I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott and this is Hot for.
Suit, all right, So this is a pretty special edition because you are at Monterey Car Week, Carmel, California, Pebble Beach. They're like so many places, but it's all the same thing.
Yeah, it's really confusing. Someone was asking me, so, where actually is it because people use a bunch of different words to describe the same thing. But I'm physically in uh, Monterey, California, which is basically Carmel, which is basically Pebble Beach.
And you know, when we were young reporters, the Detroit Car Show was the main event, and or maybe Paris and Geneva for you, but those car shows are no longer a draw like at all, right, and this has become the most important event, even for new cars.
It's really interesting this So I was trying to think, I think this is my fifteenth year coming to Pebble Beach, to the Concord delegons into this whole week which has
turned into a week of car things. And yeah, it's like I would say, since twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, the news cycle surrounding Pebble Beach is like a car show, and especially since the coronavirus pandemic, when you know, no one could travel, and sort of everyone realized, well, we don't have to adhere to any sort of automotive car calendar schedule. We can put things out whenever we want.
Pebble Beach and the events around it, Monterey Carweek has just become sort of the headlining car show for lack of a better word, for new cars, for concepts, for hypercars, for BMW's, for Portia's you know, if there's you know. And the funny thing is all of the car executives
come here. Now. They may not go to every automotive show that we I mean, I guess we kind of have the La Auto Show still, they don't even come to that, but they all want to come to Pebble Beach and to mono a car Week in August because it's a really nice place to be. It certainly beats sitting in the back of a you know, boardroom and
a convention hall under those fluorescent lights. But also the whole vibe has completely changed from just old cars, and there are lots of those, of course, and the auctions, but we've got a lot of new stuff too, So it's it's really fun, it's it's really intense. You kind of got to pick where you want to be and stick to it, all right, So let's.
Let's pick that apart a little bit and talk about the events. I want to hear about the auctions and the Concord elegance, but first the the new vehicles. You know, I remember when you were there last year. I think Lamborghini was showing the Lanzador and.
What uh maybe a Revelt overview as a reveal as well, or no, I that might have been.
I don't recall that there, but I know that you've driven that car now and I want to hear a little bit about that. And I remember there were also some normal car brands, like Infinity was showing, you know, a new vehicle last year totally.
Well, this year, Infinity is showing their new generation, next generation QX eighty, Lincoln is showing the new navigator. You know, Accurate is showing a very exciting concept electric vehicle. So you know, it's really interesting and it really is a mix. It's not just hypercars. Of course, those are what make the headlines, but you know Cadillacs here. I don't know about Ford. I'd have to check on that, but yeah, it really is a range and I like that, you know,
more and more, it's it doesn't have to be. Some of the events are expensive, but some of them are free, and if you're in the area at all, you're going to see a bunch of things for free. The access is actually pretty great.
Do you get to drive multiple different vehicles or you just you know, does Lamborghini give you the Revuelto and that's your ride for the week.
You know, I'm very grateful for this week because I do get to drive a number of things. I drove the Rabwelto up here from Los Angeles yesterday, which this is the hybrid Lamborghini. It's the starting price is over six hundred thousand dollars and my goodness, it's a wild, wild car. Let me tell you.
It's the advent of door successor, right, So it is their flagship V twelve just has an electric motor as well, and it costs a lot more than the eventa or did just to start.
Yes, and it's really interesting because Lamborghini here is going to be unveiling the Hurricane Successor which will also be a hybrid, and they're showing their hybrid ars, so this is basically Lamborghini saying, you know, we're going all in all hybrid. We are not doing EVS, They're sticking with the hybrid thing. And so I was really curious about
the Roguelto and it's really interesting. I have to say, even this morning, I drove it up to a breakfast sort of up at a ranch, and I love the fact that you can turn out that car and drive it out of a parking lot and not wake anybody up. I mean, because it's in electric mode. So the whole of course with Lamborghini is you know, they're so loud. The engines are just really really roaring and poppy and
crunchy and all of the things that we love. But it's kind of cool to have one that you can have this stealth mode so that you can pull out of a parking lot in the early morning, in the fog and no one's gonna hear, and no one's going to know. I actually really liked that. I thought that was very cool.
I feel like it's fair to expect.
Yeah, yeah, I have to say, this morning, on the way back from that, I filled it up for the fourth time already, so the fuel efficiency is not one of the high points on it. And I got the car yesterday and we're on our fourth tank, so fuel efficiency is not great in that car, but it certainly is really fun to drive. And then on the way back, I'll just be driving the Ferrari sub the Pro Song
that a seem discussed. Oh but here's why I'm excited about that, actually, because the Rivelto does not have very much luggage space, and so it really was a challenge to fit clothing and hats and boots and coats for a week into that car. Now I did pull it off, but the Pro Song will at least will have a little bit more room.
So you and Magnus and all your stuff, or did you take two cars?
Yeah? Well, actually I have to tell you Magnus is showing a car at the Quail and it's his nine point thirty Turbo and that car was shipped ahead of time, and we actually put his luggage in that car. So that's how we made it work because it was actually only my luggage on the way up and his luggage was in his car that we retrieved once we arrived. So it did help to have that car.
I want to get to that. I want to get to that in a second. But I know that you have already been pulled over by the police. I don't know any of the details of this story, so I'm excited to hear. But I know like airplanes and helicopters are involved. I saw Magnus sent me a picture, texted me a picture of like the police in the year.
All right, well, here's what happened. We you know, we leave la uh and I'm being careful and I'm going I'm I've made this drive, not fifteen years, because I've done other things, but you know, I've made the drive many times, and I have been pulled over before. And intellectually, I know the guys are out this week. They've got their quotas to make, They've got their budgets to make. The guys, the chippys are out and they're gonna be on the hunt. I know this, And I even say
to Magnus, I'm not going over ninety. I don't care who's passing me trying to get this. You know, it's an expensive, very flashy Lamborghini.
I said, you want to right everybody?
Yeah, completely They're all all around the car taking photos, and I said to them, I'm not going over ninety I said it, and you know I was. I was cruising it, you know, less than ninety, being passed considerably. And then I discover accidentally that under the hybrid drive mode on the Rivelto, it limits you to ninety three miles per hour. That's just in a certain drive mode.
You can switch out of that drive mode and obviously go quite a bit faster, but the drive mode I was in, I actually I found out, Oh I'm flooring it right now and I'm only going ninety three because it's electronically limiting me. So of course I switch out of that mode because who likes to be hamped? No one wants to have it nanny, Oh, you can't put a saddle on a Mustang. So I just switch out of that mode without you know, thinking about it. And
you know, the car feels great. And I have to say, this is one of those cars that the faster you go, the better it feels. And you know, we took the highway one up to up to Monterey is closed. It's it's under repair. So we're inland. We're taking the inland straight shot up. It's like three hundred and twenty miles. It's through one hundred mile a one hundred, one hundred degree temperatures. It's really hot. But it's just a flat,
big open highway. It's a divided highway, so you just have three lanes, big, flat, wide open, and the car's just feeling so great, and you know, we're talking about Alex Roy and how incredible it was that he made his cannonball run across the country, and you know, of course, it's like I'm driving and I'm like, wow, he really maintained the speed and he did it, and you know, it's in the back of my head, and you know, we stop for lunch and everything's great, and you know,
we get back in the car. We stop in Pasa Robles and which is about one hundred and twenty miles away from an Array, and we map it the rest of the way, and Magnus at one point goes, oh, you're making really good time. You've cut off, you know, two or three minutes from our estimated arrival time.
It's a challenge.
I'm not blaming that on him. That's not his fault. I was the one driving. I take full responsibility, but that was in the back of my head and the cars just feeling great. Before I know it, there's someone behind me with a loud siren and some lights going and you know, I didn't even see him. And I'm not going to say how fast.
I was going, just to paint a better picture. You're in like a flat black like a flying saucer. Essentially, is what this thing looks looks like?
Yes, it's it looks like and it's like a bat. It literally looks like a bat. It's it's like an event to door, all blacked out, but even lower and more aggressive. And I didn't even I literally didn't even see and he pulled, you know, license and registration and uh Magnus actually said how did you clock the speed? And the cop said, well, I visually estimated your speed and then I got you on the radar at something different and he had been going in on the opposite
direction and he came up behind me. He flipped around, he did a U turn, flipped around, and then got or oh he was in some charger challengers style. Yeah, so you know, I said, hey, it's a press car because I knew he was going to check the license and registration. He goes, I know, I know I could see from the plate, so he's well aware of what's going on. Nice enough guy, and he basically just said, uh, well,
I'm going to write you up for this speed. If it was a mile higher, the consequences would have been quite a bit worse. But you know, I said, thank you very much, officer. Of course, will be very careful. I'll let all my friends know that you and your fellow law enforcement officials are out today. And it's this sounds bad, but there was nothing reckless about it. You know, it's wide open road. I just didn't see him. And there's a speed.
Limit there, right, because I know in a lot of the west there is.
Yeah, the speed limit. The posted speed limit was seventy So yeah, so that happened. And he did say, oh, by the way, you know, we've got I think he said, two helicopters and three planes. There was three planes and or three helicopters and two planes up this week monitoring. So and you know, this was in King King City, near King City, so they're pretty well known for pulling people over.
I don't know why the law enforcement, though, wants to do full court press when they know that there's gonna be a lot of people and flashy cars that want to test them out. It's a fun week, you know, you'y.
And you know it was not reckless driving. It was I.
Totally understand you're on an open highway, three lanes, no track.
I was not changing lanes. I was just going bombing straight down the middle, So you know, I understandably, I of course I respect law enforcement, but I blame it on the car because that car is unbelievable and I was just cruising. I was actually genuinely surprised when I heard them behind me. It just feels so comfortable and easy. It just feels like you're cruising. And I've been, you know, on tracks before. There was no effort at all involved
in hitting that type of speed. So my point is, if you do find yourself lucky enough to buy this wonderful machine, you should probably add a line item in your budget for tickets because it's just too easy to drive really quickly.
So I have learned over the past few years that in America, you know, when you get a speeding ticket, you get you had the fine, but you also have the points, and if you can afford the fine, then it's the points that really annoy you because you're in danger of losing your license, which for you is kind of like losing your livelihood. So and for me too. So what I do is I always find local lawyers
who are sort of friends of the bar, right. And if you get a local lawyer, usually for depending where you are, two for six hundred dollars, they essentially get you a fine only no points. I think Matt Ferro on his podcast like it's sponsored by one of those things. So do you go and find a lawyer straight away?
I haven't been able to do that quite yet. Currently, knock on wood, I don't have any points on my California license, so I would like to keep it that way. And yes, I will be exploring that. I'm pretty it's just so funny because I am I'm not a fast driver necessarily. It's a job hazard and you know, I have to test the car to its abilities, you know, I have to test the car to its fullest extent. So this is in the line of duty.
Well, you've taken one for the team. We really appreciate it, Hannah. Thank you all right. So that's awesome and I can't wait to see the car. I really haven't besides on the internet, I haven't really seen it. So you'll you'll drive the Ferrari suv back, which also has a twelve cylinder motor. And yes, and it is also going to be pretty easy in terms of the acceleration and top speed, but you'll be.
More careful the rest of the way to Mono Ray. I think I drove sixty three to sixty five miles an hour, which is basically limp mode in a Lamborghini. I mean I was literally people were looking at me like are you okay? I mean I was under sixty five for sure. So on the way back I will be extremely slow, unfortunately. But Oh, what I was going to say is, you know, there is something to be said for driving these slow old cars like these rolls royces. I drive at home because you can't drive fast if
you want to. It's really true. There is something for everyone here, you know, if you like muscle cars, if you like corvettes. I don't know about the truck and the band culture. Yeah, I haven't seen too many trucks and vans yet, but you never know. There's just something for everyone. Oh, on the way up to and this
was really cool cool. We saw it looked like a model T. But we saw these two dudes on the highway going about fifty in what looked like some sort of model T car, obviously on their way up here, just enjoying life, not getting tickets. It looked great. So there really, yeah, there really is something for everyone. And I definitely think, you know, for the people who find their way here, you make friends so fast with like minded individuals and you kind of never know what you're
going to end up being able to drive. You know, if you're just kind of a friendly, chatty person. I mean, you would kill Matt up here because everyone wants to show their car, share their car, talk about their car.
It really is a really nice thing. And we were at a dinner last night, and you know, Sir Michael Kadori, who owns the Quail and Peninsula hotels in Hong Kong and around Asia, he gave this really nice toast about how, you know, in a moment where it seems that there are a lot of divisions in the world and especially in the US right now, it's nice to have a week where you feel that you can connect with all different types of people around the love of a car
and they're around the love of motorsport. And he did have a really nice point. You know, it's it's certainly a privileged place to be in, but in a way it is very equalizing because the cars really are a common bond.
I would say, forgive my ignorance. But the Quail is that a resort or what is that?
The Quail is a golf club also very close to Carmel, and it's it's also a car show. So on Friday, a lot of the new car debuts are happening at a car show called the Quail, which is you know, the Pebble Beach Car Show is Sunday, that's only old cars. That's just basically a beauty contest for cars. The Quail, which is another car show that's happening on Friday. That's where all the new car debuts happen, and that is on the grounds of the Quail hotel and lodge and golf course.
You know, it's weird the so that's cool and good to know, thank you. The sl is the Mercedes sports car. I think the gull wing was probably the first iteration of it, right, that's so famous. Everyone knows that one and now I just test drove the AMG sixty three that the new convertible version, but of SL stands for sport Leicht, so it's a small sports car. And so it's weird that my Bock. Why would there be a my Boch version of the sport Leiched Doesn't it seem strange?
It's a great question, Matt Miller. I think because there's money to be made. Yeah, you know, no, I mean I'm laughing because you're asking the obvious question, which is so true. And this my Boch SL is actually heavier than the AMG SL because it has more systems to make it a bit of a soft to ride, a more comfortable ride. But obviously Mercedes has brought back the my Box brand and it's been a little bit spotty, you know, remember like the my Box from the early
two thousands that like jay Z and Conehatan. So it's been a little bit spotty. But I think they might have hit their stride now, like remember the Virgil Ablow concepts that came out, and my Box is basically potential to have very wealthy people create very outrageous designs on their car. So this this SL, as you rightfully point out, I think it's all about these crazy design and aesthetics. Like this car in particular, it's got a black hood. It only comes with a white interior only, which has
this floral stitching on the seats. There are my Bock logos just printed everywhere on the car. It's just an opportunity for people to spend money on making something that feels rare and exclusive by they.
Speaking of heavy sports cars, I spent the last week in the Jaguar F Type R, which is a car I don't think they've changed the design for like a decade, right either. I don't even think they updated the interior, even though they've updated the interior of the F Pace. But I found after a while it is you know, it's a heavy convertible. It's more of a grand tour than a sports car. I really liked it. And it's
all about that old supercharged five liter motor. Yeah, they just don't need to change anything.
I remember really liking that car when it came out and thinking it was a lot of car for the money and really nice value and really a pretty car. And yeah, you're right, it's like what's going on a Jaguar. I mean, let's see something new land Rover this year at Pebble Beach. Actually land Rover is showing a new version of something that already exists, and then the Queen's Defenders,
but there's nothing from Jag and it. And to your point, I think the F type is a great car and it would be nice to see more.
Yeah, I think they could do more with it. But I just thought, I mean, I guess it's it's a better price point than in Aston Martin, so compared to like the dB twelve that we drove, I think it's just so much better value for money. But it does beg the question like what happened to that brand? What? What are they doing? Is it gonna shut down? Are they going to sell it?
You know, when I when I reach out, as I recently did going into this show and said, you know, what's going on with both brands, I just get an answer for for land Rover, for Jail for land JLR is basically now land Rover. So I don't I don't know. It's it's it's weird, you know, It's like when brands go away, like we were talking about Dodge the other week. You know, it's it's weird when a brand that has so much awareness behind it and a lot of history, history and heritage kind of goes dormant.
Now Dodge does have finally the new charger out the electric muscle car. Maybe you'll see that.
Actually is that actually out?
It's actually it's actually out. They've they've been showing it, they've been driving it. I think the straight pipes, I know, the straight pipes have have been behind the wheel. I love those Canadian you know YouTubers. And maybe you'll see it at the Quail on Friday. Is there anything else
at the Quail that you're excited to see? Or do we move on to the Queen's land Rover, m any other new car releases or I saw like Spike Ferriston posted a picture of some strange looking Porsche at the Lax, but I think it was like a Tuthill sort of massage version.
But well, speaking of Porsche, Porsche's gonna show there a nine to eleven fiftieth year anniversary version, and I don't really know any more details than this. We're recording before the car debut, so it's they're going to make nineteen hundred and seventy four of them, which of course is the fifty year anniversary, but it's some turbo fifty year anniversary version.
Ah well, isn't that the nine thirty. Isn't that why Magnus has the nine thirty there?
Yeah, yes, but that's that's unrelated to the debut. I mean it's fifty years. So yeah, there's a lot of like celebration around the nine thirty. But Porsche specifically is bringing out some new special version of their modern nine to eleven to celebrate that. Also, you know, Roof is going to be showing. I think they're calling it the Roof Rodeo, which is an off road sort of stylized version of their take on a Porsche car, and the interiors are sort of inspired by Ralph Laurenbrel, sort of
a Western look. So I'm actually excited to see what that looks like in real laughing, I haven't seen that.
I hear so many. By the way, I grew up reading about the Roof nine to eleven, and I thought, as a kid with the Road and Track magazine that it was rough. That was before I moved to Germany. But double RL, I will say, as just in aside, Well, they nail the look, but they totally flunk the quality, so they have the look of like American traditional workwear with the Japanese do right. The Japanese like the real
McCoy and Toys, McCoy's and all those guys. They do a great job of it, and Double RL gets the look right, but the quality is just horrendous for the price.
Are you speaking specifically about their leather jackets, because I know you're quite leather.
Jackets, the jeans, the shirts, everything. You know, it's a whole kind of vibe that the Japanese have been doing well since basically, the Japanese bought all the machines that we used to use to make traditional clothing after World War Two, and then you know, now we use newer, modern manufacturing techniques that make much cheaper, more disposable clothing, and the Japanese like these few brands, they like buzz
ricks and they do it right. And so the Double RL is kind of trying to bite that style in a sense, but they don't use the right stuff to do it with, you know, And that's just a little pet peeve of mine. You mentioned the Queen's land Rovers, and I think you mean the actual queen, like her actual cars, right, This.
Is kind of cool. So land Rover is bringing over ten Defenders and land Rovers that were owned and operated by the Queen herself at like Balmorle and Sandringham. And I know, I'm not even sure if I'm saying those rights since I'm not British, but at her different country estates around the country. Yeah, let's not forget she trained, as I believe, a mechanic during the war, so she kind of knows her stuff. So yeah, it's very Some
of them are on loan from the royal family. Some were actually owned by private individuals that they're bringing over. But I'm actually excited to see those just because they're cool.
What are the other events? You know, there's the Quail on Friday, Pebble Beach on Sunday. I've heard that there's actually like racing or at least.
Like I'm getting my schedule okay, sorry, okay.
So there's like to what they have like autocross or do they have is sears point there? I mean, like do you actually have a track?
Yeah? So Laguna Seka, that Laguna Seca track is just over the hill. It's like a fifteen minute drive from where I'm sitting right now, and there's racing all week. My good friend Eli Cogan's out there right now supporting a race team. But it's all vintage racing. Super cool. The big day at the races is Saturday, but yeah, people are out. Some people come to Monterey Car Week and basically just spind it at the track and get really sunburned and dehydrated, and it's just it's beinach car
racing all day, every day. It's super cool. I may find my way out there on Saturday. But yeah, so there's there's car racing. Let's see. Tonight, I'm going to go have a look at we talked about that eccentrica Diablo B twelve Resto lot. I'm gonna go, oh yeah that. Yeah, so that'll be I'll report back how how good or bad that looks. I won't be driving it yet.
I am going to be interviewing Dave Majors, the CEO of Mekam Auctions, and I do have to I'm a surprised that Mikam is there because I thought, if this is only about the Hoidy Tody, like the Southebys of the world.
So that's a common misconception. I think it more and more like, just like I said, you know, there's something for everyone.
I want them to give me the low down on like the auction industry right now, because I know it was in such flux after Hagardy came in, and I don't know what if it's settled or what's the story.
It will be really interesting to see. I was just trying to do some sort of pre research. I was reading Simon Kitson's K five hundred analysis newsletter that Stephen Wakefield writes, and they basically were saying that this year, it looks like the average price of the car being sold at auction is up a little bit, but roughly the same. Let me just pull up this data because I actually wrote it down because it's really good.
One second, take your time.
Last year, the auctions had slightly lackluster figures, and we can possibly expect the same because it's been sort of slower this year to date. But we did see record breaking from is in Florida at the Miami auctions. But they did say this year, it's interesting, there are about
six hundred and fifty cars that will be sold. The average value of a car being sold this year is nine hundred and sixteen thousand dollars per car, which is up from eight hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars last year.
But this is only Monterey Car Week, or this is at auction, this.
Is the Monterey Car Week. This is just this week, just this week. The average value per car going on sale this week nine hundred and sixteen thousand dollars. Seventeen percent of those cars are ferraris, so you know, you have a million dollar ferraris that really raises the average. But over half of those offerings are at no reserve, which is good. And another interesting thing that he pointed out is that the average age of cars being sold
this year is nineteen seventy one. Now last year was nineteen six four, So that I think is really interesting because it means that we're this is a generational shift. We're getting closer and closer to like the coon tashes and the cool stuff from the late nineties and early two thousands. They also said there are far fewer pre war cars offered for sale. That makes sense because things are slowly aging up.
There aren't as many like people have bought them and are holding.
Right exactly exactly, and there are fifty three cars offered this year that are valued at three million dollars or more. Last year it was forty five cars, So we can kind of say that there are going to be more big ticket sales this year. Of course, the big unknown that everyone's pointing out is this is an election year and how does that affect sales? How does that affect how people want to spend their money. That's what we don't know yet.
What you mean like because people would otherwise be donating to a super pack.
Maybe or you know, depending on what happens with interest rates, it happens with the stock market. People thinking about where they want to put their money. I think is the is the general like do I want to put it in sort of a hard asset like a car, or do I want to put it somewhere else cool.
So you've got the new Car show at the Quail, You've got the Old car show, the Concord de Elegans. You've got auctions everywhere, like not just.
Everywhere multiple days. Bottoms is having their auction preview today. I'm going to try to hit that later. We will have an auction recap on the Monday after so we'll have our full analysis of what actually happened and what it all means.
And there's racing at Laguna Seca and I imagine rallies all.
The time, rallys all the time. And there's also a big Porscha show before the quail. There's a big show for classic Porschas at offite locations. Sometimes I can't go to that because I've got to get to the toil for the new car stuff. But yeah, there's like it shows just just for Italian cars. It's it's a lot.
Well, it sounds like fun. Next year, I'm definitely in.
I think it has to be done for the podcast sake.
Yes, I totally agree. It'll be a special edition. Yeah cool. Well, I guess I would ask you normally like are you driving anything cool next week? But I know that you're driving home in a very.
Slowly I'm going to be obeying all.
Don't let it ruin you, Hannah. I mean, you've got to open that Ferrari up. It would be a crime to drive it slowly.
And I have to do a service for our readers.
Yes, I will tell you I once got pulled over. I was driving two of all things, a polo match at mass Showman in a white Bentley Mulson with purple leather, and I was dressed like an app luke clown because I was going to a polo match and I was doing like maybe one twenty and a sixty five. And the officer at first was pretty angry, but I said, listen, it's not my car. This car is worth more than my house. I'm just a lowly journalist testing this out.
And I realized I'm dressed like an absolute tool, but it's kind of like sarcastic because I'm going to this polo match. And he got he was on my wavelength. He was like, I get it. So then he just wrote media a ticket for no seatbelt. What Yeah, pretty cool? Pretty cool?
And wait where was this?
Where this was? It must have been on the Taconic because I was headed up to showmaking.
Yeah that's I mean, you were very lucky. I don't know if they do that out in California. These guys are really gunning, They're they are not playing around.
I mean, I've been in other instances, in other instances, I've been unlucky. So this was I think the karma, the payback. Yeah you know, yeah cool. Well I'll see you back here, same time. Same place next week. I'm Matt Miller, I'm
Hannah Elliott, and this is Bloomberg