Radwood, possibly the coolest serialized car show in business these days, celebrates the vehicles and styles of millennial childhoods. It’s returning to its roots in the Bay Area near San Francisco this weekend and it’s going to be a magnificently sprawling event featuring something like 500 cars and a crop of motorcycles. The entire Car Autance crew will be there (meeting in person for the first time!) so look for our logos and say hi if you make it to the show. Those of you who have the means to make it to San Mateo this Saturday, trust us, you’re going to want to come on down.
Radwood (stylized as RADwood; a parody of “Goodwood,” a classy show in England) is largely responsible for stoking the stoke for nostalgia surrounding the ’80s and ’90s cars many of us reading and writing car blogs now grew up with. I mean, rising popularity of those cars was inevitable. Just like muscle car prices started rising as Gen Xers who lusted after them as kids got money, the tuner cars and everything else we had on our bedroom posters are now enjoying their moment in the sun. But the cosplay and cultural aspect of Radwood in particular (period-correct attire is encouraged; period-correct entertainment always ends up being part of the experience) has elevated it from just being another car show to being an event. And now that quite a few Radwoods have happened around the country over a period of years, we know what to look forward to: Cool vendors slinging fun merch, people zooming around on Motocompos and BMX bikes, Jazzercise attire, and good attitudes all around. Combine that with pent-up car show fever after a long pandemic, and I think it’s safe to say this will be one of the biggest automotive events of 2021.
Most of you reading this are probably already familiar with Radwood and didn’t need that intro. But if you appreciated it and would like even more context, the event’s own site has the info you need. If you’re hoping to go but haven’t copped tickets yet, you can do that here on Eventbrite.
Radwood NorCal 2021 will be going off this Saturday, July 10, in San Mateo from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. local time. Specifically, the show’s being held at the San Mateo County Event Center (1346 Saratoga Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403).
If you are going, you’ll have a lot of cool cars to look forward to, an abundance of merch to buy, and yes, the Car Autance crew to meet if you’re so inclined.
I’ve been working with Kevin Williams, Chris Rosales, and Peter Nelson (our team of regular writers) for months now but have only met Peter, briefly, and the gang has never been united at once. So this Thursday, Kevin’s flying in from Ohio and the four of us will convoy from Los Angeles to the Bay Area in time to set up a Camp Car Autance on the show grounds for Saturday.
Peter’s got a theme-appropriate Land Rover Discovery 1; I’m still trying to decide if I should bring my Mitsubishi Montero or Nissan 300ZX but I’ll be on theme either way.
You’ll know us by the big “CAR BIBLES” flags I ordered and sincerely hope arrive in time — I’ll have a huge grip of free stickers to hand out and will look for some more fun things to give away from my deep closet of random cool car stuff. Plus, we’ll be walking around getting pictures and videos of vehicles and hopefully meeting as many fellow car fans as possible. If you’re exhibiting and we really like your car, we might just bestow an award of our own on it!
I made my crew some cute nametags, so if you spot us, don’t be shy about stopping us and saying hey!
If you’re not coming out to SF this weekend, we’ll miss you, but don’t sweat it too much — we’re going to go nuts on the official Car Autance Instagram sharing pictures and videos so give us a follow and get ready to have a rad feed this weekend.
