Junk, exotics and social media influencers make up Saturday at Car Week.

Sometimes, picking a car to take the not-so-coveted Worst of Show award at Concours d’Lemons is a difficult task for the judges.

There’s the piles of rust on wheels, the ill-advised off-road conversions, the one-off vehicles that understandably bankrupted their manufacturers—all equally worthy.

And then, some years, picking the “winner” is a slam dunk. For Lemons’ 2025 show at the Seaside City Hall lawn on Saturday, Aug. 16, this was one of those years.

Chris Wollard of Tulsa, Oklahoma took home the top prize for his 2525 Galaxy Glider, a flying-saucer-like vehicle that he built from the ground up.

No, “2525” is not a typo. Wollard claims his car comes from the future.

“This car actually does not exist yet,” he told the crowd as he drove up to grab his award.

“The future looks really terrible,” said Alan Galbraith, the “head gasket” of Concours d’Lemons.

Galbraith said it was easy to pick out Wollard’s vehicle out of the sea of junk and oddballs.

“Our judging criteria is, is it defensible?” he said. “If someone comes up to you and says, ‘Why didn’t my car win?’, we can just look at them and say, ‘Should’ve brought a flying saucer.’”

On a muggy Saturday, Seaside played host to many Car Week events of the day.

Kicking off the morning across the street from Concours d’Lemons in the Chili’s  parking lot, Peninsula Cars and Coffee was just that—plenty of cars with lots of caffeine. The group meets on occasional Saturdays throughout the year, but on Aug. 16 it had the built-in audience of Car Week. The event unofficially extended into the adjacent Embassy Suites parking lot, where more rare and custom vehicles sat.

Carspotters stationed themselves throughout Del Monte Boulevard and Canyon Del Rey. On the sidewalk in front of Sacred 8 Studios on Del Monte, a family was rating vehicles as they drove by—most of the signs they held up were 10s.

Exotics on Broadway continues to expand, and demonstrates why Car Week is no longer referred to as “Classic” Car Week. This year, a free display of late-model exotic vehicles was offered on a standing-room-only Broadway Avenue in Seaside, while a new, paid area with booths and more cars took over both directions Fremont Boulevard from Olympia Avenue to Sonoma Avenue. But perhaps what drew the most phones out was a car parked on Calaveras Street that was revving up to the redline and emitting a series of exploding backfires—loud enough for you to feel it in your chest and set off car alarms.

Throughout the day, Concorso Italiano was held on the fairways of Bayonet Black Horse golf course in Seaside, a day after its sister event, The Paddock Monterey, was held. At Concorso, Italian cars were the stars of the show, featuring dozens of pristine models from Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo and more.

Wrapping up the night, the Monterey Motorsports Festival returned for its third iteration at the Monterey County Fair & Event Center. Now taking place in the evening hours, the event, geared toward a social media-savvy crowd, featured exotic vehicles, lowriders, appearances by celebrity drivers and music performances, capping off with a show by DJ Dillion Francis.