Nine years ago, Brooks, the British-based auction company, held its first Monterey Weekend Sale at the beautiful Quail Lodge Resort & Golf Club in Carmel, Calif. It marked the launch of Brooks USA, and it went well.

Meanwhile the Brooks Auctioneers' classic car operation in the United Kingdom and Europe had gone better still. By the end of the 1990s, Brooks had begun to diversify into selling collectibles other than great classic, veteran and vintage cars. With sales for Formula 1 memorabilia, clocks and watches, scientific instruments, even classic aircraft, Brooks had diversified into perhaps seven or eight related categories.

By the year 2000, Brooks had sufficient muscle to absorb Bonhams of London, one of the great traditional British auction houses, founded in 1793. The new group adopted the Bonhams name. It had more than septupled in size overnight and could now sell actively across 70-80 categories, ranging from old masters' paintings to Persian carpets, porcelain, medieval armor … You name it, Bonhams would auction it. Ten more months passed, and Bonhams made yet another quantum leap, absorbing Phillips of London, securing even wider expertise, plus imposing headquarter salesrooms in the British capital’s fashionable New Bond Street.

By August 2002, Bonhams had become the world’s third largest – and fastest growing – auction house. At that point, they bought Butterfields in Los Angeles from eBay, and this weekend’s Quail Lodge Sale is Bonhams & Butterfields latest American event, and their best-yet Quail Sale.

I’m in the sale marquee right now, surrounded by the kind of great classic road and racing vehicles that have ruled my life since I was knee-high to a hub nut. The 68 lots range from a fabulously unspoiled, unrestored 141-year-old horse-drawn Abbot Downing stagecoach to a brand-spanking-new 2007 model Shelby Cobra GT500 convertible being sold in benefit of the Henry Ford charity. But just savor the competition classics being offered along the way. To my right here are three sparkling 210-mph Shadow-Chevrolet CanAm sports-racing cars from 1970-1974, including the 1,200-horsepower DN2 turbocharged V8 once raced by Jackie Oliver and "Quick Vic" Elford. Beyond there’s Peter Revson’s 1970 Lola-Chevrolet T220/222 gleaming in its red L&M sponsorship livery. An ex-Brian Redman/Hurley Haywood Group 44 Jaguar XJR-5 coupe catches the eye, gorgeous in green-striped snow-white. And from an earlier racing era are a superb street-useable D-Type Jaguar, which once raced in the 1950s Sebring 12 Hours, and a 1955 Ferrari 750 "Monza" in which America’s first-ever world champion racing driver, Phil Hill, learned some of his craft. There’s so much more here for every taste – and we’ll take a more detailed look around shortly …