I had the distinct privilege of attending my fourth consecutive year of Big SoCal Euro (see past coverage: 2014, 2013, and 2012) and the show continues to be my favorite car show on the West Coast. Thousands of cars descended upon the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot for the event, with a little something for everyone including drag racing at the 1/8th mile strip, exotics, vintage cars, show cars, and tons of daily drivers of any type of Euro car you can imagine.
This year was particularly hot, but it didn’t prevent a good turnout. The vendor area has always been part of the main draw as the best shops in Southern California bring their A-game, and that continued to be the case this year. There was also another insane raffle with prizes including a set of HRE wheels, Bilstein coilovers, and much more.
Each year seems to have a particular type of car that is trending – while recent years have been dominated by cars with over-fenders/bolt-on wide bodies such as the above, that craze seems to finally be passing us in favor of more performance oriented mods – and while the crazy widebodies are still around, even they are starting to modify their engines to pack more “go” rather than being all “show.”
My favorite trend is the air cooled Porsches that have been growing in popularity over the last year or two, thanks in large part to people like Magnus Walker. There were tons of gorgeous 993 and 996 Porsches that featured subtle body work with nice wheels and an aggressive drop – and that’s damn near perfection in my book.
My coverage always tends to cover the Audi scene, as this is a blog about Audis after all. The four rings were definitely well represented with the Audi Club chapters from San Diego, LA, Inland Empire, and even Las Vegas all having a huge presence in the VIP section, as well as tons of nicely modded cars throughout the general parking area. From B5s to RS7s, there was a lot of amazing Audis for people like my to oogle over. Two of my favorites was the R8 on Rotiforms (above) and the RS7 on HREs from TAG Motorsports (below).
As always, a big thanks goes out to Lon Mok as well as the entire SoCal Euro crew for making this event possible. It takes an entire year to plan, and when you get there you’ll see the fruits of their labor – it’s incredibly well organized and there’s never any drama or issues.
To me, this event epitomizes the SoCal car culture – laid back, eclectic, and accepting. Whether you like wagons or convertibles, big blocks or forced induction, you’ll find it at Big SoCal Euro.
I managed to snap a few hundred pictures from the event, and below is a slideshow of my favorites – check them out and enjoy!
nice photos and nice cars of course 🙂