Car culture isn't just made up of famous events that get tons of coverage, there are many lesser-known events that are just as great as the big ones. These are the best you've never heard of.
10.) Hangover 150
This race is run at Ransomville Speedway in Upstate, NY every New Year's Day (hence the name), and is a complete shitshow of old rear wheel drive beaters.
Who said the race season has to start with the 24 Hours Of Daytona?
Suggested By: BrentOwen, Photo Credit: Darren Lenhardt via YouTube
9.) The Art Center College Of Design Car Classic
There's a seemingly endless amount of cool car shows all over the world, but this one hosted by The Art Center College Of Design is rather unique. Each year has a different design-focused theme, and they curate a small amount of very special cars to attend.
Suggested By: timekeeper, Photo Credit: Art Center
8.) Giant's Despair
It's one of the oldest hill climbs in America, run on an amazing road in Wilkes-Barre, PA, and legends like Roger Penske and Carroll Shelby have raced there.
Where else can you race against a time set by Shelby himself?
Suggested By: Apex Assassin, Photo Credit: PHA Museum & Archives
7.) Rally For The Lane
Vintage car rallies are great, but this one supporting one of our favorite automotive museums is rather special. Instead of bringing your own car, you pay to drive one of their incredible cars.
It's not cheap, but where the hell else will you be able to drive a Renault R5 Turbo in America?
Suggested By: Green Pig, Photo Credit: Jason Torchinsky
6.) Goblin 250
Bill Caswell of craigslist rally car fame and glory has been to about every automotive event imaginable, so when he suggests one, you know it's going to be good:
"The Goblin 250: a weird circle track race for pretty much junk yard cars in Rockford, IL on halloween weekend. Something like 2-300 cars start on this oval that is tiny. like 70 cars start on the infield with penalties and about 2 laps in they get fed into the field like a cheese grater. The first cars can't merge so the 70 behind just put their foot down and the 10 in front prey as the get blended in by force.
I ran in 2008 and it was scary. like the floorboards were getting beaten in from all the debris I was hitting. I remember swerving around whole sections of cars. I found one car on top of another car at one point and they were still moving till the lower car braked and the top car slid off. Im not going back without A team armor on the windows."
Sounds like our kind of race.
Suggested By: Bill Caswell, Photo Credit: Rockford Speedway
5.) Mt. Washington Hill Climb
This is one of the most insane races in America: unguarded 1000-foot drops on the Northeast's highest mountain, and everyone's trying to set a record.
Here you'll see everything from factory-backed Subaru rally cars to Frankensteins designed for the sole purpose of driving up mountains very quickly.
Suggested By: craigsider, Photo Credit: Raphael Orlove
4.) Concours d'Lemons
The Pebble Beach Concours d'Whatever can get lost. I just want to check out the incredible oddballs of the Concours d'Lemons because I'll take Azteks and Amphicars any day over Ferrari 250 Testa Rossas.
Suggested By: sn210, Photo Credit: Jason Torchinsky
3.) Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix
There's a lot of great vintage racing out there, but not very much of it is run on public roads. Pittsburgh (of all places) has a fantastic event where they close some windy roads and let some beautiful classics tear it up.
Oh, and they've got a bunch of rallies and shows all leading up to the actual race.
Suggested By: marshknute, Photo Credit: ccbarr
2.) The Race Of Gentlemen
Hot rods drag racing on the beach. I repeat, hot rods drag racing on the beach!
This New Jersey event is a throwback to the ways cars used to race and is limited to American cars made before 1934 and motorcycles before 1947. Just watch this video. You want to go.
Suggested By: Autojunkie, Photo Credit: The Race Of Gentlemen
1.) Mongol Rally
Think of this as the anti-Gumbal: it's a rally from the UK to Mongolia and you can only use old cars with 1000CCs or less, or motorcycles under 125CCs.
10,000 miles in a shitbox? Sign me the hell up.
Suggested By: sm70- why not Duesenberg?, Photo Credit: Mongol Rally
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
Top Photo Credit: Parker Gyokeres
Contact the author at chris@jalopnik.com.