The 12th annual Big SoCal Euro event was another wild success, with thousands of cars piling into the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot for an afternoon of car heaven. This was my second year attending, and I can say this years’ was even bigger and better than the last, and last year’s event set a pretty high bar for success. The event is the brainchild of SoCalEuro.com founder Lon Mok, and is organized as a free event for all European cars that is super welcoming and laid back – there is no judging, no entry fees, no politics – simply a lot of cars and their owners all gathered in one place to enjoy and celebrate their cars. This vibe is super apparent to anyone who attends and makes the event a very fun and enjoyable day, and is likely the reason why several thousands of cars (and their owners) show up for this event year after year after year – I cannot wait for next year’s already.
The event had a few new things this year, such as racing at the 1/8th mile drag strip courtesy of Race Legal. That was very interesting to watch as you had everything from a Tesla Model S to a big turbo Diesel pickup racing. The raffle seemed bigger and better than ever too, with several sets of free wheels, coilovers, several GIAC and APR tunes, and much more being given away. There was also a charity component and it was great to see the event give back.
With all of that being said, the cars were the highlight of the event. There were a lot of really impressive cars, some of which were familiar and some I had never seen before. My friend John debuted his new Luxury Abstract wheels above which got a lot of looks and questions, and LB Performance and LTMW brought a slew of modded BMWs that were out of this world, such as the blue car below.
Here is another shot of the LTMW cars, just for kicks:
TAG Motorsports, a local shop, also brought their A-game with some of the most nicely modded Audis I’ve ever seen. Many who follow this blog know TAG quite well, but TAG continues to raise the bar and out-do themselves when it comes to Audis, including the white-on-white RS5 above, and this stunning Audi S7 below:
The event’s official sponsor this year was GIAC tuning, and they also had a very nice vendor booth displaying some of the newer Audis they are offering software and performance packages for. My favorite was one of their employees’ B8 S4 on custom Volk wheels that was super clean yet very unique:
Another big presence came from my friends at Pure Motorsports, another local shop in San Diego that is known for a lot of their VW & Audi work. They had a bunch of very nice cars at the show, including this facelifted S5 on Rotiforms and Brembos that was a real head turner:
Also at the Pure MS booth were a bunch of locally owned cars sporting some unique SoCal style, such as this B5 S4 avant complete with a long board up top:
In no particular order, here were a few other of my favorites from the VIP & Vendor area, starting off with this Allroad on ADV.1s:
This “murdered out” B8.5 S4 on HREs and air ride was also quite impressive from the guys at TAG Motorsports:
Next, this white GTI was super clean on vintage HREs and air ride:
Another favorite was my friend Nick’s new BMW E92 M3, sporting HRE Flowform Wheels and a few other clean mods. He just picked up the car a few weeks ago and it’s already looking incredible:
Speaking of HREs, they also had a booth at the show, and given they make all of their wheels here in San Diego at their Headquarters, there were a lot of local cars supporting the brand. I saw this RS5 at the HRE Open House a while back and it continues to make my jaw drop a few months later:
Moving along the corner I spotted this new E63 that looked nice on some HREs. I am not sure if I am quite used to the facelift on these cars yet or not, but this one shows potential for sure:
This Ferrari 458 in front of the ACG Automotive tent was also quite a headturner, with simple yet effective mods to the wheels and suspension to really set off the beautiful styling Ferrari supplies as OEM 🙂
This BMW was another clean example of what the E92 platform can look like with a few simple yet tasteful mods:
The “general” parking was nothing to miss either though. There were rows after rows of super neat cars, everything from air ride to static, performance to show, and clean to aggressive. This B8.5 S4 was hiding in the back but is worth a minute in the spotlight, sporting some nice DPEs on air-ride and pulling it all off quite nicely:
Another trend was vinyl wraps, as more and more enthusiasts are discovering it is a much cheaper way to change the look of your car than a full respray, and they offer some unique finishes that would be difficult to achieve through paint. This car had a brushed aluminum finish which I hadn’t seen before – it might not be something I’d do personally, but I bet we’ll see more and more cars go for wraps like this:
I parked right at the entrance with the San Diego Audi Club (SDAC), a rapidly growing and super well organized group that just sprouted up. I had a few friends join from my former stomping grounds in Arizona as well, which made for a really fun time. You can see in the next picture just how massive the event was, with modified Euros being seen for what looks like it goes on into infinity:
This post could go on a while longer with well over 2,000 cars in attendance, nearly all of which are worth talking about, but alas, I think at this point it’s best to let the pictures do the talking. Below are a few other highlights, and after that is my full gallery on Flickr with over 170 pictures to check out.
Full gallery on Flickr here:
