The Orange County International Auto Show, with the help of Motor Trend, delivers a family friendly and fun experience for all ages.

Whether you want to drool over exotics or get bounced around on an indoor off-road track, the OC Auto Show has you covered.

While over 150-test drives and plenty of supercars are more than enough to draw crowds of auto show attendees, Motor Trend helps to fulfill the enthusiasts' curiosity just a bit more with their competitive test drives and annual vehicle rankings.

Motor Trend Features Editor, and panel judge for some of the publications top awards, Christian Seabaugh, joined us to share more details in this iDriveSoCal Podcast.

***Transcript***

Recording date – October 4, 2018, in Los Angeles, CA

OC Auto Show @ The Anaheim Convention Center

Christian Seabaugh: There's over 600 cars here. And it's a great place to just get in and out of cars, poke around

Take your time, get here early, walk around, poke around cars. There's also ride and drive experiences too, there's a Ram 1500 experience where you can tow.

There's a Jeep off-road kinda course that you can take a Wrangler or a Cherokee or a Compass out on their little off-road course.

Worth checking out all the electric vehicles here. I mean, there's kinda something for everybody in that space

Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal the podcast. All about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States, Southern California. Tom Smith here and I am joined by Christian Seabaugh of Motor Trend magazine.

Now, he's the features editor and if you hear the background noise, we are podcasting, live, if you will total oxymoron I think, but we are podcasting at the tail end of media day at the OC Auto Fair, OC Auto Show, excuse me.

"...we were working on car Of the Year, we have 36 different cars and we test them over two days."

Tom Smith: Christian, thank you for joining me.

Christian Seabaugh: Absolutely, thanks for having me.

Tom Smith: So, the Orange County Auto Show is put on in collaboration with Motor Trend?

Christian Seabaugh: Yep. And so we sponsor events all over the country and this just happens to be one of them and it's close to home.

Tom Smith: And it's close to home for you?

Christian Seabaugh: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, we're based in El Segundo.

Tom Smith: For Motor Trend overall?

Christian Seabaugh: Motor Trend overall. The whole Motor Trend group is based in El Segundo, yeah. So we have HOT ROD they have Motor Trend, Super Street all those magazines and websites and our whole video on demand business too.

Tom Smith: Video on demand?

Over 600 New Cars in One Place

Christian Seabaugh: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tom Smith: Alright, alright. So you guys are, you guys are going pretty digital these days?

Christian Seabaugh: Absolutely. Fully embracing digital.

Tom Smith: Alright. And events?

Christian Seabaugh: And events.

Tom Smith: Okay. So as the consumer coming to the OC Auto Show, what am I gonna experience here this year for 2018?

Christian Seabaugh: Well, there are over 600 cars here. And it's a great place to just get in and out of cars, poke around without the pressure of a dealership.

Every year, for example, we do a car, truck and SUV Of the Year and one part of it is just getting in and out of cars, poking around, testing all the little features that you can and this gives you a little snippet of that experience.

"...we actually do the homework and test everything and figure out what deserves the Golden Calipers, which is our trophy."

Tom Smith: Okay.