Auctions, a historic race meeting, a dozen private gatherings, and one Sunday that closes it
Monterey Car Week is a series of car-related events held every August in and around the Monterey Peninsula in California. It is recognised as one of the premier gatherings in the collector car world, combining auctions, rallies, races, competitions, and shows, all of which culminate in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on the Sunday.
The tradition began in 1950 as an outgrowth of the Pebble Beach Road Race. In the decades since, official and unofficial events have accumulated around that original weekend until the whole peninsula is occupied, and an estimated 100,000 people attended in 2024. It is worth understanding from the outset that Car Week is not one event with a schedule. It is dozens of separate events sharing a week and a stretch of coastline.
The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, known as the Monterey Historics until 2010, runs across the final weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. It is a four-day meeting with more than 500 participants racing period machinery on a proper circuit, and for many people it is the part of the week they would not give up.
The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, held at the Quail Lodge and Golf Club, takes the opposite approach: the field is limited to 200 automobiles and a maximum of 3,000 tickets are sold, specifically to avoid crowding. Its Best of Show winner qualifies for the Peninsula Best of the Best competition in Paris, which gathers the winners of eight premier concours from around the world. Elsewhere in the week the Porsche Werks Reunion, established in 2014, occupies the Monterey Pines Golf Course, and Concorso Italiano takes the Bayonet and Blackhorse course for Italian cars.
The auction houses are a structural part of the week rather than a sideshow. Bonhams, Broad Arrow by Hagerty, Gooding Christie’s, Mecum and RM Sotheby’s all hold sales at various times and locations across the peninsula, and the viewing days are among the best opportunities of the year to see significant cars at close quarters without a rope line.
Some of the week is genuinely closed. Concours and Cocktails has been hosted since 2000 at the private Santa Lucia Preserve, on the grounds of a 1920s hacienda, and it is invitation-only — as many as 100 cars from members’ collections and special guests, some of which appear at Pebble Beach on the Sunday. We will not pretend that invitations to events of that kind can be bought, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something else. At the other end, Exotics on Broadway in downtown Seaside has been a free public show since 2015 and is one of the most heavily attended gatherings of the week.
Tell us which parts of the week matter and we will build the peninsula around those days
The single most common mistake is treating Sunday as the event and the rest as a build-up. In practice the week has three distinct characters. Midweek belongs to the auction previews and the smaller private gatherings, which is when the cars can actually be looked at. The final weekend belongs to the racing at Laguna Seca, which is loud, hot, and the most enjoyable part for anyone who cares how these cars behave rather than how they photograph.
Then Sunday closes it on the golf links, and by then most people have been on their feet for six days. Those who enjoy the week most arrive a day early, take a house rather than a hotel, and plan one long drive down the coast with nothing scheduled at the end of it.
Clients who follow this end of the calendar tend to keep a short list. Monterey includes the Pebble Beach Concours as one arrangement, and pairs with Le Mans Classic and the Goodwood Revival across the European season. Corporate hosting and client programmes during the week run through our Business Concierge team.
The other Grand Prix worth pairing it with is Singapore, at the opposite end of the season and the opposite end of the spectrum — a night race through a city centre rather than a purpose-built circuit in the countryside.
Every August, across a week on the Monterey Peninsula in California, ending on the Sunday at Pebble Beach
No. The Concours is the Sunday finale within Car Week, one event among the dozens held across the peninsula that week
In 1950, as an outgrowth of the Pebble Beach Road Race. Everything else accumulated around that
The historic race meeting at Laguna Seca, the auction previews, and The Quail, which caps its field at 200 cars
No. Several are invitation-only, including Concours and Cocktails at the Santa Lucia Preserve. Others are free and public
Nine to twelve months for accommodation. Longer if you are shipping a car
The organisers group releases confirmed Monterey Car Week dates each winter, ahead of the following August
Not quite, each venue runs its own timetable, so cross-referencing the published Monterey Car Week schedule against each event’s own site is worth the effort
It is the midweek garden-party showcase at Quail Lodge, capped at 200 cars and among the hardest tickets of the week
The Monterey Peninsula’s concentration of racing, auctions and concours in a single week is unmatched anywhere else in the world
