The rub of the green

Mid-August means Monterey Car Week – the world’s most prestigious motoring meet-up

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Monterey Car Week. That’s something of a misnomer - because this world-renowned homage to car culture has grown into a 10-day extravaganza that this year runs from August 8-17. In fact, it’s even longer because, four days before the official start, scores of classics will meet in Kirkland, near Seattle, to take part in the 1500-mile Pebble Beach Motoring Classic which ends on the Monterey Peninsula nine days later - in good time for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

The concours (Sunday, August 17) remains the main event of Monterey Car Week despite being just one of dozens of peripheral happenings that have evolved from it - in just the same way that the concours itself was founded in 1950 as an add-on to the Pebble Beach Road Races which ran from 1950-56. The one-day festival of gleaming paintwork and burnished chrome has taken place every year - save for 1960 due to a scheduling conflict with another Pebble Beach event and pandemic-stricken 2020 - and remains the jewel in the crown of this automotive feast. Two hundred of the world’s finest and most valuable veteran, vintage and classic cars line up on the Pebble Beach golf links to be ogled and admired by more than 15,000 spectators.