Upon entering the Concours d’Lemons, fans of Superman comic books may think that they have been teleported to Bizarro World, a cube-shaped planet ruled by a code requiring everyone to do the opposite of all earthly things. The event’s tagline, “Celebrate the Un-Best”, appears to confirm that the viewer is in a different place that epitomizes a 1980s Florida state slogan declaring “the rules are different here.” Amen to that.

Somehow, the show’s organizers convinced the town of Seaside to allow the event to again deface the grounds of their city hall and cause nearby property values to plummet. As a result, over 100 of what are innocuously labeled as “hoopties” showed up to delight a record crowd of spectators. Readers unfamiliar with hooptie may relate to a number of more popular terms for such vehicles, including beater, bomb, clunker, jalopy, lemon, old banger (most commonly used in the U.K.), sh*tbox, or junk car.

In all seriousness (if such a thing is possible when talking about the Concours d’Lemons), the 16th consecutive year of this display of often ingeniously absurd vehicles provided more laughs per minute than a Three Stooges marathon. Vehicles competed for Walmart-purchased “awards” in classes that ranged from “Rust Belt American Junk” to “Sight For Sour Eyes” to “Needlessly Complex Italian” and more. As evidenced in the slide show above, many entrants obviously had no knowledge of the adage that goes something like “just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should.” Thankfully, for sheer entertainment value alone, it’s a good thing that they did.

True to the opposite nature of this wacky event, the top prize is for Worst of Show. There were many offenders who vied for this dubious distinction. It seems likely that the judges embraced a let’s-get-this-over-with-before-anyone-we-know-sees-us perspective, since the 2025 award went to a homemade UFO-inspired design called Galaxy Glider that its owner brought all the way from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eager spectators subsequently squirted a cascade of Silly String onto the vehicle as a comic homage to the confetti on Pebble Beach Concours winners. Regrettably, the ensuing multi-colored mesh did nothing to hide the Galaxy Cruiser’s zany lines that resembled a special effects artifact from a bad sci-fi movie of the 1950s.

In summary, the Concours d’Lemons has to be seen to be believed. It provides a lighthearted break from the rest of Monterey Car Week in that it is festive, fun, and free, since they wouldn’t dare to charge admission.

– Andre Swygert, 2026