Monterey Car Week 2024 Recap: The Super Bowl for Cars, Lived at Full Throttle

If Villa d’Este is the Cannes of the automotive world, then Monterey is the Super Bowl - a week where the rarest, most coveted machines on earth descend on California’s coast, and where every conversation feels like an insider’s handshake.

For 2024, Auto Icons orchestrated a trans-Pacific play and cross-continental journey that had never been done before. The original plan? Fly Los-Angeles based global automotive artist Chris Dunlop to Singapore to paint our client’s Porsche 911 DakarT. But when you know the terrain, you know how to call the right audible. We sent the car to California instead - and built an itinerary that merged once-in-a-lifetime drives, bucket-list events, and moments that would become part of the car’s provenance forever. We took our client and their family deep into the heart of America’s most exclusive automotive gatherings.

Quite possibly for the first time ever, a Singaporean-registered car was legally tearing through California tarmac during Car Week. It was driven, photographed, and witnessed at the heart of the action. Riding shotgun in the experience was another 850kg, 11,000RPM jewel: a Tuthill 911K from one of our client’s private collections, a bespoke Porsche restomod so dialed-in it could make even a purist grin.

The week kicked off in Los Angeles, where pre–Car Week gatherings set the tone from “Prebble 2024,” “Good Boy Bob’s,” to “Good Vibes Breakfast Club”. It was the sort of high-horsepower coffee runs where you overhear off-market deals being whispered and prototypes quietly changing hands.

From there, we carved up the coast. Canepa was a mandatory stop - a cathedral for the faithful - before rolling into San Francisco, then bending inland toward Yosemite National Park. Against the granite cliffs and winding roads, both cars looked almost sculptural, captured in a series of photographs destined for the family archive and, in time, the auction catalogue.

By Wednesday, Monterey was buzzing. Motorlux delivered its mix of polished elegance and insider access, but the real coup was the Tuthill friends-and-family event - an invite-only gathering where we witnessed the global unveiling of the GT-ONE supercar restomod. Only a handful of people on earth can say they saw it first in the flesh.

From there, it was the greatest hits of Car Week with the volume turned all the way up.

At the Quail, the grass shimmered under the weight of billion-dollar collections, each car positioned as if in conversation with the one beside it. Collectors leaned in over engine bays, trading stories that never make it to press. Deals were likely made with nothing more than a knowing glance.

Laguna Seca’s Rolex Reunion was the antidote to static displays - the scent of hot brakes and race fuel hanging in the air as vintage machinery screamed through the Corkscrew. Decades-old rivals were back on track, proving that history doesn’t belong in a museum - it belongs at full throttle.

And then, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Dawn broke over the 18th fairway, fog giving way to sunlight that seemed designed to catch every curve and chrome detail. Here, rarity and elegance were judged, celebrated, and, for a lucky few, immortalised. Restoration bills? Let’s just say some cost more than most houses and the results were worth every cent.

Most concours cars earn their stripes through past glory - a race win, a famous owner, a design milestone. The customized Porsche 911 DakarT now carries a provenance chapter no one else can replicate: a Singaporean plate on California asphalt during the Super Bowl of the car world, witnessed by the global collector elite. For serious investors, that’s the kind of documented, irreplaceable narrative that turns a special car into an unrepeatable one. The Tuthill 911K’s inclusion amplified the effect - cementing its place not just as a mechanical masterpiece, but as part of a curated, multi-continent journey with front-row access to the most exclusive moments of Car Week.

At Auto Icons, this is why we do what we do. Beyond moving cars, we move them into history. Monterey Car Week 2024 was lived, driven, and documented in a way that elevated machines into legacy pieces. Because for the right cars and the right collectors, the road is just the beginning. Place yourself and your car within the world’s most exclusive automotive circles. We invite you to reach out to us via Whatsapp, email, or submit your information on the contact form.