The Quail tastefully honors Jag E-Types, driver Derek Bell

The 2011 Quail A Motorsports Gathering was best described in the brief opening remarks of The Honorable Sir Michael Kadoorie, patriarch of event and the man on whose sprawling property the show has taken place for nine years. He said simply: “Enjoy yourselves and drink plenty of champagne.” Nothing more. Words to live by.

Kadoorie flies helicopters, loves race cars and owns about a million hotels all over the world, but it may be the race cars that he enjoys the most. So when The Quail became available to host an event after the raucous Concorso Italiano outgrew this fine setting, Kadoorie and a dedicated and talented team took the opportunity. Kadoorie had been hosting a rally for friends for about five years before that. So the Quail became a natural outgrowth of the rally.

Gordon McCall, who puts on the Motorworks Revival, more commonly known as the Jet Party, was pivotal in The Quail's formation and growth. Though growth is a bit of a misnomer, since the event is supposed to be limited to 3,000 attendees a year. Scanning the lawn this year in the afternoon it seemed like there were about 300,000 people there, but they were all pretty well behaved.

Among the honorees was the great Porsche driver Derek Bell, five-time winner of Le Mans. And not class wins, mind you, Bell won it overall five times. Organizers had lined up two cars to commemorate Bell's visit, a Porsche 935 and a Ferrari 250 GT.[via : Autoweek]