First day in Monterey and - despite the jet lag and chronic fatigue of an 11- hour flight (made worse thanks to a screaming infant in the row ahead) - it's been a great start for team C&SC, with a feast of myriad classics spotted during the couple of hours it took to get down from San Francisco to Monterey.
We weren't 10 minutes out of the airport before the chrome-rimmed festooned rear end of something 1960s classic loomed half a dozen cars ahead on Highway 101 - reminding us that sun-drenched California really is the land of plenty when it comes to classics in daily use.
Unable to get closer to ascertain its identity - we were in fast moving traffic and our chariot, a lethargic Ford Escape rental car, didn't imbue us with the confidence to give chase - we ticked it off as a Plymouth - possibly a Fury.
A few minutes on and colleague Ben Guynan (enjoying the performance of a new Chevrolet Camaro some miles ahead) sends us a snap of a modd'ed Ford Capri that overtook them at speed. Looks cool and rare for these parts, at least.
Switching into the car pool lane (restricted to cars with two or more occupants - which we hadn't figured out until the traffic in the remaining lanes backed up) was a chance to reel in the miles and close the gap but the Plymouth (or whatever it was) was long gone.
Our disappointment was curtailed with the sudden guttural onslaught of something big and Italian hot on on our tail: a Ferrari 512'M' as it turned out before its driver down shifted and showboated off towards the horizon, leaving us to savour the plume of hydrocarbons.