Monterey Car Week 2025: The Cool, the Bad, and the Bizarre

Monterey Car Week just wrapped up, which means all the rich folks in pastel pants and fancy hats have cleared out of this swanky California town. Well, mostly cleared out anyway.

Between all the overpriced cocktails and awkward small talk, some pretty wild cars actually showed up. Here's what caught people's attention, what put them to sleep, and what made them wonder if car designers have lost their minds.

The Actually Cool Stuff

Gordon Murray's Latest Creations
Gordon Murray's new Special Vehicles division finally showed what they've been working on, and holy cow. The S1 LM (basically a love letter to the McLaren F1 GTR) and the Le Mans GTR both pack screaming V12s and manual transmissions. These things probably stole the whole week, and honestly, picking between them would be torture.

Bugatti Brouillard
Bugatti launched their new one-off car program with this absolute stunner. It's got their insane 1,578-horsepower W16 engine and looks like it was designed by aliens. The name comes from a horse, because apparently that's how Bugatti names things now.

Lamborghini Fenomeno
Last year Lamborghini wowed everyone with the Temerario, and they've done it again with this yellow monster. It's the most powerful Lamborghini ever built – 1,065 horsepower – and only 29 people get to buy one. So basically, it's not happening for regular humans.

Lexus Sport Concept
Nobody really knows what this thing is supposed to be, but it looks incredible. Could be related to that mysterious Toyota sports car that's been testing everywhere, or maybe it's something completely different. Either way, if future Lexus cars look like this, sign everyone up.

Some Absolutely Mental Restomods
The Kimera Evo38 imagines what a four-wheel-drive Lancia 037 would look like, complete with a see-through transmission tunnel and glowing turbo. The Ringbrothers took an old Aston Martin DBS and stuffed an 805-horsepower Ford V8 in it. And Gunther Werks somehow crammed 1,000 horsepower into an air-cooled Porsche 911. These people have serious issues, and we're here for it.

The Snoozefest

Acura RSX Prototype
Honda's trying to make electric crossovers exciting, which is admirable. But did they really have to steal the name from the old Integra? That's just mean to anyone who remembers when Acuras were actually cool.

Brabus Rolls-Royce Cullinan
Someone took a Rolls-Royce SUV and made it even more obnoxious. Because apparently regular Cullinans weren't flashy enough? Hard pass.

BMW M850i Edition M Heritage
BMW's saying goodbye to the 8 Series with... some new paint colors and a glass gear selector. That's it. For a farewell special, this feels pretty lazy.

The "Wait, What?" Category

Infiniti's Track SUV
Infiniti built a track-focused version of their massive QX80 SUV with over 650 horsepower. Because nothing says "race car" like a seven-passenger family hauler, right?

Cadillac Desert Racer
The Elevated Velocity concept is basically a luxury electric dune buggy with gullwing doors and something called "red light therapy" to help passengers recover from "vigorous pursuits." Nobody's quite sure what vigorous pursuits you'd do in a Cadillac, but okay.

Bentley's Gradient Paint Job
Bentley's new "Ombre" paint process lets colors gradually blend into each other. It takes two people 56 hours to apply by hand, which seems like a lot of effort for something that looks like a smartphone wallpaper.

So there's another Monterey Car Week in the books. Some genuinely amazing machines, some head-scratchers, and plenty of reminders that when you have too much money, you can buy some truly bizarre things.