Monaco on the Peninsula.

 

The principality of Monaco has a reputation for its constant traffic of high end super cars and parade of cultural notables, movie stars, high-rollers and race drivers.  For a week out of every year the Monterey Peninsula becomes California’s own Monaco, as thousands of car owners, car lovers and the otherwise rich and infamous hit the public roads an parking garages.

Monterey Car Week and its multitude of high-roller events (Pebble Beach Concours, Quail Lodge, Concorso Italiano, and numerous auctions) provide ample opportunities to look at priceless historic cars, modern super and hypercars (and everything in between).  We spent our days at Laguna Seca at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion and our evenings scoping out Monterey, Carmel, Pacific Grove and Seaside for what are ultimately the best (and free) car shows on the West Coast, maybe even in the United States.  Going to an organized car event is fulfilling, but its nothing like finding your favorite cars in their natural environment.

Casa Ferrari

We had heard that Ferrari of North America had converted a gas station in the Carmel Highlands into Casa Ferrari.  Rumor turned out to be true as Ferrari had commandeered the location for the weekend providing test drives for current owners and a VIP area with food and drink for the lucky invitees.  For those whose only ownership stake in Ferrari is a t-shirt, it was the best Ferrari gawking area around.  It was a creative way to showcase Ferrari cars of the past and present.  Each day Ferrari would highlight a different historically significant Ferrari.  The day we attended (Friday, the 14th) was one of only four 1954 250 Monzas in existence.  One of the other four sold at auction last year for over two million dollars.

Carmel Streets.

After filling up on Ferrari eye candy like a linebacker in a buffet line, we drove down the road to Ocean Avenue in central Carmel.  Carmel is a quiet coastal town just south of Monterey that looks more like a European hamlet than a California city.  With European cars dominating the streets, one would be forgiven for thinking they were starring in a Bond film.  

Exotics on Cannery Row.

We headed to Cannery Row around 5pm knowing that we would find a show.  As we walked from our parking garage down the hill to the show, it was clear that this was going to be on the scale somewhere between epic and mega.  It's a bit of an understatement to say that even with all of our shared car experience we were not prepared for the number and variety of modern sportscars, supercars and hypercars.  It was overload and it was crowded.  At the moment we'd digest one car, another car would appear and blow our minds again.  And if that wasn't enough, in many/most cases, there were multiple examples of most of the cars...and that includes Veyrons, 918s, LaFerraris, Huayras, and F50s and P1s.  We still can't believe what we saw....but we took lots of pictures, so check out our gallery from the event and the surrounding streets on Friday evening.

Always Check the Garage.

It's the find you don't expect...the one that ’s not on the itinerary and not even a blip on the radar, that you remember the most.   After our gluttonous bingeing  on supercars on Cannery Row Friday night, we thought that we'd peaked.  We joked that we saw so much on Friday that to witness anything else would just be plain greedy and too demanding of the powers of the universe.  Call us greedy greedy little boys then, cause we found more… SO..MUCH..MORE!

On a hunch we had a few days prior, we checked out the parking lot of a local hotel known to be the accommodations of a certain Italian car club.  The front parking lot delivered, but still, we could smell something else.  We shut off our lights and drove around the back, to the entrance of the underground garage....and then we just died...(Apologies for the quality of  some of these shots...the low light was quite a challenge for our equipment)

All in all, the scene on the streets of the peninsula was pretty bonkers this year.  We're not sure it can ever be outdone, but then again we never could have imagined how good it was going to be this year.  Maybe it wasn't Monaco, but I'm sure it was close.  We had a blast, and we can't wait for next year.  Please take a look at the video below to get another perspective on our weekend.

Enjoy!