For ten days every August, the collector car world relocates to a 17-mile stretch of California coastline — and behaves as if that were perfectly normal. Monterey Car Week 2026 runs August 7–16, and this year carries extra weight: the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance celebrates its 75th anniversary. Here is everything you need to plan the week, from the marquee tickets to the world-class events that cost nothing at all.
The Dates That Matter
Car Week 2026 opens Friday, August 7 with the traditional kickoff car show in downtown Monterey and builds all week toward Sunday, August 16, when the 75th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance takes over the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links. In between: the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion runs August 12–15 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance winds down Highway 1 on Thursday, August 13, and The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering headlines Friday, August 14. The date shift is worth noting for returning visitors — the 2026 run starts a day earlier than last year, which nudges every hotel booking and event overlap with it.
The Marquee Events
Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance — Sunday, Aug 16
The most important concours in the world, and in 2026, its diamond anniversary. The 75th running looks back to the event’s road-racing origins with featured classes connecting the concours to its 1950 foundations. Best of Show at Pebble remains the single most coveted prize a collector car can win — the field is invitation-only, every entry is researched to museum standard, and the judging is famously brutal. Anniversary years pull cars from collections that rarely travel; expect the deepest field in a generation.
The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering — Friday, Aug 14
The most exclusive ticket of the week, held at Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel Valley with capped attendance, lavish hospitality, and manufacturer reveals on the lawn. The 2026 featured classes are exceptional: the 100th anniversary of Route 66, the Lamborghini Diablo, the legacy of Japanese GTs, the Ferrari F40 within The Great Ferraris, and the Bruce Meyer Collection. Tickets sell out within hours of release — if you are not on the notification list, you are relying on hospitality packages or the secondary market.
Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion — Aug 12–15
A museum that runs flat out. Pre-war Grand Prix cars, 1950s sports racers, 1960s Formula 1, Can-Am, and Group C machinery driven in anger at Laguna Seca, with the Corkscrew providing the best free-with-admission viewing in motorsport. Insider move: the Pre-Reunion the weekend before offers the same paddock access with half the crowd.
Concorso Italiano — Saturday, Aug 15
The all-Italian celebration at Black Horse Golf Course in Seaside — Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Lancia. Less formal than Pebble, every bit as serious about the cars, and the single best place on the peninsula to hear a hundred Italian engines start within the same hour.
The Auctions: Where the Market Gets Repriced
Monterey’s auction week is the financial heartbeat of the collector market — hundreds of millions of dollars transact in four days, and results here set global values for the year ahead. The 2026 lineup: RM Sotheby’s holds its flagship sale Thursday and Friday at the Monterey Conference Center. Gooding Christie’s, the official auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours, runs Friday and Saturday at the Pebble Beach equestrian grounds — the only auction inside 17-Mile Drive. Bonhams sells Friday at Quail Lodge, Broad Arrow continues building its position around The Quail, and Mecum runs Wednesday through Saturday at the Hyatt Regency.
Even if you never raise a paddle, an auction preview is one of the best experiences of the week: museum-quality cars, inches away, with the catalog specialists on hand to talk provenance. If you do plan to bid, arrange financing before you fly, register early, and decide your walk-away number before the room’s adrenaline decides it for you. Our breakdown of exotic car market liquidity explains why Monterey results move prices worldwide within weeks.
Day-by-Day: How the Week Actually Flows
Fri Aug 7 — Sun Aug 9: Kickoff show on Alvarado Street, early gatherings, and the Pre-Reunion at Laguna Seca — the connoisseur’s weekend before the crowds arrive. Mon Aug 10 — Tue Aug 11: Automobilia expos open, Carmel’s downtown concours events begin, and the first auction previews unlock. Wed Aug 12: The week hits full stride — Reunion practice starts, Mecum begins, Motorlux lights up the Monterey Jet Center, and the Little Car Show fills Pacific Grove. Thu Aug 13: The Tour d’Elegance runs Highway 1 in the morning; stand on Ocean Avenue in Carmel at lunchtime as Sunday’s entire concours field rolls through town. RM Sotheby’s opens its sale. Fri Aug 14: The Quail, Bonhams, Werks Reunion, and the biggest auction night of the year. Sat Aug 15: Concorso Italiano, Exotics on Broadway, Concours d’Lemons, Gooding Christie’s, and Reunion finals. Sun Aug 16: The 75th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Arrive at dawn or accept the shuttle lines.
The Free Events That Outperform Their Price
Some of the best of Monterey costs nothing. The kickoff show on Alvarado Street opens the week on August 7. Thursday’s Tour d’Elegance viewing in Carmel is essentially the Pebble field in motion, free from a sidewalk cafe. Exotics on Broadway fills Seaside with modern hypercars on Saturday, while the gloriously irreverent Concours d’Lemons celebrates the world’s most lovable automotive failures the same day. Add the Little Car Show in Pacific Grove and Porsche’s Werks Reunion, and you can build a world-class Car Week itinerary for the cost of parking.
Tickets, Lodging, and Logistics
Pebble Beach Concours admission and The Quail are the two tickets that require planning months ahead; everything else can be bought closer in. Hotels on the peninsula book up to a year out and triple in price — the practical alternatives are Salinas, Marina, and Seaside, fifteen to twenty-five minutes from the action, and even those fill by late spring. Traffic is the week’s real opponent: the peninsula looks small on a map, but cross-town trips that take twelve minutes in July take an hour in August. Pick a hotel base near your anchor events, not equidistant from everything.
How to Actually Plan It
Veterans follow one rule: pick three anchors and do them well. For first-timers, the proven formula is the Tour d’Elegance viewing in Carmel on Thursday (free), one auction preview Friday, and Sunday at Pebble. Going deeper? Add the Pre-Reunion the weekend before, The Quail on Friday, and Concorso Italiano on Saturday. Mornings are everything: the best light, the thinnest crowds, and the cars arriving under their own power.
Why 2026 Is the Year to Go
Anniversaries concentrate greatness. The 75th Pebble Beach Concours will pull cars from collections that rarely travel, The Quail’s F40 and Diablo classes are collector catnip, and the auction catalogs are stacking accordingly. If you have been waiting for the right year to make the pilgrimage, this is it.
Monterey Car Week 2026 runs August 7–16 across the Monterey Peninsula, culminating in the 75th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday, August 16. Major events include The Quail on August 14, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 12–15, and flagship auctions from RM Sotheby’s, Gooding Christie’s, Bonhams, Broad Arrow, and Mecum.
