The auctions are where Car Week sets its prices, and RM Sotheby’s runs the marquee sale. Across multiple nights at the Monterey Conference Center, downtown fills with the kind of machinery that trades for the price of a house, or a street of them, and the results ripple through the collector market for the rest of the year.
The preview is the part worth your time even if you are not bidding. For a day or two before the gavel, the cars sit on display where anyone can walk the floor and stand next to a Ferrari that will cross the block for eight figures. It is the closest most people will get to cars this significant, and it is quieter than any lawn.
Bidding runs in the evenings, and the room has a theater to it, the paddles, the numbers climbing, the applause when a record falls. You can attend as a spectator, though a catalog or registration is often required for the sale floor itself.
Downtown parking is manageable earlier in the day and difficult once the evening sessions begin, so plan the preview for daylight hours. Bring layers, the room runs cold under the lights.
See where the auction nights land in the week on the Car Week hub, and check the events calendar for downtown Monterey timing.