A 1900s-era brass automobile could roll down Point Loma Avenue alongside a car that appeared in a Hollywood movie next Saturday, as the Sunset Cliffs Auto Show returns for its fourth year with 115 vintage vehicles on display. The free, family-friendly event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on September 12 at Point Loma Avenue and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, and organizers say it will divide entries into 12 judged categories with awards for first, second and third place.
The show is presented by the Inn at Sunset Cliffs and Hodad's OB, according to Times of San Diego, whose report describes it as a community celebration and fundraiser built around vehicles dating from the 1900s all the way to 2026. Hodad's own delivery van will be among the entries, and organizers say the lineup will include vehicles that have appeared in movies. Proceeds from the event are donated back into the community, supporting the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association, the neighborhood's business improvement district.
Gavin Fleming, owner-manager of the Inn at Sunset Cliffs, conceived the idea for the event and told the outlet the show has been growing in notoriety every year. Last year's show drew roughly 2,000 guests, per Fleming, and he expects the event to keep getting bigger. That growth tracks with reporting from OB Rag, which found the show had expanded beyond church and shop parking lots to occupy public street blocks as entries climbed from under 80 cars toward more than 100.
Pancake Breakfast Finds a New Home Off the Shuttered Pier
Running alongside the car show from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. is the Ocean Beach Community Foundation's annual pancake breakfast, serving pancakes, sausage, fruit, orange juice and coffee for $12 for children and $20 for adults. The breakfast was displaced from its longtime spot on the Ocean Beach Pier, which closed permanently due to structural damage from age and winter storms.
That closure has left local civic groups without their traditional event venue while the city sorts out what comes next. The pier's replacement is currently working through California Environmental Quality Act review, a process expected to take two to five years before construction can even go out to bid, according to Times of San Diego's earlier coverage, which also detailed a $160 million funding gap stalling the project — a story Hoodline previously reported in its funding gap breakdown.
Live Music, Food Trucks and a Neighborhood-Only Contest
Music comes from Oceanside-based the Juke$ Blues Group and Sandollar, which plays beach rock and reggae, and the show will also include food trucks, merchandise vendors, raffle prizes and after-parties. San Diego Magazine's event listing notes some of the raffle gift baskets are valued at more than $700 each, underscoring how much local businesses are putting into the fundraiser. The Ocean Beach San Diego community portal also lists a shot-on-goal inflatable game hosted by the San Diego Gulls, along with Power Wheels races and a Hot Wheels derby for kids.
One contest is reserved strictly for locals: the WIN or Lose 3-point basketball competition is open only to residents of zip codes 92107 through 92110, according to the Ocean Beach San Diego community portal. Organizers designed the contest to keep a neighborhood feel even as visitors pour in from across the region. In 2024, the show's top Best in Show award went to a 1910 Stoddard-Dayton, an early American brass-era luxury automobile built in Ohio between 1905 and 1913.
A Fundraiser Rooted in a Business Improvement District
The Ocean Beach MainStreet Association, which benefits from the show's proceeds, was incorporated in 1985 and generated more than $1.14 million in total revenue during fiscal year 2023, according to its tax filings. The association grew out of a 25-member merchant group formed in 1978 into the business improvement district that now manages local commercial revitalization and neighborhood events, including this show.
The car show's footprint sits along a stretch of coastline facing its own long-term challenges. Sunset Cliffs Natural Park spans 68 acres along 1.5 miles of the Point Loma peninsula, with sandstone cliffs dating back as much as 75 million years, according to Things to Do in San Diego. Active bluff erosion along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard led the City of San Diego to install permanent safety barricades between Adair and Osprey streets in December 2024 due to worsening rock fractures and collapse risks.
The city's Coastal Resilience Master Plan has also floated reconfiguring Sunset Cliffs Boulevard into a one-way southbound roadway to adapt to erosion and sea-level rise, Times of San Diego reported in January. Whatever the long-term fate of the corridor, next Saturday's show is a snapshot of a neighborhood tradition adapting on the fly — a pancake breakfast without its pier, a car show without a permanent home, and organizers betting that community turnout keeps growing anyway.
