Best Car City

[hotrodalex]

What is the best city for a car enthusiast to live in?

Lots of factors can come into play:

- weather
- fun driving roads
- # of car shows/other enthusiasts
- good mechanic shops
- junkyards/parts availability
- cost of living (more money spent on house = less spent on cars)
- etc

[hotrodalex]

Some of my top cities:

Charlotte
Lots of twisty roads nearby, lots of Nascar history in the area, quite a few racetracks around, good weather.

Malibu
Exotic cars, twisty roads, So Cal weather. Only downfall is traffic in LA and cost of living.

Cincinnati
Kind of a central location to tons of car shows in the midwest, twisty roads if you go east or south of the city, good CoL. Downfall: winters are cold and cars can get rusty.

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

I'd have to go with LA also!

[Laconian]

If you factor in traffic, I don't think LA would win here.
Seattle is totally disqualified for the same reason.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

I've thought about this before, in preparation for an eventual(hopefully) move.

I made a map, I just moved the circle around until most of the tracks where within the outer ring(300 miles, one way). From there I would zoom in and find the area with the best roads. SE indiana(by the kentucky/ohio border) looked pretty good. Good distance to atleast a half a dozen tracks, about 30 mile drive to some bad ass mountain roads and at one point I looked and found some very nice towns in that area(per employment, demographics, living conditions, etc).

[Laconian]

Clever.

[Eye of the Tiger]

There ain't shit for public accessible race tracks in SC. Pisses me off.

[Cookie Monster]

Bay area.

Pros: giant car scene, only second to Socal.
Miles and miles of twisty mountain roads, most of which lead to beaches.
Mild weather for year round fun.

Cons: cost of living.
SMOG and difficulty in doing worthwhile mods

[Byteme]

Las Vegas

[Rich]

Weather and fun driving roads I'd have to say Acapulco.  I was looking for a place with fun roads and the best climate and that looked the best to me.  I don't know the car scene/repair shops down there though.

[SVT666]

Where I live.  Tons of twisty two lane mountain roads with no police, great weather for 8 months a year, and fun snow driving for 2 months. 

[Rupert]

Eugene, OR. North coast CA. Asheville, NC.

Screw car shows, they're lame.

[Rupert]

Las Vegas

What about Vegas makes it a good place for car enthusiasm? Roads are straight, traffic is bad, weather is horrrrible.

[Rich]

Where I live.  great weather for 8 months a year

Lol, no

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelowna#Climate

[SVT666]

Lol, no

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelowna#Climate

Ummm, we have great weather for 8 months of the year. Summers are blistering hot, and the shoulder seasons are very comfortable. It barely ever rains, and the winters are mild.  Most winter days are right around 32F, and I usually just wear a hoodie in the winter.

[Byteme]

What about Vegas makes it a good place for car enthusiasm? Roads are straight, traffic is bad, weather is horrrrible.

I like the area.  It's near Santa Fe, Albuquerque.  Challenging mountain roads nearby.  What's not to like?

[MX793]

Ummm, we have great weather for 8 months of the year. Summers are blistering hot, and the shoulder seasons are very comfortable. It barely ever rains, and the winters are mild.  Most winter days are right around 32F, and I usually just wear a hoodie in the winter.

According to the Wiki article, it rains 1 out of every 3 days there from May thru September on average.  That's a bit less rainy than here, and a lot less rainy than a Florida summer, but not what I'd call "hardly ever rains".  It hardly ever rains in San Diego in the summer.  Heck, Seattle, for all it's rainy reputation, has fewer rainy summer days by roughly 25%.  Unless it's one of those places were is rains lightly for an hour and then is fine the rest of the day.  I see that despite only having 20% more rainy days here in the summer, we get 250% the actual rainfall (when it rains here, it typically rains throughout the day).

And our summers are similar in high temperature (our average lows are much higher, resulting in a higher mean temp), and I don't consider them "blistering".  Quite comfortable, overall, really.  The hottest days can approach "blistering" when heat index is factored in, but there's barely a handful of those a year.  Atlanta is "blistering hot" in the summer.  Jacksonville is "blistering hot" in the summer.  Phoenix is "blistering hot" in the summer.

You guys get 5 months with zero snowy days.  I'll give you 6, maybe 7 months of "good" weather.  Less by my definition, which is weather I can motorcycle in without an insulated jacket, non-mesh gloves, or long johns (temperatures above 65F).

[SVT666]

According to the Wiki article, it rains 1 out of every 3 days there from May thru September on average.  That's a bit less rainy than here, and a lot less rainy than a Florida summer, but not what I'd call "hardly ever rains".  It hardly ever rains in San Diego in the summer.  Heck, Seattle, for all it's rainy reputation, has fewer rainy summer days by roughly 25%.  Unless it's one of those places were is rains lightly for an hour and then is fine the rest of the day.  I see that despite only having 20% more rainy days here in the summer, we get 250% the actual rainfall (when it rains here, it typically rains throughout the day).

And our summers are similar in high temperature (our average lows are much higher, resulting in a higher mean temp), and I don't consider them "blistering".  Quite comfortable, overall, really.  The hottest days can approach "blistering" when heat index is factored in, but there's barely a handful of those a year.  Atlanta is "blistering hot" in the summer.  Jacksonville is "blistering hot" in the summer.  Phoenix is "blistering hot" in the summer.

You guys get 5 months with zero snowy days.  I'll give you 6, maybe 7 months of "good" weather.  Less by my definition, which is weather I can motorcycle in without an insulated jacket, non-mesh gloves, or long johns (temperatures above 65F).

It rains a lot in June, but it doesn't rain at all in July and August.  That's why we're considered a desert. And when it does rain here it's only for half an hour.  Total precipitation for the entire year is less than 15".  As for snowy days, we might get a snow in late November, and it melts right away, but snow lasts a week at most usually, because it melts right away. Most of our winter is spent above freezing and no snow.  We usually don't have snow on Christmas either.

100F is blistering hot for Canada.

[MX793]

It rains a lot in June, but it doesn't rain at all in July and August.  That's why we're considered a desert. And when it does rain here it's only for half an hour.  Total precipitation for the entire year is less than 15".  As for snowy days, we might get a snow in late November, and it melts right away, but snow lasts a week at most usually, because it melts right away. Most of our winter is spent above freezing and no snow.  We usually don't have snow on Christmas either.

100F is blistering hot for Canada.

The average high temperature there from May thru September is 75F.  The average high on the hottest month is low 80s with relatively low humidity.  Record high is just over 100F, but how frequently does that really happen?  Record high here is similar, but I can't remember the last time it actually hit triple digits (heat index has kissed that mark a few times, but actual ambient has only been ~89-92).  I've been in Jacksonville and Georgia in the summer when it was 100+ degrees with 65-75% humidity.  That's sweltering.  I spent some time in southern Arizona for work when it was upwards of 115F.  Spent some time working/crawling on equipment that was outdoors and baking in the sun, so long sleeves and pants (and gloves) were a must to avoid burns.  The days when it was only 95-100 actually weren't bad.  No worse than a humid (65-70%), low 80s day here.  115 was HOT, even with <20% humidity.  80s and ~35% humidity isn't all that hot.  A bit cooler than southern New Mexico in the late summer.  I can still wear jeans or khakis at that temperature and not feel like I was going to die from heat stroke.

[SVT666]

The average high temperature there from May thru September is 75F.  The average high on the hottest month is low 80s with relatively low humidity.  Record high is just over 100F, but how frequently does that really happen?  Record high here is similar, but I can't remember the last time it actually hit triple digits (heat index has kissed that mark a few times, but actual ambient has only been ~89-92).  I've been in Jacksonville and Georgia in the summer when it was 100+ degrees with 65-75% humidity.  That's sweltering.  I spent some time in southern Arizona for work when it was upwards of 115F.  Spent some time working/crawling on equipment that was outdoors and baking in the sun, so long sleeves and pants (and gloves) were a must to avoid burns.  The days when it was only 95-100 actually weren't bad.  No worse than a humid (65-70%), low 80s day here.  115 was HOT, even with <20% humidity.  80s and ~35% humidity isn't all that hot.  A bit cooler than southern New Mexico in the late summer.  I can still wear jeans or khakis at that temperature and not feel like I was going to die from heat stroke.

That's awesome, but I think you missed the part where I said it was blistering for Canada.  In the month of July we get near the record high quite a bit.  But I'm not going to argue with you about the weather in a place I live and you have never been to.

[Rupert]

It rains a lot in June, but it doesn't rain at all in July and August.  That's why we're considered a desert. And when it does rain here it's only for half an hour.  Total precipitation for the entire year is less than 15".  As for snowy days, we might get a snow in late November, and it melts right away, but snow lasts a week at most usually, because it melts right away. Most of our winter is spent above freezing and no snow.  We usually don't have snow on Christmas either.

100F is blistering hot for Canada.

Uh, that's not a desert, it's barely even semi-arid.

[Rupert]

I like the area.  It's near Santa Fe, Albuquerque.  Challenging mountain roads nearby.  What's not to like?

What challenging mountain roads nearby?

What's not to like? Boring roads, heat, traffic (and that's just the stuff related to car enthusiasm).

[MX793]

I like the area.  It's near Santa Fe, Albuquerque.  Challenging mountain roads nearby.  What's not to like?

Albuquerque and Sante Fe are like 600 miles away from Vegas.

[Rupert]

IMO, for many reasons, Vegas is just about as close to Hell City on Earth as we can get in this country.

[hotrodalex]

Vegas has SEMA and it's fun to cruise the stripe in a flashy loud car, but otherwise it's meh.

[veeman]

I think the U.S. speed enforcement policies eliminate any city in the U.S. from consideration as best car city in terms of actual driving enjoyment.

[Rupert]

Bollocks. There are plenty of places to drive fast.

[MX793]

Bollocks. There are plenty of places to drive fast.

And there are roads on which you don't need to exceed the speed limit to have fun.

[Eye of the Tiger]

And there are roads on which you don't need to exceed the speed limit to have fun.

Maybe in a Miata

[Lebowski]

God, Vegas would be the last place in the US I'd live.