Perhaps the backbone of the global car culture is the local meet. Local car events, whether they be a Cars and Coffee, cruise-in, or a full-blown meet, are the life-blood of enthusiasts who enjoy showing up with all their friends to a lot full of other passionate drivers. In between the large-scale high production value meets, these local events hosted by regional groups, small clubs, and vendors often provide the venue for area-wide tuners to make new friends and enjoy a day filled with car spotting without the hassle of a road trip or booking accommodations. The largest of these local gatherings here in our area of Ohio is the “Superfly” series of Saturday meets that happen weekly. As a sponsor for the organization, we at ECS Tuning are generally involved and present to interact with our local customer base and show off our own employee cars. This past weekend was no different, as a number of us took some of our favorite cars to the Superfly Showdown, the final Superfly of the summer.
Rain or shine, Superfly happens nearly every week here in Akron. Fortunately, the weather this past weekend afforded us quite possibly the nicest day so far this summer. Perfect driving conditions meant no excuses for this writer to take his convertible, so off went the top for a bit of cruising before I was to meet up with the rest of the Turner Motorsport and ECS crew. After some top-down back-road driving, I reconvened with the convoy about ten miles before the entrance to the show. Nothing beats an F82 M4, a 24v swapped E30, an E90 M3, a widebody MK5 GTI, and a stanced-out MK6 GTI all rolling in a line down the highway with matching liveries.
We arrived slightly late, but thanks to our sponsorship, our saved parking allowed us to all park together to show off some of our shop cars and products. The airport rented out by the Superfly folks provided an excellent open venue for spacing all the cars with enough room to even hold a small autox. Superfly is open to all, so the crowd is always quite diverse.
This meet, however, the show grounds were split up by their market. A domestic section, Japanese/Korean section, and European section made up the show cars, while a special section for trucks was set aside opposing the lineup of lowered rides. For us, the only cars with which we spent any time were the European imports. As an E30 driver, I was pleased to see another local E30 kid sporting an Alpine white late model coupe that hides a massive turbocharger under its backward (correctly) opening bonnet.
A Harlequin GTI caught our eyes hard, as did some of the excellent VWs parked in its vicinity. A wrapped Jetta wagon with faux wood paneling next to that Harley was actually so tastefully done we had to stop and walk around it.
Much of the show consisted of the ECS and Turner teams answering questions, engaging with the attendees, and admiring some of the Euro cars that turned up.
The evening ended with a few autox runs and a steady trickle of the cars pulling away from the airstrip. With the show so close to home, an easy drive back to your own house is a major benefit. The chance to hang out with friends while also supporting our company is what makes these local shows so fun for everyone involved. It is an excellent way to keep the community strong and engaged in between large-scale events and such an awesome time. We are enthusiasts too, after all. We look forward to our continued sponsorship of local events and hope to see you all throughout the rest of the summer for more events! Stay classy.
