Import Alliance, with around 10,000 cars and 15,000 attendees it is the largest car meet in the United States and it’s held in Atlanta, Georgia at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 19th and 20th. Though it is already over, it is still an experience to be shared and a trip to be planned for next year. What is Import Alliance all about? Meeting people with a similar passion and getting to enjoy beautiful Spring weather while seeing amazing cars all weekend long.

The Import Alliance meets began on July 30, 2006 and were a tremendous success and for the past 10 years it has grown to be the largest car meet in the country. Import Alliance attendees range from the complete competition show car builder to the “in process” builder to the daily driven/weekend autocross competitor and everything in between. One thing that they all have in common is an uncanny understanding of quality workmanship, as well as a desire to utilize the best parts that their budget will accommodate. The resulting interaction, provides for an interesting opportunity for the enthusiast to learn, builder to showcase, and the OEM as well as the aftermarket industry to sell, market, and research.

Rylee Wood, a car enthusiast at Bob Jones dreamed of getting a white Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9, but what he got was far from it. Although he might not drive his dream car now, but being able to attend Import Alliance would be very motivating for him to work towards getting one. He would get to see hundreds of modified Evo’s and be able to find the perfect build that he wants. A huge part of Import Alliance is seeing cars similar to yours that have things  done to them that you may not be able to afford. Even though you can’t afford it, it gives you an idea of what you want to work for.

Import Alliance is where real import car enthusiasts meet.  It is not a lifestyle event. It is how people who enjoy import cars get together and have fun while learning things to make their cars better. Import Alliance is about import cars and the people who drive them. Matt Mitchell, a Bob Jones student who was an attendee at the 2016 spring meet gives his opinion on his first experience at the meet. “ Attending Import Alliance has been our dream for years now. It has been a life goal that has been strongly building for a few years now and I am beyond satisfied with the experience I had there. Getting to see all of the similar builds and talking to people who have done things to their cars that I would like to do just makes my passion for cars stronger. There’s no other place in the country that you can experience this and it’s something that every car enthusiast should do in their life.” Going to Import Alliance has been a huge life goal of mine for years now and to be able to check it off the bucket list was awesome. As for our group of friends that went down to Import Alliance, this was just the beginning of what is now a tradition.