Monterey Classic Car Week in California

Each mid-August, classic car enthusiasts gather for a motor week in Monterey, Pebble Beach, and Carmel in California, USA, for the largest motoring extravaganza in the world with a range of automobile events including the world’s most prestigious Concours d’Elegance and the most important classic car auctions in the world.

The annual classic, sports, and collectors car extravaganza on the Monterey Peninsula in California in mid-August has many names but Monterey Motoring Week sums it up perfectly, even if the name is not official. The week includes a range of events – all organized individually – including the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, historic car races, gatherings of German and Italian automobiles, and several major collector car auctions. The Pebble Beach (Gooding & Co), Monterey (RM Sotheby’s), and Quail Lodge (Bonhams) sales usually see the highest prices paid for classic cars each year. Eleven of the 17 cars ever to have sold for over $20 million at public auction, were bought at Monterey week auctions.

The Monterey Classic Car Week

The series of events forming the Monterey Classic Car Week are all arranged individually. There is no official program and perhaps surprisingly, no single source of information for all events.

Various event organizers often seem oblivious of the existence of other nearby events. The scheduling of events thus jumps around a bit from year to year as organizers try to avoid clashes with events that will attract the same crowds. The See Monterey tourist information website has a decent listing of many of the events.

Some of the major events in the Monterey Classic Car Week include:

Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

The Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance – generally considered the most prestigious of its kind in the world – is held on the third Sunday of August at the famous Pebble Beach golf course. Around 200 cars take part in this top event in the Pebble Beach Automotive Week.

Tickets for the presentation on Sunday at the Pebble Beach golf course are pricey (around $400) and sell out fast. Enthusiasts can often see the cars for free during the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance when some of the entrants go on an organized 60-mile drive and park the cars in Carmel during the lunch stop.

Quail Lodge’s Motorsports Gathering

The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, is one of the most prestigious events during the classic car week and is held at the Quail Lodge and Golf Club in Carmel. Tickets (around $450) are limited to 3,000 and are partly sold via a lottery system. Around 200 classic and modern racing and supercars are on display while modern luxury and sports cars are available for test drives.

Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is one of the cornerstones of the classic car week. More than 500 historic racing cars (pre-1940 to around 1980) take part in races over three days at the Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. Tickets start at $25.

Legend of the Autobahn

The Legends of the Autobahn event requires no special vehicle other than the requirement that the manufacturer must be Audi, BMW, or Mercedes Benz. (Porsche is not participating and Volkswagens are not invited no matter how fast.)

Concorso Italiano

The Concorse Italiano welcomes any car of Italian origin. Around a thousand Italian cars are on show at the Black Horse Golf Course in Monterey. Admission is around $170.

Concours de Lemon

A fun event, with absolutely free admission, is the Concours d’LeMons for the ugliest cars and “worst in show”.

Classic Car Auctions During Monterey Motor Week

Several classic car auctions are scheduled each year during the Monterey Classic Car Week. The most prestigious charges admission to see the cars and the auctions but visitors can often see the cars before, during, and after the auction in the relevant hotel parking lots. Admission to some auctions is fairly cheap, rarely free, and many include beautiful cars even if they are not in the million-dollar leagues.

The auctions during Monterey Classic Car Week commonly see the highest prices of the year. Eleven of the 17 cars ever to have sold for over $20 million at public auction, were bought at Monterey.

Regular Classic Car Auctions at Monterey

The following auctioneers traditionally have sales during the Monterey Motoring Week:

• The Pebble Beach Auction of Gooding & Co is the official partner of the similarly named Concours d’Elegance. The auction is usually held over two days at the Pebble Beach Resort.
• The Monterey sale of RM Sothebys is held at the Monterey Conference Center on Friday and Saturday evening.
• The Quail Lodge sale of Bonhams is held on Friday evening in Carmel.
• The Mecum sale a the Hyatt Regency Monterey is held over three days and has the largest volume of cars on offer.
• Further auctioneers with sales at Monterey include Worldwide Auctioneers (Pacific Grove) and Russo and Steele (Monterey Waterfront).

Auction Records at Monterey, Pebble Beach, and Quail Lodge

The top auctions during Monterey week often earn over $100 million dollars each making it no surprise that many auction world records were set at sales in Monterey, Pebble Beach, and Quail Lodge. A few records and notable sales include:

The Monterey auction week record holder, at the time of sale the most expensive car ever sold at public auction, is a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that achieved $48,405,000 at the RM Sotheby’s sale in 2018. It took the record from the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that Bonhams sold for $38,115,000 at Quail Lodge in 2014.

A 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S N.A.R.T. Spider by Scaglietti sold for $27,500,000 at RM Auctions Monterey 2013 as still the most expensive road-going car ever.

The 1956 Aston Martin DBR1, chassis DBR1/1, sold for $22,550,000 at the RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2017 sale as the most expensive British car ever. It took the record from the 1955 Jaguar D-Type sold for $21,780,000 at RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2016 — still the most expensive Le Mans winner ever.

Gary Cooper’s 1935 Duesenberg SSJ sold for a record $22,000,000 at Gooding Pebble Beach 2018 as the most expensive American car and most valuable prewar car ever sold at public auction.

Some of the marque records (March 2024) held by cars sold at Monterey include amongst others Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Duesenberg, Ford, Horch, Jaguar, McLaren, Mercer, Porsche, and Shelby.

Monterey Week Auctions Historical Results (since 2013)