1989 Yugo GVL Long-Term Road Test

1989 Yugo GVL: Monterey Car Week - Dawn Patrol

by Josh Sadlier, Senior Editor on September 15, 2015

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

NOTE: Mega photo gallery above!

The culmination of Monterey Car Week is the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, and the calendar says it starts at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.

But the best part isn't on the calendar; it starts before the sun comes up. There's nothing else like it.

"Dawn Patrol" is when most of the vehicles competing in the Concours actually drive out onto the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Some of the frailer entrants get parked out there the night before, but it's become a tradition for all able-bodied cars to join the early-morning procession, motoring one at a time past throngs of bleary-eyed admirers.

Ron and James elected to sleep in, but Mark and I set our alarms for 3:45 a.m. We were ready to go by 4:20.

Unhesitatingly, we grabbed the keys to our 1989 Yugo GVL.

It's barely worth noting at this point that the car fired right up in the condo parking lot. Of course it did. It's the Edmunds Yugo.

Check out the dash illumination! Not the best I've seen, but could be worse.

Again, it almost goes without saying that the 40-minute drive from Watsonville was uneventful. Our media passes got us into a Pebble parking lot, and we strolled toward the Dawn Patrol staging area. What a scene when we arrived. This 1954 Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic Coupe was one of my favorites at the show.

This year, at least, the action didn't start until around 6 a.m., so we had an hour to kill. Pleasantly, coffee and doughnuts were provided.

That's the 18th green. Not the worst place to be stuck for an hour. We never did use our golf clubs, by the way, but we brought them on a couple drives, and I can confirm that both bags fit just fine in the Yugo's backseat (no way they were fitting in the minuscule trunk, which is all ate up with wheel well).

Looking back over the 18th green, you can see the crowd amassing. It's almost time.

And here they come (that's a Moon!). I put my camera in burst mode and took about 2,000 photos. The best shots, according to me, are in the album above.

Josh Sadlier, Senior Editor