on your agenda… You hate the way the presented cars are restored… and there will not be as many Bugattis present as in the specialized Bugatti meetings…. Just forget Pebble Beach and only come to Europe… 2009 is a special year for Bugatti and several special meetings will be arranged…

Regards,

rivaaquarama

Why Pebble Beach? 2003, that's why. But this is 2008, and next year will be 2009, and one cannot go back. But your words got me thinking, and I realised that I am aware that Pebble is celebrating Bugatti's centenary, but I have not heard how Britain (B.O.C. & the Trust), France and the rest of Europe will celebrate this momentous occasion.

You are right, for my first trip outside South Africa (Well there was the "Angolan adventure", but I was doing my National Service at the time, so we don't need to get into that now. ) I owe it to myself to visit the Motherland of Bugatti, anywhere else would be disrespectful. I am, of course, referring to Great Britain, after all, no Brit ever used a Bugatti for stock-car racing. To the British the honour of being the first to recognise the awesome, fallible, majestic greatness of the cars from Molsheim. And the vain infuriating genius who made them.

I may waver from time to time, but come next year, I shall travel to Prescott, and I will pay my personal respect to the legacy of Hugh Conway at the Bugatti Trust. This will be my pilgrimage, what I do after that will be my holiday. For this I remain open to all suggestions from the many friends I've made on this forum.

Pebble Beach 2003. What a day that must have been.