Classic cars roll through town on way to Pebble Beach

Throwbacks to the golden age of automobiles made a lunch stop at Aspen Lakes Golf Course Thursday en route to the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

The Pebble Beach Motoring Classic is a nine-day, 1,500-mile antique car tour from Washington to California with interesting backroads and scenic byways.

Organizer and director, Al McEwan, tries to give participants a grand adventure that allows them an opportunity to really tour in their vintage cars.

"We started this event back in 2001, and every year we've been through Sisters," he said, securing his 1934 Bentley Tourer. "I love taking them over McKenzie Pass. I count 48 in our group this year from all over: Hawaii, Monaco, Mexico and back east. We stayed last night at the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood and tonight we'll be at the Village Green Resort in Cottage Grove. It's a little bit of driving in between the parties."

Most of the cars parked in the Aspen Lakes lot were high on the desirability list in the collector world with legendary names like Rolls-Royce, Studebaker, Packard and Bentley, and values into the millions.

The most significant of the bunch is an original 1902 Mercedes Tourer owned by astute collector, Arturo Keller, and driven by John Bentley of England.

It's the earliest road-going Mercedes, and one of only two known to still exist. Its 28 horsepower motor allows a maximum cruising speed of 40 mph on the flat, much slower on hills. Maintenance issues are a constant problem and a small cheer rose as it rolled into Aspen Lakes just after noon, having survived the crawl up Warm Springs Pass.

Jay and Chris Moore of Maui drove their 1934 Packard Phaeton V-12, once delivered new to Massachusetts governor Alvin Fuller, whose family owned the Packard Agency in Boston.

"This is our third year with the tour and we like the management," said Jay as he sat down to the deluxe buffet lunch. "Al is the guru and we love the event, obviously. He does such a great job. Our car was shown on the lawn in 2007 at the Pebble Beach Concourse. It's a sporty, playboy model with a lack of roll-up windows, designed for good-weather motoring."

An ultra-rare 1967 Ferrari 275 GTS convertible in brilliant "Fly Yellow" made the cruise without a glitch.

Owners Jon and Mary Shirley of Seattle are on their first outing with Al's traveling museum.

"It's fantastic. This is our third day and there's been some great places to stop," Jon said.