Monterey Car Week 2026: Highlights and Exclusive Reveals

Monterey Car Week 2026 has wrapped up, but the excitement from this year's event continues with exclusive stories and interviews. The annual gathering, held in California each August since the first Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 1950, brings tens of thousands of enthusiasts to the Monterey Peninsula.

Automakers use the occasion to debut concepts, one-off machines, and the latest luxury and supercars.

Among the notable reveals, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann confirmed in an exclusive interview that the brand has no plans to introduce a manual gearbox in future models, despite a surprising number of stick-shifted debuts this year. Land Rover is developing the Defender Dakar, a street-legal version of its Dakar-winning race SUV, designed to compete with the Bronco Raptor.

Gordon Murray Special Vehicles unveiled the S1, a road-going tribute to the McLaren F1, while Lamborghini introduced the Revuelto SV with 1,065 horsepower, its most powerful production car ever.

8 million manual hypercar, and Porsche revealed a one-off Flachbau RS based on a 911 GT2 RS. Brabus showed the Bodo Cabriolet, a roofless version of its Aston Martin-based coupe, and Gunther Werks debuted the lightweight GXR-Evo restomod. Cadillac presented the V-One Concept, a potential customer track car, and Aston Martin launched the Valen, its most powerful front-engine V12 car at 838 horsepower.

RUF introduced the Ehra, a carbon-fiber widebody with 650 horsepower running on synthetic fuel, while Mercedes-AMG's upcoming SUV was spotted in heavy camo. McLaren unveiled the McL 6GT, its first manual car since the F1, and Cadillac showed a blacked-out Celestiq spec called Night Test.

Ferrari's Special Projects division revealed the one-off CZ26, and Czinger announced the roofless 21C Spyder.

Lanzante confirmed a high-downforce version of its 95-59, and Lucid launched the Gravity GT-S with 1,070 horsepower. Wiesmann surprised with the MF5 Tributo, and Mansory brought two custom Bugattis. Singer partnered with Louis Vuitton for two custom 911s featuring exterior wood trim.

Acura showed the Nexera Vision concept, Koenigsegg revealed the CCGT1 tribute, and Porsche brought back the manual in the 2027 911 Carrera S.

Other highlights included a bespoke Cadillac Escalade, an up-close look at the 986-horsepower Audi Nuvolari, the Marc Philipp Gemballa Marsien GT with 830 horsepower, Eccentrica's Diablo Roadster restomod, Bugatti's Destrier one-off, and the Hennessey Blackbird, a manual-transmission hypercar with 850 horsepower.