Postcard from Monterey
All the hot new metal from the famous Concours d’Elegance
IT’S BILLED AS CALIFORNIA’S equivalent of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. However, with more cars parked up to be admired over a glass of local Chardonnay than burning Castrol R on a hill climb, Monterey Car Week has quickly become the show of choice for manufacturers wishing to present their very expensive, very limitededition showcases. Such as these.
1 Ruf Bergmeister
One wag christened Monterey Car Week ‘911 Restomod Week’ due to the number of such cars being revealed there. While all were inspiring, brave and unique, the grandfather of the Porsche backdating scene, Alois Ruf, really turned heads with his latest creation. An homage to Porsche’s own 1960s hill-climbers, it’s based on a 993, has a carbon body over a steel chassis and a 450bhp 3.6-litre turbocharged motor driving the rear wheels through a six-speed manual ’box.
2 Tuthill Porsche 911K
850kg wet, that’s ‘the’ number. That’s the headline that caused the champagne to be spat across the Californian lawn. With good reason, because even for an oldie, a 911 that weighs less than an S1 Elise is a mighty achievement.
Carbonfibre and titanium are responsible for the weight loss, with the steel chassis clothed in a body fabricated entirely from the former, and the latter used for many of the mechanical components, including the suspension and roll-cage. Beneath the body is a 3.1-litre, short-stroke flat-six with a fourvalve head and the ability to rev to 11,000rpm.
On second thoughts, maybe that’s ‘the’ number.
3 Bugatti W16 Mistral
This is it then, the final W16-engined Bugatti. Costing £4.2m (`38 crore) the Mistral is a 1577bhp roadster that shares its engine with the Chiron Super Sport 300+ and is built on a modified carbonfibre monocoque to suit its open-roof design and more rounded silhouette, which has a hint of the one-off La Voiture Noire about it.
This first open-top Chiron will bring to an end an 18-year run for the quad-turbo, 16-cylinder behemoth of an engine that debuted in the Veyron. Its replacement is expected to feature a hybrid element before the first all-electric Bugatti, developed with Rimac, arrives.
4 Koenigsegg CC850
Is it really 20 years since Christian von Koenigsegg unleashed his wild imagination and desire to achieve the impossible in the automotive world? It certainly is, hence this 1385kg, 1366bhp (depending on fuel) CC850 special. Limited to 50 units initially, with another 20 added when they sold out, and priced at around £2m (`18 crore) each, it features the company’s own twin-turbo 5-litre flat-plane-crank V8 and ‘Light Speed Transmission’ nine-speed multiclutch ’box.
5 Aston Martin DBR22 concept
No, this is not last year’s Aston Martin V12 Speedster, this is the DBR22, an altogether different, 705bhp (up 15bhp) V12-engined Speedster. Honest. Inspired by the 1959 Le Mans-winning DBR1, the DBR22 is said to provide a tantalising hint of what is to come from Aston’s new range of GT and supercars due next year, with a design language led by Miles Nurnberger, who has returned to Gaydon following his dalliance with Dacia.
6 Singer 930 Turbo Study convertible
Remember the Singer 930 Turbo Study revealed at Goodwood this summer? This is the convertible version that pays homage to the even rarer 930 Turbo Cabriolet.
With 510bhp and the option of either rearor four-wheel drive, it’s based on the 964, drips with the kind of details that Singer is renowned for and is designed, like its coupe sibling, as a grand tourer rather than being more track-focused like the firm’s DLS.
7 Bentley Batur
For those who missed out on the Bacalar, Bentley’s limited-run open-top Continental GT given a very exclusive makeover by the company’s Mulliner division, there is now the Batur, its coupe brother.
As per the Bacalar, it’s based on a Continental GT Speed, but now features the most powerful W12 engine Bentley has produced, rated at 730bhp. It also has a more contemporary appearance, as design director Andreas Mindt has used the opportunity to showcase what a Bentley EV could look like.
Eighteen examples will be produced, priced at £1.6m (`14 crore), and they’re already sold out. ⌧