Cars are fun, but if you’ve been an enthusiast for a while, you know that they’re way more fun when you experience them with your friends. By the same token, you can make some of the best friends in your life just by hanging out with other gearheads. But sometimes it can be hard to find other enthusiasts, especially in a massive metro like Dallas. So we’ll get you a foot in the door. Here are just a few of the many amazing car communities around the DFW area.
Cars and Cantina
A car show is not necessarily a community, but it is a place to find communities. Few gearheads out there don’t love drooling over a classic Lamborghini or Bugatti, whether they love trucks, muscle cars, or obscure imports. Every month, Lava Cantina in The Colony hosts a stunning car show, packed with those exotics. We’ve been to Cars and Cantina before and it’s always a blast. Our last visit treated us to an eclectic mix of supercars, new muscle, JDM legends, and more.
Best of all, Cars and Cantina partners with great charity organizations to raise money and awareness at every show. When we were there last year, we stopped by the booth for PANCAN, an organization dedicated to fighting pancreatic cancer, the toughest form of the disease.
So come on out, support a good cause, and try not to drool on the Ferraris.
DFW-TX4WD
On the other end of the shiny spectrum, some vehicles are made to get muddy. TX4WD was formed to give off-road enthusiasts across the Lone Star State a place to come together, online and in-person, and enjoy their vehicles. Their extensive online forum offers tech tips, advice on what trails to explore, and vehicles and parts for sale.
But cities all over Texas also have local TX4WD chapters, including one for DFW. Join them in person for events like Mega Run, their annual obstacle course competition. 2020 is the club’s 20th anniversary of the event, which consists of guided trail runs, free wheeling, camping, a raffle, and several competitions. And, of course, a catered barbecue dinner.
Trail runs are separated by difficulty class, so you can run everything from a stock 4x4 to a heavily modified rock crawler and still experience the fun and challenge. Competitions involve a scavenger hunt, rock garden run, obstacle course, barrel race, and king of the hill.
Best of all, you get to camp out with other off-road fanatics and enjoy the serenity of nature— when you’re not slinging mud all over it.
Texas Region SCCA
Perhaps you’d like to do a little more driving on pavement. Perhaps you’d even like to drive fast. Thankfully, there’s a club for that. The Sports Car Club of America was formed right after World War II, when American GIs came home and started to import some of the small, light cars they’d seen buzzing around Europe. Only they didn’t want to just stand around polishing them. They wanted to drive them. Many of these guys were fighter pilots during the war, and knew they’d never again have the thrill of shooting down a Messerschmidt in a P-51D Mustang. Racing sports cars was the next best thing.
Today the SCCA has chapters all over America, and the Texas Region SCCA is centered right here in the DFW metro, based in Coppell. So what kind of driving can you do with the SCCA?
Autocross is a simple sport that takes a lifetime to master. Organizers set up a tight, technical course using traffic cones in a large parking lot. Cars run the course individually for time, and the fastest time wins. But finding the fastest way through the course takes years of practice. It’s always a blast, and it’s extremely affordable. Plus, since the tight course keeps speeds low, it’s safe for you and your car.
But the SCCA isn’t all low speeds and tight turns. They’ve been sanctioning major races at some of the most prestigious road courses all over the country for more than 60 years. The best way to get into road racing is through the SCCA’s Track Night in America program. You get an hour on track at Motorsports Ranch in Cresson, and coaching is available if you’ve never done it before. This is full-speed track driving, so you can finally, legally, open up that throttle and see what your car can do.
Sure, you could sit alone in your garage, staring at your car. You could drive it alone, on the road, at road-legal speeds. Or you could find some like-minded friends, meet up, and have fun together. Work on your cars together, borrow tools, compare times at autocross. Don’t just be a gearhead. Be a gearhead among gearheads, and we’ll see you there.
Car Communities in Kansas City | Zohr
