Worth Waking Up Early For: Exotics at Redmond Town Center

Look parents, we don’t care if it’s Exotics at Redmond Town Center or an impromptu show at the Gas N’ Sip — don’t let your kids touch the cars! 

Exotics at Redmond Town Center is Redmond, Washington’s answer to Cars & Coffee, and this Saturday was Ferrari day. Since there are few things I like more than a gathering of Cavallinos, I got up early and headed over the bridge from Seattle to shoot it. Unsurprisingly, there was some pretty hot hardware on hand.

While I’d seen the LaFerrari a few times before, most notably at Ferrari’s Beverly Hills’ celebration of its 60th anniversary in the United States, I hadn’t seen the Aperta in person, and damn, is this thing a stunner. Now, plenty of my gearhead friends have remarked that Ferraris aren’t really pretty anymore — at least in the classical sense — and I tend to agree. That said, there’s nothing pretty about the targa-top hypercar.

The Aperta has a presence akin to a fighter from a hostile alien race’s vanguard, so much so that you wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see it take off vertically and proceed to run a devastating strafing mission over a woefully unprepared human defense force. Getting decent pics was near impossible given the crowds, and like the true celebrity it is, it dipped out of the festivities early. Of course, since the featured cars were staged in the middle of an outdoor shopping mall, there were plenty of accidental attendees. I’ll readily admit I rather loudly instructed a couple of six-year-old boys to stop leaning on the million-dollar hypercar. Their dad was standing six feet away, and seeing that was enough to make me think we should screen people before they’re allowed to breed.

Now, unlike the Enzo Ferrari birthday celebration I attended at the Petersen Automotive Museum a couple years back, the vast majority of the cars present were of recent vintage. There was a stunning 250 GTO, a smattering of 308s, a 355 Challenge car, and a single — owner maintained! — 1991 Testarossa, but most of the field was comprised of 488s, 458s, and Californias. Not that I’m really complaining, but after spending the better part of a decade in Los Angeles, seeing a stock, modern Ferrari just doesn’t give me the feels the way it once did. Car-wise, I’m more into the rare stuff, and fortunately, the non-Ferrari section of the event held a couple of serious unicorns I’d never gotten to check out up close.

Of those, my favorite was the Ford RS200, which was brought to the show by one of the owners of DirtFish Rally School. With its pod of giant rally lights, it looked ready to go off an campaign in a Group B stage, and it was a huge hit with everyone milling about the parking lot. The early Audi Quattro coupe parked behind it wasn’t too shabby either, and I really loved its no-nonsense, boxy lines. Obviously, there were also some pretty cool custom cars there too, including a Renault 5 Turbo 2, a Rauh Welt Porsche, a wild wide-body BMW, an M5-powered 5 Series wagon, and a very clean 240Z with a Honda swap.

All in all, it was a show worth waking up early for, so if you’re in the Seattle area, I’d recommend out Exotics at Redmond Town Center. And if you can’t? Check out all my photos in the gallery below!