I just returned from Big SoCal Euro at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, CA and had an absolute blast. There were thousands of cars there (literally) covering nearly every European brand you can think of. As a VW & Audi enthusiast, I was especially pleased with the great turnout of cars bearing four rings. Thanks to all of the sponsors, organizers, volunteers & etc. for a well ran show! There were a number of noteworthy things from the show – but I’m going to start with the R8s, because there were a lot of them and they were worth writing (blogging?) home about…and not to mention, I have a serious case of #WantAnR8 and hoping maybe one day Audi will let me test drive one 😉
The R8 LMS (R16) Cars
GMG Racing brought two of their Audi R8 LMS race cars (also known as the R16 or GT3 versions). The above example was left in exposed carbon fiber, which looked menancing. The one below was in full-on livery which also had a beauty of its own. The GMG display area was one part of the show you did not want to miss!
The Rest of the R8s
The show really was R8s galore, with at least a dozen R8s in attendance – several of which had been modified. Two of my favorites are the Sepang Blue one above, as well as the black R8 GT below:
This silver R8 also turned a lot of heads with some beautiful aftermarket wheels:
Last but not least, this matte black Audi R8 on HRE wheels was all sorts of awesome:
The HRE Booth
HRE was a title sponsor of the event, and being headquartered in San Diego meant that they brought a huge presence to the show. While I didn’t win the free set of wheels they were raffling off, I did enjoy checking out their cars, like this Suzuka Grey S5 below:
This VW on the Vintage Series wheels also appealed to me a lot:
Last but not least, they brought all sorts of exotics including a Murcielago LP-640 and a Gallardo Superleggera – yummy.
The Rest of the Audis
There were hundreds more of blog-worthy Audis in attendance, but I couldn’t picture them all. Here are a handful of cars I happened to get nice photos of, like the RS5 above, that I wanted to share, and you can view a few more on my Flickr account at the end of this post.
The black Allroad above was certainly one of the most unique Audis there, as I haven’t seen any modded Allroads in person before, yet alone one as thoroughly modded as the example above. They had all of the fender work vinyl’d black to match the paint, and then slammed the car on some large 20″ gold wheels for quite a look.
The Rotiform RS4 was also in attendance – it debuted at SEMA, but looked every bit as nice here at Big SoCal Euro. The Euro RS4 Seats and R8 GT steering wheel in the interior were nice touches but easy to overlook with the wild orange vinyl on the exterior.
GMG Racing’s B5 RS4 race car nicknamed “Sophie” was also in attendance, and was one of my personal favorites. This car personifies Audi racing to me.
There were several Audi TT-RSs in attendance, which is great to see that these limited production cars are being used & enjoyed by their lucky owners.
Speaking of TTs, this beautiful Audi TT-S on HRE wheels was also in attendance, joining us from Phoenix.
There were a lot of B8 S4s in attendance, including several facelifted 2013 models. The Viper Green version above was quite noteworthy, as was its orange companion below:
Here are a handful more of cars I really dug from the Audi family:
Other Brands
While my coverage always skews towards Audis, here are some cars from other brands I really enjoyed…
Full Photo Gallery
And there you have it, folks. I have uploaded all of my pics on Flickr in high-res for you to download and share. I do ask if you share on a blog/Facebook/Instagram that you tag/credit NicksCarBlog.com in some way – I would really appreciate that. To the rest of you – thanks for tuning in!
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