After attending Monterey Car Week in 2016 and 2017, I decided to take a year off in 2018. For 2019, I returned to the Monterey peninsula to experience some exciting events and spot some amazing automobiles!
This was a great year for Car Week, with many new announcements and events planned. I planned to do the trip more efficiently than in years past by flying directly into the Monterey airport, rather than flying into San Jose and driving down the coast.
DAY ONE
My trip began on Thursday, August 15, 2019. I worked a half day in the morning and went straight to the airport from work. I was in good spirits and had dinner at Joe’s Real BBQ inside of Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.
My flight aboard an American Airlines CRJ900 departed on time at 4:30 PM and arrived in Monterey around 6:30 PM. The Monterey airport is very small and has just 3 gates with no jet bridges. The afternoon sun was golden on the treetops as I walked down the stairs, across the tarmac, and into the airport.
At the Hertz counter, I received the keys to my rental car: a Nissan Versa SV compact sedan. The car was painted a deep red that Nissan calls “Scarlet Ember.” The car was a total econobox, powered by a 1.6L engine producing 109 horsepower and coupled to a miserable CVT transmission. However, it was cheap to rent and got great mileage.
The first night, I drove a short distance from Monterey to my hotel in Salinas. I had dinner at In-N-Out Burger and then went to the room to rest for the busy day ahead.
DAY TWO
Friday was a busy day with lots of stops to make. As in previous years, I had to drive to The Lodge at Pebble Beach in advance to pick up my badge for the show. The drive from Salinas to Monterey goes through lots of farmland, which was covered with a thick layer of marine fog early in the morning. It was surreal to drive through the streets with such low visibility.
Badge Pickup
At around 10:30 am, I arrived at Pebble Beach where they were still setting up for the Concours d’Elegance. I saw the Japanese Automotive Invitational pavilion, presented by Motor Trend. There was an impressive display of cars including a Toyota 2000GT, 1963 Prince Skyline Sport, 1984 Nissan 300ZX, and many other cars from Isuzu, Infiniti, Nissan, Datsun, Honda, Subaru and others.
I also visited the vendor pavilions for Lexus, DuPont Registry, Vuhl, and Karma Automotive. The rest of the show was still being set up, so I left Pebble Beach and drove 6 miles to downtown Monterey, arriving around 1:00 pm.
RM Sotheby’s Auction
The RM Sotheby’s auction was set up at the Portola Hotel and Monterey Convention Center, so I spent some time admiring the cars in their auction event. The star of the show was the 1994 McLaren F1-LM (chassis no. 18), which ended up selling for $19.5 million, just under its estimate of $21-23 million.
I was also delighted to see a McLaren Senna, Vector M12, Ferrari 288 GTO outside of the convention center. Closer to Fisherman’s Wharf was a Jaguar XJ220 in green, a 1984 Lancia Rally 037 Stradale, and a magnificent 1958 Facel Vega FVS Sport Coupe.
I actually paid $40 to go into the auction preview, where I saw a 1-of-1 1961 Maserati 5000 GT Coupe by Ghia, completely unrestored, a Pagani Huayra with plaid seats, a metallic gray Ferrari Enzo, a bright red Ferrari F50, a 250 GT SWB Berlinetta, a 250 California Spyder, a LaFerrari Aperta 70th Anniversary edition, a black Porsche 959, and countless other remarkable cars.
Leaving the auction at around 3:30 pm, I had another unbelievable spot: a Lamborghini Diablo SE30 metallic purple was parked on the street. I took a few photos and pressed on, needing something to eat. It didn’t take long to come upon the Alvarado Street Brewery where I had a late lunch.
After that, I walked around on foot, spotting cars and exploring the wharf.
Car Bros Meetup
For years, I have followed the Car Bros channel on YouTube. They organized a meetup for fans at the Jack in the Box in Del Rey Oaks, so I went to check it out. I got to meet Coyne, Garrett and John from Car Bros and their amazing “Fierri” – a horrendous replica of a Ferrari Enzo based on a Pontiac Fiero. They made a documentary about how they got the car into The Quail Motorsports Gathering, which is on their YouTube channel. I donated to the Kickstarter campaign to get this car to Monterey, so it was neat to see the car in person.
I grabbed dinner from Chipotle in Salinas before heading back to the hotel for the night.
DAY THREE
Saturday, August 17th was another full day of car shows and exploration. The first stop of the day was the Concours d’Lemons car show in Seaside, CA. This fun event is the self-described “oil stain on Monterey Car Week.” This free event celebrates the oddball, mundane, and truly awful cars of the automotive world.
Concours d’Lemons Car Show
I arrived at Seaside City Hall around 10 am and ended up staying for about three hours. Some notable cars included an LS-swapped AMC Pacer, a 1969 Opel GT LeMons race car, a Yugo cabriolet, and a wide variety of other automotive misfits. I was very interested in a pair of extraordinarily rare Bitter SC coupes, which I had never heard of before.
After soaking in the rust and gasoline vapors at the Concours d’Lemons, I was ready for lunch. I left the car and walked about half a mile to The Oven Pizzeria on Broadway in Seaside. They did not sell pizza by the slice, so I ended up ordering a small pizza for myself.
Exotics on Broadway Car Show
After lunch, I was ready to check out Exotics on Broadway, formerly Exotics on Cannery Row. This free spectator event features supercars and hypercars of the modern era. There were an insane number of high-end exotic cars at this show, as well as their creators. Both Horacio Pagani and Christian von Koenigsegg were on hand, doing meet and greets with the public. I was fortunate to run into Tim “Shmee150” Burton at the show, and he graciously posed for a photo with me.
The list of cars present is pretty unbelievable: five Ferrari F50s, the new DeTomaso P72, W Motors Fenyr SuperSport, SSC Tuatara, Koenigsegg Jesko, a Koenigsegg Regera “Kejsare,” Shmee150 in his Ford GT, two McLaren P1s, a McLaren Senna “Merlin,” the Rimac Concept One, Hawaiibrad’s Lamborghini Centenario and the twin matte blue Ferrari LaFerraris from BuckBlu.
By around 7 pm, my feet were sore from walking so much. I headed back to the Nissan Versa rental car and wanted to do something non-car related. I tried to go to Point Pinos Lighthouse, but it was closed. Nearby, I found a memorial plaque dedicated to musician John Denver.
Cannery Row
After sunset, I made my way over to Cannery Row to indulge in my new tradition of enjoying a cup of delicious Ghirardelli hot cocoa by the beach. I watched as cars drove up and down Cannery Row, making a racket. Around 8:00 pm, I hopped in the car for the 30 minute drive back to Salinas for the night.
DAY FOUR
The next morning was Concours Sunday, August 18th. I got dressed and left the hotel at 8 am, arriving at the Concours d’Elegance a little after 9 am. The sky was gray but I was absolutely thrilled to be there.
Bugatti Pavilion
Walking into the event, I headed down the hill towards the Bugatti manufacturer display. I admired the display which included a Veyron SuperSport, a Chiron and a Divo, and the new limited-edition Centodieci. The car debuted the previous day at The Quail and was limited to just 10 units. There was also a rare EB110 SuperSport on display.
Concept Car Lawn
From there, I made my way over to the concept car lawn to see some more amazing cars. The list of cars I saw includes:
- Bentley EXP 100 GT Concept
- Bugatti La Voiture Noir
- DeTomaso P72
- Porsche Formula E Works Race Car
- BMW Garmisch Concept
- BMW Vision M Next Concept
- Ford GT MkII
- Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster 63 Limited Edition
- Lotus Evija Concept
- Lincoln Continental 80th Anniversary Edition
- McLaren GT by MSO
- Volkswagen I.D. Buggy
- Maserati Levante S Grandsport by Ermenegildo Zegna
- Acura Type S Concept
- Karma Automotive SC1 Vision Concept
- Pagani Zonda C12
- Pagani Huayra Roadster BC
- Genesis MINT Concept
- Infiniti Project Black S
- Audi R8 LMS GT2
- Lexus LC Convertible Prototype
The Bugatti La Voiture Noir was the most impressive to see, due to it being a 1-of-1 model. However, the Bentley EXP 100 GT was a real show-stopper as well!
Main Show Field
By 12 pm I had arrived at the main show field with about 5 hours left until the event ended. I had a goal this year to take a photo of every car in the event, so I got busy working my way down the rows of cars. I spent the next three hours walking the show field, admiring all of the pre-war and post-war cars.
In addition to the standard classes, there were 5 special classes for the 2019 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance:
Special Classes
- Bugatti Type 59 & Touring
- Lamborghini Miura
- Historic Hot Rod “Cover Cars”
- Bentley 100th Anniversary
- Zagato 100th Anniversary
By 3:00 pm I had arrived at the awards ramp for the show. I sat down for a while to watch the presentation of some of the awards. My return flight was scheduled for 7:12 PM, so I wanted to leave the Concours around 4:30 pm to allow enough time to get to the airport and return the rental car. I planned to leave the event just before the presentation of the Best of Show award. As it turned out, the Best of Show went to the Hon. Sir Michael Kadoorie of Hong Kong and his 1931 Bentley 8 Litre Gurney Nutting Sports Tourer.
Return Flight Canceled
As I was leaving the Pebble Beach event and walking back to my car, I got a message from American Airlines that my flight was canceled. Not delayed, but totally canceled. My pulse quickened and my cortisol levels jumped as I began to stress out.
As I mentioned, Monterey is a small airport. There were no other flights leaving Monterey that evening, so I had to accept that I was not getting home on time.
Work the problem, Trevor. You need a place to stay and you need to extend the rental car another day. You need to tell work you will be a day late returning. And you need to figure out how to get home.
I made some calls and was able to extend the rental car for another day, and the hotel in Salinas I had checked out of that morning had space for me again for one more night. I was also responsible for an additional day of meals, on top of these other expenses.
Stressed by the flight cancellation, I sought some comfort food for dinner. Again I found myself at Chipotle, this time in Sand City, as the one in Salinas was out of salsa on my earlier visit.
DAY FIVE
I woke up on Monday, August 19th and checked out of the hotel for the second time that trip. I refueled the rental car and brought it back to Hertz. I had driven 215 miles during my 5 days in Monterey.
Rebooking Nightmare
American Airlines had re-booked me on an Alaska Airlines flight to San Diego with a connection back to Phoenix. I got to the airport and got checked in, paying an additional $30 bag check fee for Alaska.
The agent at the ticket counter checked me in and gave me a boarding pass. However, when it was time to board the flight, they wouldn’t let me on because the boarding pass did not have a seat assignment.
An employee escorted me back through security to the ticket counter where they frantically sorted everything out and got me a new boarding pass. The employee escorted me to the front of the security line and I had to go through a second time.
There was no time to put my shoes or belt back on, so I ran through the airport in my socks, up the stairs and onto the plane while holding my shoes and belt in my hands.
I was the last person to board the completely full aircraft, and I felt dozens of pairs of eyes staring at me as I arrived at the very last row. I put my shoes on, took my seat, and tried to breathe normally. My adrenaline was surging as I wasn’t sure if I would make the flight. This was the most incredibly stressful travel experience I have ever had!
As it turns out, my seatmate was David Woodhouse, senior designer for Ford Motor Company (at the time). Mr. Woodhouse was also one of the Honorary Judges at the Pebble Beach Concours! This was another of those incredible moments that only happens during Monterey Car Week.
The flight departed around noon and touched down in San Diego by 2:00 pm. There was a layover until the next flight, so I had lunch at Stone Brewing Co. inside the San Diego airport.
We took off again at 6:00 pm and arrived back home in Phoenix by 7:00 pm, after a full day of travel.
Final Thoughts
Monterey Car Week 2019 was an amazing time and I saw a lot of truly special cars. However, the trip was soured by the horrible experience in getting home. After the trip, I contacted American Airlines customer service and asked them to reimburse me for $268 dollars – which was the amount I spent on the additional night at the hotel, the additional day of the rental car, and an additional day of parking at my home airport. I did not ask them to cover my food or other expenses – only the direct costs I had as a result of my flight being canceled.
American Airlines wrote me back and would not honor my request for reimbursement, though they did send me an electronic voucher good for up to 1 year. It didn’t do much to change my opinion of American Airlines, which is still pretty low.
At the time, American Airlines was embroiled in a nasty legal battle with its mechanics’ unions in which the airline alleged that the labor unions were responsible for work slowdowns that caused unnecessary flight delays and cancellations during Summer 2019. The airline ultimately reached a new contract agreement with its unions in January 2020.
