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Spring Festival 9: Mopar LX Enthusiasts Come To Irvine, California

sf9-07 [1]Each year, the Spring Festival of LXs [2] gets bigger and bigger, and this year the event is already expected to exceed more than previous years’ attendance. Beginning with a small group of car owners with the Chrysler LX platform in 2004, the event saw the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum – a total of four vehicles for the first meet.

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Hundreds of Mopar show up at a local hotel, it sells out quickly, as you can imagine!

By their second year, the attendance reached close to 100 vehicles, and by 2006 participants from all over the US and Canada brought the tally up to more than 300 vehicles. With the Dodge Charger making it’s return to the enthusiasts market, and the Challenger arriving a couple of years later, the LX Festival grew to include the LD and LC platforms, respectively, with well over 1,000 Chrysler 300s, Challengers, Chargers, and Magnums for 2012.

What started as a small group of four cars now has the support of Chrysler, Dodge, Mopar, and SRT with executives from both the Irvine and Auburn Hills offices attending the event. You can expect to see more than 1,200 Mopars at this event, from as far away as Canada and New York attending this exclusive event – open only to registered participants and their passengers.

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Expect to see a lot of color and custom work at the show.

Many car shows boast of more than 1,000 attendees, but when you limit the show to a particular platform it’s difficult to imagine how fast the Spring Festival of LXs has grown. Interestingly, if you attend a show with nearly all cars the same brand, make or model, you’d often get bored and walk away with a “seen one, seen ’em all” type of feeling.

But at these events, it’s very difficult figuring out which cars we liked best, because when we talk about Mopar enthusiasts – this crowd takes the cake. They’ve done everything from wheels and suspension to power adders and custom lighting, and everything in between. It’s truly a group of very passionate and unique car owners who, for the most part, are extremely protective of the Mopar brand.

At this year’s event, you can expect to see people like SRT [5] Brand President and CEO Ralph Gilles; President and CEO of Dodge [6] Brand, Tim Kuniskis; Head of SRT, Mopar and Motorsports Design, Mark Trostle. These people will be there for you to meet and greet, and to talk with them throughout the day.

sf9-03 [7]As an added attraction for those who are attending, two amazing cars will be there for the SRT Autocross – a Charger SRT Super Bee and an SRT Viper. These cars will be piloted by none other than two of motorsports best known SRT drivers, Tommy Kendall and Jonathan Bomarito.

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Ralph Gilles will be there – and if you take away the mike he’s just like everyone else at the event: an enthusiast and a friend.

Both racers joined the SRT Motorsports family in 2012, and brought with them years of experience driving Viper GTS-Rs professionally. Imagine plopping down and strapping in for the ride of your life through the autocross with either of these racing veterans at the wheel. How do you get in on this? Simple, a $20 charity donation will make you feel good to get in the car, and thrilled once you step out.

Since this event is closed to non-LX, LC, or LD platform cars, the only way to get in now that registration is closed is to ride in with someone who is already registered. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t get to see the remarkable vehicles at the show, because we will be there covering the show and it’s activities and we’ll bring them to you after the event, with a huge gallery of our favorite vehicles.

If you’re going, be sure to say hello; if you can’t make it… keep an eye out for a future article on the event. The event is huge and they call it a big party, so if you want to get in on the action either ride along with a registered friend… or plan your weekend for next year. We told you these people are passionate, didn’t we?

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Beach Burgers is a regular hangout for many of them, and they'll meet up Thursday before the show. Expect to see lots of modern Mopar musclecars!

Photo gallery

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