The Best of Long Beach—

Long Beach Car Culture

Long Beach car culture is convertibles cruising Ocean Boulevard with the top down, lowriders gathering by the beach to show off their hydraulics, and VW vans lined up on Retro Row for a Cars and Coffee meetup.

Cars are a major part of SoCal history, and Long Beach continues to play a major role in American automaking. In Long Beach, the cars we drive are a reflection of the community’s diversity and love of cars as an expression of self and style.

CAR SHOWS

For several decades, Southern California car culture has been celebrated in Long Beach at shows that draw enthusiasts from across the region. The Belmont Shore Car Show, which celebrated 30 years in 2022, takes over 2nd Street on a Saturday every September, lining 14 blocks with over 600 cars, from beautifully preserved classics to flashy custom builds. Across town on the Downtown waterfront, the All-Toyotafest comes to Marina Green Park each year in May, while the Japanese Classic Car Show is held in the fall. The Sultans Car Club also hosts an annual classic car show at Shoreline Park in August.

RACING AND COMPETITION

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is legendary in the city’s history. Celebrating 50 years in 2025, the Grand Prix is the city’s biggest annual event, drawing nearly 200,000 race fans to the downtown area across the entire race weekend every April. This IndyCar event features not only some of the fastest cars on the planet, classic sports cars, Formula Drift, and SUPER trucks, and culminates on Sunday with the iconic race whose winners have included both Mario and Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. Race weekend begins with Thunder Thursday, a free event featuring race car driver meet-and-greets, motorcycle stunt shows, and race cars on display. After the closure of the Irwindale Speedway in 2024, Formula Drift also moved to Long Beach and has hosted its Shoreline Showdown annually on the downtown waterfront.

LOWRIDERS

Lowriders grew in popularity across Los Angeles and Long Beach in the 1940s and 50s, and today local clubs still go cruising in their Impalas, Buick Regals, and Lincoln Continentals, tricked out with hydraulics, chrome, and signature wire wheels. Over the years, the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center has hosted the Long Beach Lowrider Super Show organized by Gearhead Events and Lowrider Magazine, featuring folklorico and break dancing, zoot suit contests, hop contests, and of course hundreds of lowriders.

LONG BEACH’S AUTO LEGACY

With the rise of the automobile at the turn of the last century, Henry Ford’s Model A became America's most popular car so much so that many garages in Long Beach were built to accommodate the model. By 1930, Ford Motor Co. had opened a factory on Terminal Island in Long Beach, just one of seven outside of Detroit that remained open during the Great Depression. The plant manufactured Lincoln, Mercury, and Fords until its closure in 1958. However, this wasn’t the end of Ford’s story in Long Beach. In 2025, Ford established its Electric Vehicle Development Center at a facility near the Long Beach Airport with the goal of developing an affordable electric truck.

MEETUPS

On most weekends you can find a car-centric meetup in Long Beach, with Cars and Coffee events being a popular gathering for gearheads. Locations include Wolf’s Brew Coffee (4145 Norse Way), the Retro Row parking lot (2000 E 4th St), and The Small Cafe (5656 2nd St) on Naples Island. One of the most reliable monthly gatherings is organized by Shore Shifters, which meets every fourth Sunday at Junipero Beach (1 Junipero Ave) at 8 AM. All makes and models are welcome, with free donuts and coffee available to purchase. To see info about the next upcoming date, follow Shore Shifters on Instagram.

RISE OF THE HIGHWAY

With its location along Pacific Coast Highway and not far from where Route 66 ends in Santa Monica, Long Beach embraced midcentury SoCal car culture that flourished from the 1940s to 1960s. Drive-in diners and movie theaters sprung up across Long Beach, as did 20 blocks of dealerships on Long Beach Boulevard. You can still find remnants of this era around town, including the 1963 Googie-style building with an iconic flying-V roofline that today houses Aikan Sushi (4201 E Willow St), but was originally the Ray Vines Chrysler dealership.

Author

Claire Atkinson
Claire Atkinson is a Southern California native who has lived in Long Beach for over 20 years. She spends her free time visiting local parks, farmers markets, and museums, and loves learning about Long Beach history and culture.

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