Porsche Monterey Classic
Monterey Car Week

Porsche Monterey Classic returned on Monday, August 11, 2025, transforming the dealership—and the closed stretch of Del Monte/Tioga out front—into an evening street festival. From 4–8 p.m., the campus opened across the showroom, service bays, and lot—and extended into the barricaded roadway for a free kickoff that drew thousands of enthusiasts. Programming echoed recent years, featuring live music, food trucks, vendor activations, and a diverse mix of classics and current models. With the street sealed and crowds flowing between curbside displays and the service aisle, the atmosphere read less like a dealership event and more like a neighborhood block party for Porsche culture—an easy on-ramp to Monterey Car Week.

I opened on a 550 Spyder—clean nose, period dash, and an era-correct helmet lashed to the passenger seat—then watched as guests signed a wrapped Taycan, their names and hometowns crawling across the panels. Inside the service bays, the curation ran tight: the Whittington brothers’ 935 at the entrance; a black Gunther Werks Speedster; a tidy 912 resto-mod; a Singer Vehicle Design 911; and two Carrera GTs, one black and one yellow, drawing a constant halo of phones. Outside again: a silver 550 Spyder replica, a black 356 Speedster, and the aquamarine Emory Speedster that surfaced last year—familiar shape, new light. I closed on my own car—my 992.1 Turbo S, Soul to Squeeze—parked streetside for the show. After one last loop through the crowd, the soundtrack shifted from conversation to flat-sixes as people began to leave; the evening settled into that Monday cadence that marks the start of the week.

The Porsche Monterey Classic is the social on-ramp to the week: a free, dealership-hosted Monday that invites the broader community to see rare machinery up close. The formula remains consistent—heritage cars alongside current models, race history adjacent to daily drivers—while the service bays become display halls for one night, and the street closure extends the show beyond the curb. It’s more open house than concours, which is why it works: owners talk shop, families wander, and media drops in before mid-week intensity sets in. The details change from year to year; the welcoming cadence remains constant.