It is Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance time again, when the most expensive cars in the world migrate to the coastal town of Monterey, California, accompanied by their owners, and followed by those who dream of owning them.
The week leading up to the concours is a rush of themed shows, from little tiny autos to powerful racetrack legends. Flitting about like the monarchs the area is famous for are streams of classics and exotics sporting one-of-a-kind bodywork and rare engine options. It is, without a doubt, the most jaw-dropping car-spotting of the year.
We've sent a few of our lucky editors to brave the traffic and the funny-colored trousers to bring you the best of Monterey Car Week. Check back from now through the weekend for updates leading up to the Concours d'Elegance on Sunday, August 20. —Elana Scherr
Monday Morning: The Party's Over
That's a wrap on another week of top-shelf automotive offerings. We're going to go nurse our champagne hangovers till next year. Thanks for following along! —Elana Scherr
Sunday: The Concours Has Arrived
And the last day of Car Week, the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, has arrived. —Elana Scherr
It's all in the details.
Saturday: Laguna Seca
One of the most eclectic gatherings of vintage and collector cars during Monterey Car Week came from an unexpected source: the Bring a Trailer alumni corral at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
Click through to see a baker's dozen that caught our eye from among alumni of the online auction site, which—like Car and Driver—is part of Hearst Autos.
In the category of Cars You Never Knew Raced, we present this 1985 Buick Somerset. It campaigned in the 1985 SCCA Trans Am series. And, yes, it won a race.—Joe Lorio
No, I didn't drive it, but even just sitting in David Pozzi's 1965 Lola T-70 Mk I was a thrill. Pozzi has owned the Chevy-powered Lola since 1974 and been racing it since '78.—Elana Scherr
If you ever see a race car driver speak about their time on track, watch their hands. I've never met a driver who doesn't act out the whole race while they describe it. Here, Motorsports Hall of Famer and IMSA GT champ Tommy Kendall demonstrates an attempted pass gone wrong.—Elana Scherr
View from Above
The view at Laguna Seca from the top of the corkscrew is amazing, but you have to earn it. Michael and Amber Simari demonstrate the ascent.
Lemons: The Anti–Pebble Beach
When you've overdosed on a surfeit of sensational supercars, a plethora of perfect Porsches, and an overabundance of over-the-top classics, sometimes you need the palate-cleansing AMC Pacer or the medicinal tonic of a Mercury LN7. That's where the Concours d'Lemons fits neatly into the automotive excess of Car Week.
SEE LEMONS PHOTOS
We picked out our favorites from this year's event, and unlike Lemons judges, we made our selections without the influence of bribes. We've got a gallery for you. —Joe Lorio
Sometimes your hotel showcases vehicles the Quail didn’t have. This Aston Martin Valkyrie has been a showstopper at the Inn at Spanish Bay valet. The hotels can offer their own unique experiences during Car Week, like holding the door for a Sir Richard Branson or having dinner a table away from Aaron Paul. —Michael Simari
Elana Scherr meeting the legend Gordon Murray.
Aska's Flying Car
Flying cars have been teased as a someday technology for decades, long before self-driving cars became the just-around-the-corner technology to chase. A few, such as Terrafugia, made real strides but ultimately never made it to market. Now there's a new player promising to land the dream in two or three years' time and they were giving test drives this week, although not test flights. —Dave VanderWerp
Lotus Type 66, Simply Spectacular
While there have been plenty of Continuation models from long-established automakers, the Lotus Type 66 is something different: a newly built version of a historic car that was designed, but never built. Now the British sports-car maker has announced plans to create a run of just 10 of a modern take on what was originally proposed to be a Can-Am race car.
Each of these track-only specials will be priced in the seven figures, and we're promised they will have performance comparable to that of a current GT3 race car. —Mike Duff
Friday Night
10:52 p.m. Here's a good example of how varied the scene is here at Car Week. A chopped and dropped Chevy next to a McLaren, and we couldn’t tell you which is more outrageous.
1:00 a.m. I don't really recommend midnight wanders but if you are out and about in the wee hours, there are plenty of interesting friends around to entertain night owls.
Friday Afternoon
The number of test-drive opportunities during Car Week is almost limitless. Bentley threw us the keys to a $2 million Batur, the final send-off for the W-12 engine, for a quick spin on Seventeen Mile Drive. This is prototype number two, not one of the official run of 18 that will start production in the very near future. —Dave VanderWerp
Not just exotic cars but exotic pets too at the Quail. This is Paprika on the shoulder of Carmen.—Elana Scherr
But if you want to see the latest in ultra super hypercars, the Quail show is where it's at. Czinger showed the Blackbird, but even more interesting was the bare 3-D-printed chassis. We also got a peek at Lamborghini's Mad Max future with the Lanzador electric concept and saw bold colors from Zenvo and Maserati and a fancy fan rear from Gordon Murray.
Friday Morning at the Quail: A Motorsports Gathering
It's morning on Day . . . something of Car Week. We're getting ready for the Quail, which is best imagined as a car show held inside a shrimp cocktail. It's excessive, and also one of the busiest days of the week for reveals and supercar news.
Folks not attending this bacchanal can amuse themselves by hunting down the various test drives occurring all over the peninsula. If you're shopping for a high-dollar machine, Car Week is the place to make your comparisons. We saw Porsche test drives, Lotus, Ferrari. Czinger has airport runway space for those interested in the 21C (standard or the limited Blackbird edition), and speaking of, there's even a "flying" car cruising around with its wings all folded up.
I wouldn't turn down any test drive, but it would be hard to beat the quick spin I nabbed in the 1968 280SL Pagoda (below) from the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center. Look at these pretty details in the dash. Imagine the wind in your hair as the surprisingly sure-footed little beauty wafts along by the ocean. I saw dolphins! It was perfect.
Again with the unexpected: The first cars you see entering the exclusive Quail event are an Opel Kadett, an Alpine Renault, and a Fiat 128. I, as you might expect, was delighted. What cute greeters. —Elana Scherr
9:25 a.m.: Time for a glass of bubbly at the Quail. —Joe Lorio
Art Cars at the Quail.
Porsche has its duck tails in a row. [Cue DuckTales music.] —K.C. Colwell
10:06 An amazing car being unveiled. #shortfolkproblems. —Elana Scherr
Thursday: Under Way
This year, Car Week seems to be taking over the role traditionally played by the standard auto shows of the world, at least for supercars and special editions. It's only Thursday, and we've already seen debuts of the Acura ZDX—and the Acura Electric Vision concept—plus the Infiniti QX Monograph concept, a scaled-down Bentley Blower, and the Zenvo Aurora. And there's so much more to come. We can't wait to show you.
Bugatti in Red
What to do when just having a nearly $4 million supercar isn't enough to stand out in a crowd?
Bugatti Chiron Super Sport.
A Moment in the Lotus Emira
I've been dying to drive the Lotus Emira, and this morning I finally had a short stint behind the wheel. It was so fun and I bragged about it so much that our testing director Dave VanderWerp got jealous and now he's scheduled for a quickie drive too. We'll compare notes and post up some thoughts then, so check back for that after Dave's drive later this weekend. In the meantime, as a teaser, look at this nice interior! Lotus is stepping it up. —Elana Scherr
Legends of the Autobahn
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1983 Audi Quattro at Legends of the Autobahn, August 17, 2023.
The national car clubs for Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz team up to produce the Legends of the Autobahn car show, which is a pleasantly low-key event that nonetheless is chock full of interesting sheetmetal. It's held in the uber-charming burg of Pacific Grove, and the drive along Ocean View Boulevard out to the site at Pacific Grove Golf Links serves up the kind of scenery the peninsula is famous for: rocky shoreline dotted with cypress trees. In addition to judged classes, there's a large car corral that democratically welcomes enthusiast vehicles of all types. Click through the gallery to see some of our favorites. —Joe Lorio and Elana Scherr
Wednesday: The Arrivals
Thursday tends to be the busiest day on the highway from Los Angeles to Monterey, but we set out in the wee hours this Wednesday morning in order to make it to a few of the earlier events. On the way up you can always tell who, as Lenny Kravitz says, is gonna go your way.
The Little Car Show
Monterey Car Week is all about big numbers, from auction results to hotel room tabs, but the festivities start off small, at the Pacific Grove Little Car Show. Pacific Grove neighbors Monterey, but it's more suburban, with a charming main drag that's perfect for lining up wee machines and taking a sunny stroll. 2023 marks the 13th year of the Little Car Show (with one year off during 2020), and there were so many itty-bitty cars that the show spilled out into the surrounding streets, with Peels, Messerschmitts, and MGs parked all over the neighborhood.
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If you're curious as to how little a little car has to be, it's really a little engine show, with a recently raised cap of 1800 cc (that's almost two soda bottles' worth of power, pals).
"We considered doing it by wheelbase," an organizer told me. "But nobody knows their car's wheelbase." I suggested taking a page out of the airline carry-on book and having a "Car Must Fit in This Space" template that participants must drive through. So maybe that will be next year. I'll report back, as I'm hoping to sneak my 2.0-liter Opel GT in despite its cheater engine. —Elana Scherr
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Elana Scherr
Senior Editor, Features
Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews.