Ray Ho 09/15/2024
If you are a car enthusiast like myself, I am sure you have heard of the Monterey Car Week held every August in Monterey, California. This year, I finally had a chance to attend.
The car week spanned 10 days, kicking off on a Friday and running through the following Sunday.
There were events ranging from free to thousands of dollars to attend. Refer to the links at the end of the article for details on the 2024 and 2025 schedules.
We skipped the first few days and headed out on Thursday morning. We bypassed the scenic route (HWY 1) and took the Interstate 5 from Pasadena so we could arrive at a decent hour. It still took over 5 hours, but we made it there just in time for the Ferrari Owners Club Concours in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Besides the aforementioned Ferraris, there were other interesting cars; one such example is this 1992 Autozam AZ-1. Do you know that it was made by Mazda?
There were plenty of restaurants in Carmel-by-the-Sea, yet we decided to visit the old Fisherman’s Wharf. Sorry for being a tourist! Understandably, during Car Week, the traffic could often be quite heavy as people were driving from event to event. But I didn’t mind: How often do you get a chance to get stuck behind a Koenigsegg?
Upon arriving, we were greeted by schools of sea lions. But I was too busy checking out the cars going through the live RM Sotheby Auction.
The next day, we went to the Werks Reunion, one of the largest Porsche gatherings. If you will be attending, I suggest you arrive a little early and find a street parking and just walk (well within a mile) to the event, and you will save hours when you leave. We were going to leave in the early afternoon. But as we queued up to get out of the parking lot, we spent over a half hour just to move a few car lengths. This was due to multiple long lines of cars merging to leave on the only exit. At that rate, I figured we would have been stuck for another two hours. So “reluctantly,” we ended up staying to spend more quality time with the Porsches.
Because we spent the majority of the day at Werks, we could only do a quick tour of the Concours Village and the various displays along Pebble Beach. It turned out that there was really nothing to write home about anyway (am I giving away my age?). However, the Brabus display was impressive. Of course the “conversion” by Brabus cost hundreds of thousands of dollars on top of the original price of the ridiculously expensive car; the rich folks won’t have it any other way! Speaking of wealth, there was a private event at “Casa Ferrari” right across the street from the Brabus display.
Access to and from Pebble Beach is the famed 17 Mile Drive, where there were lots of nice cars traveling up and down. There were many vista points along the drive where people gathered to admire the cool cars driving by. At one point, there were so many cameras pointing at us that I thought they recognized me from the movie “Crazy Rich Asians.” Just kidding, I only qualify for two out of those three characterizations.
The following day, we attended the BAT (www.bringatrailer.com) Alumni Gathering in the middle of the Laguna Seca Raceway, where there were ongoing car races from the multi-day Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. The BAT Alumni Gathering, as the name suggested, was intended to showcase the interesting cars bought on the BAT auction. It apparently also allowed some other “interesting” cars not bought through the site (e.g., my 997). Any BAT gatherings are always highly recommended. There were plenty of complimentary food, beverages, and swag merchandises. They even arranged shuttles to and from the “Corkscrew” part of the track, where they prepared a big tent with chairs, snacks, and drinks for the invited guests. All the BAT staffs were very friendly and helpful as well. The highlight was a chance to roam the paddock area to witness the different racecars and drivers being prepped for the races. Hey, look; Randy Pobst getting ready for a race.
Our schedule did not afford us to attend the mother of all classic car concourses (Concours de Elegance at Pebble Beach) on the last day of Car Week. Well, there is something to look forward to. I hope some of you can make it out there next year. Enjoy the rides!
The Cars And I 