The Friday Night Sonic Meet

The longer I hang around Raleigh, the more I realize we've got a vibrant car culture. There are groups and enthusiasts everywhere; it's just a matter of knowing where to look.  A friend of mine (with one of the most sleeper Civics ever) let me know about a car meet that occurs every Friday night at the Sonic Drive-In in Cary, near NC State.  I'd never even heard there was a meet there, but figured I'd give it a shot.  According to regulars, it was a pretty small turn-out.  I wasn't disappointed; the meet filled up the entire Sonic parking lot and overflowed into the grocery store lot next to it; and this was at 10:30 at night!  Check out some of the stuff that showed up.

It's nice to see well-done MKIV Golfs.  This particular green is an uncommon color for MKIV's, and most of them you see in this color don't look nearly this good by now.

A really nicely done S2000 always stands out.  Great wheel choice, for sure.

This 3rd-generation (FD3S) RX-7 may have looked like a broken-down Peter the Beater, but under the hood is a fully-built 13b-REW 2-rotor (Super Seals, etc) with a custom single GT35R turbocharger, full fueling kit, insanity.  I imagine this car is flat-out scary to drive.

It takes all types - Mustang, tuned Forester, IS300, Integra, 350Z in a row.  This might be the meanest-looking 1G Forester I've seen.

A very dumped 350Z, on Volk TE37's.  Can't go wrong with these wheels on most any Japanese car!

It's always hard to tell with Subarus, but you're looking at a lot of horsepower here.  The turbo is a reclocked GT35R, which is a popular high-output turbo in the import scene.  Supposedly more than 400 horsepower to all 4 wheels on this one!

Classic Ronal Turbos look a little strange on an EK hatchback.  Not bad, just... unusual.

The Hellaflush crowd is already embracing Hyundai's Genesis Coupe.  Not hard to make one of these look great.

Not only is this GS300 unbelievably dumped, it's also sporting a huge single turbo on it's fortified 2JZ-GE straight six, rumored to be good for around 700 horsepower.  Also rumored to not spool up until past 4,000rpm.  This is a very well-known car around the Raleigh area and on some internet circles; the level of attention to detail is stunning.

Airbags is the only way to get a GS300 this low to the ground.  Also, notice the last-generation Infiniti Q45 "Gatling Gun" headlight clusters tucked into the Lexus housings.  How do they do that?  Neat.

BBS RC's: a very popular wheel with the MKIV Golf/Jetta crowd.  Very popular.

Nice to see DA Integras still getting love; sometimes it seems the only chassis Honda guys care about are DC2's, EG's, and EK's.

I'm still working on my night time photography skills; it was hard to use a tripod without getting run over in the parking lot, so I ended up shooting a lot of these free-handed and some came out absolutely terrible.  I'll be back next week, for sure - good meet, good atmosphere, and some awesome cars out!