Car Shows & Meets

Big SoCal Euro 2013 Event Coverage

LWB Murcielago at Big SoCal EuroThe 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.

TAG Motorsports White on White RS5The 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.

John's B7 S4 on Luxury Abstract Wheels

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.

Liberty Walk BMW M3 Blue

Here is another shot of the LTMW cars, just for kicks:

LTMW BMWs

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:

Modded S7The 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:

B8 S4 on Volk WheelsAnother 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:

Audi S5

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:

B5 S4 Avant with Surfboard

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:

TAG Allroad on ADV1s

This “murdered out” B8.5 S4 on HREs and air ride was also quite impressive from the guys at TAG Motorsports:

Murdered out B8 S4 on Air and HREs

Next, this white GTI was super clean on vintage HREs and air ride:
GTI on HRE Vintage Series

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:

Nick at Tag BMW M3 on HRE FF

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:

Blue RS5 on HREs

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:

E63 on HREs

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 🙂

Ferrari 458

This BMW was another clean example of what the E92 platform can look like with a few simple yet tasteful mods:

BMW on HREs

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:

B8.5 on DPEsAnother 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:

Brushed Aluminum Wrapped B8.5

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:

FRRG & SDAC at SCE

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.

IMG_6236 IMG_6256 IMG_6260 IMG_6279 IMG_6310 IMG_6340 IMG_6342 IMG_6362 IMG_6379 IMG_6386 IMG_6433 IMG_6440 IMG_6478 IMG_6482 IMG_6499 IMG_6506

Full gallery on Flickr here:

Big SoCal Euro 2013

Nick Roshon

Nick has been an Audi owner and fanatic for the last 10 years, and started Nick's Car Blog in 2009 to share DIYs and pictures of his A4. Currently he drives a 2012 Audi TT-RS, and has previously owned a B7 S4, B7 A4, and an 82 Audi Coupe (GT) LeMons race car. In his day job, Nick is a digital marketer and lives in San Diego, CA, USA.

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