Home » Come Back Tomorrow To See The Autopian’s 2026 Monterey Car Week Mascot

Come Back Tomorrow To See The Autopian’s 2026 Monterey Car Week Mascot

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I love going to Car Week with The Autopian. It’s this wild, crazy adventure, and we rarely know what’s going to happen or how our silly antics will be taken. A week of checking out the greatest cars in the world with the best of friends. It’s truly incredible, and if we can capture 10% of the fun we have on the site and on social media, I’d consider it a success.

In the first year, we created a bit of a tradition by bringing some mascot cars. We’re now in our fifth year visiting as a site, and we have our biggest surprise yet.

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Are you ready for it?

A Tradition Is Born

If you don’t remember, the first year David, Jason and Beau went up with three incredibly rare supercars. The second year, we went to Car Week in Beau’s incredible Coach Door Lincoln Continental. The third year, we brought the amusing Pontiac Aztek. And then last year … the Murano CrossCabriolet. We got so much attention with the CrossCab, and built so much lore, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to come up with something that would be as big. How do you top that?

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Well, we’ve got an idea (as members already know). And it involves bringing two cars, actually. You can see a little teaser of one on Instagram (or here):

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Autopian (@theautopian)

I think many of you might be able to guess what it is. If you’re going to Car Week, we’ll also have a tentative schedule for where we’ll be this week coming tomorrow. We’ll also have a little game we’re playing for those who are around the Monterey Peninsula next week.

How To Participate In Car Week With #CarWeak

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Photo: Author

Even if you’re not going to any of the events, one of the best parts of Car Week is just looking at random cars on the street that make you weak in the knees. Cars like this brilliant orange Lexus LFA.

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Photo: Author

Or, perhaps, this Japanese-import AMG. Maybe it’s too obvious, but I assume everyone will be taking photos of Coda EVS.

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Photo: Author

We all have our own weird car tastes. Just embrace them!

Here’s how to play along:

  1. Follow The Autopian on Instagram.
  2. Take a photo of a cool car.
  3. Post it and add the hashtag #carweak and (Double points if you find either of the vehicles we’re bringing and tag MazdaUSA as well).
  4. Let us know if you’re an Autopian member, and we’ll send you a sticker. If you’re not a member, we’ll send you a discount for membership.

Also, if you find us at Pebble Beach, we’ll have stickers in the cars to hand out until we run out.

Top photo: Jason Torchinsky

 

 

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JerryLH3
Member
JerryLH3
48 minutes ago

Autozam AZ-1 with the Charge/Renown livery used on many Mazda prototypes of the late 1980s and early 1990s, most famously the Le Mans winning 787B in 1991.

Urban Runabout
Member
Urban Runabout
42 minutes ago
Reply to  JerryLH3

This is the Autozam:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyBEBhFSgM8/?img_index=2

But I don’t think that’s exactly the car in question – The car in the video has a different wing and quad headlamps.

I believe it’s an Autozam in a Liberty Walk F40 kit with Renown livery:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fautozam-az-1-v0-g0r3bt60b5cc1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D69e4f33590f72be577a2001e8a25c5f5769932ca

Last edited 22 minutes ago by Urban Runabout
Max Power
Member
Max Power
37 minutes ago
Reply to  JerryLH3

This feels less like a guess, and more like “I read the email that told us all this information.”

Also, the actual 787B was just on fire.

JerryLH3
Member
JerryLH3
33 minutes ago
Reply to  Max Power

I’m being 100% honest here, I missed the email as I just got back from vacation. And thankfully the car that caught fire at the Pre-Historics was a privately owned 767B and not the Le Mans winning 787B that Mazda will have there this weekend. I got this purely because I am The Autopian’s resident rotary nut. I’ve got about every scale version possible of the 787B and others.

Max Power
Member
Max Power
25 minutes ago
Reply to  JerryLH3

That’s what I get for headline skimming.

Urban Runabout
Member
Urban Runabout
32 minutes ago
Reply to  Max Power

Bringing the burnt-out hulk of a racing car to Car Week would be the most Autopian thing ever.

JerryLH3
Member
JerryLH3
29 minutes ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Or Tavarish, lol.

James McHenry
Member
James McHenry
29 minutes ago
Reply to  Max Power

That was the 767.

JerryLH3
Member
JerryLH3
26 minutes ago
Reply to  Max Power

Now that I found the email I missed, I see I didn’t give away the whole game. Still an aspect for people to guess.

Rad Barchetta
Member
Rad Barchetta
15 minutes ago
Reply to  Max Power

Correction: An actual 767B was just on fire. There are more than one, thankfully.

Last edited 14 minutes ago by Rad Barchetta
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