CAR’s Ben Oliver is just back from the races, auctions and shows of Monterey Car Week, culminating in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Here’s his completely unrepresentative photo-diary: as you’ll see, he got most excited by the oddball Concours de LeMons…
The standard of restoration required to exhibit at the Concours de LeMons is a little lower than at the other Monterey Car Week events.
This is the kind of thing you see parked on the street during Monterey Car Week: the Blastolene Brothers Dream Rod, with its 2000bhp, 41-litre Packard tank engine. Neat parking, too.
Concours de LeMons entrants are a little less protective of their cars than those at Pebble Beach…
This is the 1000-mile McLaren F1 which failed to meet its reserve at auction, despite getting bids over $10m. We found it in valet parking outside a hotel.
Yes, it’s a Yugo. At a car show. You can guess which one.
Concours de LeMons has a surprise at every corner: such as this 100-million-mile VW Beetle. No claims of odometer authenticity available…
There’s a strong Brit presence at Pebble Beach each year. Jaguar used the event to launch three ‘new’ cars, including the Lightweight E-Types it will build using the six remaining chassis numbers. Click here for 11 secrets about the new Lightweight.
‘Hello and welcome to Monterey’s leftfield car show. I am your cut-out-and-keep guide…’
This guy’s still waiting for his Volvo 240DL to hit 60mph.
This Peel Microcar was actually far too nice to win its class at LeMons.
The locals see no reason to get dressed up for the Concours de LeMons.
The Ferrari 275 Speciale – one of three made – moments before it drove onto the RM Auctions stage and was sold for $26.4m.
The VW Thing gets a well-deserved award at LeMons.
‘Dawn patrol’ at Pebble Beach: you need to get there at 5.30am if you want to see the cars through the crowds.
A special class for Ferrari 250 Testa Rossas drew 20 cars; the majority of those ever made by Maranello. This is the only unrestored example, brought from Derbyshire by dealer Tom Hartley Jr and sold by him for an estimated £24m earlier in 2014, making it the most expensive car ever sold by a dealer.
Sadly, the gentle drive onto the fairway was too much for this Rothschild-bodied 1913 Delaunay-Belleville.
The wraps come off this pretty Maserati A6G. Cars are shipped in from all around the world for Monterey Car Week.
Hong Kong billionaire and serial car collector the Hon Sir Michael Kadoorie (in baseball cap) directs work on his heart-stopping 1939 Talbot-Lago.
The 94 year-old Norman Dewis explains how he set the world flying mile record at 172.4mph 61 years ago in this bubble-canopied Jaguar XK120 streamliner. Both look like they could still do it today.
Sweet, US-spec early E-Types on display at the Quail: an automotive garden party. Pretty, but I’d lose the whitewalls.
Sir Jackie Stewart hears about the Mercedes-Benz 540K streamliner.
Plenty of feathered hats on the ladies at Pebble Beach, but his guy chose to wear the original parrot, with the predictable, unfortunate consequences.
Former Microsoft president Jon Shirley, owner of the best-in-show winning Ferrari 375MM.
Want history? Jon Shirley’s winning Ferrari 375MM was commissioned by Roberto Rossellini for his wife Ingrid Bergman. It’s one of only five roadgoing versions of this racer, and was the first passenger Ferrari to be bodied by Scgalietti. In 64 years of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, a post-war car has won only six times.
JLR Special Operations boss John Edwards launched the 550bhp Range Rover Sport SVR at Pebble: the fastest, most powerful Land Rover ever and the first car to wear JLR’s new SVR performance badge. US version of the F-Type Project 7 was also unveiled