Report: Monterey Car Week 2022
Planet Pebble
Concours de Lemons 2022
© press-inform – the press office
Long gone are the days when Pebble Beach was all about multi-million dollar classics. The Monterey Car Week has long since become the world’s most important car event. The car fans celebrate world premieres, bizarre classics, electric cars and last but not least themselves.
Big tears roll from the eyes of motor shows all over the world when they look at the American Pacific coast every year in the third week of August. Here, over the years, an exclusive classic event around the coastal town of Monterey has become exactly what the dying events would only too like to be: the place to be – the trade fair of the future. No stuffy exhibition hall with buildings worth millions, bad-tempered caterers, overcrowded parking lots or demonstrators who trample on the exhibited cars to draw attention to themselves. Monterey Car Week is cool, casual, contemporary, and open to just about anything.
Long gone are the days when everyone was looking forward to the elite Concours d’Elegance, airy summer dresses were worn and well-protected gentlemen cast their votes for Duisenberg, Hispano Suiza or Mercedes 540 K. All of that still exists at Pebble Beach, but most fans don’t get to see Sunday’s still impressive closing event at the spectacular 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach golf course. They attend informal events the Legends of Autobahn around the German brands, do a lap through Pacific Grove at the Little Car Show, get excited about the Concorso Italiano, travel halfway across the country with their junk boxes to the funky Concours de Lemons in Seaside or hug blown away by the countless new items being unveiled around Pebble Beach throughout the week. The resourceful car industry is indifferent to the cancellation of the Geneva Motor Show next spring, because they have long backed the right horse: the Monterey Car Week 2022 – everyone will be back next year anyway – and more.
There are hardly any earthly limits for car fans on Planet Pebble. At the most exclusive event of the entire week – The Quail – a Motorsports Gathering – the car manufacturers pull the tarpaulins from their latest models. Exactly those that would once have been unveiled at a trade fair. But at The Quail, in front of a decidedly illustrious audience and ticket prices of more than $1,000, this is far more pleasant than in Paris, Munich, Turin or Geneva. This year not only film star Brad Pitt did the honors, who treated himself to a house not far from the scene. Price: $40 million. That’s about the category of some guests who spend a week sipping champagne on the greens and fairways and having just as much fun as the breakfast fans at the Butter House. Those responsible for Audi found out what the attitude of The Quail audience was. The Ingolstadt car manufacturer presented the three Sphere studies. An American came to the stand and was enthusiastic about the Audi Skysphere electric convertible. “What does that cost?”. Answer: The car is not for sale. It’s a concept.” “Okay, just tell me the price!”. That’s how business is done here. At the same time, a dilapidated Porsche 924 changed hands in the parking lot of cult car dealer Dodi. Everyone is happy – everyone is satisfied and no one nags anyone else. Unimaginable in Europe – a modern-day tradition lived on Planet Pebble.
While the pre- and post-war classics once set the tone at the traditional automotive event for the beautiful and especially the rich, things are now very different. Especially the new up-and-coming brands have discovered Pebble Beach and the Monterey Car Week as ideal platforms. Not only will exclusive sports cars be unveiled on the green lawn of the golf course in Carmel Valley, but also electric models in particular: Polestar will let electric fans take a look at its future convertible, the Polestar 6, Lucid will show its top model Sapphire with over 1,000 hp and Meyers Manx will lay the buggy that Volkswagen presented here three years ago in the same place. Many shuttle vehicles have a plug, so the charging stations will be crowded during Monterey Car Week. Models like the Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster, a Bentley Mulliner Batur or the Bugatti W16 Mistral openly make their last big appearance with a combustion engine, while Porsche with its magnificent 911 GT3 RS or the Lamborghini Urus Performante generate enormous interest even without a plug and lithium-ion battery .
The Planet Pebble is not “fully electric”, but clearly electrified, because the new products from Honda’s noble offshoot Acura, Gordon Murray or Czinger are also on the road with an electric motor and the visionary Lincoln outlook of the L 100 model is just as purely electric on the road as that next signs of life from faraday future. Especially the most exclusive car brands in the world can hardly miss the Monterey Autoweek with its various events. The date on the US West Coast is also set for manufacturers such as Pininfarina, Rimac, Hispano Suiza and Maserati – they have all long since opted for electromobility. California car fans don’t care about all that – live and let live – that’s Pebble, too. They look at historic Mercedes S-Classes in Legends of Autobahn in the morning, are enthusiastic about the 2002 BMW, do a test lap in the Bentley Bentayga Hybrid and are happy about the test drive in the Rimac Nevera with over 1,900 hp after one more cap in the morning and a lemon shirt at the Concours de Lemons and ate a burger at the drive-in before heading to the exclusive Mercedes party in the evening.
The fact that many car fans have to make a detour to the numerous auctions organized by organizers such as RM Sothebys, Goodings or Bonhams before driving their own car back home or boarding their own Learjet only shows how broad the Monterey Car program is Week has become over the years. And no event without a lot of charity. For example, the one-off Porsche 911 Sally Special was auctioned off for a good cause for 3.6 million dollars – that too is the USA and Planet Pebble, where there hardly seem to be any automotive borders. Even racing fans get their money’s worth, because it’s just 20 minutes to the full program at the Laguna Racetrack.