Last night marked a one-time return of “Temecula Tuesday’s,” an event series local to Southern California organized by Justin Constant, the founder, and owner of Local Car Scene. The event was also the first true local car show I have attended since relocating to California.
Don’t get me wrong – I’ve been to dozens of “local” so-cal car events but my idea of what is local has grown to encompass the greater Los Angeles area. Driving down the road a few miles after work was a nice change of pace to the usual 50 or 60 miles into the city during rush hour.
The Tuesday night gathering attracted a number of late model Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros, and imports like the Honda S2000, Mazda Miata, Toyota Supra, in addition to European models ranging from Mercedes-Benz to BMW M series cars. I geeked out over three skylines that made an appearance at the show, a GT-ST (think R32 as a sedan), an R33 and R34.
“The turnout was great, it was nice to catch up with people, and see some amazing cars,” Constant said.
Temecula Tuesday’s began in December 2012 and ran through June 2017 at various locations throughout the area. “People really like this event for some reason,” Constant said adding that despite it being his “grassroots” he has no intentions of holding another Temecula Tuesday.
“It’s become such a hassle to do the event,” Constant said. “It’s a lot of work. I chose to cease doing them last year as we were involved in so many other events that don’t take so much. It really gets old babysitting drivers leaving the event. I heard someone got pulled over last night and the officer wasn’t even going to give him a ticket but the guy was rude, so he got one” Constant said. “We’ve been very lucky to have such understanding officers in the valley.”
Constant added that if he has already identified some changes that need to be made if he decides to hold another Temecula Tuesday in the future. “There are always a couple people that get carried away and think they’re racer drivers.”
Historically, Constant says the event has never been raided or shut down, “the Temecula Police are really nice when it comes to our events, we have always been given 30 minutes or so to leave if they think it’s that bad. I heard they pulled someone over last night and the officer wasn’t even going to give him a ticket but the guy was rude, so he got one. We’ve been very lucky to have such understanding officers in the valley.”
Local Car Scene has grown to host 15-20 events a year, including a monthly “Cars and Coffee” that occurs each first Sunday of the month. The next is slated for June 3 at Gosch Ford from 8-10 a.m.
Constant said his main focus at the moment is “Local Car Fest” on November 17, held at Eibach suspension. Below is a video recap of the last one.