I’d be willing to argue that the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is the best event in the magnificent Monterey Car Week.
Just imagine the kind of legendary cars you grew up hearing about, watching race, and lusting over being in your face and on the track in their natural habitat. Everything at this event could have been in a museum – and I’m sure some are most of the year – but you can see them storming around one of the world’s most technical race tracks at full tilt, which is where they really belong. None of the cars in attendance were clones or replicas, so when you see something famous or rare you know it’s the real deal.
I took over 900 photos of this event alone but I’ve narrowed down to about 50 photos that I’ll share here (those being the ones that suck less) split into two posts: art in the paddock and art on the track. I say that because all of these cars are rolling art being used for their intended purposes, just how nature intended.

According to the sign next to it, this is a 1975 Alfa Romeo 33TT12, featuring a 3-liter flat twelve engine with 500 horsepower at 11,000 RPM. This was one of two factory cars fielded that year and one of them won the World Championship of Sports Prototypes in 1975. Names such as Ickx, Percarolo, Bell, and Andretti drove them.

So. Many. GT350s! Each of these and many more went on track.

Gorgeous F-250.

I’m just going to make an educated guess here and say this is extremely valuable…

As they say, boxy is beautiful.

Alain Prost’s McLaren! I’ve never seen one of his cars before.

The caretaker said he raced this in three events. I only remember him saying Suzuka…

Sir Jackie Stewart’s machine. Apparently he was at the track to visit this car a few hours before I took this.

Have you ever suddenly felt extremely poor?

One Dino, Two Dino…. uhm, three Dino.

The last Koenigsegg One:1 built. It was very impressive to look at but not as impressive as its spec sheet alone.

Oh yes… this’ll do.

Ford had this on display next to the new Ford GT (the same one I saw in Chicago). Far more eyes were drawn to the new one, which is fine, but seeing an authentic GT-40 that raced at Le Mans in the garage at a race track is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For a moment I was in the sixties.

Beautiful Cobra. This one even had Mr. Shelby’s signature.

One of a few Porsche prototypes in attendance.

A Bocar! This is something I’ve definitely not seen before.

This is one of James Hunt’s cars… JAMES. HUNT.

He must have made that Cosworth sing…

Jaguar D-Type is surprised to be here.

I actually don’t know what this is other than some kind of Lancia. There were no badges on the back and I was too tired to think of looking inside. I’ll bet at least half of the hoons reading this know…

More Alfa goodness. Both of these serve as fine examples of cars that could be in museums.

Indecent exposure.

The only time a LaFerrari will ever be less expensive than the car next to it.

How dare I almost call this a GT-40 clone… it’s a 1967 Gulf Mirage M1, driven to victory at the Spa Francorchamps 1000K by Jackie Ickx. To be fair to me, it’s built on the same chassis as the GT-40 and uses the same engine.

Pretty neat “Competition” M5.

I don’t think BMW will ever be able to top the M1.

First Mazda 787 I’ve ever seen. I got to hear it briefly on track as well and I almost broke down in tears.

My Personal Best in Show:

Look at this beast. Race officials didn’t allow it on track because they were scared it would embarrass all of its competition… or maybe they saw that Top Gear film.

Thanks for looking. Next up will be some on track action with mostly different cars.

[Images © 2015 Hooniverse/Greg Kachadurian]