14th Annual McAllen International CarFest 2024

It was a nice change of pace to be out at this event shooting for myself instead of covering the event for work. Although…I guess technically I was still technically working? You know what I mean. This year I went out to support a family member who was showing his recently restored vehicle, and have the kiddo take a few photos of some pretty awesome cars (gotta start’em young).

Also, funnel cakes.

It’s great when events like this happen on my “off” weekends. I felt like after an hour I’d be good to go, but I completely underestimated how much there was to see. Call it memory loss, but I should have known better since I’ve been covering this event for the past few years. Heck, I’m even old enough to remember making it out to the first year. This year was a special one though. For as long as I can remember, cars were sort of it for me. I loved everything about them – and then I found out how fast they could go and I was sold. There was no big car influence directly in the house. I do remember my dad owning a pretty gnarly 2nd Gen VW Scirocco though.

My love for motorsports came from trips to my Grandma’s house and hanging out with my cousin Hector. I’m not going to get too much into things since there’s a feature in the works – but from going to a NASCAR race to countless trips to the drag strip, these past 13 years of Gear-Trends and wanting to document the local automotive scene stemmed from these early years and being exposed to it all. This year he was able to showcase a project he’d been working on for a while, a 1977 Dodge Ramcharger that he picked up off my Uncle Dario. And this is just the start, there’s still plans for some more work under the hood but of course with builds like this – it’s all about enjoying the time.

The rest of the event was great. There was a ton of fun cars to see in person, from the early EARLY years to modern muscle cars and everything in between. Aside from all the vehicles on display, there was fun for the whole family including a Lego Racing Derby, Greenpower USA Racing, R/C Drag Racing (shout out to New Sun Racing), a swap meet, live music, and of course the food and drinks. Every year CarFest gets a little bigger and it’s pretty great that this continues to go on every year here in town.

Huge thanks to the City of McAllen for creating events like this for the local automotive community. To get information on this event and see more upcoming events stay connected!
McAllen International CarFest
McAllen Convention Center

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Words and Photos By : Bobby Villarreal