Recaps & News

Carlisle, PA – This year our friends at Carlisle Events decided to take a small leap of faith in combining two of their event formats into one mega-show. The idea was to integrate the Import/Replicar show with the Performance & Style Show. It seemed like a no brainer to us, as the showfield would now play host to the entire variety of import and domestic compacts and sports cars from current models all the way back to the vintage models. As always, we put the old band back together to operate the drive-thru judging lanes all day on Saturday. We gotta say the old gang really pulled it together for this one, adapting to the new format well. We can’t thank them enough for what they do. We’ve been judging the Performance & Style Show since it’s beginnings, and it is a big part of the reason we developed this time saving and streamlining app. Despite the fact that it rained heavily all weekend long – after a beautiful warm and sunny teaser on the day’s opening day on Friday – there were nearly 2,000 cars on the fairgrounds throughout the weekend. We were lucky enough to have shelter under our gigantic judging tents,  where we stashed our Ford Transit Connect Wagon – sporting a fresh clean look.

As we expected, we saw all sorts of cool stuff drive through the judging lanes… a little something for everybody. And we felt it was an important connection for the younger kids in the car scene to be able to look back at some rare cars from all over the world. We’ve got a few more events to attend this summer at the Carlisle Fairgrounds, but we’re already praying for sunny days in May next year so that we can see the true potential of this unique mega-event come to realization!

Campbelltown, PA – The fellas from JunkStyles x LowLifeStyle and CounterKultur lifestyle apparel brands are at it again.  This time teaming up to bring a cool, laid back, grass roots style event back to the Hershey area. The Campbelltown Fire Co Grounds have been home to a varoiety of VW specific events over the past several years. But in recent years old show promoters have moved on and left the grounds vacant for what had become the annual season kick-off event. This year, however, we attended the first event Spring Breakdown at Campbelltown and we’ve got to say… they certainly outdid themselves and every other event that had been held there in the past. While it was marketed strictly to the VW/Euro car communities, they also saved a pretty decent sized showfield for their friends and supporters who drive those “outcast” cars as well. We were blown away by the attendance as every showfield was filled just minutes after the show had officially opened. And the lines of traffic kept coming, as the event staff kept finding new areas to put more and more display vehicles. We were on hand and parked on the vendor midway with our Ford Transit Connect Mobile Command Center – we’re no stranger to invading euro only showfields. Cheers to our friends for coming up with a great idea and killing it. We can see this event quickly becoming a fan favorite. Also, stay tuned at the JSxLLS crew go solo for their next event – The JunkFood Meet – a combination car show + food truck festival on the riverfront in downtown Harrisburg on June 18… and then the brand teams up with CounterKultur once again on Sept 11 for their annual Knoedown event at Knoebels Amusement Park.

Philadelphia, PA – The Simone Automotive Museum was the perfect backdrop for a cool specialty event put on by Ranger at Elite Tuner. Ranger had hit us up over the winter about getting involved in his event series. The kick off was the Street Kingz: Subaru vs Mitsubishi event in Philadelphia. The event made for a very cool gathering of pre-screened and hand selected vehicles that were on display inside the museum, which was also filled with a number of permanent exhibits featuring all sorts of vintage race cars. Outside the venue, there were more high quality Subarus and Mitsubishis – as well as a little bit of everything else. Included in the “everything else” category, was our Ford Transit Mobile Command Center – which was transformed into the MegaBus as we picked up a number of our certified expert judges on our trip to Philly. We joined forces with their normal judging crew so that they could learn the eJudged experience while we got to learn the Elite Tuner experience.

We had a lot of fun taking a peek behind the scenes at this up and coming series, and we’re excited to get involved in the next events that Elite Tuner has on the schedule. Their next stop is in Edison, NJ for their Performance Expo, and then it’s back to the Simeone for another cool specialty event, Street Kingz: Nissan vs Infiniti. It’s very cool to see someone creating some events with new and exciting concepts. Congrats to them on kicking off their season in a big way.

Harrisburg, PA – We were asked once again to put together a unique display of aftermarket vehicles for the 2016 Pennsylvania Motor Trend Auto Show. Last year we invited out some of the Best of Show and Top Honors cars from events that use our app all over the East Coast. This year with blizzard conditions looming, and the desire to bring something new and different to the table, we put together a guest list featuring what we had identified as some of the up and coming builders from throughout our local region. This year we were able to eat at the grown-ups table, as our Auto Show contacts asked us to fill a space inside the main hall/expo center area. In addition to gaining larger foot traffic from being on the main show floor, we also had a zip line attraction right next to us – which is where the one and only Quan Smalls climbed up to get this photo.

While an auto show is a bit more quiet than the type of events our builders were used to, it did give a unique opportunity for everyone to meet and get to know each other, and chat about what they had in store for the spring of 2016. We know our Powered by eJudged event list is growing longer each day – and we can’t wait to see some of these projects as well as some others progress and continue to push the limits of our automotive community. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at the PA Auto Show, the PA Farm Show Complex, and last but certainly not least everyone who brought their car out with 30+ inches of snow falling just a few days prior to the event. We couldn’t have put together a solid showcase like this one without everyone’s help. Cheers to 2016!

Las Vegas, NV – We just returned from our annual trip to The SEMA Show in Las Vegas, NV and we’re pretty excited about some good talks we had with friends, clients, and colleagues from the car scene while we were out there. Looking forward to making some interesting moves in 2016. But in the meantime, we attend SEMA every year to see all the new exciting builds and products, as well as to grow our network. But the main event of the week for us and for most is the Mothers Shine Award. This year marked their third year operating with our eJudged iOS app at their fingertips. We are always eager to hear feedback and learn from the panel of all star judges from all over the planet. This year we saw some unbelievable quality builds.

2015 was sort of a Bizzarro SEMA for us. The weather was cold and raining for a good portion of the week. We watched snow form on the mountaintops from our hotel windows in the morning. But most importantly we were blown away by a number of more personal, individual builds – which stole the show for us – over the usual suspects from the “OEM dollar car” builder game. That is not to say that our friends didn’t build impressive new concepts to help market their companies and the manufacturers they partnered with, but we were just overwhelmed by some of the not-so-new to market vehicles that caught our attention and admiration this time around. There was the RyWire Porsche inspired RHD Integra Type R build that finally nailed the concept of a race inspired show car with expert craftsmanship. There was the east coast Legacy Innovations RHD Corrado build that blends the concept of VW Top Dawg Quality and Hot Rodding culture. There was former Ridler Award recipients debuting something fresh. There was yet another Ring Brothers creation – maybe something like an LS7 powered carbon body vintage Mustang for example. But who would’ve ever thought that Rusty Slammington was going to show up and win the internet all week long. This car was thought to be destroyed in a garage fire, but four years later, it was on display at SEMA… and quite frankly it was all anyone could talk about.

Ocean City, MD – The H2O International event is without a doubt one of our favorite events all year long. The end of the season banger for all things VW and Audi has grown to unbelievable heights over the past few years, as it has now become the annual end of the season cruise weekend for seemingly everybody in the car scene. While the show itself is and always will be open to VW and Audi only – with our Ford Transit Connect mobile command station being the only allowed exception to that rule – the city of Ocean City becomes overwhelmed with european, asian, domestic, old school, new school, drift wanna-be, stance inspired, VIP styled, and of course the ridiculously cambered folks as well. It has become such a spectacle that OCPD has to come out in full force and keep the streets safe. This year there was another regulator in town for the weekend, Hurricane Joaquin. As we traveled closer and closer to the beach high winds, horizontal rainfall, and flooding made us wonder how the weekend was going to still happen.

But happen it did. And to be quite honest the Hurricane failed to scare off the H2O faithful. The meets still happened – and we were happy to be accepted at the Mk1/Mk2 meet which was our favorite of the weekend. We were also posted up front and center in front of OC House of Rock for the Official Hurricane Party – hosted by eJudged certified expert judge, Denis Dewar, and our old pal B-Rad Hoffman, of OC Car Show fame. The streets were still popping with people cruising – and those select few people who preferred to be “that guy” were able to gain major scene points by getting their unsafe vehicles impounded by OCPD.