Picking five from the hundreds of extraordinary machines shown during the 2026 festivities is necessarily subjective. But these five stood out for reasons ranging from outrageous performance to history, rarity and one very large auction price.
Monterey Car Week is one of those rare automotive gatherings where a $700,000 Lamborghini can seem almost ordinary. For seven days, the Monterey Peninsula fills with historic racers, priceless classics, new hypercars, concepts and enough auction money to finance a small country.
Bugatti Destrier
If Monterey is about excess, the Bugatti Destrier may be the ultimate example. The Destrier is a one-of-one creation from Bugatti’s Programme Solitaire, built around the carbon-fiber structure and quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W16 of the track-only Bolide.
It produces 1,578 horsepower, but its appeal isn’t just numerical. Bugatti replaced much of the Bolide’s aggressive race-car bodywork with an elegant new coachbuilt shape. The result is still unmistakably outrageous, but beautiful enough to make you forget there’s essentially a race car underneath.
Lamborghini Revuelto SV
The SV badge is back. Lamborghini used Monterey to reveal the Revuelto SV, a harder, faster version of its already ferocious V12 hybrid flagship.
The naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 works with three electric motors for a combined 1,050 horsepower. Lamborghini says it can reach 62 mph in 2.4 seconds and exceed 214 mph. There’s also substantially more downforce, more serious brakes and a new Pilota driving mode. Electrification clearly hasn’t domesticated Lamborghini.
1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe
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Sometimes the number tells the story: $42.905 million.
That’s what someone paid at Gooding Christie’s for this 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, making it the most expensive American car ever sold at public auction. Only six Daytona Coupes were built, specifically to take on Ferrari, and this particular example, chassis CSX2300, was once owned by Carroll Shelby himself. More than six decades later, it managed to beat almost everything at Monterey again, this time at the auction block.
1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster
The judges at the 75th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance picked the 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster as Best of Show, and it’s difficult to argue with them.
Only two of these short-wheelbase supercharged SSJs were built. This one was originally owned by Clark Gable; the other went to Gary Cooper. In a field packed with extraordinary machinery from around the world, an American automobile more than 90 years old took home Monterey’s biggest trophy.
Spyker C8 Preliator XXV
Spyker has disappeared and returned enough times to qualify for its own resurrection documentary. Its latest comeback produced one of Monterey’s more unexpected stars.
The C8 Preliator XXV combines a hand-formed aluminum body with a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 producing 789 horsepower. Better still, it sends that power through a six-speed manual transmission. Only 25 are planned. In an era of touchscreens, electric motors and computer-controlled everything, the gloriously mechanical Spyker may have been Monterey’s most refreshing new car.
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