Monterey Car Week 2023: Auctions, Pebble Beach Concours, and a Day at the Races

Note to subscribers:  We missed attending Car Week due to hosting a local film night.  Keith Carlson*, a fan of cinema, architecture, dogs and historic cars (and also as it turns out, a fan of ladies in hats) sent us an epic trove of photos so we could celebrate our 8th anniversary in the blogosphere the way we began, thinking out loud about Car Week…

One of the stars of the 2023 Monterey Car Week auctions was this Jaguar XKSS, one of 16 road-equipped versions of the D-Type racer with bumpers and weather protection (sort of), sold new in California way back in 1957.  My '58 Road & Track Test Annual questions the practicality of the XK-SS as daily transport, but praises its abilities as a weekend racer: 0 to 60 came up in 5.2 seconds, and top speed was 149.  The list price was $5,600, but one imagines buyers paid more to get a specimen after a fire at Jaguar's factory shut down production.  Neither of the 2 cars R & T sampled, however, went for $13,205,000, which was the winning bid for this one. Hmm, dark blue with a red interior, favorite color scheme...

Were there any bargains on offer at Monterey?  Well, at the other end of the price and power scale, this Autozam AZ-1 went out the door for just $20,000.  Built by a Mazda subsidiary with turbocharged, mid-mounted Suzuki 657cc power (3 cylinders, 12 valves, 64 hp), the kei-class AZ-1 featured gull-wing doors.  The AZ-1, built from late 1992 to late '94, was not quite as nippy as the XK-SS, with 0-60 in 9 seconds and a top of 87 mph.  You're not likely to see another one at your local Cars & Coffee, though, and it's our nominee for Bargain of the Weekend.  For those with more expansive (and expensive) ambitions, there was plenty of stuff on offer..

You may be thinking the car below is a Bugatti Type 35 from the Roaring Twenties, but the black wheels and brass trim are giveaways that it's a modern Baby II, a revival of the Baby Bugattis that Ettore Bugatti built for a few lucky children back then.  Like them, it's electric, but at a bit larger scale.  At 75% of the original Type 35 size, the Baby II makes the neighboring 1930 Bentley Speed Six look even more enormous than it is...

…and it manages the same trick with the Hispano-Suiza on the other side.

There were plenty of American classics at the auctions too. Here, a cream-colored Cord 812 keeps company with a tan 810.  The Twenties Packard beyond reflects the optimism of its era with a period-correct color scheme...

Here, an Auburn 852 sits next to a Hudson Terraplane that looks like it would follow you home if you whistled.  The maroon car beyond the Hudson appears to be a Darrin-bodied Packard Convetible Victoria.

Sitting next to a matte-finished 21st century Lamborghini, this Chrysler Imperial from the early Thirties was enough to make anyone nostalgic for shiny paint...

All polished up for the occasion, a 1930 Murphy-bodied Duesenberg Model J, a late Thirties Lagonda Rapide, and a Rolls Royce.  

Here, two Bugatti Type 57s (built1934-40) flank a Type 37 or 37A GP car from the late Twenties. We're not sure if this is a T37 or 37A because there was one of each at the auctions.  It seems that during Car Week, vintage Bugattis are almost as common in Monterey as Subaru wagons are in everyday Boulder, Colorado... 

RM Sotheby's took bids for a 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial, one of 32 built, including the 2nd Series cars introduced in '55.  This example had been wrecked and burned in the mid-Sixties, and had not been given much loving attention since...

Given its condition, it's kind of stunning that the winning bid was $1,875,000.  Then again, the car came with one of the Lampredi-designed, monoblock twin-cam four cylinder Ferrari engines, and a transmission too.  It appears, however, that some assembly will be required.

After the auctions, over at the Pebble Beach Concours on Sunday, things seemed a bit more…assembled.  The fully assembled car below is a 1939 Delahaye Type 165, bodied by Figoni & Falaschi in swoopy Streamline Moderne style, with skirted wheels and retractable windshield.  Power came from a detuned version of Delahaye's 4.5 liter, 3-cam racing V12, with aluminum block instead of the magnesium used in the successful GP car, and a single spark plug per cylinder vs. 2 for the racer that beat the Mercedes at the Pau GP in 1938.

Possibly influenced by futurist sketches made by illustrator Geo Ham, Figoni also produced handfuls of streamlined, teardrop-fendered bodies on lighter, sportier Delahaye and Talbot-Lago chassis.  This Torpedo Cabriolet, on a 6-cylinder, short-chassis Delahaye Type 135, first appeared in 1936; next year the engine size went from 3.2 liters to 3.5.  Under a dozen of this style were built.

Owners and fans often wear outfits that match the period and style of their favorite cars; the lady below is standing beside a 6-cylinder, 3 liter Delage (sister car to Delahaye, but with hydraulic brakes instead of mechanical ones thanks to stubborn Louis Delage). Just beyond it is a FIgoni-bodied Talbot-Lago...

Another wild outfit, this time posed in front of a Saoutchik-bodied grand tourer.  Too bad our trusty photographer didn't get a shot of the front (on the car).

One is somehow reminded of the Randy Newman song, "You Can Leave Your Hat On." Just in time for champagne...

We're not sure if this suit signifies a concours judge...

Another idea of style, on the instrument panel of an early 1930s Packard...

Here, the business end of a Duesenberg from the same period...

Details, details...

Concurrent with the auctions on August 17 through 19, Laguna Seca hosted the Monterey Motorsports Reunion.  Last year, this was probably the best way to see the greatest variety of cars in action, and seemed a bargain compared with the Pebble Beach Concours.  One economic point is that a simple baseball cap will always suffice for any visit to the races...

This year, there was a similar mix of vintage racers, from the horseless carriage era to the dawn of the digital age.  Most cars on the track, however, are as analog as this C1 Corvette.

Unlike some of the sports cars shown above, single-seat, open-wheel racers have no practical use outside the regulated confines of vintage racing.  So there are always a great variety of them at Laguna Seca, from pre-WW2 GP cars, to Indy cars, Formula Juniors and Formula Atlantics.  This means there's always a great variety of exposed engines for gearheads to investigate, too.

It seems fitting that we finish this photo essay with, in essence, the same car that began it. The yellow racer below is a D-Type Jaguar, built from 1954 to '57 and designed to win Le Mans, which it did in 1955, '56 and '57.  Jaguar's last road racer with a live rear axle, the D featured a wind-cheating shape by ex-aircraft designer Malcolm Sayer, and of course, the 4-wheel disc brakes pioneered on the C-Type.  It stopped better than the Ferraris, and this made it possible to beat them.  You don't see them as frequently at vintage races as you did in years gone by, and the eye-watering auction price of that XK-SS (a road-going D) may tell you why.  But on a trip to the historic races at Laguna Seca in 1980, I was driving through San Francisco traffic in a TR6 when I heard a low booming noise right behind me, and got passed by a D-Type on its way to the same place.  It got there sooner...

*Footnote:  For commentary on last year's Monterey Car Week in these posts, see "A Car Week Side Trip: Sleeping Beauties Somewhere in California (Aug. 24, 2022), "Concours d'LeMons: Monterey Car Week Viewed Upside Down" (Aug. 27, 2022), and "Monterey Car Week 2022: A Day at the Races" (Sept. 5, 2022), Our first-ever post was "A Review of the Monterey Auction Weekend, August 14-16, 2015", from August 25, 2015.

Photo Credits:
All photos were generously supplied by longtime reader and contributor Keith Carlson.  For Keith's collection of wood-bodied cars, see "Classic Woodies: When Fine Carpentry Hit the Road", posted May 28, 2023.