Car buffs get your engines revved for Pacific Beach’s Classic Car Show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10 on Garnet Avenue from Mission Boulevard to Everts Street.
Sponsored by Pacific Beach Town Council, the car exhibit is being promoted and orchestrated by “Charger” Steve Lordigyan, who recently promoted the 11th annual Father’s Day Car Show in June at Belmont Park in Mission Beach.
The free, family-friendly event is made possible by PBTC’s donors and sponsors. This year’s car show is a revival of a similar pre-pandemic event held in PB, which had been sponsored by Discover Pacific Beach, the community’s business improvement district.
“The car show is a pre-existing event that happened over the years sporadically in PB,” noted PBTC president and classic-car owner Charlie Nieto. He added the town council worked with Lordigyan to bring the event back in 2024.
The event’s purpose is threefold: to draw car buffs, add another signature event to the council’s calendar, and promote Garnet Avenue’s business strip.
“The classic cars on exhibit are open to anybody and we will have activities for children,” said Nieto adding plans are to grow the car show next year “if all goes well.”
Discussing how the car exhibition will benefit the community, Nieto said: “It’s an awesome event and there’s a lot of reasons to do it. One of the great things about this type of event is it brings in a lot of people, not just from the neighborhood, but from other parts of San Diego. It’s also a cool way for us (PBTC) to draw in tourists and other visitors to come and check out our local businesses and what they have to offer.”
Although he is often linked to the Los Angeles Chargers football team, car show promoter “Charger” Steve Lordigyan’s nickname refers to a 1969 Dodge Charger he owned.
After organizing car shows for several years, Lordigyan volunteered and then was hired by El Cajon to organize the Cajon Classic Cruise Car Shows in East County on Wednesdays April through October. He also collects famous cars. The Dodge Charger he had painted years ago was a replica he built of the General Lee driven in “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV show. When he heard a real General Lee was for sale, Lordigyan sold the one he had built and bought the real thing.
Lordigyan said PBTC’s Aug. 10 classic car show will be something special. “We’ve got a lowrider car group coming in, as well as imports and modern muscle and sports cars, in a whole new category,” he said. “We have a great variety. And for this show, we wanted to be all-inclusive allowing different car communities to all gather in one place. And what place is cooler than PB?”
New this year said Lordigyan will be the debut of a nitro-burning hot rod dragster. “It’s loud: It’s an experience,” he said pointing out he has a soft spot for hot rods because owning one is how he started in classic-car promotion. “After I moved to San Diego in 1999 I bought myself a hot rod and started going to car shows, and my mind was always working on how it could be better,” he said. “So I took notes, went to some shows, and I started a car club, the East County Cruisers.”
Lordigyan then went on to exhibit classic cars at the Del Mar Fairgrounds before promoting PB’s Classic Car Show, then called Wild Rides, between 2010 and 2015. He was planning to revive a version of that event in 2020 when it was pre-empted by COVID.
If you would like to see the PB Classic Car Show stay in PB, and potentially grow, consider supporting the event. Pacific Beach Town Council has official sponsorship tiers starting at $250, but no donation is too small. For information, visit pbtowncouncil.org.
CLASSIC CAR SHOW
Where: Garnet Avenue from Mission Boulevard to Everts Street.
When: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10.
Info: pbtowncouncil.org.
