The week of car related events held on the Monterey Peninsula in beautiful northern California each August is really ground zero for car hobbyists from around the world. The SL Market Letter team was there from August 13th through August 20 and did we get our vintage car fix. It’s a difficult week to describe. Words and phrases like overwhelming, over the top, car guy nirvana all come to mind. This week has evolved into the absolute must do car event of the year for car hobbyists around the world.
There are no less than 5 major collector car auctions that take place, sales totals reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Various cars shows take place during the week… Legends of the Autobahn for German car fans, Concorso Italiano for the Italian cars, the ‘Little Car Show’ held for microcars, Concours on the Avenue is a free car show held in downtown Carmel. There are parties thrown by auto manufacturers, car show type displays from major manufacturers, Seminars put on by collector car magazines (we attended the Sports Car Market Seminar Saturday morning at Gooding and Co.). It all culminates in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the most prestigious major car show in the world. Participants and spectators bring their cars from around the world for this show of shows.
Over the next couple of weeks we will attempt to report on each of the the events that we attended… the car shows, the auctions, all of it… and we’ll try to make some sense of the hobby as reflected in this year’s Monterey Car Week with our usual focus on collectible Mercedes-Benz cars. There were quite a few significant Mercedes-Benz that changed hands over the week. We were lucky enough to meet and speak with many SL Market Letter subscribers, visit with old friends and meet plenty of new ones.
Here are a handful of photos from the week, We’ll be working on specific, detailed posts related to many of these subjects over the coming weeks.
One of our first stops on our way down from San Francisco to Monterey was Canepa Design in Scotts Valley. Here Olson inspects a 300SL roadster chassis with body on rotisserie behind it. Porsche 959s litter the rest of the shop.
Mercedes-Benz 190SL on offer at the Bonhams Quail Lodge sale.
Mercedes 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet for sale at the Russo and Steele Auction.
Pagoda SLs at the Legends of the Autobahn car show.
Stirling Moss and his wife in a 300SL parked in downtown Carmel during the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance.
Steve Serio discusses collector cars at Gooding and Co. during the Sports Car Market Insider’s Seminar.
Early Mercedes-Benz race cars on the 18th fairway – Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
While it has nothing to do with cars, this photo might best sum up the week on the Monterey Peninsula… the whole week is like a huge tray of crab legs for car guys (this was just one of many such tray at the Concours Welcome Gala Saturday night).