Road America: The truth about Car Week

The Monterey Peninsula juts into the Pacific some 80 miles south of San Francisco. Seen on a map, it appears to have been tacked onto California’s left edge at the last minute, a kind of continental nipple. The weather is generally like the weather in the finer parts of Italy, except when it is worse, in which case it is generally like a nicer version of the weather in San Francisco, which is no bad thing. The coastline is best described as ‘Amalfi in sweatpants.’

In short, a dense deposit of natural beauty. Around 4.6 million tourists visit the area annually. More than 100,000 of them arrive every August for the region’s prime automotive event, Car Week, a 10-day period that adds some $65m to the local economy.

Car Week began life nearly 75 years ago as a weekend of public-road road racing in the seaside community of Pebble Beach. Today, its calendar includes 39 recognised public events – auctions, car shows, tours, two historic racing weekends, celebrations, roundtables and so on. To say nothing of the countless private gatherings and manufacturer unveilings you don’t hear of until long after they’re over.