Reporting and photos by Rich Ceppos, K.C. Colwell, Drew Dorian, Ezra Dyer, Joe Lorio, Caleb Miller, Tony Quiroga, Elana Scherr, and Dave VanderWerp
You’ll never see more street-parked supercars, history-making race cars, and exquisite classic cars than during Monterey Car Week. It’s the year’s best car spotting, with I’ve-never-seen-one-of-those-before finds seemingly around every corner.
The week is so jam-packed with overlapping events that it’s impossible to see them all, but we’re fortunate to have a group of editors heading to California for the festivities, and we’ll share as much as we can with you here. Check back often as we bring you all the updates. —Joe Lorio
Wednesday, August 14
Ready to drive some vintage Mercedes-Benz cars from LA to Monterey. The list includes a 1980 450SL, a 1969 280SL, a 2007 R63, a 1997 Renntech E60 RS, a 2017 Maybach S650 cabriolet, and a 2008 CLK63 Black Series coupe.
I’m in the 280SL. Woo-hoo! Let’s go! —Rich Ceppos
I’ve made it to California, and now Cadillac is shuttling me down to Carmel in the back seat of an electric Lyriq, but not before I made an important pit stop for some In-N-Out. —Caleb Miller
UPDATE: I’m getting close! YouTuber Shmee150’s Ford GT just cruised past me around 30 minutes outside of Carmel. —CM
Two hours to Monterey! It’s my first time attending Car Week festivities and I couldn’t be more excited. Picked up this rad 2024 BMW M4 convertible in Velvet Orchid and am taking the scenic route down Highway 1. It’s chilly, but I can’t not have the top down, right? –Drew Dorian
Stopped for lunch at the crazy Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. Three hours spent behind the wheel of the 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280SL reveal it to be comfortable, soft-riding, and easy to drive. For a 55-year-old car, it’s a sweetheart. And so great-looking! —Rich Ceppos
I’m going to be heading to Monterey from Los Angeles in a caravan of vintage Porsche 911 Turbos, some more vintage than others. So far they’ve reprimanded me for drooling on this 993 out of the Porsche Museum. It’s not an S but does have the 450-hp GT2 engine, so it’ll probably get out of its own way. All the cars are running on Porsche’s synthetic biofuel that it makes in Chile, so I want to learn more about that too. Presumably we have a Cayenne somewhere towing a fuel trailer? I don’t know! I just got here. Time to head north. —Ezra Dyer
6:00 a.m: It was an early start for me as I had to get up to Monterey by noon for a scheduled interview. My ride was the special-edition Maserati GranTurismo PrimaSerie. You’ll have to fudge some math to understand how a 2024 car can be a 75th anniversary edition of the first Maserati grand tourer (1947), but I’ll happily accept a long birthday celebration from a car whose massive cargo area carried my “shoes only” suitcase along with rest of my luggage containing all the outfit changes required for Car Week.
The PrimaSerie uses the same twin-turbo Nettuno six-cylinder that powers regular GranTurismos, but it wraps it all in anniversary badging, contrast interior details, and matte silver metallic paint. I’ve received lots of compliments already, mostly from teens and drivers in work trucks—the most authentic sort. –Elana Scherr
After checking into our hotels, Caleb and I met up in downtown Pacific Grove to walk through the Little Car Show. All of the vehicles here are tiny and cute. We met the owner of this Daihatsu Hijet, who bought it while stationed in Japan and then shipped it home to the States after his tour ended. He’s since painted it bright red and put in a rubber bedliner. It’s clear he’s very proud of his minitruck. –Drew Dorian
Another highlight of the Little Car Show was seeing this BMW Isetta with its front-hinged door open, exposing its itsy bitsy pedals and minuscule gear selector. We were also surprised to find a purple 1993 Geo Metro LSi convertible in mint condition, quite the stark contrast to the dozens of supercars we’ve already spotted. –Caleb Miller
Car Week is no longer a secret to the California Highway Patrol, and the CHP was out in force on all the main roads leading up from Los Angeles. Our crew, law-abiding as we are, seem to have made it up unscathed. Our sympathies to those who did not.
Blasting by with the A/C and stereo bumping and thinking, “Oh, he might be having even more fun.”
Isn’t it embarrassing when someone shows up at the party in the same outfit? Or maybe this is a couples situation, one for each. Relationship goals. –Elana Scherr
I stopped by the Gordon Murray encampment (stay tuned for a deeper dive into the GMA cars, and a ridealong with Dario Franchitti in the T.50), but while I was there, chief creative officer Kevin Richards—a designer who has worked with Murray since the McLaren F1 days—showed me his inspiration for the color on the prototype T.33 Spider. It’s a brassy metallic, not quite orange, not quite bronze.
“It’s a kingfisher,” Richards said, pulling up a photo of a long-beaked bird with a bold copper chest and turquoise wings. “And the white bits in the interior are like the white feathers around its chin.” Inspiration comes from all around us. –Elana Scherr
5:57 p.m. I am wounded that the Maserati Ghibli didn’t want to park right next to me and be besties. —Elana Scherr
Joe Lorio has been obsessed with cars since his Matchbox days, and he got his first subscription to Car and Driver at age 11. Joe started his career at Automobile Magazine under David E. Davis Jr., and his work has also appeared on websites including Amazon Autos, Autoblog, AutoTrader, Hagerty, Hemmings, KBB, and TrueCar.
Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews. In 2020, she received a Best Feature award from the Motor Press Guild for the C/D story “A Drive through Classic Americana in a Polestar 2.” In 2023, her Car and Driver feature story “In Washington, D.C.’s Secret Carpool Cabal, It’s a Daily Slug Fest” was awarded 1st place in the 16th Annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club.
Rich Ceppos has evaluated automobiles and automotive technology during a career that has encompassed 10 years at General Motors, two stints at Car and Driver totaling 20 years, and thousands of miles logged in racing cars. He was in music school when he realized what he really wanted to do in life and, somehow, it’s worked out. In between his two C/D postings he served as executive editor of Automobile Magazine; was an executive vice president at Campbell Marketing & Communications; worked in GM’s product-development area; and became publisher of Autoweek. He has raced continuously since college, held SCCA and IMSA pro racing licenses, and has competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona. He currently ministers to a 1999 Miata, and he appreciates that none of his younger colleagues have yet uttered “Okay, Boomer” when he tells one of his stories about the crazy old days at C/D.