Monterey Car Week 2025: The Epicenter of Automotive Excellence
The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance continues to be one of Monterey Car Week’s crowning jewels. Elegantly arranged across the 18th Fairway on the third Sunday of August are some of the most beautiful, opulent, and extravagant automotive creations the world has ever seen. Winning a trophy at Pebble Beach is one of the highest honors an automotive enthusiast can hope to achieve, and this year’s Best of Show was one of the most spectacular examples we’ve seen in recent years. This 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra “Tulipwood” Torpedo was built by aircraft manufacturer Nieuport-Astra using long strips of eighth-inch mahogany held together by 8,500 aluminum rivets. This mahogany marvel was commissioned by gentleman racer André Dubonnet, and finished sixth with it at the 1924 Targa Florio and fifth at the 1924 Coppa Florio. After its racing stint, Dubonnet equipped the car for road use. If you’re curious about the value of such an outstanding piece of engineering, this unique Hispano-Suiza H6C sold at auction at R.M. Sotheby’s Monterey three years ago for $9,245,000 before being fully restored by RM Auto Restoration over a period of two years.
Some of the other tremendous additions to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance lawn include this 1937/47 Lancia Astura Stabilimenti Farina Cabriolet and its glorious mechanical wheel covers, a 1948 Chrysler Town and Country Convertible with an entire bull’s head affixed to the front of it, and a 1965 Bugatti Type 101C-X Roadster, a Virgil Exner-fueled attempt at reviving the storied automotive brand in the 1960s.
Of course, Pebble Beach is nowhere close to being the only show at Monterey Car Week. If anything, it seems the roster of must-see events only grows. For many in attendance, Car Week begins on Wednesday, marking the start of the festivities with the celebrated Motorlux. Taking over the Monterey Jet Center, Motorlux is a celebration of motoring opulence and the lifestyle surrounding the hobby. This year’s showcase featured the “200 MPH Club,” spotlighting legends like the Ferrari F40 and Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale; “From Stuttgart with Love,” honoring the models that cemented Porsche as a leading sports car brand; “America’s Wild Horse,” celebrating six decades of the Ford Mustang; and “The Mercedes Maestro,” paying tribute to the iconic designs of the late Bruno Sacco. Meticulously arranged amongst the cars were food selections from over 25 restaurants, 3 of which were Michelin Guide-recognized establishments, as well as drinks from over 30 wineries and 15+ spirit distilleries. To sum it up, it is a jaw-dropping experience all around, and one of the best ways to spend your time at Car Week.
Pacific Grove’s “The Little Car Show” celebrated its 15-year anniversary of showcasing 125 examples of the most peculiar mini, micro, steam, electric, and arcane vehicles of 1,800cc displacement or less from around the globe. It’s a tremendously unique arrangement of cars, and one that you are unlikely to see anywhere else during Car Week. This year’s Best of Show winner was a 1968 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, one of the more unique models produced by the German marque and a stunning design all around.
Monterey Car Week’s dedicated celebration of Italian automotive culture and lifestyle returned to the lush greens of the Bayonet Black Horse Golf Club alongside a sister event dubbed The Paddock. While Concorso Italiano celebrates everything that makes Ferraris and Lancias unique in their space, The Paddock looks at automotive culture with a more wide-angle lens. Case in point is their collaboration with Radwood, allowing the finest rides of the ’80s to mingle among the Italian royalty. Now, yes, you’re going to see Italian supercars and ‘80s legends cruising around the peninsula during the entire week, but no event gathered them all together under a single umbrella like Concorso Italiano and The Paddock did. No celebration of La Dolce Vita is complete without traditional food and drink, and thankfully, the organizers agreed, adding a live band atop the course’s central hill to serenade you with anything from Tutu Cutugno to Louis Prima’s rendition of C’è la luna mezzo mare while you enjoyed your pasta dish.
Just down the road from the Bayonet Black Horse Golf Club is a show that needs no introduction. Exotics on Broadway closes down four blocks between Seaside’s Del Monte Blvd and Fremont Blvd and puts on one of the biggest free cars show at Monterey Car Week. This year’s show was even bigger, as the organizers expanded the event by closing another five blocks on Fremont Blvd for a ticketed “Vendor & Hypercar Showcase” area. This enclosed area added yet another 40 hypercars to an already insane roster, alongside top sponsors and vendors in the automotive industry, a main entertainment stage, and even a VIP Lounge. With an estimated 40,000+ attendees each year, it’s no wonder that EOB has become such a staple of Monterey Car Week, and looking back at how well the organizers managed to improve on an already fantastic formula, we can’t wait to see what they pull off next year.
Monterey Motorsports Festival is one of the newest additions to Monterey Car Week, but its impact is undeniable. What started out in 2023 as a car show with a few side events at the Monterey County Fairgrounds has grown into what the organizers appropriately call “The official closing evening event of Car Week.” This year’s show was the wildest one by far, combining a regular car show with a drift pit, a full-size concert featuring American electronic music producer and DJ Dillon Francis, and even an entire rollercoaster on the premises! No other event brings so much together under one metaphorical roof, making MMF more of an all-out Car Week party than simply a car show.
This year’s Monterey Car Week auctions were interesting. While the overall number of cars was lower, with 1,078 lots spread across Bonhams, Broad Arrow, Gooding Christies, Mecum, and RM Sotheby’s, 818 of them found homes. Broad Arrow achieved a total of $57.4 million in sales and a tremendous 80 percent sell-through rate. The auction set a new record for any Maserati sold, with a hammer price of $5.202 million for a one-of-50 2005 Maserati MC12 Stradale. Some of our other favorites on offer include a gorgeous 1935 Fiat 508 S “Balilla” Berlinetta Aerodinamica, which sold for $156,800; the one-off 1984 Lotus Etna, which sold for $224,000; and the out-of-this-world adorable 1974 Honda Z600, which sold for $10,080.
Over at Mecum Auctions, a total of $37.5 million in sales was achieved, with a 76 percent sell-through rate. According to research by Magneto Magazine, the highest-selling car was a 1951 Ferrari 212 Export Touring Barchetta, which saw a hammer price of $2.75 million. Mecum itself doesn’t mention a price for this car, though, instead listing a 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400 S as its top seller at $1.98 million. Some of our favorites include this gorgeously original 1965 Ford Mustang K-Code Coupe, built on the first day of K-Code production; this fantastically overstyled and headturning 1960 Chrysler Imperial Convertible; and this 1993 Jaguar XJ220 finished in one of the best shades of red ever to grace a car.
Elsewhere, Bonhams’ leading sale was a 2020 Bugatti Divo, which sold for $8.6 million, R.M. Sotheby’s sold a 1993 Ferrari F40 LM for $11.005 million, while Gooding Christies sold a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Competizione Alloy Spyder for $25.305 million.
Overall, Monterey Car Week 2025 continued the tradition of automotive excellence while setting a fair number of firsts, both event-wise and for the auction houses. It was an incredible honor to be a part of such a dedicated collective of enthusiasts sharing the same hobby, and we look forward to doing it again next year and for the foreseeable future.
