Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion
Mustang GT3
August 17, 2024
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Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is the beating heart of Car Week at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca—historic racing brought to life on one of America’s great circuits. In 2024, it ran Wednesday through Saturday, August 14–17, with more than 400 entries across 13 race groups plus a Ragtime Racers class that turns the clock back a century. I worked the paddock and hillside in loops, letting the schedule dictate my rhythm: grids forming, warmup laps off the Corkscrew, cars returning hot and happy to open garages. It’s a museum in motion, and the camera has to move at the same pace.
I carved out a section for Ford’s Mustang GT3 because it’s the new shape of a familiar idea: a front-engine V8 GT car built to global regs, executed with Ford Performance and Multimatic. Up close, the technical choices read cleanly—Coyote-based 5.4-liter naturally aspirated V8 developed with M-Sport, a rear-mounted 6-speed Xtrac transaxle, Multimatic DSSV dampers, and a body shaped to GT3 targets with easily serviceable panels. It still looks and feels like a Mustang; it’s just honed for long-run rhythm and pit-lane pragmatism. I worked nose, diffuser, and front fenders for the aero story, then stepped wide to place it in the Laguna Seca light. The gallery leans into those choices—hardware, packaging, and stance—because they explain why this car belongs in the same conversation as the classics it was parked beside.
The Reunion is a living archive: period-correct race cars driven the way they were meant to be, amid a friendly festival environment. The paddock is the classroom—drivers and mechanics swapping stories while spectators walk within arm’s reach. That openness is by design; Laguna Seca frames the history lesson with a layout that rewards both the lens and the casual stroll: pit lane vistas, hillside overlooks, the Corkscrew as punctuation. It’s why I build a day around this event every year—cars in context, stories on the move, and a crowd that understands why the details matter.
