For vintage car aficionados, Monterey Car Week and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance represent the most important collector car gatherings of the year. Enthusiasts come from all over the world to enjoy an entire week of car-related events including parties, auctions, vintage racing, niche marque shows, and speaker panels hosted by top industry experts. This year almost $400 million worth of classic cars changed hands during auctions held by Gooding & Co, RM Sotheby’s, Bonhams, Mecum, and Broad Arrow. Monterey Car Week is the ultimate barometer of the economic state of the collector car market. Since 1950, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance has set the bar for automotive excellence. Held on Sunday, the Concours represents the crescendo of Monterey Car Week.
A Historic Triumph: The Bugatti Type 59
A 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, presented by Swiss-based Fritz Burkard, stole the spotlight with its raw authenticity and unparalleled racing pedigree. 2024’s show will go down in automotive history as a landmark event because for the first time in 74 years, an original unrestored car clinched the highly coveted title of Best of Show. Unlike the past seventy-three winners of Pebble Beach, this was not a highly restored perfect vehicle. Rather, it was a competition car with highly original patina—wearing scratches and dings from 90 years of use. The judge’s decision was a bold statement that challenged Pebble Beach’s traditional notions of restoration and perfection and instead celebrated the car's original character.
Beyond Best of Show: A Symphony of Automotive Art
While the Best of Show winner is always a headline grabber, part of the beauty of Pebble Beach lies in the countless other special automobiles showcased on the 18th hole. Each class represents a unique chapter in automotive history, and the winning vehicles are a testament to the passion and dedication of their owners and restoration teams. We had several friends of Hollow Brook who exhibited stunning cars on the lawn at Pebble this year.
Special mention goes to Mr. Sam Lehrman of Palm Beach Florida for earning and deserving a Best in Class award and winning the highly coveted J.B. & Dorothy Nethercutt Most Elegant Closed Car award with his spectacular 1934 Packard 1108 Twelve Dietrich Sport Sedan. At the 2021 Turtle Invitational, Mr. Lehrman won Best of Show Pre-War with his 1935 Auburn 851 S/C Speedster. Click here to watch our exclusive 2021 interview with Sam Lehrman from the Turtle Invitational.
Our friends Paul and Linda Gould showed their one-off 1960 Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster in the Wedge-Shaped Concept Cars & Prototypes Early class. This car was commissioned by Chrysler as a collaboration with coachbuilder Ghia to explore the impact of automotive design with airplane-like fins. This car was the first vehicle ever to be designed with the aid of wind tunnel technologies.
In the Prewar Rolls-Royce class, a 1938 Phantom III James Young Coupe emerged victorious. Its immaculate coachwork and impeccable mechanical condition were a testament to the enduring appeal of this iconic marque. In the Ferrari Early category, a stunning 1954 Ferrari 375 MM Ghia Coupe captured the hearts of enthusiasts with its elegant lines and powerful performance. Whether it is the timeless elegance of a Rolls-Royce, the raw power of a Ferrari, or the avant-garde design of a concept car, every vehicle tells an important story.
Auction Results: The Market is Changing but Still Strong
The auction results this year were strong with almost $400 million in sales. This number, while high, is not as high as 2023’s results. In 2022, auction sales at Pebble Beach hit a record $469 million. At the high end of the market, several transactions occurred this year that reached well over $10 million. RM Sotheby’s sold a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Spider for $17 million. Gooding and Co. sold a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider for $14 million.
Interestingly, this car has a unique backstory in that it was recently stolen and since recovered. There were arguably too many cars for sale this year in Monterey. Yet despite a saturated market, sell-through rates remained firm with RM Sotheby’s selling 87% of their lots. Yet despite some impressive results across auction houses, certain market sectors are clearly facing headwinds.
Our friend Max Girardo at Girardo and Co. noted “There was clearly a more marked shift than we’d become used to across the collector-car auctions in Monterey, generally from older, more traditional (and especially more expensive) to younger and more fashionable ‘of-note’ cars. This just so happened to be exacerbated by sheer volume and the clear disparity between sellers’ expectations and buyers’ realism. Saying that, seven out of the top-10 most expensive cars sold all week were still built before 1970.”
Market expert Simon Kidston noted in Bloomberg that the results were not great. He stated, “With auction houses trying to flood the market all at the same time and all at the same place, no matter how strong a market, it can’t absorb that kind of saturation. There were too many cars, too many similar cars, all offered at the same time during a busy weekend of lunches, dinners, launches, concours, racing and private hospitality. With so many different things going on, your head would have been spinning after 24 hours.”
The market is seeing demographic shifts as younger buyers are looking towards newer exotic cars. Expert and friend Steve Serio noted that “the ‘rich’ demographic buyers are younger and less interested in the old guard connoisseur cars.” Evidence of this trend is the record-high sale at RM Sotheby’s of a 1995 Ferrari F50 that sold for a stunning $5.5 million. Most interesting is this example had been repainted multiple times and had mileage on the high side. Younger collectors want usable cars that they can drive and enjoy. It appears many younger buyers prefer V12 cars with three pedals.
As a wealth manager with many active clients in the collector car industry, we see key parallels between recent collector car market activity at Pebble and economic changes and trends that are unfolding in the post-pandemic world. We are still early in understanding the long-term impacts of higher interest rates. Geopolitical uncertainty is beginning to weigh on market risk. The last ten years were characterized by ultra-low interest rates, cheap energy, benign geopolitical tensions, and globalization going gangbusters.
From a market and economic perspective, we believe the next ten years are poised to be different from the period following the Global Financial Crisis. Economic and market risks are rising. Global growth is slowing. Equity markets are at an all-time high and stocks are not cheap. Fiscal deficits are at all-time high levels. Higher interest rates are weighing on a leveraged global economy. These (and many more) long-cycle economic changes are impacting financial market participants and consumer behavior within the collector car market.
Patience, discipline, process, and caution in today’s market is as true in equities and bonds as it is in collector cars. Perhaps Steve Serio summed it up best when he said, “The most important takeaway from the sophisticated and highly intelligent long-term collector is simple—they didn’t buy or sell anything this weekend. They realize there will be opportunities for them [in future transactions] as they are patient.”
Pebble Beach 2024 was a reminder that the automotive world and market is a dynamic and ever-evolving landscape. It is a marketplace where passion, craftsmanship, and innovation converge. Automobiles have emerged as a legitimate asset class and those cars on the lawn at Pebble Beach are extraordinary works of art. For Pebble Beach 2025, we will be entering our own 1933 Packard Twelve Dietrich Victoria—originally owned by Alfred Vanderbilt Jr. We hope to report to you about the ever-evolving market live from the Monterey Peninsula next August!
Related Links:
- Hollow Brook's Ferrariside Chat with Chasing Classic Cars' Wayne Carini
Disclaimer: Information provided is for educational purposes only. HBWM does not provide tax, legal, compliance, or accounting advice. In considering this material, you should discuss your individual circumstances with professionals in those areas before making any decisions. Further, HBWM makes no warranties with regard to such information, or a result obtained by its use, and disclaims any liability arising out of your use of, or any tax position taken in reliance on, such information.