One of the most timeless and yet exciting events San Diego has to offer is the Coronado Speed Festival, which has been going on annually for just shy of 20 years now. And, though we’ve been attending for the past five or so, it is still exhilarating to see the assortment of pristine classics, vintage and race vehicles from their respective eras on the track. Even more so than seeing them in action, is hearing them. Each year I seem to underestimate how loud some of the big bore muscle cars can be at wide-open throttle – Tim and I found ourselves searching for earplugs about halfway through the event.
As always, the North Island Naval facility in Coronado served as host of the festival, with nearly 20,000 attendees over the course of the race weekend. The runways and taxiways on base make up the track, at a length just shy of 2 miles.
Prior to heading out to the track, we combed the car corral and the hot pits:
A Honda Beat kei car – a rare sight for us in the states.
Beautiful stingray…
Alfa Romeo GTV-6…
One stainless, one red.
New to the festival this year was the pre-war era class, which includes all sorts of production cars prior to the 1940s. Some in better shape than others…
I liked this design embedded into the tire tread.
Preparations and adjustments taking place in the paddock before and after Saturday’s practice runs.
Back with more from the track tomorrow! Thanks for reading!
timscribbles.com 