The 2nd Annual Charlotte Showdown | East vs West - Dyno Duel and Car Show presented by SOHO Motorsports and CES Motorsport last weekend was a huge success! For the last two years I have run this event from top to bottom. I do everything from invite everyone to create the designs to run the event day of and literally everything else. It's a lot of work to make it go smoothly but boy has it turned into a staple for the area, bringing out some of the best vehicles the region has to offer. The rest of this post is taken from what I wrote on the SOHO Motorsports website for the event recap, hence why its written from the perspective of SOHO:This year we moved the event date back to mid October instead of early summer like the previous year in order to get some cooler weather and hopefully some high numbers on the dyno board. Luckily for us and the tons of people who showed up for the event the weather was perfect for great horsepower with sunny skies and temps in the high sixties.
This year we were expecting a large turnout for the dyno competition with much more impressive vehicles to lay down some impressive numbers, but even we were blown away by the nearly 50 cars that were strapped down and the the thousands and thousand of horsepower / torque we saw throughout the day. Not only that but our inaugural car show was a hit with some impressive cars of its own. The 2013 Charlotte Showdown truly was a showcase for the best vehicles in the area on the dyno and in the show with nearly every make and model represented from Corvette's to M6's to GTR's to Lambo's to Supra's and Mustang's and even our Time Attack Infiniti G35. The diversity of the different vehicles, which was in the hundreds throughout the day, was very impressive and any auto enthusiast would have certainly found something to drool over.
As usual with the dyno and car show we had our raffle that left many people smiling at the end of the day thanks to our associate sponsors for the event including TurboSmart USA, Assaultech Performance, Motivated Eyewear, Driven Steering Wheels, Sneed Speedshop, Computech and of course ourselves and CES put up some good prizes to make it even better! Along with that the CES shop was open with display vehicles from CES Motorsport and SOHO Motorsports showcasing some of the things we have been working on. Combine all of that with Monster Energy giving out their delicious drinks, DJ Thanasti playing great music all day, food on site and the absolute best vehicles this area has to offer and you can see why this year's Charlotte Showdown was quite possibly one of the best events of the year!
Now with the general summation done its time to get down to the good stuff... who won!? East (Asian Vehicles) or West (Euro / American Vehicles)? Before I get to the Dyno Duel I have to thank those who were a part of our first car show from those who hard parked all day and gave us some beautiful scenery to look at. And of course we have to give a shout out to this year's winners! Best in Show went to Jonathan O'Brien in his Lamborghini LP-560, Best of the West went to Dung Nguyen in his BMW 328i and Best of the East went to Corey Sanders' Nissan 350Z!
There were tons of impressive vehicles in the parking lot but a whole different event was going on in the shop that required more brawn than beauty. At the first annual event in 2012 the East won by a pretty good margin leaving the West to think about the bitter loss for over a year. This gave them plenty of time to recruit their friends and in the hopes of taking it to the East at this years event. And anyone who attended knows they did not disappoint!
Starting at 10 am and averaging a car nearly every 10 minutes the event crew ended up having 49 different vehicles compete in the Dyno Duel, shattering the high number of 34 we had the year before. It was astonishing how many cars wanted to compete but even more so the quality of cars that this years event had brought out. If you're not familiar with the format of our unique dyno competition we take the top 5 highest combined hp and tq vehicles from each side and cumulate the totals together in a team style dyno competition pitting East (Asian made vehicles) vs West (American/European made vehicles). This year's top 5 from each side was unbelievably competitive with nearly every car having a combined 1,000 hp/tq, it was quite a show to see.
The East got out to an early lead and maintained it by a slim margin for most of the day getting there hopes up for a 2nd straight win. Until late in the afternoon on literally the last car of the entire event the West pulled their wildcard via Jimmy Bacogeorge's 98' BMW E36 and saved their best for last. With the competition on the line Jimmy turned up the boost for the first time on his new Turbo By Garrett GTX40 setup and laid down a very, very impressive pull of 682hp / 599tq!!! Good enough to not only push the West ahead of the East for the overall victory but also crown Jimmy and his BMW as the King of the Dyno! This year's team totals were astronomically high with the winning West tally at 5,500 hp/tq to the equally impressive but losing East total of 5,293 hp/tq!!!
The 2nd Annual Charlotte Showdown | East vs West seemed to be well received by everyone in attendance. We know we had a blast and sure hope everyone who came out did as well! We look forward to hosting this event again next year and making it bigger and bigger every year, so do us a favor and share this article, tell your friends and be on the lookout for the next event! Also be sure to check back to the post often as we will be uploading our video in the coming weeks from the event.
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