Targa Trophy German Car Festival in San Diego – 2018

Targa Trophy is one of the better known organizations that throws rallys for exotics and higher end cars, especially in Southern California. They host a number of events each year, with my favorite being their German themed event dubbed the German Car Festival. It starts as a 2-3 hour long car show at a rotating location, then the rally entrants depart on the rally while the rest of the folks leave and go about their day.

The rally itself is pretty fun and I participated back in 2014 in my old B7 S4 – the organizers give you some intentionally vague directions on where each check point is, and it becomes much like a scavenger hunt to see who can get to all of the check points and figure out all of the clues then make it to the finish in time. Ideally you need a navigator to help you figure out the instructions, and a good knowledge of the city you’re going around for short cuts and pit falls.

This year the German Car Festival / starting point of the rally was held at Audi San Diego and Porsche San Diego, just a few miles from my door step. It was a nice synergy as you could also see the latest and greatest from these two German brands, and Porsche San Diego actually has a nice collection of older Porsches in inventory such as a few choice 993 and 930 turbos.

Personally though I was impressed they had not one but two Cayman GT4s, and that would be the car I’d strongly consider if I had the funds for it since it’s such a well balanced car for both track and daily usage, which has always been what I look for in a vehicle. They happened to have two of them for sale, both about $100K and both with low mileage – this particular one had some Vorsteiner carbon fiber bits and a CPO warranty, making it an awesome buy for an enthusiast.

Audi San Diego of course also had its enthusiast-oriented offerings on display, such as this RS3 which becomes an even-more enticing car as I see tuners getting this car in the sub 10 second quarter mile range with some bolt-ons. I remember growing up and thinking that a 10 second car was near impossible, and now a family-oriented sedan can hit that figure with relative ease and still be totally drivable on the street – crazy. While I do love the two-door layout of the TTRS, I think I’d buy the RS3 over the TTRS if I were buying a new one from Audi just for the added practicality and the “holy shit you just got smoked by a sedan” factor the RS3 has.

The rest of the show and rally had all sorts of cool cars, from bagged Lambos to classic cars. It was a nice mix with a little something for everyone to appreciate, and certainly not limited to just the Germans as their Italian and even American friends also came out to play.

This GT3 was one of the most notable cars in attendance – while I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of GT3s, and even plenty with some wild wraps, what makes this car unique is that this is no wrap. The owner (who appears to own or at least be affiliated with a body shop) had this done in actual paint. While not for the purists, it came out really well…and it takes some serious balls to do this to a $200K car, so you have to give them credit for that.

My favorite car; however, was easy to decide upon. One of the co-founders of Rotiform has recently acquired this legitimate B5 RS4, which was also imported by AZ Euros like the last one I reported on. Brian of Rotiform wasted no time getting it dropped and fitting some custom, forged Rotiform wheels on it to make this car neck snapping to any Audi fan such as myself. I took a ton of pictures of this thing as it was my first time seeing a real RS4 in person, yet alone one modded.

Besides the RS4, there were plenty of other great Audis in attendance…there was even another MK2 TTRS like mine, which I parked next to but stupidly didn’t get a photograph – it’s pretty rare to have two of my car parked next to each other since there are fewer than 1,000 in the US.

This RS5 was rocking AG wheels and a freshly installed roll cage from Studio RSR, which is a shop making some major waves right now by producing bolt-in half cages for pretty much any car you can dream of for some pretty affordable prices. I’ve been considering one myself from them, and after checking out their work in person I can tell you the work is top notch.

There were also several R8s in attendance, both new and old. The first gen R8 is still timeless in terms of its looks, but the new R8’s angles are absolutely stunning and Audi deserves a lot of credit for improving upon the design instead of ruining it like most sequels do.

The most popular brand was Porsche, which should be no surprise. There were several 911 Rs in attendance, although none participating in the rally. Porsche San Diego has a few for sale, and their prices have dropped considerably now that the new GT3 has a manual option once again – but don’t get too excited, they’re still roughly $300K which is only a bargain compared to the ~$1M asking price some dealers were quoting when they first came out.

Porsche, like Audi, has some of the best grey colors – this one was my favorite, as it seems like what would happen if you mixed Audi’s Nardo Grey and Suzuka Grey, which are my two favorite colors, to come up with something right in the middle. Combined with the black wheels and subtle white striping on the doors, this car absolutely nailed it from the factory and is one of those few cars that needs no aesthetic modifications IMO.

There were also a handful of aircooled Porsches in attendance, which is always great to see. These cars are not easy or cheap to maintain, but they sure do look and sound amazing.

From the “other” category, there was a Ford GT in attendance which looked and sounded amazing, and parked next to it was HGMS’ Gullwing which is always a pleasure to check out:

I’ve posted a few other favorites below, and you can check out the full res versions of any shot I took over on Flickr…if you share, please tag @nickscarblog for credit.