Tuned Motorsports Cars & Cosplay: Fourth Gear

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This event has been a long time coming, and not just for myself. We’ll get into how long this entire event has been in the works later on. I reached out to Nathen of Tuned Motorsports back in April as he was already launching promo material for this event. We’re talking about the only indoor mall car show in South Texas so I’d be crazy to not jump in on this, right? In late July I got confirmed to be a part of the media team and capture the event – it was official. I’m incredibly glad I was able to make it out, even more so that I got to have a pretty long conversation with Nathen. We got into his start with the automotive culture, the “why” of starting to organize local events, and learning about the insane amounts of calculated planning for all this, an entire connected universe that’s been created for the car community.
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As someone who’s been around for longer than they care to admit, It’s hard not to keep track of who’s doing what these days. While I may not be out at EVERY car show because it’s not always my cup of tea, it’s not hard to notice the names that pop up frequently – especially in such a tight knit community that we have here in the RGV. This will be Tuned Motorsports 4th big event, hence the “Fourth Gear” title they’ve gone with. Unfortunately I was out of town last year for their first ever indoor mall car show, a first for South Texas. I saw some great coverage, the turnout was solid, and the idea of combining automotive culture with anime themes and cosplay (while not new), was a first for the area. This time around I knew I wasn’t going to miss it.

Due to the nature of my day-to-day job, I was also a bit more involved than just doing media. The shop I work at was a sponsor for the event, so we set up a small store and had our good friend Thomas bring out his recently rebuilt 3V Mustang to be a part of the shops display. The “roll-in” to pack the mall with registered cars was the evening before – so I made my way out and wasn’t sure what to expect. I arrived early (shocker) and started checking out a few of the cars – maybe these people also have the same sort of anxiety I do about being late somewhere…maybe. Being at Valle Vista Mall brought back a lot of memories from the early 2000’s. Back then my dad was building and designing custom homes out in the Harlingen area. And because it was a different time back then, my brothers and I would get dropped off at the arcade for a while. The same entrance I would take, cut a right, and head straight towards a Ferrari racing game was now the entrance these cars for the show were about to take.
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Inside the mall, there was a variety of domestics, imports, low-riders, euros – all which were selected weeks in advance. I ran into Eric of RGVShowoff who was helping manage the outdoor portion of the event – was also showcasing his Civic along with some clean rides from STATUS CC. Another familiar name in the local car community who’s been throwing events as far back as I can remember. It was a long day, but I took some time off mid day to drive back home, then head back out to catch the tail end of the evening along with the awards ceremony along with the Cosplay Contest.

One of the guys from our friends EuroFanatics took home a trophy for his E36, along with Nate with his white 5th gen Prelude. I met Nate during load in, one of the early birds who was hanging out in the parking lot before things got moving. I’ve owned a lot of Honda’s over the years, but my 4th Gen Prelude was one of my favorites – so I have a soft spot for the chassis. Thomas took home a prize for best race car, which wasn’t a shocker when it was the only car that had to get pushed in and out due to safety concerns from the glass possibly shattering inside the mall. And finally guys at BoostedJunkies took such heavy hitters that it was impossible to choose one – so the entire crew took home 1st. But how did this sort of show not only happen once, but twice now? Seeing Nathen and his team carefully manage everything from load in, and running around all day making sure the show went off as smooth as could be given a few setback, it was clear I wasn’t going to get any time to find out about Tuned Motorsports- and that was totally fine.
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But there were a few things I needed to talk to Nathen about, mostly “How” and “Why”? Once a few days had passed I got to talk with the creative mind behind Tuned Motorsports. Nathen Delgado is a Brownsville native who had a short stay living here in the Rio Grande Valley. That sort of happens when you’re born into a Military family where “home” becomes a lot of different places and you ending up having 14 different schools throughout your life. At 8 months old, he left the RGV and has since experienced life in North Carolina, New Jersey, California, and Florida – then eventually calling places like Japan, Korea, and Italy his home. Cars were always something present in his life, besides his Father lighting that spark – it was his moms 98′ GST Eclipse that really became a lasting memory and he would eventually find himself behind the wheel of his own 2nd Gen GST. And we all know how influential that chassis had become by this time thanks to…well you know the movie.

Living all over the U.S, and eventually leaving the country not only introduces you to different cultures – but different types of automotive communities. So after 6 short months from moving back to his hometown, hanging out in the same parking lot week after week began to get stale. We’ve all been there, and we’re currently seeing what happens when cruise nights just start to fizzle out. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect to start up Tuned Motorsports. It was 2021, Covid lockdowns were easing up, and people who hadn’t really been going out needed something to do. But as I’d find out from talking to Nathen, this “universe” of automotive events he’s created didn’t happen from one day to the next. While he does give credit to his friends for coming in to help with everything from helping design graphics, to being feet on the ground at these events – the meetings, marketing, planning, and fine details are the result of late night ideas from years before an event happens.

While “Fourth Gear” has been in the works for the past 2 years, the pieces didn’t start moving till this past December. After his first indoor mall car show in South Texas – he pushed to make things even bigger. That’s when the theme of drifting had come into play, and with the help our old friends from Drift Corpus – this would mark the first event like this in the RGV. Unfortunately after countless meetings, months of planning, and some great promotional material being shot at several Corpus events – the drift aspect of the event was axed. Knowing Justin (DriftCorpus), and how hard Nathen had been working on this, I had figured there was an outside element that was the factor, and without getting too deep into things – I was right. It’s never something you want to see, hell having my own group of friends deal with something similar when trying to make drifting happen here back in 2016 with our local track – it was definitely a bummer. But the hits kept coming and once again – it was a cancellation of of his control the night before the event.
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But as someone somewhere once said, “The show must go on”. And it really did. Throughout the day there were people of all ages walking through what many know to be abandoned part of the city. There were automotive enthusiasts and cosplayers coming together to help bring this universe that Tuned Motorsports has created to life. And again, while this isn’t something “new” – it is something that we can now say is part of our home. Tuned Motorsports isn’t solely a car club – but “seasons” of friends that have found each other over the years. Their collective passions that act as a flashlight become hyper focused as a laser thanks to Nathen.

I’ve learned that the next big event already has a ton of details to work off of. His goal is to always top his past events, and without giving me too much of a hint into where or what the overall theme will be – he did confirm that there are definitely easter eggs and hints throughout all his promotional material and the events themselves. Personally, I’m glad I came back out to cover more events when I did. While there does seem to be a lull in the weekly meet-ups, the big events seem to be doing just fine thanks to organizations like Tuned Motorsports.
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Tuned Motorsports
RGV ShowOff

Sponsors:
Vinyl Frog
GetNRG
The Prisma Lab
Carbonetics

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Photos and Words by : Bobby Villarreal