Car shows are a great time. Big or small, it’s always fun to get together with like-minded people to get a close-up look at some cool vehicles you wouldn’t normally see driving around on your day-to-day commute. Planning a car show can be difficult—finding the right venue, planning a date that works for everyone—it’s all a juggling act by organizers to ensure everyone is entertained.
No matter how much planning goes into these shows, there’s one thing organizers can’t control: The weather. Aside from big-name industry shows like the New York International Auto Show or the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which take place in massive, indoor convention centers, car shows take place outside, which means even the fanciest, most well-put-together shows can be spoiled by some threatening clouds.
That’s exactly what happened yesterday at Moda Miami, a high-end Concours event that got hugely rained out to the point where booths were falling apart and show cars ended up sitting in several inches of flooded golf course.
Ah, That Classic Florida Weather
If you’ve spent any time in Florida, you know the weather can go from picture perfect to absolutely horrendous in the blink of an eye. One minute, you’re basking in the light of a cloudless day, and the next, there’s an ultra-dark storm cloud about to dump a swimming pool’s worth of water on your beach vacation.
According to past weather data, the day in Coral Gables, the city where Moda Miami happens, started about as perfectly as you could imagine, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the high 70s (Fahrenheit). Things quickly turned sour shortly before noon, however, when a thunderstorm rolled in and dumped rain and heavy winds directly on the event, lasting until around 4 p.m.
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This video published to Instagram yesterday, labeled with the hashtag “#modamonsoon,” sums up just how wet things got during the worst of the storm. It shows three people riding a golf cart through the show area where dozens of valuable cars are being pummeled by rain, as the wind knocks down pieces of nearby booths and other installations lie on the ground, toppled by the thunderstorm’s gusts.
The aftermath of all this rain left the fields where the cars were displayed muddy, gross, and in some cases, fully submerged in about an inch or two of water. The resulting photos and videos look like something out of a surrealist art installation, with the cars appearing to float on water.
The DrivewithRoy YouTube channel was on the scene and caught video of the rain and of owners recovering cars from the massive puddles formed on the golf course adjacent to the Biltmore hotel, where many of the vehicles were parked.
Surely the owners weren’t too happy with getting their cars gunked up with rain and mud while leaving the event, but hey, that’s the risk you take when you take your car outside of its garage in Florida, no matter how nice the weather may look.
Glass Half Full
Thankfully, I haven’t seen any reports of cars suffering from real damage, though I’ve reached out to Moda Miami to confirm (they haven’t gotten back to me yet, presumably because they’re dealing with the fallout from all of this, which feels more important anyway).
The photographers, videographers, and influencers attending the event seemed to make the most of things, flinging off their shoes alongside owners to get the best angles. Here’s a video from roy.cwl on Instagram showing the lengths to which some people were going to get the shot:
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Either way, it looks like most attendees had a blast, even if it wasn’t the chill, laid-back Sunday afternoon they were expecting. I’d consider that a win for everyone… except for the groundspeople running the golf course. The sudden dump of rain, combined with cars tearing up the now-muddy grass, will probably take a bunch of effort to fix up. Hopefully, Moda Miami factored in the chance of this happening into its rental agreement.
Top photo: Screenshot from roy.cwl/Instagram
Meanwhile we’re in an extreme drought here. I’m on the other coast and the storm was Biblical…and we were thankful
The last year that the Detroit concours was at St. John’s, there was a huge rainstorm the night before that flooded the golf course. In an attempt to save the show, they moved everything to the parking lots around the golf course instead. It may not have been as prestigious but it was great as a spectator because you could actually get up close to everything and weren’t stopped by the ropes.
I miss that show. It’s a shame Hagerty bought the rights, traded substance for style, then unceremoniously killed it
It doesn’t just have to be Miami.
I went to Elcofest 2025 last year and it got pretty soggy for a while.
I’d upload some photos, but that’s not allowed.
https://elcofest.elcohaulicssanonymous.com/SHOW/coverage/
I thought “Flooding the zone” was a Football tactic, not a Golf one.
At least it is fresh water…
No reporting on NASCAR? Tyler Reddick won his 3rd race in a row this weekend.
Hopefully there were no Corvettes there, they would have been totaled instantly.
That’s a bunch of cars where the owners aren’t going to be able to say “never seen rain” when it comes time to sell. I wonder how much depreciation that adds up to?
Also, is it me or does that Alfa TZ look like it’s having the time of its life playing in the mud?
I hope to one day be a level of wealthy where I can be that nonchalant about my TZ
Alfa TZ, would that be the red car that has a slight resemblance to a Renault Alpine A110? If so, oh, yeah, it does indeed look like it’s having the time of its life playing in the mud. Props to the owner/driver for doing that!!
There’s a muscle car museum in Sevierville, TN, close to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is kinda interesting to visit, at least for those who like American muscle cars. However, it was weirdly depressing to see the founder’s pride and joy, a highly if not indeed fully optioned hemi 1967 Plymouth GTX convertible, which he had bought new, with a sign next to it noting the options and low mileage and that it had “seen rain only four times.” What’s the point of buying such a car if one’s not ever going to enjoy it?? Hard to imagine being so worried about rain that one keeps track of exposure to rain. On the other hand, there’s something to be said for not gatekeeping how one enjoys one’s cars… so it’s all good.
Yup, the TZ is the little red one. It’s a mid-60s Zagato-bodied Alfa Giulia and they’re seven-figure cars these days. It’s like a pampered pedigree Shi-Tzu that’s gotten out of the house and is happily rolling around in deer poop and acting like a dog is supposed to.