LX and Beyond Nationals

As many of you readers and loyal Dodge hooners may already be aware, the 5th annual Spring Festival of LX is fast approaching. This year, RLD will be doing a little legwork to ensure that every Dodge enthusiast can enjoy SF5 as much as those that will be in attendance. In addition to our very own man on the ground, we’ll also be following the whereabouts of four enthusiasts- LX forum members Anthony Carter, Pedro Murillo, Travis Copenhaver and the head honcho himself, Spring Festival founder John Fortuno, as they make their way to Irvine, California.

RLD will be kicking off our coverage on Friday March 19th. The guys at LXforums will be Tweeting, snapping pics, and even posting videos along the way. For one of the them, the road trip will commence at 2:00am Wednesday morning (that right there is some serious dedication). To get to know the guys, hit the jump to check out their bios.

John Fortuno

There is no doubt that the Spring Fest Founder and Huntington Beach local, John Fortuno, is a man of both passion and vision – just check out his outrageous 300C at this year’s Spring Fest, and you’ll know what we mean! Five years ago, Spring Fest was just a twinkle in his eye. At its inception, John remembers there were only a handful of cars that showed up to the event! In fact, his very own cherry 2005 Chrysler 300C wasn’t even one of them, because he was still waiting to take delivery. “We had 18 Chrysler 300’s at our first big meet(I am confused since you already referenced only 4 vehicles at the first event!-Which is it?),” John recalls. “Then we invited the Dodge Magnums to join and it grew to 44 cars, from there the rest is history. Spring Festival is where you get to see it all and put a face to the name. That’s what drives the event to the level it is at today…you will literally see everything from to stock to wild, it will be there. I had always imagined the Spring Festival being a large event, but to see the passion and the enthusiasm of the owners is great. We all have different taste and looks but what makes this great is the vehicle platform allows you to be unique.” Since that time, both John’s list of mods and the number of Spring Fest participants have swelled exponentially. This year, the event is expected to attract over 630 cars, hailing from as far as Canada!

To share John’s experience, follow him on Twitter @1fatchance.

Anthony Carter

Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, Anthony Carter is the proud owner of a TorRed 2006 Dodge Charger Daytona RT #0145, modded to resemble the Charger SRT from the PS3 game Need For Speed: Carbon. SF5 will mark the first time Anthony will be attending the Spring Festival of LX and he’s very excited about the experience. “Ever since the first day I logged onto my first forum I have been hearing about the Spring Festival of LX’s,” Anthony said. “After seeing all the pictures and the video each year, and hearing all of the stories and good times everybody shared I had to make the trip out to California to experience it for myself. I tried to make it out there last year and had to cancel unexpectedly. This year I absolutely could not miss it even though I’m going without my car due to time constraints.” While we definitely regret that we won’t be able to check out Anthony’s pride and joy in person, we’re still stoked that we’ll get to be a part of his first LX experience.Starting March 19th, Anthony will be tweeting live updates from the festival, so be sure to follow him on Twitter @LXandBeyondNats.

Pedro Murillo

Dallas Fort Worth LX Club President and 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 owner Pedro Murillo is such a loyal Mopar fan, he’s even got his girlfriend, Crystal Turk, and her 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 in on the LX action this year. “[She] has always supported me with my car hobbies… She loves the car scene and is as excited to make it out to Spring Fest #5.” After spending countless hours connecting with other forum members, Pedro is ecstatic about the chance to show off his hard work in person. “[Spring Fest] gives me a chance to show off the car i have built to other MOPAR lovers that can appreciate the hard work put into the beast.” Added Pedro, “It also another reason for me to purchase more modifications without feeling guilty about it.”

Pedro and Crystal are leading the second caravan of DFW-area LX owners on a cross-country trek to the holy Mopar land in California. Due to the distance and the size of his group, Pedro’s team left town at midnight on Tuesday, the same time most of us were still counting sheep. To catch up on all the distance he’s covered so far, you can track Pedro’s journey by following him on Twitter @ezcorpion – and the rest of you can catch up with him whenever you get around to rolling out of bed.

Travis Copenhaver

Rocking one of the sickest 2005 Dodge Magnum R/T’s we’ve seen to date, recent Vegas transplant Travis Copenhagen has waited years to attend what is commonly regarded as the event of the year for serious LXers. “I have always read about this event and have always dreamed of going. I never lived close enough or was out of the country when it happened. When the USAF moved my family to Las Vegas I knew I had to go to Spring Fest.” Like many other true fans, SF5 is about more than just bragging rights to Travis. “[It's] A perfect excuse to get the family together for a road trip. A perfect getaway to meet others with the same passion. Meeting other people with like interest and building lasting friendships.” The first leg of Travis’ trip will begin at 9 o’clock on Friday morning when he, his wife, sons, and a fellow LXer begin the 285-mile trip to SoCal. He’ll be feeding us live updates and pics from his Twitter handle @1sikmag, so be sure to follow him to stay in the loop.

To ensure that you don’t miss a second of the SF5 action, check back in at RLD regularly for new posts and don’t forget to add @dodgeautos and @chryslerautos to your Twitter followers for all the official updates from the RLD crew.