A Car Lover’s Fever Dream

Last week SSCS team members found themselves immersed in a premier automotive event; They were all too happy to share what they found.

Some are golf-related. The area is home to some of the most picturesque courses in the world. The A.T.&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am happens here every year, and this year the area hosted the LPGA Open.

There’s more to the area’s allure than golf, though, as was evident over the past few weeks as magnitudes of car lovers descended upon the area—as they do every August—immersing the Peninsula with automotive enthusiasts. The occasion was Monterey Car Week, which, oh by the way, is more than a week.

Beginning in the mid-1950s with the Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance, Monterey Car Week now encompasses dozens of events taking place across a wide selection of Peninsula communities. The most prominent are:

  • The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at the WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway, which features roughly 550 historic race cars that are accepted from more than 1,000 entry applications received every year.
  • The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, arguably the Week’s signature event, bringing together around 200 of the most prized collector cars in the world onto a celebrated golf course.
  • The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, which presents a more exclusive experience, with automotive fine art, luxury retail, and culinary excellence, highlighting pristine examples of some of the rarest cars in existence.
  • Several car auctions. Collectors and fans bid millions for rare and antique cars, often breaking records for the most money paid for a car at auction. Some of the big names in this domain are RM Sotheby’s, Bonhams, and Gooding & Company.

Monterey Car Week so thoroughly dominates the local scene, that you can walk down the streets of Seaside or Pacific Grove, far away from the Pebble Beach event hub, and see any number of exotics and historics. Honestly, you really don’t have to go anywhere special—you’ll see incredible cars driving past you and parking on the street, as our local team members can tell you. They’ve been kind enough to share the photos that complement this post.

Next week, you’re in for a treat as we present the first of a two-part profile on one of our many outstanding customers, Top Stop headquartered in Utah. See you then!