Monterey Car Week remains the single biggest week on the collector car calendar, and the first major consignment news for 2026 has already landed: RM Sotheby's will offer the Sam and Emily Mann Collection at its Monterey sale, headlined by a Duesenberg once owned by Clark Gable and including past Pebble Beach Best of Show winners. A collection of that calibre anchoring the week's flagship sale is a strong early signal — houses don't lead with their best material unless they expect the room to be there for it.
The structural picture around the week has shifted too. Bonhams|Cars has extended its Laguna Seca partnership into a new multi-year agreement, continuing a 15-year relationship and moving its sale to the heart of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion — the same pattern of long-term institutional commitment CCI noted around Bonhams' renewed Goodwood partnership earlier this year.
Last year's Monterey week is the benchmark 2026 needs to clear. The five houses — Bonhams, Broad Arrow, Gooding Christie's, Mecum and RM Sotheby's — combined for $432.8 million across 1,078 cars in 2025, the strongest result since the 2022 record. Strip out one outlier — a charity Ferrari Daytona SP3 RM Sotheby's sold commission-free for $26 million — and the comparable figure was $397.2 million, still four percent ahead of the year before. The vintage Ferrari market told the more interesting story underneath the headline total: sell-through on pre-modern Ferraris had fallen from an 84% average between 2021 and 2023 to just 51% the following year, before recovering to 64% in 2025 — a genuine, if partial, repricing rather than a full recovery.
That's the context CCI's own 2026 season has been building toward all year. The Bachman Collection at Kissimmee, the California Spider's four eight-figure results across Paris, Amelia Island, Monaco and Indianapolis, and the Porsche Carrera GT's run from a $2.2 million benchmark to a $6.7 million record have all pointed toward genuine market strength rather than isolated results. Monterey is where that thesis gets tested against the deepest, broadest field of the year. If the momentum holds, expect a result that meaningfully exceeds 2025's $432.8 million; if it cools, the gap between this year's H1 numbers and what Monterey actually delivers will be the story.
Full details on RM Sotheby's, Gooding Christie's, Broad Arrow, Bonhams and Mecum's individual Monterey sales — dates, venues and consignments as they're confirmed — are tracked in The Calendar.
Monterey delivered on that test. Five houses combined for $755.6 million, comfortably clearing 2025's $432.8 million benchmark and setting a new all-time record for the week. Full lot-by-lot results are on CCI's Auction Results desk, and Market Intelligence's full verdict covers what changed beneath the headline number — new American- and British-car records, continued prewar strength, and a more selective market than the first half's uniform enthusiasm.
