The auctions of Monterey Car Week 2026 sold $747.9 million worth of cars between 13 and 15 August, the highest total in the history of the California gathering. The figure, from the tally kept by the classic-car insurer Hagerty across five auction houses, is 73 per cent higher than last year's $432.8 million. It beats the previous Monterey record, about $471 million in 2022, by more than $270 million.
Eleven cars sold for eight-figure sums, more than in the previous five Monterey weeks combined, according to Motorious. New auction records fell for the most expensive American car, the most expensive British car, and the most expensive new car, electric car and charity car. Seven of the ten most expensive cars sold in Monterey this year wore a prancing horse.
Few expected a week on this scale. Hagerty's own forecast before the sales had topped out at $500 million. What arrived instead was a market in which historic racing cars and Ferraris only a few years old changed hands in the same rooms, and at the same level of price.
A record by a distance
Monterey Car Week is held every August on California's Monterey Peninsula and ends with the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on the Sunday. Around the concours run several days of auctions, held this year by RM Sotheby's, Gooding Christie's, Mecum, Broad Arrow and Bonhams.
The signs of a big week were there before the first car crossed the block. Motorious reports that the combined low estimates of the five sales passed $600 million before bidding began, a first for Monterey. The number of cars estimated at more than $1 million rose by 24 per cent to 180, and the number estimated at more than $5 million rose by 71 per cent to 29. In the end, the final total beat Hagerty's top forecast by almost half as much again.
The scale did not come at the cost of discipline. Of 1,124 cars offered, 844 sold, a sell-through rate of 75 per cent, against 76 per cent in 2025. Hagerty put the average sale at $866,107, up 64 per cent on last year's $529,034.
Early totals from the houses, which may yet be revised, show where the money went. RM Sotheby's led with about $370 million over three days. Gooding Christie's, the official auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours, reported more than $159 million, its highest-grossing sale since it was founded. Mecum passed $100 million at its sale on the Del Monte Golf Course, Broad Arrow made about $58 million at Quail Lodge, and Bonhams about $12 million at Laguna Seca.
The Cobra that stays at home
The most expensive car of the week was a 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, chassis CSX2300, which sold at Gooding Christie's for $42,905,000. It is now the most expensive American car ever sold at auction and, according to duPont Registry, the most valuable car the auction house has ever sold.
The Daytona Coupe was Carroll Shelby's answer to Ferrari in international GT racing. Six were built in 1964 and 1965 to a design by Peter Brock, who clothed the open Cobra's chassis in a long, tapering coupé body for speed on the straights. The cars won Shelby the GT class of the 1965 FIA World Sportscar Championship.
This car's own story adds to its value. Motorious reports that it finished third overall at the 1965 Daytona Continental and third at the Nürburgring 1,000 km, and that Shelby himself owned it from 1975 to 1998. The last Daytona Coupe to come up for sale, in 2009, made $7.25 million. According to Motorious, auctioneer David Gooding confirmed from the rostrum that this one will remain in the United States.
The other American car in the top ten was just as rare. A 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, one of five built and offered publicly for the first time in 17 years, sold at RM Sotheby's for $18,705,000, against a high estimate of $13 million. It is the most expensive Corvette ever sold at auction. The last Grand Sport to cross an auction block, in 2009, failed to sell at $4.9 million.
A British record and a brand-new Ferrari
RM Sotheby's set the week's other national record. A 1996 McLaren F1 GTR, chassis 10R, sold for $34,655,000, the most expensive British car ever sold at auction. Motorious describes it as one of two short-tail GTR prototypes, painted in a one-off pop-art livery and consigned by Nick Mason, the Pink Floyd drummer and car collector. The F1 GTR won the Le Mans 24 Hours outright on its first appearance there, in 1995.
The second-highest price of the week was paid for a car that had only just been built. Chassis 0 of the Ferrari Luce, the first example of Ferrari's first series-production electric car, sold at RM Sotheby's for $40 million. It was offered without reserve as a charity lot, with the proceeds going to the Ferrari Foundation's educational work, and its pre-sale estimate was a little over $1.1 million. The result makes it the most expensive new car, electric car and charity car ever sold at auction, a sale BYGEARS covers in a separate story.
Seven Ferraris in the top ten
If one marque defined the week, it was Ferrari. The Luce aside, six more Ferraris made the top ten, and together they read like a short history of Maranello's fastest cars.
The oldest was a 1963 Ferrari 250 P, a mid-engined sports prototype, which made $18,705,000 at Gooding Christie's, the same price as the Corvette Grand Sport to the dollar. Motorious notes that it finished third at Le Mans in 1963 and last changed hands at a Monterey sale in 1988, for around $3 million.
The more striking results came from far newer cars. A 2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3, a limited-series V12 model only three years old, sold at RM Sotheby's for $17,825,000, against an estimate of $10 million to $12 million. Two Ferrari F50s, the V12 supercar of the mid-1990s of which 349 were built, made $14,575,000 at Mecum and $12,105,000 at RM Sotheby's. The Mecum car, one of 31 finished in Giallo Modena yellow, set a model record. Motorious points out that the F50 record stood at $5.5 million as recently as early 2025.
A 2003 Ferrari Enzo with 595 miles on the clock made $12,100,000 at Mecum, and a 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO made $11,555,000 at RM Sotheby's, a record for the model. The F40, the car that followed the 288 GTO, set its own mark when a 1991 example sold for $8,365,000.
Records were set further down the order too. A Duesenberg Model JN convertible coupé built for Clark Gable made $9,080,000, a record for the model, on the same weekend that another Duesenberg first owned by Gable won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours. There were model records as well for the Maserati Tipo 61 "Birdcage" racing car, at $4,240,000, and for the Toyota Supra, at $582,500.
Where the market held back
Not every part of the market shared in the boom. Prewar cars had a harder week. Motorious reports that on the Thursday, only one of the first 17 prewar cars offered was hammered above its low estimate. A 1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C SS Teardrop Coupe stalled at a high bid of $6 million against a reduced estimate and went unsold. A 1962 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, which sold for $14.3 million in 2015, failed to sell at $11.75 million. At Bonhams, 91 per cent of lots were hammered below their low estimates.
The money concentrated on cars with a racing record, extreme rarity or a modern Ferrari badge. Many older, more formal cars struggled to reach their estimates, and history alone did not guarantee a result. Motorious notes that a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, wrecked in period and without its original engine, sold for $8,090,000, below its value in Hagerty's price guide for a car in fair condition.
Even a week of this size left the all-time auction record untouched. That still belongs to the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, sold by RM Sotheby's in May 2022 for €135 million at a private auction by invitation.
What it means for Gulf collectors
None of the results reported from Monterey named a buyer from the Gulf. But the shape of the week matters to collectors in the region, many of whom favour exactly the cars that led it: modern Ferraris and limited-series supercars.
Three lessons stand out. The first is that a recent limited-series Ferrari can now sell at the level of a historic racing car: the three-year-old Daytona SP3 made almost as much as the 1963 250 P. The second is that rarity and documented history are rewarded more than ever, while a car with a gap in its story is priced accordingly. The third is that being first carries its own premium, as the Luce showed when it sold for around 36 times its estimate.
For owners of comparable cars, the week offers a new set of reference prices. For buyers, it raises the cost of entry to the top of the market.
After the record
The houses' final figures are still to come, and the early totals may change. The next fixed point is the 76th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, scheduled for 15 August 2027, around which next year's Monterey auctions will gather again. Among its announced themes is the 40th anniversary of the Ferrari F40, a model that has just set a new auction record.
Whether August 2026 proves to be a peak or a new level, it has given the collector-car world a fresh benchmark. It is the number that next year's sales will be measured against: $747.9 million.
Sources: Motorious, duPont Registry, Motor1