“Car Week” as it’s known happens the second week of August every year in Monterey, CA. It’s expanded past a week now and is actually 10 days packed full of events that attract car enthusiasts (and their cars) from all over the world. This is something I’ve been attending regularly since 2010.

Like last year, I paired up with my friend Greg and we caravan’d to Monterey in our cars—Greg has a very nice 1972 Dino 246 GTS. Greg mentioned the blue smoke coming from my exhaust and I told him what my mechanic told me: It’s nothing to worry about. While I forget the exact details, my mechanic explained it was a small internal leak that was burning off through the exhaust and not worth fixing until I have my major service performed (which would be in two years). Again, he assured me the car was perfectly drivable and this wouldn’t cause any problems.

By the time we reached Monterey, my oil pressure gauge had slowly gone from normal to low. We pulled over and I checked my oil only to discover it was empty. Of course, I had checked the level before we left and it was fine, so this was a bit troubling. Fortunately, we had oil with us so we ended up pouring in about three quarts to get it to the minimum level, then continued the rest of the way (which was about 10 more minutes of driving).

Since that happened, I was a little hesitant to drive my car, so we drove Greg’s 246 everywhere, and I only drove my 308 to the shows where it was being displayed: The Quail and Concorso Italiano. The whole time the car was driving perfectly normal, other than some blue smoke coming out the tail pipes. No strange sounds, nothing out of the ordinary at all. I watched my gauges like a hawk the entire time too. When we left to head back home, we topped off the oil to make sure all was good and then we began our trek back home.

It was the same story on the way home as well, my car was all normal other than the blue smoke. I did hit a really rough patch of traffic and the car started to get too hot, so I pulled over for a while and waited about half an hour for it to cool down. That is typical for these cars as they’re really not good in heavy traffic. While I was pulled over to cool off, Greg made it home safely but constantly checked in with me. I still had another two hours to go since I live further North. By the time my car had cooled and I got back on the road, traffic had cleared, and I was once again on route and keeping a watchful eye on my oil pressure, oil temperature, and water temperature gauges. All were reading perfectly normal.

I made it through San Francisco, but shortly after passing over the Golden Gate Bridge my engine just stopped running. I was in the far lane traveling at highway speeds uphill, so with my now unresponsive engine, I was losing speed fast. I was fortunate that traffic was light, this afforded me the opportunity to slowly reach the shoulder on the other side of the highway without impeding traffic. Once I stopped on the shoulder, I took a look at my engine and saw nothing obvious. I checked my oil, it was still right at the “max” line. After a few minutes, I tried starting the car again—it would crank but wouldn’t start, and there was a fairly disturbing rattling sound as I tried to start it. Something was definitely wrong.

I haven’t been stranded by a car in decades, and on the side of 101 just outside of San Francisco was not the best place to be. The shoulder was small, which meant traffic was close when it passed by. I turned on my hazard lights and hoped for the best. Fortunately the police saw me stranded there and actually got their flatbed truck out to move my car to a safer location, under the overpass of the next exit. It was really an ideal, and safe place. I used my phone to launch the Hagerty app for roadside assistance, but after an hour there was still no tow driver found. I launched my AAA app and tried the same thing with the same results. It’s now been well over two hours and neither Hagerty nor AAA had found a tow driver for me. So I called a local one and they were here within 45 minutes. Of course, I had to pay for that out of pocket.

In the end, the timing couldn’t have been better after I called the tow company myself. My not-so-happy wife showed up so I could unload my car and put all my luggage and bags in her car and have a ride home. After I had completed unloading my car, the tow truck arrived within five minutes. I had to help the driver get the car on the flatbed as he was a bit timid with it being a vintage Ferrari, but he was also excited to help. I had him tow the car to a shop that was about 12 miles away and left the car in back, I put the keys through the mail slot up front. Once I arrived home I sent them an email with the details.

The shop where I had the car towed is not the same shop I had been going to, in fact, it was one that had come highly recommended from a couple of friends who use them regularly. I did not have it towed to the shop I had been using because right now I have very little confidence in them, and they may or may not be responsible for what’s happened to my car. I’ll have to wait for the diagnosis on this to see what happened and if it’s somehow related to what they did or told me. You might guess that I’m not too happy with that shop at the moment.

So right now my car sits at a shop waiting to be diagnosed. I fear what they may discover and what that may cost, I certainly wasn’t expecting this to happen, and my pockets aren’t as deep as most Ferrari owners. I always say, I own a GT4, not a GTO! I am very grateful that I was able to pull over safely and get the car safely to a reputable mechanic as well. I guess if things like this have to happen, then it couldn’t have happened in a more iconic location.