These Are The Best Automotive Events Our Readers Have Ever Attended

Over the years I’ve attended F1 both in US (Indy 2x), Montreal and Silverstone. I’ve been to a bunch of events at Lime Rock and a couple at Watkins Glen.

While F1 at Indy on the main straight was insanely exhilarating due to shear noise, I’ll still say that the 1990 Vintage races at Watkins Glen was by far my favorite. That year they were celebrating Can Am and it was glorious seeing and hearing these cars! The paddock was wide open so you could freely walk amongst all of the cars too. The drive up from Northern NJ was part of the allure as I took my then new 90 GTi along what is known as the hawk’s nest and essentially hugged the PA/NY border.

A close second though not quite automotive, was a 6hr Karting Enduro I participated in back in about 99 at Lime Rock. That was so freaking good but beat the crap out of me and my 5 team mates.

Suggested by: Monsterajr

For me it was the Hershey Hill Climb. There is something about watching rare cars driving up a narrow hill all out that could lose control and clip a tree that was exciting.

Suggested by: ikaiyoo

24 Hours of Lemons. Stupid fun. Got involved in the early days before Altamont closed. People’s Curse, where one team was voted the scourge of the race field and had their car summarily destroyed - I remember this one well, the team somehow got this thing back through tech inspection with no doors, a visible downward bow in the middle and an open exhaust that sounded AWESOME.

Suggested by: dustynnguyendood

Easily Laguna Seca 2013, for the Corvette 60th anniversary display. A friend of ours was a track marshal and got me, my son, and brother tickets for the entire weekend. We wound up not-intentionally sneaking in to the Corvette owners exclusive area to hang out. Saw ‘Vettes from almost every year including the then unreleased C7, met tons of really cool people, had amazing food, listened to a talk from several of their racing dev guys and just generally geeked out, it was an absolute blast.

Unfortunately, my father who owns a 2007 C6 could not attend, but we were able to get him ridiculous amounts to swag including hats, keychains, branded oil (so weird), and the real kicker was two limited edition Corvette posters commemorating the weekend. He donated the 2nd one to his local club and they auctioned it off for charity. The first has pride of place over his workbench (retired horologist).

My son still isn’t particularly a car guy, but he is in to my father’s though. By pure, cosmic chance, the build date of the car is the same as my son’s actual birth date. It was determined a long time ago he would inherit it when my father passes, but now that he’s got his license and had a chance to drive it, the whole thing has really clicked for him.

Suggested by: IstillmissmyXJ

That would be Dodge Speed Week held in Las Vegas during March of last year when the 1,025hp Demon 170 was introduced to the world

And brought in by helicopter no less. And I tell you what guys, when the driver stomped on it as you see here and the Demon took off like a scalded cheetah with the fireworks blazing behind it, goddamn that was something.

Then there was the other half of the reason that I drove to Vegas—to see the Charger EV concept up close and personal. And yes, it looks fantastic. (And no, that faked “revving” sound was terrible.)

And the icing on the cake: being a passenger in a Hellcat Challenger that the driver took me around a drifting course they had set up in the parking lot. I truly had a blast there.

Suggested by: the1969DodgeChargerFan

Mitsubishi several years ago had an event Called MOD or Mitsubishi owners day at their old Cypress location in Ca. That event was so much fun! The night before, all the buddies would meet up somewhere and cruise on over, get at HQ around 10pm, find our spot and spend the night. the next day was when the event started. Mitsu would cater breakfast for us (Free), the In n Out truck would come around noon (free), the whole event was free lol. Set up some skate ramps had Dyno competitions, free shirts, overall judges and prices, loads of vendors, got to see many good friends from out of town.

And there were cars lined up the whole dead end street to. The joke was always, “wow there are other Evos around!?” My favorite car I saw there had to be this Colt GSR. Matter of fact I think this was the very car that was showcased a good while back. I miss it =(

Suggested by: darthspartan117

Every Friday afternoon in Riyadh, at informal motorsport destinations (big sand dunes) all around the outskirts of the city, hundreds of 4x4s make their way across the desert (the journey is the destination) and assemble to take turns at trying to reach the sandy hilltop from a standing start. I should say “mostly take turns”, some impatient adrenaline junkies add excitement by piling in and risking a massive collision. The vehicles vary from battered farmers’ HiLuxs to heavily modded American full-size pickups with bellowing 1000hp v8s.

Your afternoon alternates between roaming around “tailgate” setups chatting and sampling coffee while watching the nutters on the hill, and taking the occasional run at the dune while shitting yourself that you’re going to embarass yourself with a lack of bottle or perform umpteen barrel rolls down the hill because you fucked up your u-turn (assuming you don’t boss it and cruise over the summit).

Of course, you could also put Goodwood Festival of Speed on the list, it’s the best professionally organised event there is, but really not in the same league.

Suggested by: pollenstein

The first ever Rally for the Lane at the Lane Museum in Nashville.

I got to ride in a Citroen DS (before the throttle cable got borked) drive a Tatra T-700 and had one hell of a good time with a group of friends who also thought spending a Saturday afternoon driving weird foreign cars through central Tennessee sounded like a shit ton of fun.

Suggested by: Earthbound Misfit I

I attended a Cavallino event held at, the now defunct, Palm Beach International Raceway that was magnificent. Unlike the static display event, I saw everything from 250GTOs to full blown racing 512BBs, and other spectacular priceless Ferraris on the track making glorious mechanical noises. On the paddock, there were Daytona Spiders, Maserati MC12s, McLaren F1s, Enzos, GTOs, F40s, etc..

Runner up would be a vintage racing event we went to in Road America in the fall. Stunning location, perfect weather and a great mix of vintage racing cars (Trans-Am Mustangs and Camaros, Ferraris, Porsches, etc.).

Suggested by: eam1

The best weekly event going is Exotics at Redmond Town Center, Redmond, WA. You never know what’s going to show up - 250 GTO? Pagani? Matching P1 and Senna? It’s nuts what is hiding in the PNW. The very, very strict rules keep it probably the only sustainable weekly “Cars and Coffee” event in the country and it’s free to the public and very family and pet friendly.

Suggested by: DansDrives

Woodward Dream Cruise. It was 2010, my internship was over I was struggling to find work and I was thinking about leaving metro Detroit. The dream cruise was happening and I figured I would check it out, I think I spent all week down there.

I saw some celebrity sitings. None from Jalopnik because pebble beach was happening and the EiC at the time wasn’t really a car guy he, he was a celebrity sycophant and Metro Detroit was beneath him.

Suggested by: Scott the Stagehand

So far, that would have been GT Live in Fontana back in 2004. It was awesome to see some of the JGTC cars come over from Japan and see (and hear) them up close. That was also my first experience with D1GP drift cars, which was a lot of fun to watch.

After spending a lot of time with the Gran Turismo games on the PS in the 90's, seeing some of those cars in action was like a dream come true.

Suggested by: boost_retard

Back in the day, (1969-1971)I was able to attend two TransAm and two CanAm races at Laguna Seca and it is hard to pick a favorite. I will go with the TransAm race where I sat close enough to the track to clearly see the drivers (1970?). IIRC, I was able to get a good look at Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, and Mark Donohue. etc.

Suggested by: codfangler

Bang for the buck, The Texas Mile. Was free, now $25 for all weekend, and you can see every type of exotic from cars to bikes push the limits on a standing mile.

MotoGP is a great time too. Especially now at Circuit of the Americas. I was twice at Indy, and twice in Austin.

Suggested by: ekimyllek

After attending for the first time last year, I’d say the Goodwood Festival of Speed needs to be on everyone’s automotive bucket list.

Suggested by: spartaneer12