Among the most exclusive events of the Monterey car week is without a doubt The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering. Hosted by the Quail Lodge, the unique concours d'elegance has a relatively small capacity and the tickets do not come cheap. Those who do manage to get their hands on the hard-to-come-by tickets for the 10th anniversary edition were once again treated to a fantastic array of sports and racing cars from almost every era. In addition to the familiar classes, there were special classes this year for among others the Aston Martin Centennial, 50 Years of Lamborghini and Pete Brock Designs. An integral part of 'The Quail' is the superb food and drinks served all around the show field, which this year was slightly larger. One of our favourite events of the week, we spent a great day in the Carmel Valley. The end result is this detailed report, illustrated by a 220-shot gallery.
While we continue our coverage from the Monterey car week, new cars due in Frankfurt do also keep popping up. Today, Volvo revealed the Concept Coupe, which is the spiritual successor to the P1800. In addition to the striking two-door body, the Volvo show car also boasts the company's new 'Scalable Product Architecture' and a 400 bhp hybrid drivetrain, which includes a four-cylinder engine equipped with a turbocharger and a supercharger. Whether the Concept Coupe will evolve into a production car is still a mystery but we certainly expect some design cues, the chassis and drivetrain to be used for future models.

Subaru Tecnica International (STI) have worked their magic on the BRZ for the first time to create the BRZ tS. Although the tweaked machine does not (yet) feature a turbocharged version of the flat four engine and will only be available in Japan, it nevertheless looks like a very capable car, especially considering how good the base model is. With the engine off limits, the STI engineers instead focused on the suspension, brakes and aerodynamics to make the Subaru BRZ tS handle even better. Production is limited to just 500 examples while a GT Package with additional goodies is available on just 250 of those.
Although it may look a little inconspicuous, the Toyota Yaris Hybrid-R Concept may very well be among the most interesting cars due in Frankfurt in a fortnight. It boasts a hybrid system similar to that of the TS030 Le Mans racer complete with the supercapacitor storage system and more importantly also uses the all-new Global Race Engine (GRE). This four turbocharged four cylinder engine is built to the latest specifications and will be used in a variety cars, most likely including the TS030's all-new replacement. Another 'R Concept' on show in Germany will be this Peugeot 308 R. Powered by a 270 hp four cylinder engine, it could offer a first glimpse of a hot version of Peugeot's large hatchback. Also previewing an upcoming production model will be the Infiniti Q30 Concept of which the first image has been released this week.
One of the highlights of last week's Monterey Motorsports Reunion was the surprise debut of the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. It is expected to make its competition debut early next year at the inaugural USCR event; the Daytona 24 Hours.

During the car week on the Monterey Peninsula, some of the absolute finest classic racing cars gather on the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the annual Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Spread over sixteen groups (eight on Saturday and eight on Sunday), the event attracts an entry of over 550 cars. This year these ranged from early Grand Prix racers like the formidable Delage 15 S8, through 1960s GT machines like the Ferrari 250 GTO and the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport to IMSA GTP and GTO cars from the likes of Mazda, Aston Martin and Porsche. The 2013 Reunion's main theme was 60 years of the Corvette, marked with a massive display in the paddock. As a special surprise, Corvette Racing wheeled out a camouflaged C7.R, which should make its competition debut early next year. The event also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Porsche 911 with a special 911 race and a demonstration by the Porsche Museum of some of the most extreme competition derivatives of the 911.
Our photographers were at the track for the better part of three days and captured each of the sixteen groups at least twice. The result is a 280-shot gallery, which is complemented by a 200-shot gallery of the Pre-Reunion held a week earlier at Laguna Seca. The two galleries serve to illustrate a concise report.
As always, you can expect much more detailed articles on the individual cars that starred at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in the coming weeks and months.

Various supercar manufacturers used the Monterey car week to launch their latest products. Among the most striking was the Galpin GTR1 that broke cover at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering. Based on the Ford GT, it features an all new body that can be ordered in aluminium or carbon fibre, and a twin turbo V8 engine that is good for a staggering 1,024 bhp. Also making its debut at 'The Quail' was Spyker's B6 Venator Spyder. As the name suggests, this is a drop-top version of the Coupe shown in Geneva a few months ago. The struggling Dutch manufacturer hopes to start production of the 'entry level' model late next year. One of the most talked about cars on the Pebble Beach Concept Car Lawn was the Laraki Epitome. Loosely based on a sixth generation Corvette, the spectacular coupe is powered by a twin turbo V8. On standard fuel it is capable of 1,200 bhp and on a 110 octane racing brew, it should pump out an incredible 1,750 bhp. Priced at a hefty $2 million, Laraki plans to build nine examples of the Epitome.
Cadillac meanwhile revealed the Elmiraj Concept, which is "a grand coupe expressing the pure enjoyment of driving and exploring new dimensions for Cadillac's ongoing expansion." The sizeable machine is powered by a twin-turbo, 500 bhp V8 derived from the CTS-V's V6.
The latest cars to join the Frankfurt Motor Show release list are the BMW Concept X5 eDrive and the Volkswagen Golf R. The former offers a preview of a potential plug-in hybrid version of the X5, while the range-topping Golf R will be the first production Golf to breach the 300 hp mark.
Hot on the heels of rivals Honda and Lexus, Nissan also offered a first glimpse of its 2014 SuperGT challenger. The GT-R Nismo GT500 is built to the latest regulations shared with the German DTM championship, which would enable it to race outside of Japan as well.

As always, the Monterey car week culminated on Sunday with the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. The prestigious event attracted close to 250 of the worlds best vehicles ranging from early horseless carriages to the latest supercars. Among the featured marques this year were Lincoln, Simplex and Vanvooren, while the centenary of Aston Martin and the 50th anniversaries of Lamborghini and the Porsche 911 were also celebrated. The day ended with the 'Best of Show' picked from the various class winners by the honorary judges. They picked a beautiful Packard, which was only the second American winner during the last two decades. The event actually started a few days earlier with the traditional Tour d'Elegance on some of the country's most scenic roads. The route this year also included a lap around the nearby Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
For the tenth consecutive year, our photographers were at Pebble Beach to capture the Concours d'Elegance and Tour d'Elegance in their entirety. The result of their combined efforts is this detailed report and two galleries with a total of 430 shots.
In the coming days we will continue our coverage of the Monterey week with further reports from the events and record-breaking auctions. These will be followed by individual features on many of the great cars that were shown and/or raced in Monterey last week.
Meanwhile, Ferrari announced the 458 Speciale, which is due to be released in Frankfurt next month. Packed with the latest technologies, it features an uprated version of the naturally aspirated 4.5 litre V8, which now produces over 600 hp.

At this weekend's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, BMW will show the Concept M4 Coupe. As the name suggests, this show car offers a sneak preview of the M4 Coupe, which will replace the two-door M3. The styling is very aggressive with large scoops and a prominent bulge on the engine cover. What exactly is fitted underneath is still to be confirmed as the Concept M4 is a design exercise only.
Rivals Honda and Lexus today both revealed the first details and pictures of their all-new GT500 machines for the 2014 SuperGT championship. Ahead of the launch of the production car, Honda will race the NSX, which was shaken down today in concept form. The hybrid racer features a mid-mounted two-litre engine and front mounted electric motors.
The NSX will be joined on the grid by the Lexus LF-CC. The 'civilised' version of this high performance coupe will be launched in Frankfurt next month.

As always, this year's Monterey car week unofficially kicked off with the Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Although the two-day event did not attract the full grids expected for the upcoming Reunion, there were plenty of interesting machines out on track. Among them were a very rare and all conquering Delage 15 S8, which is more akin to a Swiss watch than a racing car, and one of just two Aston Martin-engined Lola T70s built. These and many more star in our 200-shot gallery from the Pre-Reunion. On display in the paddock were also plenty of interesting road and racing cars, including one of the five Shelby Cobra FIA Roadster of which we added 12-shots to our existing gallery.
Next on the schedule was the Concours on the Avenue in Carmel by the Sea. One of the absolute stars was a Ford Mk IV; a sister car to the 1967 Le Mans winner. This particular chassis, J-9, was built in 1967 but not completed because Ford decided to withdraw from endurance racing. It was later converted to a Can-Am car but never raced. In more recent years it has been re-built as a Mk IV and will later this year star in the dedicated GT40 race at the Goodwood Revival. We used this rare opportunity to capture every angle of this striking machine, as can be seen in our enlarged gallery.
Two of the very first Ferrari 250 GTs are set to star at Pebble Beach this weekend. Gooding & Co. will offer this 250 Europa GT Pinin Berlinetta at their two-day auction. The car on offer was originally raced by Alfonso de Portago and scored the very first of many GT victories for Ferrari. Recently repainted in its original white colours, this beautiful machine has a pre-sale estimate of $6.5 - $7.5 million. After being withdrawn at the very last minute in 2012 this 250 Europa GT Scaglietti Berlinetta is due to shine in Sunday's Concours d'Elegance. Styled by Pinin Farina and built as a show car by Scaglietti, it is one of the prototypes for the legendary 'Tour de France' range.

Competing against the likes of Maserati, Aston Martin and Ferrari, Brian Lister's sports cars of the late 1950s more than held their own in races on both sides of the Atlantic. The most famous of these Listers is the 'Knobbly' built in 1958. The nickname that stuck refers to the humps in the low body to clear major components like the wheels and engine. Today they are still very much sought after and many have been campaigned in historic events for many years. At the upcoming auctions in Monterey two very interesting and important chassis will be offered. Bonhams have consigned a true time-warp example in this Knobbly Chevrolet for their Qauil Lodge sale. Not raced in period, it was only briefly exercised by its single owner during the 1960s. It has never been restored and as such is the most original Lister in existence. Yesterday we have taken a very close look at the Chevrolet-engined Knobbly, resulting in a 18-shot gallery of this particular chassis, which is estimated to sell for $1.5 - $2.5 million.
At RM Auctions' sale in downtown Monterey, the very first Lister Knobbly will cross the block. Although built for Ecurie Ecosse, it was delivered new to Briggs Cunningham in the United States. His team campaigned the car for several seasons with considerable success, with Walt Hansgen grabbing the SCCA Nationals title in 1958. Like many of the Listers, this chassis' racing career never really ended as it was subsequently campaigned in historic events in Britain for many years. Raced by the likes of Archie-Scott Brown in period, chassis EE 101 is estimate to sell for a hefty $2.5 - $3 million.
Gooding & Co. will offer one of our absolute favourite cars; one of just four Voisin C25 Aerodynes that have survived. One of the sister cars won Pebble Beach two years ago and our 50-shot gallery also includes shots of a third chassis, which is part of a great Swiss collection. The example on offer has been recently restored and should change hands for $2 - $3 million.

In their quest for outright success at Le Mans, Mazda introduced the all-new 787 at the start of the 1990 season. The sophisticated machine featured a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis and the most powerful rotary engine yet. Unfortunately, the car's late arrival meant that it could not be properly developed in time and did not do too well at Le Mans. However, it did evolve into the Mazda 787B, which to this day remains the only Japanese car to have won Le Mans outright. Today, one of the two examples is owned by Mazda's North American arm and has been prepared for historic racing. As can be seen in our 23-shot gallery, it competed in the 2011 and 2012 Monterey Motorsports Reunion and is scheduled to race again this week at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca alongside three other rotary-engined Mazdas.
Mazda's latest racing efforts are focused on the 6 Skyactiv-D, which is fielded in Grand-Am's GX class. It combines a production-based diesel engine with a bespoke chassis and carbon-fibre body. At the car's most recent outing, the 6 Skyactiv-D became the first diesel car to win at Indy. The two Mazda 6s will race this weekend at Road America.
At the upcoming IAA in Frankfurt, Infiniti will unveil the Q30 Concept. The show car offers the first glimpse at the upcoming Q30, which is the first production car Sebastian Vettel, Infiniti's Director of Performance, will influence from its inception.
Also on display at the biennial German show will be the Kia B-Segment Concept, which "hints at a possible future B-segment contender".

Hot on the heels of the i3 announced last week, BMW have now released the first details and images of the i8. This two-door sports car model of the new 'i' range will make its official debut in Frankfurt and enter production in 2014. The efficient machine combines a mid-mounted three cylinder engine driving the rear wheels with an electric motor attached to the front wheels. The combined performance of the hybrid drivetrain is 357 bhp, which is enough to launch the 1,490 kg machine to 60 mph in under 4.5 seconds. In addition to the detailed specifications, BMW also released a set of photos of the i8 in camouflage.
Also due to use a three cylinder engine is the all-new Caterham Seven, which will be officially revealed later in the year. The turbocharged straight 3 used is supplied by Suzuki and displaces just 660 cc. It is mated to a Suzuki five-speed gearbox. When further details of the new Seven will be released, we will update our article accordingly.
Perhaps the most extreme three-cylinder engined machine launched this year is the Ford FF1. This single-seater is based on the current Formula Ford car and features a 202 bhp version of the 1-litre EcoBoost engine. Despite its competition roots, the FF1 is fully road legal. Earlier this year Nick Tandy lapped the Nurburgring in a staggering 7min 22sec, which is the 11th fastest time for a road legal car and faster than supercars like the Lamborghini Aventador. We have captured every detail of this remarkable little machine in this 16-shot gallery.

While preparing for this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed we came across several great cars that we saw at previous editions. Certainly among the most striking was this Marcos Mantis XP. Although it looks more like something out of a science fiction movie, the Mantis XP was actually built for the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans. It originally featured a Repco V8 F1 engine but when converted for street use a similar, more docile Buick 215 V8 was fitted. In this guise the mid-engined Marcos was actually used for school runs and grocery shopping in the Los Angeles area for many years. More recently, it was completely restored and briefly returned to Europe, which allowed us to capture this 19-shot gallery at Goodwood in 2010.
One of last year's stars was the actual Lagonda M45R driven to an outright victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in 1935. Ironically the company itself was in shambles at around the shame time but fortunately that did not affect the privately run Fox & Nicholl team that fielded these machines. A spectacularly original survivor, the Le Mans-winning Lagonda M45R is today on permant display in the fantastic Louwman Collection Museum.
Spectators at this weekend's Mid Ohio Indy Car race were treated to a rare demonstration of one of the Acura NSX prototypes. The fully functional version of the concept car shown back in 2012 was driven at full pelt around the Mid Ohio track and looked very, very quick. As stated before, the hybrid sports car features a mid-mounted V6 and two electric motors, mounted inside the front wheels. Developed in Ohio, the NSX will make its global debut in 2015.

Although the Chevrolet Corvette has always had great competition potential, it has only rarely been raced by the factory during the last sixty years. General Motors instead opted to help willing privateers, usually through the backdoor. This has resulted in some fantastic machinery, like the Greenwood IMSA Corvette raced during the mid-1970s. This endurance racer combined a modified chassis with an ultra-wide body and a 700+ bhp big block V8. Twelve chassis were built and among the most famous were the 'Spirit of Sebring' and 'Spirit of Le Mans' liveried examples. The latter was raced at Le Mans in 1976 and was that year's fastest car down the Mulssane straight with a 220 mph top speed. This particular car will be offered by RM Auctions in their Monterey sale and judging from the $900,000 - $1.4 million estimate, it looks set to become one of the most expensive Corvettes ever sold at auction. Our detailed article is illustrated by a 22-shot gallery of three different examples including the Spirit of Le Mans car, which currently features a 1,000 bhp engine.
One of today's best known independent Corvette builders is Callaway. They announced the development of a GT3-version of the all-new C7 Corvette. This will be available from 2014 onwards and is eligible for national and international championships around the world.
At next month's IAA in Frankfurt, Lamborghini will debut this Gallardo LP570-4 Squadra Corse. Stripped from all unnecessary luxuries and fitted with a 570 hp engine, it is effectively a road-going version of the Super Trofeo racing car. At 1,340 kg, the Squadra Corse is a full 70 kg lighter than the production Gallardo.