Words by Matt Willis
I know I’ve said it before, but it’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact that 2012 is coming to a close. We’ve been very busy this year, trying our hardest to bring everyone in-depth coverage and interesting photos, and overall just expanding our horizons and delving further into the automotive world. As we’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, cars are our passion and that’s what keeps us going.
In the midst of everything that’s been going on this year, I can’t help but feel (at times) a little disconnected from the smaller, more local scene that most enthusiasts are a part of. As Tim mentioned in his previous post, the smaller chapters and gatherings are at the roots of the community and allow builds – completed or not – to be viewed and discussed on a more intimate level. Meets, in my point of view, have never been my thing because I really didn’t enjoy the way people acted at most of them. You have to be very certain about what meets to attend, because many of them nowadays draw a lot of attention (in a negative way), end up getting shut down, or just have the wrong sort of people in attendance – regardless of what kind of cars might be there.
On the contrary, one meet we’ve seen growing in a positive way is one in our very own backyard. The weekly ‘Tacos and Tuners’ gathering has been going strong for a year now, every Thursday night in an local Encinitas shopping center. It’s a great meet with a worthy turnout and well-minded enthusiasts, and the organizers do a great job of keeping things under control so the cops don’t have to. So props to ‘Tacos and Tuners’ on their 1 year anniversary…and we hope it continues to be a great event in 2013!
This Z build is a frequent to the meet.
I love the custom dash and AM Pro-Comp gauges.
Porsche 991…
Track-spec S2000 from Infinite Motion in San Marcos…
Nicholas Haanen’s Mustang, another frequent Tacos’ visitor and photographer…
Nice pair…
Very nice M3…
No shortage of power here…
The lot filled up quickly and before long, it became (by far) the biggest ‘Tacos’ gathering I’ve attended.
Clean and simple DA Integra…
This pic does a little justice, but honestly in person, the wing is crazy tall. I mean almost taller than the roof line…
Very nice pair of 240s…
Simple TSX…
Sportcar Motion’s CR-Z…
This track-prepped Sentra was for sale. Note the custom ASC roll cage…
Melissa Miller’s Z32 is getting reworked with a custom dash setup.
The turnout was remarkable and there was definitely a nice variety of cars.
If you haven’t made it out to ‘Tacos and Tuners’ yet and you’re in the San Diego area, be sure to check it out on Thursday nights. It’s located in the Target shopping center off 1006 El Camino Real in Encinitas, from 7pm-9pm. You can get more info and keep up with the latest about the meet on their Facebook page.
We hope to be out there again soon!
Thanks for reading!
timscribbles.com 
Leave a Reply