Crypto News: The Olympics for supercars

Hi! It's Hannah Elliott, reporting live from Monterey Car Week in Carmel, California, and boy has it changed.

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance started in 1950 so that California's car enthusiasts could rub shoulders among rare classics one Sunday morning in August.

Seven decades later, the concours itself is now the finale of a weeklong automotive orgy of hypercar debuts, million-dollar restomods, vintage racing, concepts, auctions, rallies and oddities. It's kind of like the Olympics for car enthusiasts, but with less Snoop Dogg. (Free idea: We need Snoop in Carmel!)

A 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider by Scaglietti is up for sale. Photographer: Remi Dargegen/RM Sotheby's

This is my 15th year attending, give or take. The biggest change since is that the term "Pebble Beach" used to connote a staid beauty contest for cars on a foggy peninsula; now it's used colloquially to refer to the whole week.

For many, that means new-car debuts. (Traditional auto shows are dead.) Last year electric vehicles dominated the headlines. This year internal combustion vehicles, including some with hybrid powertrains, are back.

To wit: Mercedes-Maybach introduced an opulent two-seat SL convertible with a V-8 under the hood. Lamborghini debuted a 900-plus-horsepower V-8 hybrid called Temerario, which revs to 10,000 rpm. Pagani revealed the Utopia Roadster, a 852-hp twin-turbo V-12 with a delightfully old-school manual gearbox. Maserati showed new variants of its V-6 MC20 sports car.

Porsche also had several variant debuts including this 911 Speedster Type 993 built as a Sonderwunsch factory one-off commission. Source: Porsche

Meanwhile a new company called Nilu is trying to drum up business for a 1,070-horsepower, V-12 stick-shift hypercar of its own.

"Technology has not improved the automotive experience!" Sasha Selipanov declared at a preview of the car, which is called the Nilu27. The company founder formerly worked for automakers including BMW and Koenigsegg; the Nilu27 is his manifesto against electric and computer technology taking over driving, he said.

Gooding & Co. will offer this 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Lungo Spider, stolen outside a Holiday Inn Express in 2022 and recently recovered, during the week as well. Source: Brian Henniker/Gooding & Company

But the behemoths are here, too. BMW AG unveiled a touring version of its popular M5. Porsche AG showed a turbocharged anniversary edition of its best sports car called the 911 Turbo 50 Years (they'll make 1,974 of them) and a one-off 993-generation 911 Speedster in yellow.

Lincoln trotted out a V-6 "spa on wheels," as the company called it, the 2025 Lincoln Navigator SUV. Infiniti's latest version of its flagship SUV, the V-6 QX80, is also here. Land Rover brought along a cadre of Defenders owned and operated by Queen Elizabeth.

In the world of luxury cars, hybrids like this Porsche 911 Carrera GTS are the sexiest new thing. Photographer: Rossen Gargolov

All year we've heard that EVs aren't quite as ready to take over the world as we thought. Everyone from Ford Motor and General Motors to Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz Group has reset expectations and targets due to lack of consumer demand for EVs.

I'm seeing it happen in real time this week in Monterey. If the hoopla here is any indication, new cars will be gulping gas for years to come.

Follow along and connect with Hannah on Instagram and X.

A new Land Rover Defender is another thing we've been obsessing over this month. Illustration by Pedro Veneziano for Bloomberg Businessweek

The Must-See Cars of Monterey: The Queen's Defenders, a Porsche Prototype
Plus, an $18 million first Ferrari and one man's pet Cobra.

A Stolen $20 Million Alfa Romeo Race Car Is for Sale in California
If this old roadster is anything like the Mona Lisa, the hijinks in its story could up its value. But first it'll have to buck the market.

In the World of Luxury Cars, Hybrids Are the Sexiest New Thing
Got six figures to spend? There are plenty of powerful new hybrids to choose from. Just don't expect them to improve your gas mileage.

Former Lamborghini Executive to Produce €1.35 Million Diablo V-12
Maurizio Reggiani has joined Eccentrica, the company working to preserve internal combustion in the face of a growing EV market.

As Mercedes Walks Back EVs, Its New CLE Makes an Argument for Hybrids
The four-wheel-drive coupe offers enhanced performance and a modernized design.

There were a few electric vehicles in Monterey that stood out to me. They were the extremely expensive kind.

One was a Rolls-Royce. Following its tradition of delivering Very Special customer creations here to the peninsula, the British automaker brought a lemon- and citrine-hued commission of the Spectre electric coupe that I reviewed. (Last year it was the $30 million Droptail Roadster.)

As for the price of that customized creation, called the Spectre Semaphore, considering the Spectre starts at nearly $500,000, I have it on good authority that it crosses the $625,000 mark.

Rolls-Royce hasn't seemed to have any trouble selling these ultra-expensive, ultra-profitable customized wonders, even when they are electric. I spoke with Chris Brownridge, the company's new CEO, on Friday and expect that push to reach the upper echelon of buyers and price points—regardless of what's under the hood—will continue.

The Spectre, Rolls-Royce's all-electric coupe. Source: Rolls-Royce

On the other hand, there's Rimac. The Croatian automaker revealed the Nevera R, a higher-tuned version of its original electric $2 million Nevera hypercar I test-drove two years ago. (The R stands for radical, relentless and rebellious, company founder and CEO Mate Rimac told me ahead of the debut.)

The $2.5 million Nevera R is notable not because it's wildly different from its sibling—it's more powerful, at 2,107 horsepower, and limited to 40 units—but because it comes at a particularly bad time to be flogging an electric hypercar. Rolls-Royce has plenty of gas-powered vehicles to sell within its fleet, as well as a century of heritage, know-how and branding behind it. The success or failure of one electric vehicle doesn't threaten its whole enterprise.

Rimac doesn't have that luxury. In May, Rimac said only 50 of the planned 150 Neveras have been delivered; he credited the low demand to buyers' appetite for analog, combustion-powered supercars. (A recent spate of internal-combustion-engined, manual-gearbox debuts from the likes of Aston Martin, BMW, Pagani, Koenigsegg, Singer, RUF, TWR and Eccentrica indicates he may be right.)

When I test-drove the Rimac Nevera two years ago, I came away smitten. Source: Rimac

When I spoke with the Rimac CEO, we discussed how difficult it is to be selling EVs as the market for them slows. He wasn't shy about commenting on the challenge—and he said Rimac isn't forever tied to electric propulsion, anyway.

"Electric cars are having a tough time at the moment," he said. "We are thinking of whatever exciting technology is out there, whatever ideas we can come up with. Not just batteries—we are looking to all kinds of stuff for the future of the brand."

If the product is interesting and exciting and offers something unique, there is a market for it, he said. That makes sense. After all, this is the guy who set a speed record in a stick-shift BMW M3; he often refers to himself a "petrol head" at heart.

In June, Rimac announced it will devote resources to making a two-seat autonomous taxi set for public roads by 2026. It will be interesting to see how else the Porsche-backed, Bugatti-owning company pivots to survive.

"We will explore exciting technologies and and try to make something cool with them," Rimac said.

Rimac Unveils an Autonomous Car Concept, Aims for 2026 Launch

Rimac's $2 Million Nevera Is a Feat Unlike Any in EV History

First Drive: The Electric Rolls-Royce Spectre Is a Rolls in Its Purest Form

Bugatti Tourbillon, a $4.1 Million Hybrid Hypercar to Replace the Chiron

Rimac Has Broken the Electric Car Speed Barrier

Rimac Group Raises $537 Million to Build EVs, Porsches, Bugattis

If you're around Los Angeles after Car Week, visit Grá. The Echo Park Italian joint is as delicious as it is unexpected. Conceived by an Irishman, Michael McSharry, it celebrates fermentation in all of its best forms, with wild-fermented dough, pickled salads, craft beers and naturally fermented wines. Come for the Stracciatella pizza with basil, coffee-infused honey and garlic; stay for the Soy Sauce Caramel Sundae.

Did someone say ice cream? West coast operator Wanderlust says its bestselling Sticky Rice and Mango ice cream, along with Ube Malted Crunch, indicate a new trend in taste. Photographer: Max Milla/Wanderlust Creamery

I've been exploring Christine and the Queens' French-American electropop repertoire lately. Ethereal, it's great for listening in the bath. (Paranoïa, Angels, True Love is a good place to start.)

I also devoured Griffin Dunne's The Friday Afternoon Club, his engrossing memoir about life in a prominent Hollywood family.

Speaking of Hollywood and being devoured, the new Alien: Romulus is very, very good—except for one terrible creative choice. Source: 20th Century Studios

Have I told you I've got a podcast? I do. It's called Hot Pursuit!, and I co-host it with my car-crazy colleague Matt Miller from Bloomberg TV's Open Interest. Our weekly bicoastal podcast is all about the love of cars. We have guests like General Motors' Mark Reuss and Ford's Jim Farley, but we also just talk about the cars we're driving, or buying, or selling, or having towed … you get the picture.

Here's our full repertoire. You can also email us at hotpursuit@bloomberg.net with comments and suggestions for the show.

We call for queries weekly on our Instagram account and via e-mail. Here's what you were dying to know about this time around.

Where is Monterey Car Week?

This is a very good question. It's confusing, and remote. The main car show, the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, is held at the golf club of the same name, in a tiny unincorporated community also of the same name, which is located next to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California (of Clint Eastwood as Mayor fame). That's all along the Pacific coast, about 320 miles north of LA; 90 miles south of San Francisco.

And when you make the drive along Highway 1, here are the best places to stop for a bite to eat. Photographer: Joyce Lee/Bloomberg

All of the satellite shows and auctions and events of Monterey Car Week are in the 20 miles surrounding Carmel-by-the-Sea. Some are at the Quail Lodge, which is owned by billionaire developer Michael Kadoorie.

He and his son, Philip, are car nuts. Philip drives a gorgeous gold Porsche 911K. At breakfast one morning Michael told me has a Lamborghini Miura he has owned for more than 50 years; he picked it up at the factory himself in 1969, during a strike no less!

Click for more road-trip inspiration that also includes amazing food. Photograph: Alamy Background: Getty Images

Associated events also happen at private homes in Pebble Beach, at the Salinas airport, along the ocean and at this spectacular hacienda on the Santa Lucia Preserve that I want to visit again.

What are the do's and don'ts of Monterey Car Week?

Do check road conditions before driving here. Highway 1 near Big Sur and Monterey has been closed a lot lately to repair the road. You may need to drive up the inland way along Interstate 5 and Highway 101, which is faster anyway. (Paso Robles as a stop is great wine country.)

The Booker Wines tasting room in Paso Robles, which our wine critic calls "the state's new winemaking hot spot." Photographer: Booker Wines

Don't try to do everything. Do pick one or at most two things per day you must do. Everything else is optional, a bonus.

Do pack both sunblock and scarves; with the microclimates around here that see temperatures swing 30F-40F in 24 hours you'll need both.

Do treasure parking passes, since parking and getting into most of these events is a time-consuming bottleneck that will make you wish you brought your Vespa instead.

Don't overindulge at the bar. It's easy to do—everyone is in a good mood this week, usually, and happy to buy a round for the group. Sloppiness does not become you, plus it'll keep you from driving something fun. Not to sound like your mom, but hydration with water is key.

Not into water? How about Hot Fudge Sundae-flavored water? Source: Liquid Death

Do plan on being out of touch. No I can't hear you now. My Verizon coverage is woefully lacking in many of the pockets along the peninsula.

Do sit on 17-Mile Drive by the ocean one day and watch the cars roll by. My fave: Thursday morning when the cars entered into the concours do the Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance, a 70-mile route down to Big Sur and back, in order to prove road-worthiness. I drove it this year in a glorious 1961 Bentley S2 Drophead Coupe (1 of 15 ever made). Fresh off a two-year full restoration that has it painted in an elegant period-correct Ming blue with amber pinstripes, it is the first vehicle Bentley has ever entered in the concours.

Do stroll down Ocean Avenue in Carmel at sunset for more car spotting.

Do get Mexican food at Baja Cantina one night (Sunday after the concours is always good). Do get Italian food at Casanova, which is built on the site of the home of the woman who cooked for Charlie Chaplin for many years. It has an extensive wine cellar. Get something that will pair well with the steak frites and the corn ravioli.

Do visit the fire-pits at the Inn at Spanish Bay one night after dinner; maybe havea bit of Scotch there to end the day?

OK that's it! But if you're really into that Scotch, you can sign up for our Top Shelf Society newsletter for all the latest news from your new favorite drinking buddy.

Mais oui! French-style cocktails are having a moment. Photographer: Gentl + Hyers

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