Goodguys Meguiar’s Del Mar Nationals 2025
The Goodguys 24th Meguiar’s Del Mar Nationals, presented by Fitech Fuel Injection, was hosted on a beautiful Southern California weekend, on the spacious grounds of the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
Billed as “America’s Favorite Car Show,” the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association events are car shows and a whole lot more.
Lowriders are a cultural mainstay of the Southern California automotive scene, and they were well represented at this Goodguys show with a special indoor display inside an exhibit hall.
Inside the O’Brien and Crosby exhibit halls were the Meguiar’s West Coast D’ Elegance contenders, and special suede and chrome displays.
Throughout the Fairgrounds — outside and inside the exhibit halls, vendors sold food items and a variety of merchandise.
Cars are, of course, more than just cool things to look at and admire. They are also for driving, and many were indeed driven hard, in the Goodguys Autocross Racing Series event, featuring the “Duel in Del Mar Shootout.” Hot rods, trick trucks and muscle cars competed on a timed road course. One-by-one they took to the autocross track and negotiated the tight turns around the course that was outlined by pylons (traffic cones). The penalty for hitting a cone was time added to the run. It was both thrilling and a little surprising to watch cars like a classic, vintage Cadillac mixing it up with cars that are more typically associated with high performance driving.
What would any major car show be without a swap meet? At the Goodguys “Swap Meet & Cars 4 Sale Corral,” there were hundreds of hard-to-find treasures for sale — from the smallest car parts to complete automobiles, as well as memorabilia, vintage bicycles and more.
There was a model and pedal car display, and vintage miniatures, inside the Mission Tower.
The all-new Auto World Family Zone had diecast racing, cornhole, Connect 4, autocross Jr. and more, including a free kids’ model make and take.
The Goodguys show also had valuable product giveaways.
Just on Friday, dragsters were gathered together for the Goodguys “Nitro Thunderfest, presented by Summit Racing.”
Saturday featured specialty parking areas, where categories included: the “Builders’ Choice Top Ten Awards” — “Going for Top Awards of the Event? This area is for you;” “Homebuilt Heaven” — “Did you build it Yourself? Park here for Recognition;” “Tri-Five Chevys” — “All ’55, ’56 & ’57 Chevys Welcome;” “Mighty Muscle” — “Factory correct or modified — Show your Muscle here;” “Ya Gotta Drive Em’!” — “Did you drive over 300 miles to get here? Drivers wanted;” “Deuce Doins” — “Make Henry Ford proud, show off your ’32 here;” “Trick Truck” Corral — “All Trucks are Welcome!;” “Camaro Corral” — “All Camaros Welcome!;” “Air Cooled Corral” — “All Air Cooled Cars Welcome!;” “Corvette Corral” — “Calling all Corvettes!;” “Got Wood” — “Got Wood? Park here!;” and “NEXT GENERATION” — “30 Years or Younger? Park here!” Each participant received a custom dash plaque.
Sunday featured “All American Sunday,” which welcomed all years of American made or powered cars and trucks all day long. Meanwhile, the action continued over at the Goodguys Autocross Racing Series where, since it was “All American Sunday,” all vehicles of model years 2000 and newer could also compete on the timed road course. The final competition was an eight-car shootout.
There was live nostalgia entertainment in the Del Mar Paddock.
The Goodguys 24th Meguiar’s Del Mar Nationals culminated with an awards program, in front of the Goodguys Entertainment/Awards Stage, presented by CPP. One by one the cars drove up to the stage, were announced and their occupants were given one of the over 100 awards. Last to be so-recognized was the Goodguys 2025 Meguiar’s West Coast D’Elegance Top 12 winner.
As always, after the show was officially over, there was a great opportunity to see the cars and trucks as they drove away.
To learn more about the Goodguys Road & Custom Association, including dates and locations of other Goodguys events, visit https://good-guys.com.
To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latest text, visit “AutoMatters & More” at https://automatters.net. Search by title or topic in the Search Bar in the middle of the Home Page, or click on the blue ‘years’ boxes and browse.
Copyright © 2025 by Jan Wagner – AutoMatters & More #896r1
I can see the downside of Autocrossing… expensive tires! I’m well ahead of you in advanced aging. Just keep up what you are doing but possibly ease up on the heavy equipment. David.
Thanks David,
As fun as autocrossing is, and the fact that it teaches advanced car control skills (in a reasonably safe environment) that can help mitigate risk in potential accident situations, to be competitive in autocrossing requires specialized, often expensive high-performance equipment and pushing cars to the limit, which is hard on them. All that for only a few minutes of track time. Add in all of the work and time spent, and my advancing age, and it was no longer worth it for me to continue.
As for me not continuing to carry heavy camera gear, that gear enables me to take pictures that would be difficult, if not impossible with lesser gear. I will continue to carry it as long as I am able.
Jan
Jan, there is so much going on where you live in SoCal. I’ve read your earlier columns on the Goodguys events, and they always have great cars on display. I think I recognize a few of them from previous years. Did you enter any of the Autocross events? They would be right up your alley! David
Hi David,
Yes, there is a ton of stuff going on within reasonable driving distance of where I live in San Diego, in addition to movies that I would like to review, products that I would like to review and much more. That makes it really difficult (impossible?) for me to keep covering events, etc. while also writing new columns and editing pictures — to say nothing of continuing my ongoing, never-ending project of adding older columns that have never been on the website which, of course, requires me to edit more pictures for them too. In addition to that, I have to take care of myself, my home and my cars, and have a social life — all while physically slowing down due to my advancing age.
In response to your excellent suggestion, I used to enter the GoodGuys autocross when I owned my Mustang GT V-8 but I stopped doing that (and autocrossing regularly with the SCCA) when I replaced my Mustang with a new, orange, 2019 Mazda MX-5 (30th Anniversary Edition Mazda Miata), which I have never autocrossed, and probably never will. After just one autocross the treads at the edges of the tires would be worn off from the hard, at-the-limit cornering forces.
Jan
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