The car show where $1-million is entry-level

2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 sold for almost US$18-million.Supplied

Auction houses recently hustled a record US$755.6-million worth of cars during Monterey Car Week at seaside resorts and a golf club around the bougie enclave of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif. None of them had an original Monet tucked into the glovebox, seats made of solid gold or any single feature that might help explain why collectors were tossing eight-figure cheques around like confetti.

Monterey Car Week, which used to be almost quaint – like Best in Show for cars – has gradually become a major global hub of high-end automotive commerce. All the boutique car brands unveil new multimillion-dollar machinery, hoping to make a few sales on the spot. Auction houses offer up their heaviest hitters, the rarest of the rare. And influencers breathlessly capture it all in bite-sized videos.

What was most notable about the 2026 edition, however, was the extent to which the car industry seems to be bending over backward to cater to its richest customers.

If you have deep pockets and are in the market for a limited-edition supercar – something with a manual gearbox or a high-revving engine, a pair of Porsche restomods designed by Louis Vuitton or a one-off coachbuilt Ferrari – you are spoiled for choice.

The same cannot be said if you’re in the market for a new compact SUV that costs less than $30,000. The low end of the car market feels like a ghost town while the high end is throwing a party like, well, Monterey Car Week.

The divergence can even be seen in the auction results from Monterey. “A handful of extraordinary, nearly irreplaceable cars carried enormous sums that pulled the total skyward, while a broad swath of more common offerings quietly underperformed,” according to an analysis by classic-car insurance company Hagerty.

Even the cars of the rich are getting richer.

This year’s sales total of US$755.6-million was massive, smashing the previous record of US$471.2-million set during the pandemic-era spending spree of 2022, Hagerty noted.

Among the lots sold this year was a US$42.9-million 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, a US$18.7-million 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport coupe and — my favourite, the GOAT — a US$34.7-million 1996 McLaren F1 GTR.

1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand SportSupplied

1996 McLaren F1 GTR sold for almost US$35-million.Supplied

A Ferrari F40, F50 and 288 GTO all sold for record prices this year. So did a yellow 2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3, one of 600 built. Someone paid US$17.8-million for it, breaking the record for an SP3 set just one year earlier. This Ferrari’s two previous owners had driven their naturally aspirated V12 marvel a total of only 365 kilometres. Letting a car like that sit so long in a garage should be a crime, punishable by having it confiscated by the r/cars subreddit.

What’s driving these record Ferrari sales? “For serious Ferrari enthusiasts, owning one of these cars isn’t purely about the vehicle itself; it also signals commitment to the brand and strengthens an owner’s position when Ferrari allocates its next ultra-exclusive model,” Hagerty wrote. In other words, if you want the opportunity to buy the limited-edition 12Cilindri Manuale, then you’d be wise to make a winning bid for an old Ferrari in Monterey.

2026 Ferrari Luce 'Tailor Made' sold for charity for US$40-millionSupplied

Nearby, at The Quail, a car show where tickets cost around US$1,500, boutique automakers unveiled the sort of cars diehard enthusiasts are crying out for. The only problem is they’re unattainable to the vast majority of enthusiasts.

McLaren surprised everyone by going back to its roots with the new McL 6GT, the first McLaren with a manual transmission since the 1990s.

It’s a limited edition, but not as rare as the car Bugatti unveiled. That was a coachbuilt one-off called the Destrier, which is a rebodied race car that might just be the French brand’s most spectacular-looking car yet. Bugatti didn’t disclose how much the anonymous owner paid, but it is surely more than US$15-million.

Not to be outdone, Ferrari showed off its own one-off, the CZ26, a coachbuilt version of the SF90 Stradale supercar.

Gordon Murray Automotive, a British supercar company from the man behind the McLaren F1, unveiled the S1, which is yet another ultralight supercar with a manual transmission and a naturally aspirated V12. All 64 of them are already spoken for, sorry. Given that GMA’s last limited-edition, the S1 LM, sold at auction for more than US$20-million, the new S1 was probably out of reach for anyone outside the plutocrat class.

Looking downmarket, Porsche decided to put a six-speed manual into the 911 Carrera S again. The catch? It costs $200,000. Five years ago, that much money would buy you a top-of-the-line 911 GT3.

To be sure, there were also plenty of big-money cars that will make gearheads roll their eyes: a pointless 1,070-horsepower electric SUV from Lucid, tasteless bespoke Rolls-Royces, an ugly American supercar called the Hennessey Blackbird and the aforementioned Porsche restomods by Singer and Louis Vuitton. The latter will almost surely spend most of their lives in a climate-controlled garage before turning up at auction in Monterey in a few years.

But, wait! Acura unveiled an affordable-looking small sports car concept called the Nexera Vision – exactly the sort of machine enthusiasts could get excited about – and then quickly crushed all hope of it reaching production. Instead, according to MotorTrend, the sporty concept merely previews the taillights on an upcoming SUV. How cruel.

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