1989 Yugo GVL Long-Term Road Test

1989 Yugo GVL: Monterey Car Week — The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering

by Josh Sadlier, Senior Editor on September 6, 2015

Intro | Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4 | Pt 5 | Pt 6 | Pt 7 | Pt 8 | Pt 9 | Pt 10

The first thing you need to know about The Quail is that it's not just called "The Quail." It only answers to "The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering." If there's anything more rarified than the actual Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach, this Friday morning fixture is it.

Our 1989 Yugo GVL was a natural choice for transportation.

By the time we parked it on the golf course between two fellow European imports, however, the exhaust was sounding pretty ragged. I noticed the extra throatiness as soon as we left Watsonville, and it got progressively worse. I wasn't too concerned, though; a Yugo with an exhaust leak would probably fit right in at the Concours d'LeMons. Besides, we had some bajillion-dollar cars to ogle. Everything was going to be alright.

The second thing you need to know about this year's The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering is that there were two women swinging around on flexible poles the whole time we were there. This one greeted everyone at the entrance bridge...

...and this one was doing her thing next to the Porsche installation.

I tried to find out where they came from, but my Google searches were, erm, unsuccessful. Let me know in the comments if you have more luck. I'm genuinely curious and a little disturbed.

This is where most of the action happened, but there was more Motorsports Gathering over to the left, including an amazing 1937 Packard (among other old stuff) and champagne and wine tasting.

Lunch was provided gratis by The Peninsula Hotel Paris, which I figured was a hoity-toity name for a hotel on the Monterey Peninsula. Nope, it's in Paris.

James took this photo from the Z3 as Mark and I were about to leave. The exhaust seemed even louder than before. I suddenly started to worry that it might interfere with CNN's video production the following morning.

There were other events going on that afternoon, but they weren't mission-critical. More important was finding a mechanic who had time to patch us up for the big day.

Josh Sadlier, Senior Editor