This week we've seen a large number of new cars revealed during Monterey Car Week. A lot of people have already given their opinions on each car, but I wanted to wait at least a day or two for each car to really settle in my mind.
First, I want to talk about the one-off Sonderwunsch Porsche Flachbau RS, a heavily modified 991 GT2 RS built to resemble the Porsche 935. Overall I like the design, but the headlights are very off-putting. I think a much better alternative would be pop-down headlights like the ones on the Eccentrica V12, since pop-ups are unfortunately banned here in Europe. Americans are safe from that, as long as it can drive and has at least two wheels, you're good.
Next up, the GMA S1. As most of you know, the founder and CEO of GMA, Gordon Murray, designed the legendary McLaren F1. The spirit of the F1 is reflected in every one of their cars. While the car looks stunning, I wish GMA would venture out and try a different design language. A friend and colleague in this space, cars.with.will, made the observation that the F1's design essentially is GMA's branding. Just like how Richard Mille sells essentially one shape, one watch, GMA sells variations of the same design. Which is honestly a pretty smart observation, and it's definitely the case given that they are a smaller boutique car manufacturer.
Moving on to something I've been looking forward to since it was confirmed, the Lamborghini Revuelto SV. Anyone who is remotely familiar with me knows of my love for the Lamborghini SV lineup, in particular the Aventador SV, the predecessor of the Revuelto SV. The Revuelto therefore had big shoes to fill, and it was honestly a huge disappointment. Not because the car looks particularly bad, but because of how lazy the design is. When comparing the standard Aventador with it’s SV counterpart, the differences are significant. Meanwhile the Revuelto SV looks like a 1060 Industries body kit. The only apparent changes are a slightly more aggressive front bumper and a fixed rear spoiler. Obviously the SV looks better than the stock Revuelto, but this could have passed for a Revuelto S. Massive disappointment in my opinion, especially considering that Lamborghini confirmed we won't be getting a Revuelto SVJ. Many people won't want to hear this, but the Mansory Carbonado X, based on the Revuelto, is the closest we'll get to a real Revuelto SV or SVJ.
Seeing a Brabus Bodo Cabriolet was the icing on the cake. I feel very strongly about the Bodo, because what got me back into cars in 2023 was essentially tuning, modifying cars and Brabus has always been my favourite. Most cars today look generic, and it is very rare that a car is released which truly stands out. The Bodo is one of the only cars that managed to do that. I think it captures the essence of what makes German cars appealing, effortless aggression. For example, British car brands have perfected quiet luxury. When you see a Rolls-Royce cruising by, it is simply luxurious without having to try hard. What Germans do perfectly is making cars that look calm yet very aggressive. The best part is that Brabus took the Aston Martin Vanquish as its foundation and turned it into the Bodo.
The Chevrolet V-One went largely unnoticed among the reveals, and there's a reason for that. To me it's just another generic Le Mans car. I'm already not a fan of motorsport, I find it boring and a huge waste of resources. The V-One is simply not up my alley.
Seeing Aston Martin reveal the Valen was the most unexpected moment of Monterey Car Week, aside from the Chassis 00 Luce selling for $40 million haha. What the Valen does is solidify Aston Martin's place at the top of the leaderboard in terms of car manufacturing. The Valen is completely different from the rest of their lineup, it isn't a quiet luxury car, nor does it fall into the category of calm aggression. The Valen is very aggressive and it draws its aggressive design elements from American muscle cars. You could call it the rebirth of the 1950 V8 Vantage, which was a muscle car by every metric. Aston Martin is simply widening the gap between itself and any second-place contender for best car manufacturer of recent years.
Moving on to the McLaren McL 6GT, the modern redesign of McLaren's first road-going car, the M6GT. While I really like the design, I hope McLaren doesn't make every following car look like this. We know McLaren, much like GMA, is extremely averse to changing its design language, so seeing something different is refreshing, but I hope the classic aggressive McLarens don't now cease to exist. Which might sound hypocritical in context of what I said about GMA, but I support brands venturing out without destroying what works well. So McLaren should make cars like the McL 6GT, but keep the 750S design, GMA should venture out, but keep making F1 redesigns.
We got a glimpse of this one slightly earlier, but Koenigsegg officially released a 1/77 redesign of the CCGT, called the CCGT1. As I keep finding myself repeating, the design is fine, but can we get something other than redesigns? Maybe an original design? A lot of these reveals were essentially "Hey, remember X car from 10 to 20 years ago? Well, we've slightly redone it for ten times the price." I won't dwell on this further, but Monterey also gave us another slightly different RUF 911 and another Guntherwerks, both very underwhelming and at best quite forgettable.
From the makers of the Luce, Ferrari presented another 1/1 called the CZ26, which looks like what the Luce would look like if it tried harder to resemble a Ferrari. There is essentially nothing to say. It's an unremarkable, forgettable design that looks like a concept from 20 years ago attempting to predict what cars would look like 30 years into the future.
Last but not least, Spyker is back after 12 long years. They revealed the modern version of the C8 Preliator, called the C8 Preliator XXV, in perhaps the worst spec ever. But the car itself is almost beside the point, the C8 Preliator is cool, but now that Spyker is alive again, there's a chance we get a larger production run of the D12 SUV, one of the pioneers of the luxury performance SUV segment. That's what I'm actually looking forward to.