Today we attended the 17th edition of the The Quail – a Motorsports Gathering. It is considered by many to be the most exclusive event of the Monterey Car Week and we were not disappointed this year. Once you pass the gates at the Quail Lodge Resort & Golf Club you are face to face with hundreds of the rarest and most expensive cars in the world.
Boutique pavilions of the world’s leading car manufacturers, including Bugatti, Pagani and Rolls-Royce among others, are complemented with the latests and greatest in aviation, luxury and gourmet food and drinks. As soon as the gates open at 10am you can expect to see a queue for the caviar stand. Although there is no escaping the queue, a waiter will serve you champagne while waiting, how nice!
But we came to The Quail 2019 predominantly for the cars. There are cars of all sorts, types and flavours today. They share two common denominators; they are either extremely rare or very expensive. The first brand we visit is Pagani; the Pagani Huayra BC Roadster celebrates its world premiere today. This limited high performance version of the Pagani Huayra Roadster will set you back more than 3 million Euros but for that you get a beautiful and extremely fast machine handcrafted in Italy and powered by an AMG V12.
Pagani celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Zonda this year so behind the Huayra BC Roadster is a display of five Pagani Zondas including the only red Zonda Cinque ever made and the 2017 Zonda Barchetta.
The next world premiere was unveiled at Bugatti. Built to celebrate 110 years of Bugatti, and to pay hommage to the EB 110, Bugatti unveiled a new Chiron-based hypercar called the Bugatti Centodieci. This translates to ‘110’ from Italian. With a very different design and an additional 100 hp, it is the third limited edition Chiron-based model in just over a year. Some people are calling it ‘the Winkelmann-effect’ but I think it is positive to see more Bugatti models out of Molsheim and the Bugatti brand gaining more presence globally.
Next we went to Bugatti’s neighbour Bentley. The British brand are out in full force at the Quail this year. Bentley celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and that could be seen and felt. A full class of classic Bentleys, including various Blowers and other models of the 1920s and 30s, stand side-by-side with the Bentley EXP 100 GT concept car which celebrates its North American debut.
Across the lawn Lamborghini unveiled two of the latest works by designer Mitja Borkert; the limited edition Lamborghini Aventador Roadster SVJ 63 and the Lamborghini Huracan EVO GT Celebration. 36 of the limited edition Huracan’s will be available to pay tribute to the dual victories of 2018 and 2019 at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
On the other side of the fairway, at the 8th hole, Ferrari had taken over with an enormous display of historic and modern Ferraris dubbed ‘The Great Ferraris’. Among the many highlights is a 1956 Ferrari 290MM that was converted to a 250TR by the factory in 1959. Another remarkable story is the 2003 Ferrari Enzo replica that would fit right in at Concours de Lemons tomorrow.
I can go on and on and on about all the special classic cars and modern day supercars at The Quail this year but pictures say more than a 1,000 words so enjoy our photo gallery of The Quail 2019.
Our Monterey Car Week 2019 coverage continues tomorrow with a visit to Exotics on Broadway.