Monterey Car Week · HICONIUM

The fixture

For ten days each August the Monterey Peninsula concentrates concours on the fairways, historics at Laguna Seca and auctions every evening — the densest run of significant cars and sale rooms in the collector year.

HICONIUM opens its doors here: the platform launches into the densest week of the collector year, where every thread of the file — provenance, price, presence — is being written simultaneously.

The week the whole file happens at once. HICONIUM launches into it.

The HICONIUM lens

Dates: August 7–16, 2026
Venue: Monterey Peninsula
Place: Monterey, California (US)
Type: Concours
Dated from: seemonterey.com

seemonterey.com

Results from this fixture feed the ledger — record sales, class wins and documented outings land in the affected cars’ files.

The origin

1950

In 1950 Del Monte Properties president John B. “Jack” Morse and specials-builder Sterling Edwards paired a road-race meeting on the forest roads near the Lodge at Pebble Beach with a concours. The San Francisco Region of the SCCA ran the 5 November meeting; Phil Hill won its Pebble Beach Cup. After Ernie McAfee’s fatal 1956 crash, road racing moved to Laguna Seca in 1957. Steve Earle’s Historics, Concorso Italiano and The Quail later joined the August cluster known as Monterey Car Week.

How it runs

Ten-day cluster: See Monterey’s 2026 calendar runs from 7 to 16 August across the peninsula, ending with the Pebble Beach Concours on Sunday. It brings independent races, concours, marque events and sales into one period; schedules and admission remain with their individual organizers.
Parallel auction houses: Gooding Christie’s holds the official Pebble Beach Auctions at Parc du Concours on 14–15 August. RM Sotheby’s uses the Monterey Conference Center, Mecum the Del Monte Golf Course and Bonhams WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca; Broad Arrow’s inaugural Quail Auction runs at Quail Golf Club on 13–14 August.
Historics at Laguna Seca: The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion runs 12–15 August at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. It programmes qualifying and races for period-defined groups; the 2026 edition’s featured subject is Icons of Japanese Motorsport. The Monterey Pre-Reunion and Corkscrew Hillclimb ran there on the preceding weekend.
Marque days: Thursday brings Legends of the Autobahn to Pacific Grove Golf Links, with Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz clubs. Friday is The Quail at Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley. Saturday puts Concorso Italiano at Bayonet & Black Horse and Exotics on Broadway in Seaside; these are separate events, not a single concours.

On the record

1950
On 5 November Phil Hill won the first Pebble Beach Cup in his Jaguar XK120 on the 1.8-mile forest course. The companion first Concours gave Best of Show to Sterling Edwards’ Edwards R-26 Special Sport Roadster.
1956
Carroll Shelby won the final Pebble Beach Road Race in the Ferrari 750 Monza 0510M. Ernie McAfee then died after crashing the Ferrari 857S; the road course was abandoned and Laguna Seca hosted its first race in 1957.
1974
On Saturday 10 August Steve Earle staged the first Monterey Historic Automobile Races at Laguna Seca. It was a one-day meeting of 66 cars, with no Sunday racing because drivers and spectators were expected at the Pebble Beach Concours.
1998
In 1998 Lamborghini presented the 20-car Diablo SV Monterey Edition, created for Monterey Car Week. Lamborghini now treats it as the start of its Monterey premiere programme, which has included at least one world premiere annually in the last decade.
2018
RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale—not the Pebble Beach Concours—sold Dr Gregory Whitten’s 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, chassis 3413 GT, for $48,405,000 including premium. The 24–25 August sale totalled $157,931,940 and set the then world auction record.

In the register

Houses

People

The consignment

3 cars coming to the block

Every documented lot consigned to this sale, grouped by manufacturer, with the house’s estimate beside each. Figures are pre-sale estimates — the result lands in each car’s file once the hammer falls.

Volkswagen

1 lot · Germany

The people's car that outgrew its name — from Beetle ubiquity to the engineering moonshots of the Piëch era.

Lexus

1 lot · Nagoya, Japan

One car, one decade of obsession — the V10 masterpiece nobody has repeated.

Gemballa

1 lot · Leonberg, Germany

The most extravagant name in re-engineered Porsches — excess raised to a house style.