I still remember the first car cruise I went to. It was back a few years ago when I had my Subaru Legacy GT and I was invited to a Subiefest meet up in Willow Springs. It was a pretty big gathering with about 300+ cars signed up to attend and all 300 cars were setting up check point to caravan up to the event.
I remember waking up before sun rise, showing up to the parking lot when it was pitch dark, eating some breakfast and then heading out in a massive squad of Subarus just dominating the highway and roads. It’s a pretty cool feeling partaking in such a monstrous gathering while driving in a big group, giving you a sense of comradery. Of course, the photos are always pretty epic to see too. That Subiefest cruise was probably the best experiences I’ve had with cars and this past event brought that same feeling back to me.
Waking up at 6:30am after a long night of drinking made me think twice about actually going to this event. After many minutes of contemplating, I finally decided to open the curtains and get my ass up to barley make it on time. The time it took me to get out of bed and walk out the door was exactly 15 minutes. My friend and I rolled up to the spot and the first thing we noticed were two mean-ass looking pair of Mercedes-AMG GT S Coupes sitting next to each other, followed by an authentic R34 Skyline. At this point, I thank myself for not snoozing my alarm and actually getting up for the cruise.
At 7:30, everyone embarked on the supposed-to-be one hour and a half drive, which ended up being only 45 minutes, to HRE Wheels in Vista, CA. It was pretty epic as we started to roll out of the lot and embark on the 70 mile journey. For a moment, we were all in single file line pulled over on the side of the road to gather everyone. If someone were to hit us all, it would’ve been a $2 million mistake. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
Once we got onto the highway, it got even more epic for me because I’ve never been in a pack where a AMG GT S is in my rear view mirror, an R8 next to me and a R34 Skyline in front of me.
We finally pulled up to HRE Wheels, but took us about 20 minutes to get to the entrance. Why? Because Targa Trophy. There was a massive amount of cars rolling in. We were basically dead stopped in line so we went out to grab a few pictures.
Once we got inside, we saw the parking lot filled with all kinds of exotics from Ferraris to Lamborghinis, classis like E30 M3s and air-cooled Porsches. For the cars in the Targa Trophy rally, the most common make was Porsche. Porsches EVERYWHERE!
Of course there were plenty of BMW M4s, GTRs, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Walking around the main event area was like walking around the LA convention center. People were everywhere and it wasn’t because the floor space was small, there were cars and people everywhere. It was a pretty huge turnout. Everywhere you look there were people with cameras and I swear that damn drone though. I felt like it was following me everywhere.
We stayed around for a few hours and decided it was time to go eat some pho. Mmm. Because that’s what I eat when I’m hungover. As we walked out, I took a snaps of the BMWs in the general lot. Most of them I recognized, but there were a few I’ve never seen. And of course, my car. I found a super clean white E46 M3 and decided it was only proper to do a shoot with him.
It’s a bummer I didn’t get to attend the rally, but it was a fun day nonetheless. Already looking forward to the next cruise!