Cruisin’ Morro Bay Celebrates 28 Years with a Record Turnout
One of the best car shows in California draws a huge crowd, proving it’s the destination car show you should attend.
It was like a trip back in time. The last time I attended Cruisin’ Morro Bay was in 2016, which was the last year the Car Craft Anti Tour visited the show. A bit of history for the uninitiated: The Anti-Tour was Car Craft magazine’s snarky alternative HOT ROD’s Power Tour. It was established in the late ’90s by the Car Craft staff once they realized how big and corporate the Power Tour was becoming. The Anti Tour was Car Craft’s antidote to that; it was informal, unsponsored, and hyper local. Typically just a weekend road trip, Anti Tour visited various locations throughout its existence, including Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Escondido, Barona Dragstrip, and a three-year stint to the Cruisin’ Morro Bay car show.
AI Quick Summary
Cruisin’ Morro Bay car show celebrated its 28th year with a record turnout. Located in a scenic coastal town, this family-friendly event features a diverse array of cars. Despite growing in size, the event maintains its quaint charm and draws attendees with plenty of local attractions.
This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article
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Morro Bay is a scenic coastal town located halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Each May for the last 28 years, Morro Bay closes off a large portion of its downtown streets for a growing contingent of cars that descend upon the town for the laid-back and family-friendly car show. Family friendly is key, too, because Morro Bay offers something for everyone—shopping, good food, beautiful scenery, sea lions, and a large population of California sea otters, quite possibly the cutest animals in existence.
The car show is pretty great, too. It has gotten bigger over time, but not big enough to ruin the quaint atmosphere of Morro Bay, and we hope it always stays that way. You’ll see a bit of everything here, too. There’s Pro Street, restomods, high-end restorations, survivors, Kustoms, and rat rods.
It was great to be back after all these years and to see that the show, and Morro Bay in general, has remained as fun and charming as I remember. I attended with my ’67 C10, which made the roughly 440-mile round trip drive with ease. If you’re able to go, mark your calendars for next year’s show! It’s worth it, I promise. Check out the gallery if you need proof. Actually, just check out the gallery because there are cool cars and some cool dogs we spotted at the show, too.
A subscription to Car and Driver at age 10 set the stage for what would be John's career path. A voracious reader of car magazines and lover of all things automotive, he set out to learn as much as he could about cars. An automotive technology program provided the foundation, while fumbling around with large American sedans provided real world experience. Finally, a Bachelor of Science degree in photojournalism provided the focus. John accepted a five-month photography internship at Motor Trend magazine in 2003. Upon completion, he remained with the publishing company, managing a photo studio for 18 months before becoming photo editor for HOT ROD and Car Craft magazine. After three years on the production side, John accepted an editorial position at Car Craft in December 2006 and eventually became editor of Car Craft in 2014 and retained that position until March 2018 when he moved to HOT ROD as Executive Editor. He was promoted to Editor-in-Chief of HOT ROD in April 2019.
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