# Velocity International Classic Car Motorsports and Show in Monterey had a bigger presence of EV's this year...



## unpluggedperformance (Jan 23, 2019)

Although this event is held in October, the presence of luxury, exotic, and classic car restoration/racing firms are genuinely first-rate! From the long list of prominent California wineries proudly hosting tastings in glass climate-controlled luxury viewing suites to the invitational exhibition racing by premier entities like McLaren International Formula One Team, it is one event motorsports, and classic car fans cannot miss. This year, more than 300 cars entered the racing categories on the notorious Laguna Seca raceway, and 500 more cars were displayed throughout the venue. Everything from Bugatti to Honda, Lamborghini to Lancia, WRC Rally cars to LeMans historical champions... And all the respective principals and drivers gathered for this 2-day festivities.

As a lover of all cars throughout history, I thoroughly enjoyed the event this year.

One of the enormous spectacles was McLaren F1’s historic race cars, 6 of them in all took to the track in a grand exhibition piloted by drivers who are capable of taking them all to 10/10ths!
Mika Hakkinen is a two-time World Champion pushing every horse out of the classic mighty F1 engines, and Mario Andretti is still sharp at speed in his 80s! To chase them down were young Indycar heroes like Pato O’ward and the multi-talented stunt driving benchmark, Tanner Foust. And they got a treat too, as some of the cars they were driving this weekend were rarities of history, like Ayrton Senna’s McLaren Honda MP4/5B that once won 15 of 16 races in the F1 season!

But to stay on the EV topic here, the reason I posted was that this year was very different, unlike in the past when this was a strictly gasoline-alley sort of event. Almost every EV maker from Tesla, Toyota, Nissan, Rivian, VW, and BMW showcased cars on the lawn and as shuttles in the venue. And Lucid Air was chosen as the circuit Pace Car during the entire weekend, showing the gearheads that the EVs can be pretty darn quick leading a pack of racing cars from all eras. Tesla brought out their Nurburgring-Attack Model S as well as product concepts for motorsports prepped Model 3.

I’ll let the photos to the rest of the talking.
Enjoy if you like the past and present of performance cars all in one place.

*____*

Moto Miwa
Specialist and Web PR at Unplugged Performance.


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