Carmel-by-the-Sea, 13th of August, 2019

Car week is here! After the prelude on the weekend finally the Monterey Car Week was kicked off today with the annual Concours on the Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea. In contrast to all the expensive events in the next days with entry fees of several hundred dollars the Concours in Carmel is the counterpart as it is completely free to the public. Two days before the cars of Pebble Beach will be parked here during their tour the main street of Carmel became the first venue of the car shows during car week. Round about 8:30 the first cars entered the blocks in centre Carmel to be on display on a beautiful sunny day.

... Galleries containing 65 images >>>

Just like in the last years there were a lot of Porsche on show including the race cars from the nearby tack. The marque form Zuffenhausen plays a big role in the car culture in the US and it is not a surprise that the Rennsport Reunion held in Laguna Seca during their last 3 editions was such a success. Several interesting models from the 911 and the 356 range were on display highlighted by the 550 Spyder and the 910 race car.
Another fixed class in Carmel certainly is Ferrari but this year did not see many cars with the prancing horse on the avenue, the class was rather small head lighted by a 250 GT Coupe winning the class and a 250 GT Lusso among other cars.

During the sunny day a lot of people made their way to Carmel and it is always a surprise that some people have no clue what is going on with all these cars around and one might ask whether the highly increased hotel prices did not indicate that something must be going on.

After the cars being judged in the morning it was almost 5 pm when the BOS finally hit the stage to collect its trophy. This year the selection did not seem to be too difficult as not few were pretty sure that the OSCA might make it and finally the small red-blue car really did it by collecting its award.

Afterwards it was on display in front of the Cypress Inn with a new Acura opposite.

Just after the end of the show the cars disappeared just as fast as they arrived in the morning and the workers took down the small ramp that served so well in the last hours.

Tomorrow we will head to the auction previews and see what Gooding and Sotheby´s have on offer before the McCall jet-centre party will be in full swing.


Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotogrgraphy.de