by Mike Gulett –
Monterey Car Week starts on Friday August 7 and ends on Sunday August 16. Notice this is more than a week and at one time, long ago, it was a mere weekend. It keeps getting bigger and more expensive every year and I am not sure that is a good thing but what can we do?
This year the Bonhams auction has moved from The Quail to Laguna Seca race track and the Broad Arrow auction has moved from the Monterey Jet Center to The Quail taking over for Bonhams. So that should be interesting.
It looks like the weather is going to be excellent. A big problem, as usual, is going to be the traffic, you should plan for extra time to get around. Monterey County has put together a web site with traffic updates and a description of all events – see here. Links to all events can be found at this web site.
Overview
Monterey Car Week is a 10-day series of concours, races, auctions, luxury showcases, and public car meets that attracts manufacturers, collectors, enthusiasts, celebrities and regular people who love cars. The problem is that many people are being priced out of attending especially when hotel costs are considered.
Some of the main events are:
- Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca – historic race cars racing.
- The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering – an exclusive luxury automotive showcase featuring world premieres and rare vehicles. It is very expensive – the price leader for the week.
- Exotics on Broadway – one of the largest events, with hundreds of supercars lining the streets of Seaside.
- Concorso Italiano – a celebration of Italian marques like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, and Ducati. Plus other makers – anyone who pays can get in. Visitor tickets are now $250 per person.
- Concours for a Cause – Set along Ocean Avenue in the heart of Carmel-by-the-Sea, the event brings together vintage cars, cultural experiences, and local artists for charity. It is free for visitors.
- Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – the grand finale, where some of the world’s most significant collector cars compete for Best of Show, which can increase the value of the owner’s car significantly. It is also very crowded and can be difficult to actually see the cars because of all the people.
If you go I hope you have lots of fun.
Below is the latest edition of My Comic Life (No. 2)
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Text by Mike Gulett and images by ChatGPT (except the map).
Ah, size creep.
Here in Connecticut we used to have a “Cars & Coffee” in an upscale but quaint little town.
It was started many years ago and got rave reviews from the vintage community with about 30 cars lining two streets and a good size crowd of spectators making the local business community very happy.
There were about 6 or 7 of these C & Cs each season.
Over the next 15 years, word got out and it seemed that the those 30 cars exponentially grew. As the attendance also grew it brought in out of state vintage car owners and trailered full blown race cars.
Over that period of time the towns folk had a problem on their hands. You know the usual, crowds, gunning of high red line engines, street racing, the aroma of burning rubber and general mayhem. Then came the reduction of events a season and the moving of the scene off the streets and into a local park.
The culmanation of this, by now infamous, C & C was two events a year with approximately 2300 cars per event.
When I last heard of the event, it was down to one a season and a town proposal to eliminate it permanently.
This is a generalized summation of what really happened but you get the idea.
I have no doubt that there will always be a Pebble Beach Concours d Elegance and a Laguna Seca Vintage Festival but as you point out Mike, beware of the negative effects of “Size Creep”.