Love all of the auto eye candy cruising the Monterey Peninsula but want to see them really in action? Speed over to the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to see these historic cars do what they do best! Over 500 automobiles will take to the track during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. 17 different race groups will take place Friday through Sunday, August 19-21, 2011, from 8:30am-5pm. This year the annual event honors the 50th anniverary of the Jaguar E-Type.

You can see even more photos of this year’s Motosports Reunion in our Flickr set.

Motorsports Reunion races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Motorsports Reunion races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Automobile at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

1985 Jaguar XJR-7

Motorsports Reunion races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Motorsports Reunion races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Don’t have an extra million or two laying around for a 1950 Ferrari 750 Monza or Steve McQueen’s 1970 Porsche 911S? Well, you can still stare in amazement of the fine automobiles up for auction this weekend in Monterey. A total of five auctions are slated throughout Monterey Auto Week and are expected to bring in a whopping $230 million total. Below are preview photos from just three of these auctions, Russo and Steele, RM and Mecum.

Russo and Steele

The Russo and Steele Collector Automobile Auction takes place at the Monterey Marriott Thursday through Saturday at 5pm. Visitors can catch a sneak peek of the autos in the Downtown West Parking Garage on Tyler Street in Monterey Thursday through Saturday beginning at 10am.

1937 Mercedes-Benz 230 A Cabriolet

1937 Ford Slant Back

1940 Ford Woody

You can see even more photos of this year’s Russo and Steele’s cars in our Flickr set.

RM

Head across the street to the Portola Hotel & Spa to view the fancy motors up for bid through RM. The auctions themselves will take place Friday and Saturday at 6:30pm but spectactors can catch a glimpse of these plush cars in the Portola Hotel and Custom House Plaza Wednesday through Saturday.

1935 Bugatti Type 57 Grand Raid Roadster

RM Auction at Portola Hotel & Spa

1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Spyder

You can see even more photos of this year’s RM’s cars in our Flickr set.

Mecum

The Hyatt Regency Monterey hosts the auctions of Mecum Thursday through Saturday. Spectactors can see the automobiles up for bid in person on the greens of Del Monte Golf Course or in the comfort of their home during the live televised portion of the auction on HD Theatre.

1930 Packard 745 Waterhouse

1935 Bagley Cragar Special

Cars to be auctioned at Mecum

You can see even more photos of this year’s Mecums’ cars in our Flickr set .

For more information about Auto Auctions and the other events of Monterey Auto Week, see our page on the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Monterey Auto Week.

Monterey County Auto Week Events

Monterey Auto Week continues throughout the weekend! For a full list of auto shows, driving events, auctions and art click here.

Car Shows

Multiple car shows will lead up to Sunday’s final and main event, Pebble Beach’s Concours d’ Elegance. The weekend is full of auto shows featuring exclusive vintage autos, Italian made vehicles and a show dedicated to the not so fancy motors.

Lamborghini at Concorso Italiano

Laguna Seca Golf Ranch will transform into an Italian paradise. Concorso Italiano will feature over 800 Italian made cars and a presentation of the new Fiat 5o0 and 500c. 10520 York Road, Monterey, 9am-5pm. $125 in advance , $130 at the gate.

The seventh Motorsports Gathering will feature the finest in automotive design and takes place today on the rolling lawns of Quail Lodge Golf Club. Tickets include a gourmet lunch, fine wines, access to sponsor tents and entry to the Bonhams & Butterfields auctions. 8205 Valley Greens Drive, Carmel. 10am-4pm. $400 in advance.

Classic MG at the Pacific Grove Concours Auto Rally

Take a step back in time and visit Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove where over 200 vintage vehicles will line the street during the Pacific Grove Auto Rally. Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove, 1pm to 5:30pm. Free admission.

Enjoy an evening with over 50 Ferraris during the Annual Ferrari Event at Barnyard Shopping Village in Carmel. Spectators can sip local wine and devour tasty treats from restaurants within the Barnyard. 4pm-7pm, Carmel Rancho Blvd., Carmel.

1977 AMC Pacer Wagon at Concours d'LeMons

Are you sick of looking at all of the fabulous and high end vehicles in town? Then head over to Concours d’LeMons at Laguna Grande Park the in Seaside on Saturday. The self proclaimed “eyesore of Pebble Beach Automobile Week” will judge cars in categories such as Needlessly Complex Italian, Rust Belt American Junk and  Soul-Sucking Japanese Appliance. 440 Harcourt Avenue, Seaside. 9:14am.  Free admission.

And the moment you have all been waiting for, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. 200 of the finest automobiles will convene on the 18th fairway in Pebble Beach for a truly elegant event. 2011’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance will feature Mercedes-Benz, Stutz, Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts, Ferrari 250 GTO and Italian motorcycles.10:30am-5:30pm,  Pebble Beach. $175 in advance.

Car Auctions

1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C Lago Speciale Teardrop at the 2010 RM Monterey auction

Several car auctions will be held throughout Monterey County for those visitors with deep pockets. Bonhams and Butterfields offers up classic vehicles and memorabilia at Quail Lodge Golf Club on Thursday, August 18 and Friday, August 19. Mecum will auction several investment-grade vehicles at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on August 18-20. Fine classic cars and unique sports cars will be auctioned at RM Auctions’ Sport & Classics of Monterey at the Portola Hotel & Spa, August 18-20. The best sport and muscle cars will be auctioned off at the Monterey Marriott on Thursday, August 18 through Saturday, August 20. And last, but certainly not least, the Pebble Beach Auction is one of the premier automotive auctions and takes place on August 20th and 21st.

Other Auto Week Events

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will be in motion with historic car races throughout the weekend. The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is one of the best vintage motorsports events in North America. This year’s event will feature Jaguar and highlight the Ferrari GTO 250. 8:30am-4:30pm, Friday-Sunday. 1021 Monterey-Salinas Highway, Salinas. Various ticket prices.

On Friday and Saturday nights car enthusiasts can Dine in DiVine at Chateau Julien. Dinner reservations begin at 6pm where guests will enjoy a prix-fixe Basque menu, with choice of entrée and wine, followed by a dessert lounge and vintage car display. Friday’s car display will feature Tesla and Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Saturday night will feature Alfa Romeo. 6pm, 8940 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel. $63

Friday

The Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa hosts RST (Rutlegde, Smith & Tindel) tonight on the lower terrace of Schooner’s. 5pm-9pm, 400 Cannery Row, Monterey.

Trace Adkins in Concert: Photo taken by Aaron Ray

Grab your cowboy boots and head to the Monterey County Fairgrounds for a special performance from Trace Adkins. Tap into your inner cowboy and sing along to his country hits including “Just Fishin,” “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,” and “Ladies Love Country Boys.” 7:30pm, 2004 Fairgrounds Road, Monterey. Tickets are $20-$65.

Santa Cruz locals Ancestree play reggae and roots music tonight at Jose’s Underground Lounge. 8pm, 638 Wave Street, Monterey.

Cheeky Spanks will be kickin’ it old school at Bullwacker’s tonight. The classic rock, oldies and blues band will be playing hits from the ‘70s and beyond. 8:30pm, 653 Cannery Row, Monterey. No cover.

Don’t miss Rex Wheeler at London Bridge Pub tonight. Bring your friends and enjoy Rex’s smooth electric acoustic tunes. 9pm, 256 Figueroa St., Wharf #2, Monterey. No cover.

Fernwood Tavern presents Five Eyed Hand tonight. The four-man group will play unique jams with a blend of jazz, rock, folk and funk. 9pm, 47200 Highway One, Big Sur. No cover.

Saturday

The Next Blues Band will provide live entertainment tonight out at the Del Monte Center. Get your shopping done and groove to the blues! 5pm-7pm, 1410 Del Monte Center, Monterey. Free admission.

The Carmel Art and Film Festival presents a special preview screening and wine reception for the award winning documentary “Boys of Bonneville – Racing on a Ribbon of Salt” today at the Sunset Center. The film is narrated by Grand-Am driver Patrick Dempsey and showcases archival racing footage as well as interviews with car enthusiasts Jay Leno and Andy Green. 5pm, Sunset Center, San Carlos Street and 9th Avenue, Carmel-by-the-Sea. $10.

The Monterey Jazz Festival and the Monterey Bay Aquarium bring you another great night of entertainment at “Evenings the Bay”. Monterey Jazz Festival regular Stu Reynolds will show off the saxophone skills that have led him to open for artists such as Carlos Santana, Branford Marsalis and more. 6pm-8pm, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey. Free with aquarium admission.

A Band of Ninjas makes another appearance on the patio at Bullwacker’s tonight. The acoustic rock duo will cover hits from musicians like Ben Harper, Alice in Chains, Bob Marley and The Killers. 8:30pm, 653 Cannery Row, Monterey. No cover.

London Bridge Pub will host Hot Club de Watsonville tonight. The gypsy swing group uses their skills on the accordion, violin, acoustic guitars and string bass to play  tangos, bossas and boleros. 9:30pm, Wharf #2 256 Figueroa Street, Monterey. Free admission.

Popular Santa Cruz band, Five Eyed Hand returns to Big Sur’s Fernwood Tavern tonight. Don’t miss their funky beat with inspirations from jazz, psychedelic rock and folk. 9pm, 47200 Highway One, Big Sur. No cover.

Sunday

No sleeping in this Sunday morning! It’s time to hit the trail with the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District. Today’s hike will take you to one of the highest points in Garland Park, aka the “top of the world”. The intense 4.8 mile hike is expected to last 4 hours. Don’t forget your hiking boots, water, lunch and snacks. 9am, East Garzas Trail, Carmel Valley.

Grab a drink and cool off at the Big Sur River Inn this evening. Jackson Stock and Friends will enhance your relaxation by providing fantastic jazz music on the patio. 1pm-5pm, Highway One at Pheneger Creek, Big Sur. No cover.

Don’t miss another opportunity to sneak into the Monterey Bay Aquarium after hours.  Tonight’s “Evenings by the Bay” will feature several talented jazz musicians including Gary Meek, Eddie Mendenhall, Dan Robbins and Kim Edmundson. 6pm-8pm, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey. Free with aquarium admission.

Do you have the best Monterey Auto Week photo out there? Was your picture of the winner at the Concours d’Elegance just breathtaking? Does your photo of a row of Ferraris look like it’s going to speed right out of the shot? Is your snapshot of the Concours d’LeMons the perfect image to capture the wit and hilarity of the world’s worst autos?

Enter your photo into our Monterey Auto Week photo contest on Facebook! Then rally your friends and fans to vote for your fantastic shot. The winning photo will be seen by thousands! It will be featured on SeeMonterey.com, on this blog, and on our other social media properties. It will also be featured as our Facebook profile image for a week.

Your fabulous photo from Monterey Auto Week deserves to be seen by thousands! Click here to enter the Monterey Auto Week photo contest today, and show your photo off to the world!

Thanks to everyone who contributed Monterey Auto Week photos to our Flickr group! This great detail shot is the one that caught our eye.

Vintage by Tigeressts

Most photos from Monterey Auto Week feature the whole car. This photo picks up on small details, but uses the reflections to show off things like the large tent in the distance and the cars that surround this vehicle.

Thanks to Tigeressts, and to everyone who contributed photos to the SeeMonterey group on Flickr!

It wasn’t just Pebble Beach that had million-dollar cars at Monterey Auto Week. RM Auctions at the Portola Hotel and Spa sold a number of cars that went for over $1 million. We got photos of several of them before they went on the block.

1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C Lago Speciale Teardrop

This one-of-a-kind 1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C Lago Speciale Teardrop finished first in class in the 1948 24 Hours of Spa. At the time, it cost 165,000 French francs, about $98,600 in today’s dollars, and was the most expensive car sold in 1938. This weekend, the classic car sold for $4,620,000.

1948 Tucker 4 Door Sedan

Tuckers have a history of setting record-breaking prices at RM’s Monterey auction. In August 2008, a Tucker sold for $1,017,500, the most ever paid for a Tucker. That is, until this past weekend, when the Tucker pictured above sold for $1,127,500. (RM had estimated it would sell for $550,000-$750,000.)

1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Berlinetta

If you’d had a spare $1,567,500, you could have bought this 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Berlinetta. It’s one of only two in existence.

1949 Delahaye Type 175S Roadster

This 1949 Delahaye Type 175S Roadster might not have gone for the most money at $3,300,000, but it was certainly one of the most buzzed-about vehicles at the event. According to records, this car was the 1949 Paris and 1950 New York Show Car. It was originally owned by Sir John Gaul, who sold it to Hollywood starlet and socialite Diana Dors.

For those of more moderate pocketbook, there was a vehicle in the same color as the Delahaye roadster (if not the same size):

1963 Messerschmitt KR-200 Kabinenroller

This 1963 Messerschmitt KR-200 Kabinenroller was a steal at $50,000 — and we can almost guarantee that it would attract as many stares as the Delahaye!

For more photos of RM Auctions cars, see our RM Auctions 2010 Flickr set. For more coverage of the other events leading up to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, click here to see all our posts on Monterey Auto Week. For information on all events during Monterey Auto Week, see our Monterey Auto Week and Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance page.

Fans of all things Italian converged on Laguna Seca Golf Ranch on Friday for Monterey Auto Week’s annual celebration of Italian vehicles and style, the Concorso Italiano.

$3 million Ferrari SP1

The car that everyone wanted to get close to was the $3 million Ferrari SP1, the first special project vehicle released by Ferrari. The bodywork on this one-off Ferrari was created by legendary car designer Leonardo Fioravanti, one of Concorso Italiano’s guests of honor. The underlying mechanicals are from the Ferrari F430. Ferrari will be releasing more special projects in the future, so if you have a spare $3 million kicking around, give them a call.

1968 Bizzarini Manta

Concorso Italiano was full of other fabulous Italian cars, too, and some of them weren’t even red. This one-of-a-kind 1968 Bizzarrini Manta was designed by Giorgetto Guigiaro on a Bizzarrini chassis, and was allegedly created in 40 days. It was shown at the 1968 Turin Motorshow; soon thereafter, it vanished en route to the United States. It was rediscovered in the late 1970s and restored to original condition in the early years of this decade.

[Read more →]

While throngs flocked to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Pebble Beach and Quail Lodge on Saturday to see the ultra-elite in automotive excellence, a raucous crowd converged on Toro Park in Salinas to admire automotive horrors at the Concours d’LeMons.

Reliant Robin three-wheel car, known for tilting onto its side in tight turns.

The stated goal of the Concours d’LeMons is to showcase “the oddball, the mundane and the truly awful of the automotive world.” Show cars compete in categories such as “Rueful Britannia,” “Unmitigated Gaul,” “Der Self-Satisfied KrautenWagen,” “Needlessly Complex Italian,” “American Rust Belt” and “Soul-Sucking Japanese Appliance.” Competitors are encouraged to bribe judges with food, booze and whatever else they have on hand to win the title of “Worst in Class.”

Announcements during the event warned guests, “If you recognize our celebrity judges, please do not report them to their parole officers.” In-the-know car geeks, however, recognized the two judges instantly; they were automotive journalist Jay Lamm and former racing superstar Dick McClure.

Berkeley’s Dan Lennon celebrates after winning the Worst in Class award in the “Needlessly Complex Italian” category. Judges, in sombreros, can be seen at rear left; his bribe, as well as his documentation from showing at Concorso Italiano, can be seen on the hood.

As the judges perused the cars of the “Needlessly Complex Italian” class, competitors offered them shots of Limoncello (deeming the lemon-flavored Italian liqueur most appropriate for the Concours d’LeMons), among other bribes. The judges oohed and aahed over the way one Alfa Romeo had rusted (and kept rusting through the paint, even after restoration), and admired the outrageous tailfin another Alfa owner had bolted onto the back of his car, as well as a large light to replace the non-working headlights that had been mounted onto the metal bar welded on as a bumper.

But it was Dan Lennon’s Fiat 600, shown above, that captured the judge’s hearts. The judges raved at the rust on the outside of the rain gutters, saying, “The outside of the rain gutters! Now that’s something that can only be accomplished with fine Italian engineering!”

At first they were dismayed at the paucity of his $2 cash bribe piled on top of the food and drink on his hood, but were mollified when Lennon pointed out, “But that’s what I paid for the car!” In the end, there was one deciding factor: Lennon had to drive back to Berkeley in the thing, and the judges were sure the car would blow up before he got there. They decided that the “Needlessly Complex Italian” award might help him feel better as he stared at the ashes of his Italian car.

[Read more →]

Friday’s Pacific Grove Concours Auto Rally is the low-key response to all those high-octane car events elsewhere in Monterey County this week. This laid-back car show on Lighthouse Avenue draws many locals, who show off the exceptionally cool classics that have been hiding in their garages. The old-school Main Street vibe of Pacific Grove provides the perfect backdrop for these classics. Though the car show is open to all classics, the trend is toward cool sports cars of the ’50s through today.

This classic Pacific Grove police car set the tone for the event.

This was just one of several late 1950s Corvettes at the Pacific Grove Concours Auto Rally.

This 1967 Shelby Ford Mustang GT350 is undeniably cool…

…but Carroll Shelby’s autograph on the dash makes it exponentially cooler.

The oldest car on show at the Pacific Grove Concours Auto Rally was this 1929 Ford Model A Roadster.

The rarest car on show was this brawny sedan. The car is a Facel Vega Excellence; only 152 were ever made.

To see more photos from the Pacific Grove Concours Auto Rally, view our Pacific Grove Concours Auto Rally photo set on Flickr. For more information about the Pacific Grove Concours Auto Rally and the other events of Monterey Auto Week, see our page on the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Monterey Auto Week.