Somewhere between the champagne lawns and the seven-figure auctions, Car Week keeps a place for the cars nobody else would show. Concours d’LeMons calls itself a celebration of the oddball, the mundane and the truly awful, and it lands on the Seaside City Hall lawn on Wednesday, August 12.
The awards say everything. Categories like Rueful Britannia and Soul-Sucking Japanese Appliances hand trophies to the rusted, the half-finished, and the gloriously misguided. Owners lean into it, staging their cars with fake dents and worse paint, and judges can be bribed with baked goods, which is part of the written rules.
It is free, it is walkable, and it is the funniest morning of the week. After days of roped-off perfection, a Yugo with a story and a Gremlin that runs feel like a relief. Bring a folding chair and a sense of humor.
Seaside parking is easier than Carmel or Pebble Beach, which is another reason locals fold this into the week. The show runs the morning into early afternoon, close enough to the water that you can make a day of the coast afterward.
For where it sits in the ten days, see the Car Week hub, and check the events calendar for the Seaside schedule.