Last year I had the chance to attend the first Wheels, Watches & Whiskey and Round Top Rally. At the time my son was just getting into cars which my wife Corina and I have been into since we started dating. Over the last year I have met so many great people in the Brazos area and developed more relationships and held pop ups for Joey’s HiFi Shop at Tavo Coffee and held multiple events in downtown Bryan. As a family we have really grown to love the area and community.
Over the past year we have been up to a lot of automotive adventures. Whether it is getting Gran Turismo 7 and putting over 60 hours into over the last year, continuing to resto mod our 2005 VW GTi or replacing the 2015 Lexus RC’s Rims and adding an axle back exhaust, we have stayed active with the automotive community.
I have also continued my automotive research in general, studying online YouTubers and this past summer publishing an article about the new F1 movie and comparing it to past racing films. The article sparked a series of ideas for new articles, one about Automotive movies in general and another about the impact of sound and visceral experience of automotive exhaust.
But I digress, this article is about the Wheels, Watches and Whisky & the Round Top Rally of 2025. To say the least we had a great time and this year some great things were added. I recently received an old Canon T3 DSLR from my father and while I do not currently have my own photo rig, I figured it would be best for Jojo to take ownership of it. And boy has he taken photos over the summer at various events and for Wheels, Watches and Whisky & The Round Top Rally 2025 he definitely captured some great moments.
I snagged photos and videos with my iphone 14pro. My wonderful wife also attended Wheels, Watches and Whiskey and wow she looked stunning! Walking the grounds as a family, seeing the wide breath of cars was definitely a “core memory” for jojo and for us as a family. We cannot thank Michael and Jennifer Satterfiled of the Satterfield Group enough for envisioning and executing such an amazing evening.
This year Joey’s HiFi Shop sponsored a set of Grado RS1x headphones for the OnRamp silent auction, which went for some good coin. OnRamp is a non-profit that accepts car donations and then sells them to buy reliable cars for people in need. I found about it through Rami Cerone, owner of Cafe Capri who was introduced to me by my good TAMU colleague and former owner of InSite Magazine, Angelique Gammon. It’s been great following OnRamp through their social media accounts and seeing the impact they make.
And while I do not drink, the offerings of drinks was great and I loved how many local vendors were present. And the Watches, well I do have a soft spot for watches and I have my eye on one currently which I am saving up for, so while I saw some great watches, I am on pause with those kinds of purchases. But again, the vendors were amazing and friendly.
One car that I ran into that really caught my eye was a Volvo 145, owned by Ross Peters of 3in1 Mechanic Ministries, he was kind enough to pop the hood and show Rami and I around the car and give us some insights into the build.
The Porsches
My favorite part of the night were all the Porsches. Porsche is my favorite automotive brand. While I have never owned one, my brother bought a 1986 Porsche 944 when I was 16 and he was 19 and boy did we have a blast. I owe him so much for those core memories. And ever since I have wanted to get one. I have always been scared to get one, kinda like meeting your hero. At this point in life it is time to start preparing to get one. My wife & son really love them too.
Recently Rami let me drive his and about 10 years ago my good friend Kenneth lent me his for a month to drive. I have ridden (Thanks Tito) in a ton as well. So getting to see so many variants at Wheels, Watches & Whiskey was simply amazing and inspiring and put me over the top. So which one will we get? All time…. I think an article about such a pursuit might be in order…
Overall the night was great. We ended it as a family walking up the Lookout Tower located on the grounds and got a great pic of the Stella from up top. I cannot thank Satterfield Group enough for hosting such an amazing event. It is events like this that make me love living in Bryan, TX.
Round Top Rally
The next morning Jojo and I woke up nice and early and headed back to the Stella Hotel to attend the Round Top Rally. The Stella Hotel is a great back drop for this event and we were shocked to arrive and see a Mercedes Gullwing parked out front and the Porsche Singer 4.0 from the night before parked out front as well and stickered up for the rally.
It was great to see people from last year doing the Round Top Rally again and of course meeting new ones. One thing about me is that as extroverted as I am, I get nervous about introducing myself to new people and making a good impression, though as I have grown older, I realize so many others do as well. I will also admit as being a dad, showing my son how to be friendly and respectful has helped me be that much more out going on one to one introductions.
The drive itself was simply amazing. Michael Satterfield asked if they could put a gopro camera on the back of my car and I definitely used that as a good excuse travel up and down the group to get “shots” and I nestled myself between some great cars on the drive.
At one point the Mercedes Gullwing had to pull over to check the hood latch and I stopped with him, it was awesome to see that thing scoot back onto the highway. The route we took has some great sweeping turns and in general scenic landscapes. Behind the McLaren we were able to see the suspension in action, it was so cool to see it move through the roads we were touring.
When we got to Royers Cafe in Round Top, we got to walk around the cars once more and also I asked anyone I ran into if they would take a photo with their car and I snapped quite a few.
The meal at Royers was a hoot, jojo had a great time chatting it up a bit about Zelda, we talked about cycling, media production, of course cars and so much more at our tables and in general had a wonderful time and meal. Again, a great experience.
Afterwards we visited Lauren Goodson’s Gallery, an artist who had works at the event the previous night. We really enjoyed seeing some mixed media work using neon, showing jojo it was fun and how it works. The event then came to a closing at the Junk Gypsy Company where we were given a nice gift bag. After the drive home we relaxed a bit before having a BBQ for the TAMU Skaters, a student organization I am the faculty sponsor and another cultural passion of mine.
Overall, the events were amazing and I can’t wait for next year. Until then we will be making some further mods to the cars and maybe next year we can feature the VW as we have plans to get it really popping over the coming year. So stay tuned!
Below is a gallery of extra photos I took durning the two days and wanted to share.
