Monterey Car Week 2024: The Best Supercars, EVs & Exotica on Pebble Beach

Each summer, the world’s wealthiest car collectors are drawn to the Monterey peninsula like moths to a flame. The luxe car show on the California coast has become one the most extravagant and over-the-top in the world. Here, on the grounds of the Pebble Beach golf course — or The Quail Lodge, or an exclusive pop-up, or even just cruising around local streets — you’ll see some of the most coveted cars in the known auto-verse. The hats are big, the watches are gold, the suits are all bespoke, and the cars are absolutely spotless.

It wasn’t easy, but we picked our favourites from all the new supercars, exotica, restomods and EVs from Monterey Car Week 2024.

Lamborghini Temerario

Mitja Borkert, Lamborghini’s head designer, gave us a one-on-one sneak preview of the brand’s new Temerario junior-supercar earlier this summer, ahead of its public unveiling at Pebble. It’s gorgeous, right? There are certainly hints of the classic Lamborghini Countach in its rakish roofline. And, like the Miura and Countach before it, the Huracan’s successor is breaking new ground. The naturally-aspirated V10 is gone — for obvious emissions-related reasons — and replaced by an all-new V8 that spins to a stratospheric 10,000 rpm. It’s attached to a pair of turbochargers and aided by a tri-motor plug-in hybrid system. Asked how the new high-revving hybrid engine sounds, Borkert would only say “you will get goosebumps.” We can’t wait to drive this monster.

Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Series

There is no more appropriate place than Pebble Beach for Maybach to unveil such an over-the-top machine. Finally, there’s an open-top two-seater to the Maybach lineup. Where the rear-seats would be on a Mercedes SL, the Maybach Monogram adds a unique double-scoop cover that gives the car a bit of a retro-sporty vibe. As you’d expect, there’s oodles of stitched leather, chrome trim and Maybach logos everywhere you look. Buyers who simply can’t get enough of the brand can opt to have the hood hand-painted with a Maybach pattern too. Under that hood is a 4.0-litre biturbo V8 engine making 585 horsepower. Despite the immense power on tap, Maybach explains the car has been tuned for long-distance comfort with soft engine mounts and cushy suspension.

Nilu27

Cars from upstart brands don’t usually look this refined, but this upstart is founded by a car designer, Sasha Selipanov, whose resume includes stints at both Bugatti and Koenigsegg. His goal for the Nilu27? “We want a raw, old-school, no-nonsense automotive experience,” he recently told Top Gear. To that end, the car features a custom 6.5-litre, naturally-aspirated V12 (made with New Zealand’s Hartley Engines) that’ll rev at close to 12,000 rpm and push out 1,000 horsepower. Following the supercar’s public debut at Pebble, production is supposed to begin soon.

Porsche 911 Speedster

Luca Trazzi, an architect and industrial designer born in Verona in 1962, had a special wish. He wished for the missing 911 Speedster — a Speedster based on the 993-generation 911, which Porsche never actually put into production.

Luckily for Trazzi, Porsche’s Sonderwunsch division exists to make wishes become reality. (Sonderwunsch literally translates as Special Wishes.) It took more than three years to create his one-off Speedster, based on a 1994 911 Carrera Cabriolet (Type 993). “As a young boy, I fell head over heels in love with the puristic Porsche Speedster. I had to work very hard to be able to afford my first Porsche, a Speedster 1600 Super from 1955. Ever since, I’ve managed to live my passion, or more precisely, my Speedster-mania,” Trazzi said.

Rolls-Royce Phantom Scintilla

We’re pretty sure cars don’t get any classier than this exquisite Rolls. On the occasion of the company’s 120th anniversary, this “private commission” car is a bespoke collection of 10 vehicles built to celebrate the brand’s famous Spirit of Ecstasy mascot. No expense has been spared, naturally.

Per Rolls, “the [car’s] upper body is in Andalusian White, with the lower body in Thracian Blue, inspired by the colours of the sea around the island of Samothrace.” Inside the car are 869,500 stitches that take over 40 hours to complete. Those details are meant to evoke the flowing marble surface of The Winged Victory of Samothrace, the ancient Greek statue that inspired Claude Johnson’s original idea for a Rolls‑Royce mascot. Uniquely for the Scintilla, the Spirit of Ecstasy itself has been given a unique ceramic finish that looks almost like marble.

RUF Rodeo

The German’s have a thing for cowboys, and the new Rodeo from RUF is here to scratch that itch. But, don’t call this a restomod okay? German company RUF is recognized as a car manufacturer in its own right, not merely a tuner or restomodder. The company dates back to the 1930s, but became a household name (at least among devoted gearheads) in the 1980s with icons like the CTR “Yellowbird.”

The company unveiled the Rodeo to the public in Pebble, and, well, we love it. It’s built around RUF’s own carbon-monocoque chassis and powered by a 3.6-litre flat-six that sends 610 horsepower to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. And just look at that interior! *Chef’s kiss*

BMW M5 Touring

We’ve already covered the M5 Touring because, well, we’re hyped for this thing. It’s been 40 years since the first M5 and in all that time Canadians never got an M5 station wagon — until now. This high-power plug-in hybrid family hauler might just be the ultimate do-it-all car. Power comes from M Divison’s familiar twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 paired with an electric motor integrated into the eight-speed automatic transmission. Total output is rated at a staggering 717 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. The catch? Well the new M5 Touring is heavy, really heavy, tipping the scales at 2,508 kilograms. We’ll find out later this year how it drives, so watch this space.

Rimac Nevera R

Mate Rimac is at it again. The all-electric Rimac Nevera supercar is only just beginning to arrive in customers’ driveways, but Croatian EV wunderkind Mate Rimac didn’t get this far by standing still. The Nevera has been thoroughly redeveloped with a focus on speed and handling. Power is up to an eye-popping 2,107 horsepower. It also gets next-generation all-wheel torque vectoring, a more performance-oriented battery and more advanced carbon-ceramic brakes. A new aerodynamic design, plus new Michelin tires, boosts downforce by 15 per cent and reduces understeer. Despite the fact the primary focus was on making this car handle well through the corners, the Nevera R isn’t slow in a straight line either; it’ll hit 300 km/h in a claimed 8.66 seconds. That’s so quick it hurts.

The post Monterey Car Week 2024: The Best Supercars, EVs & Exotica on Pebble Beach appeared first on Sharp Magazine.