The Most Amazing New Cars At Monterey Car Week

Monterey Car Week in California is an annual celebration of car culture - from the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, showcasing the world’s most unique and expensive cars, to the Concours d’LeMons, which basically does the exact opposite. It’s also become a place where car manufacturers unveil their latest high-end models to a captive (and often eager-to-buy) audience. Here are ten of the most spectacular.

Lamborghini Lanzador

The Lanzador will become Lamborghini’s first production electric car, although it’s still at least five years away. In fairness, it’ll probably take that long for some people to get used to the idea of an electric Lambo. Early details point to the Lanzador being ‘proper’, though. Power will “exceed one megawatt” (about 1350hp), it has four-wheel steering, and a “feel like a pilot” driving position. Nothing to worry about here.

Bentley Bentayga EWB Mulliner

‘Mulliner’ is Bentley shorthand for ‘top of the range’, so what you’re looking at here is the most expensive production Bentayga with an extended wheelbase. Mulliners get a double diamond pattern for the grille and interior stitching, 22-inch wheels, and carpets thicker than the average contestant on Just Tattoo Of Us. Just the one engine: a 4.0 twin-turbo V8.

Lotus Eletre

A US debut in California for another super-SUV from England, albeit one with a very different approach to the Bentley. The Eletre is already available to order from around £90,000, for which buyers will get “the most advanced Lotus ever made”. The headline model, the Eletre R, has 905hp and can crack 62mph in less than three seconds.

Pininfarina B95

Pininfarina is best known for being the design house behind iconic Ferraris like the 275 GTB and 550 Maranello. Less so for its work on the Peugeot 1007. These days it’s a manufacturer of very niche, very expensive stuff like the B95 here, a roofless, scissor-doored electric hypercar with 1900hp. Only ten will be made and each will probably cost about £5,000,000.

Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail

The La Rose Noire is one of four unique Droptails that Rolls-Royce will build over the coming months, commissioned by specific customers. The intricacy of the detailing is remarkable. The dashboard is made of 1603 hand-finished wood pieces that took two years to put together. A one-off Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch is integrated too, removable at the touch of a button so that it can be worn.

Zenvo Aurora

There are two types of Zenvo Aurora, called ‘Agil’ and ‘Tur’. Agil is the chilled model, with a mere 1450hp from a V12 petrol engine and a 200hp electric motor. It maxes out at 227mph. Pah. The Tur model gets an extra couple of electric motors for four-wheel drive and an 1850hp peak, good for a 2.3-second 0-62mph time and a 280mph maximum. That one’s mainly for the track, we’re told. No idea how much it’ll cost, but only 50 of each are being made.

Ford Mustang GTD

Wait, what? First an electric Mustang and now a diesel one? Thankfully, no – ‘GTD’ refers to a race class. Yep, this is a street-legal race car, basically. Designed furtively and after-hours by a small team at Ford – or so Ford would have us believe – the target was to make the quickest road-going Mustang ever. To that end it has a load of carbon fibre body parts, a fancy suspension setup that’s ground-breaking (not literally), and a 5.0-litre V8 with 800hp-plus

Ferrari Tailor Made 812 Competizione

It would be unfair to say that the Tailor Made 812 Competizione looks like a Need For Speed game artist took a Sharpie to a Ferrari, but… Anyway, it does look pretty cool, right? Tailor Made is Ferrari’s in-house customisation team, and apparently the black markings draw inspiration from the lines that the designer of the 812 originally used. The one-off car will be auctioned for charity at the Ferrari Gala in New York.

Mercedes-Benz AMG-GT

The second-generation AMG-GT has landed, with Mercedes promising more space and comfort than the last one, but an equally rambunctious driving experience. This time around it comes with the option of two rear seats, and while there’s only one engine – a 4.0-litre V8 with two turbos – there are two power outputs. The lesser ‘55’ has 476hp and the ‘63’ has 585hp, that one good for 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds. Nice.

Aston Martin DB12 Volante

A convertible version of the DB12, the Volante has the same twin-turbo V8 with 671hp. The added weight compared to the coupe makes it a little slower to 62mph, but Aston Martin reckons it’s every bit as dynamic to drive – not often the case when a car has its structural integrity compromised by chopping off the roof. It goes on sale towards the end of 2023.