Variety is the Spice of Life | Extreme Autofest San Diego 2014

• August 12, 2014
• / Story By
  Justin Pagtalunan

You've probably noticed by now, if you've followed my posts here on DrivingLine, that my expertise has been on the beat of Southern California's best car shows and events, primarily in and around the Los Angeles region. Well today and in the next few posts I will be venturing just slightly out of my range to check out what else is out there. Get a taste of life outside of LA and see how much the car scene differs. So on the first journey of JusTravels, I take it easy and go on a short drive down to America's Finest City - for Extreme Autofest San Diego. Extreme Autofest is held at the home of the Chargers, Qualcomm Stadium. I have been to this venue once before and it's always been a tough show to figure. There is always an eclectic bunch of car entries and show entertainment. Walking around the large venue I noticed a lot of familiar cars, such as Paul's Liberty Walk GTR, Glen's killing s2k, Ali's bagged RS4.0 tC. There are actually a lot of LA people who come down here and bring the flavor of import scene that I'm accustomed to. All the way from Corona, Lexani wheels had a nice big display, including this Lambo. This 350z is familiar as well up in the LA area, but owner Riley is actually a SD native. AutoFashion is group known by a lot in the Southern California scene, usually bringing out some tastefully modified luxury cars. So a show right in their hometown of San Diego, you know they are going to have a clean stable of rides. One of which is this BMW - which won FINEST BMW at Spocom a week ago and I'm sure racked in more awards during today's show. Dali Racing's NSX and Integra stood out the most to me from all their cars. Another popular car club who calls San Diego home is LowKey - their line up included this pair of nice s2k's. There was also the crew from Project Zero, which had a Polizei style BMW e46 and this battle ready Nissan S14. Classic imports were well represented with all of these differet Datsun's throughout the show. Check out this Lexus...I mean Scion...I mean...Scius? Lexion? Owner Eric was confusing all sorts of people with his Scion tC which he made a custom Lexus IS front end conversion for - even the emblem is a mashup of the two brands colliding. Some other clean and interesting imports before the surprise... ...And now we get to the thick of where this San Diego show is different than what we usually see up in LA. The infusion of the lowriders, street rods, and stylish American Classics isn't normally seen in LA locales. Being honest, these types of builds are not my interest - but I still have a lot of respect for fellow car enthusiasts of any kind. Just as with people who build imports, the same dedication, passion, and love goes into making a factory vehicle your own. Plus you would rarely see import cars being displayed in such elaborate setups as all of these - it really enhances your view of the owner's vision. Entering this part of the show was almost like stepping into a whole other show, a whole other world in the way Extreme Autofest staged all of the street rods together. From afar they all looked the same, but up close you can see how each build is unique. Boop-Oop-a-Doop! (Notice even the "Share-a-Coke" can is named Betty). This show was definitely not for the narrow-minded. With a large parking lot and even larger variety of builds, I did feel a little overwhelmed at times - but I'm glad I was there to experience it all. With something going on throughout the day and all the different things to see, there wasn't a lot of down time at this show. I hope to see more diversity as my little trips out of the LA area continue. Until next show! @justdayuum