The Best, the Boldest, and the Brightest Rides at Monterey Car Week
I was at the Bugatti Party at Monterey Car Week earlier this month, quietly sipping champagne and not-so-quietly trying to get a hold of some more caviar hors d'oeuvres when Jacob Arabo, the Uzbek-American founder of Jacob & Co, plopped down next to me, lit up a cigar the width of a roll of nickels, and stretched out his arm to reveal a double tourbillon timepiece encrusted with diamonds purportedly worth about $7 million. Immediately, a gaggle of attractive women swarmed around Arabo like piranhas as he blew smoke and carried on conversations surrounded by models, social media influencers, and a collection of hyper-cars worth more than the GDP of some small countries.
For fancy auto-enjoyers, Monterey Car Week is the Super Bowl, New York Fashion Week, and the Cannes Film Festival all rolled into one. There are glitzy parties (see above), famous people (Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Serena Williams), and countless examples of peak automotive engineering (see below). But it’s also an opportunity for automakers to unveil everything from moonshot concept rides to practical production cars. And if you look past the hype, gloss, and automotive propaganda coming from the show, there’s a clear roadmap (sorry) for where cars are headed.
Here are five takeaways and predictions:
The Future of Performance is Here, and it’s Hybrid
There was a conspicuous lack of hybrid announcements at this year’s show. The attitude of most automakers seemed like it was either full-throttle electric or "let’s-watch-the-world-burn" petroleum guzzlers. But it was Lamborghini, of all companies, that unveiled a hybrid that will most likely be studied and copied for years to come.
In Italian, the word temerario means reckless or rash. But it can also mean daring. Lamborghini made a somewhat daring choice in its decision to discontinue its popular entry-level (LOL: starting price $209,000) naturally aspirated V10 Huracán and replace it with the hybrid Temerario. That seems a tad insane until you consider the, erm, rather insane specs. The 2025 Temerario will feature a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine that, when paired with its electric motor, generates—this is not a typo—900 horsepower. That power plant will rocket the futuristic (but unmistakably Italian) vehicle from 0 to 60 in a shade under 2.5 seconds with a purported top speed over 200 mph.
Lambo has made a serious declaration here: it’s possible to build an asphalt-shredding, high-revving, dead hot hybrid supercar that doesn’t compromise on performance. I wouldn’t be surprised if at next year’s show we see not only exotics like Ferrari and Porsche follow suit with high-achieving hybrids of their own, but also more affordable makers like Ford and Toyota too.
Expect More Car Makers to Lean Heavily Into Nostalgia
There were more than a few models that debuted at the show that traded heavily on sentimentality. Porsche’s 50th anniversary 911 Turbo (rightfully) garnered quite a bit of attention, but I think my favorite throwback-inspired ride was Acura’s Integra Type S HRC concept.
Last year, I drove the Integra Type S reissue and loved how Acura imbued it with the spirit of the late '90s and early '00s Integra. The evocative concept was revealed with front and side splitters, a large adjustable carbon fiber spoiler, and an Indy Yellow Pearl paint job. Under the hood is a 2.0-liter turbocharged VTEC engine, twin oil coolers, and a tuned lightweight cat-back exhaust system. It has the looks and specs of a car college-age me would have taken an ill-advised 29 percent APR loan to buy, but forty-something me can now easily afford. It seems crazy that there is no intention of putting the Integra Type S HRC into production, but maybe Honda will crib a page from BMW (see below) and cave after demands for this car become a roar.
Bring On the Disgustingly Fast Station Wagons
For years, North American parents watched with envy as their European counterparts enjoyed a vast array of totally practical yet extremely quick wagons. Sure, there were some that made it stateside—an AMG E63 here, an Audi RS6 Avant there—but for years, a certain Bavarian-based maker resisted offering its M series wagon in ‘Murica. Until now.
Last spring, BMW announced its blistering M5 Touring Wagon would finally be available in the U.S. At Monterey, Bimmer unveiled the finished version of the car, a sleek elongated bullet equipped with a hybrid(!) power plant consisting of a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 engine along with a 14.8-kWh battery pack and an electric motor integrated into the eight-speed automatic transmission. This produces a monstrous 717 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. A 3.5-second 0 to 60 and a 190 mph top speed. You will arrive at soccer practice before you leave the garage. Hopefully, this is just the beginning and we’re about to enter a golden age of rocket-propelled wagons.
Automotive Aesthetics Are Rejecting Modernity, Embracing Tradition
If you’re a fan of interior design and architecture TikTok, then you’ll know Gen Z and Gen Alpha have been highly (and rightly!) critical of Modern Millennial Minimalism, the aesthetic popularized in the mid-aughts that pushed muted color schemes, overly simplified furniture, and boxy buildings. In other words, drab and boring!
Now we’re starting to see the blowback across design mediums, with interiors becoming brighter, household objects becoming more ornate, and classic architecture becoming better appreciated. We’ve also seen reverberations in automotive design.
Take the Ruf Rodeo. Ruf, a German maker of Porsche-like customized sports cars, debuted its Rodeo model at Monterey. Outside, the model looks like a classic 911 in a fun, retina-searing bright orange paint job. Inside, the interior design is southwestern-inspired with loud patterns, thick leather, and bright, tactile knobs. There’s no domineering iPad-like screen. No hard plastic surfaces. No cold carbon fiber. The Rodeo feels warm, inviting. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing this design approach creeping into more mass-market vehicles in the next five years or so.
Model Names Need to Get More Fun
I’m not entirely sure what Cadillac had in mind with its latest concept car—a scissor-winged electric prototype that will almost certainly never see production—but its name, Opulent Velocity, is objectively cool. And descriptive! There’s no fat on that name; you know exactly what you’re getting. There should be more examples like this.
For every Opulent Velocity (which, by the way, would also make an excellent name for a racehorse), there’s a thousand GVX 90032 SLEs and EXYV 900031Ds. Enough with that trash. Automakers need to have more fun. Give me a Dodge Benevolent Lightning or a BMW hot Sovereign or a Rolls Royce Wild Weasel. Anything! Cars used to come with fun nomenclature like Diablo, Testarossa, and Gremlin. It’s time to loosen the tie, let the hair down, and not be boring.
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