We’ve been all over the West Coast. Based in Rancho Cucamonga, CSF attends most major shows here in Southern California – from the big ones like Wekfest and Bimmerfest to more niche shows like the Eibach Honda Meet and Players Select (hosted here at our HQ). No matter what you drive, if you’re local to us, chances are you’ve seen us at a show here.
…The East Coast is a different story.
We’ve expanded our business throughout the United States and internationally exponentially over the course of the last few years, so it was time we see what the East Coast is all about. What better way to do that, than to visit Pocono Raceway and Philadelphia – in which we’ve heard has quite the Euro scene.
The rumors were true.
The trip started with a flight that touched down in Philly later in the day – although we didn’t have much daylight left, it was evident that we were no longer in California… everything was so green and, of course, we were greeted with a storm.
Day One
Our first major stop was Turn 14 Distribution’s headquarters in Horsham. We started with an automated temperature check to gain entry, then toured the Google-esque building (that’s recently been fully acquired by T14). Unfortunately, many of the office staff had opted to work from home due to COVID-19. The office was awesome, but we were even more impressed with the company’s Pennsylvania warehouse (which, according to our Purchasing Manager and acting tour guide, Mike, is the least impressive out of their three warehouse locations).
The entire perimeter plus the center of the warehouse is lined with an automated conveyer system. The system sorts all incoming packages, tracks them as they travel throughout the warehouse, as well as places shipping labels and delivers to trucks upon shipment. With enough car parts inside to finish your dream build hundreds of times over, the operation and sheer size of the warehouse is something that needs to be seen to be fully understood. Nonetheless, its interesting to see where the parts you order are coming from.
To the Poconos
With our tour of Turn 14 Distribution’s Pennsylvania facilities complete, we picked up our pallet of show supplies and made the two-hour drive to the Pocono Mountains. Our first day there, we checked out Pocono Raceway, did some sight-seeing, and a bear walked up to us at dinner – we were told with this, we officially got the “full Pennsylvania experience”.
The entire time it rained off and on, so we were hoping for sunny skies for MPACT.
//MPACT East 2020
Saturday was show day.
We woke up to sunny skies and headed to the famed Pocono Raceway to set up in the early morning humidity.
We’ve been to Bimmerfest West countless times, and being BMW fans personally, it’s one of our favorite events out here in Cali – so we had high hopes for MPACT. We were told it’d be smaller than Bimmerfest but, with Bimmerfest East now canceled, and people (much like us) yearning for car events due to the Coronavirus, the event drew in quite an impressive crowd.
Later on in the day, attendees reported waiting upwards of four hours to get in, and multiple people running out of gas in line… The event staff had no clue just how much the show was going to explode.
This meant the CSF booth had tons of foot traffic. We had a blast meeting everyone, checking out the builds, and showing off our products to all of the BMW enthusiasts of the East alongside Kies Motorsports’ F80 M3 and Tyspeed’s Club Racer F87 M2 that was on and off the track all day.
Bryan from Kies Motorsports Ferrari Red F80 rocks our paint-matched Top Mount Charge-Air Cooler (CSF #8082) and Front Mount Heat Exchanger (CSF #8075). We partnered up with Tyler of Tyspeed a few years back when he started building his M2 for Pikes Peak. He’s been staying cool ever since, running our entire N55 M2 Cooling Package (CSF #8115, 7078LT, 8104, 8103) and CSF Universal Oil Coolers (CSF #8066).
Although mainly flooded with F8X and E9X Ms, the event drew a variety of BMWs and a few other makes as well. There were handfuls of rare specs, widebody stance E46s, tasteful OEM+ builds, full-blown track cars, and everything in-between.
With the largest amount of BMW product offerings in the industry, we saw an abundance of CSF. Our best-selling F1X M5/M6 and F8X M3/M4/M2C Charge-Air Coolers were spotted multiple times – with one attendee winning “Best Engine Bay” with his custom orange CSF cooler.
As if the event wasn’t action-packed enough already with tons of show cars to check out, a burnout contest, roll racing, and NASA races throughout the day – three lucky enthusiasts from CSF’s Instagram had the opportunity to ride passenger with Tyler on the track. In-between the track sessions, the Tyspeed team took advantage of the burnout/drifting event to finish off some tires.
All in all, the event went off without a hitch – the hospitality of the MPACT team is unmatched, and with great weather all day, the show could not have gone any better. We’ve been missing events this year with Coronavirus quarantine, so the trip and show were refreshing… and reminded us why we do what we do.
If one thing’s for sure, we’ll be back to the East Coast soon.
Stay COOL.
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