At the very beginning of this year, we attended a very unique virtual event dubbed the Engine Performance Expo. The event was a response to all of the in-person automotive trade shows being canceled, as well as a way to bring the different facets of the engine performance industry together in an engine-only arena to share knowledge and ideas.

“We started the Expo to fill the gap left by the cancellation of the big industry shows because of the Covid pandemic,” said David Bianchi of Rottler Manufacturing, one of the show’s founders. “Even though the event was put together in a very short period of time, attendance was much larger than we had hoped and the response overwhelmingly positive.”

It was a resounding success — not just by pandemic-addled 2020 standards, but by any measuring stick — which led to the immediate discussion of having the Expo become a recurring annual event, not just being a filler for a challenging year. The Expo’s organizers were listening and recently announce the second-annual running of the show, albeit in a slightly different timeslot: October 14th-16th, 2021.

Like the first Engine Performance Expo, the segments will be a mix of pre-recorded spots, mixed with live demonstrations and audience question and answer sessions.

“I was blown away by the response to the first Expo,” said Total Seal‘s Lake Speed, Jr., who was a driving force behind and host of the first Engine Performance Expo. “I’ve done a lot of industry shows and events and nothing compares to the caliber of people, demonstrations, and audience participation we had in those three days.”

Designed to emulate the format of the first Expo, the second running of the event will offer a greater variety of engine platforms and topics, while continuing to focus on educational seminars and trade tips aiming to cover the latest in engine performance tools and technologies. The second-annual Engine Performance Expo will continue to feature live demos with audience question and answer sessions, as well as pre-recorded segments for a mix of presentation types.

In addition to the show itself, the first Expo held a giveaway for a $10,000 LS short-block to a lucky viewer in the audience. Not to be outdone by the first year, show organizers are planning on something that should surpass the short-block. Additionally, if you missed the first Expo, or just want to watch it again, the show is being released as a 27-episode mini-series here, with segments released every Thursday on both the Engine Performance Expo website or the Expo’s YouTube page.