This Day in Pixar History: Motorama! (UPDATE 2)

About this time every year, the folks at Pixar get together on the studio's lot and hold an awesome car show called Motorama. With films like Cars and Cars 2, it should be no surprise that there are a number of gear heads at Pixar, including both John Lasseter and the guardian of the Cars Franchise, Jay Ward. Ward organizes the Motorama every year, inviting not only Pixar employees to bring in their unique cars but also car companies such as Porsche, Ferrari and Mini. In addition, they often get cars from Fantasy Junction, a car dealer right across the street from the studio specializing in vintage automobiles and race cars.

One of the featurettes on the Cars bonus DVD (I got mine as a Target exclusive, I'm not sure if this disc was available from other retailers) was Meet Pixar's Gear Heads, which includes footage from a Motorama event and interviews with both Lasseter and Ward. In the featurette, Jay states he owns 10 vehicles, including a '29 Model A Ford and a '39 Mercury Convertible.

The Disney Blog has done a couple of posts (and here) on previous Motorama events. AutoWeek did an article on the 2010 Motorama (thanks to Mike at Big Screen Animation for the link), and Minddrive brought their first electric car to one of the events. In addition, some Pixar employees and other attendees have posted photos on the web:

• Photos from 2008 Motorama
• Photos from 2009 Motorama
• Jon Sarriugarte's Flickr Photostream
• Craig Good's Flickr Photostream
• Mark Vaughn (from AutoWeek) YouTube feed

I haven't heard anything about this year's Motorama. If I get any information on it I'll post it here!

UPDATE (7/28/2012): Pixar artist Arik Ehle confirmed there was no Motorama this year. Here's looking to next year!

UPDATE (7/17/2013): The 12th biannual (it's now an every other year event) Motorama was held last week on July 12. If you'd like a recap of the event and see some of the photos, check out The Pixar Post's blog article covering the event! I have found a couple other articles on the 2013 Motorama with a lot of great photos here and here.