As spring comes to a close and summer starts heating up, people are looking for car shows.  The only trouble is, how do you when and whee they are occurring, and how do you make sure you’re getting to as many as possible? Now there’s a free app called ShowFinder that you can download for either your Android or IOS device, and it will help you see what is available in your area, wherever that may be.

We were so interested in finding out more about the ShowFinder App that we reached out to the team that designed it, and talked to the lead developer and co-creator: Phil Tapia of Everett, Washington. Tapia is a software developer, and was able to not only see what needed to be done, but actually put it together.

“My buddy and I are hardcore car guys, and we love going to shows,” Tapia explained. “The issue we found, was that there was no central source listing all the events.” That’s where he saw both the problem and its solution. “There are so many types of shows, cruise-ins, and swap meets, we want you to know what is out there so you can share it and add it to your calendar.”

“There isn’t really a search engine where you can find all the events that are going on,” Tapia continued. “I felt that if we were able to do this, we could become the Yelp of automotive events.” The simple and effective app they have put together really takes a step in that direction, and it does so much more than just create a listing of events.

The app allows you to list events as ‘favorites’, and it also has the ability to use your phone’s location to list events near you. “Even if you are traveling or have friends in other states, you can adjust it for that location,” Tapia told us. The ability to quickly change the location in the app means you can see what shows are available anywhere you are, or by region.

The app has a massive database of shows from all around the country, and even into Canada. “This is a hand built data-base,” Tapia said. “We launched about three years ago and have spent countless hours going through every state and car club to get the events listed. We personally talked to the people involved with these events.”

They recently added a new feature for Android users called “Verified” events, where they personally get in contact with the event staff and confirm all of the details with them. This feature will soon be coming to IOS, and helps keep the data as accurate as possible. After all, data reliability is one of the most important things to the team at ShowFinder.

Getting things started was the most difficult part of the whole process. “My Partner, Kyle Rogers, actually worked at Trader Joe’s before doing this.” After getting through a divorce, Rogers quite his job and pulled funds from his 401k to fund the startup of ShowFinder.

“It took sixth months to get the app ready to go,” Tapia detailed. “It was an aggressive timeline for us, because we wanted to get the app out there before the Pacific Northwest car show season started.” It took a while, but they were eventually able to secure O’Reilly’s as a sponsor for the app, and they are still looking to “team up with any other brands to help better inform car enthusiasts seeking event info,” Phil told us.

There are plenty of new features that Tapia and Rogers plan on adding, but even as it is now, it’s still a huge improvement on what was available before. The app is free and worth a download, so go check it out and see what shows are available around you today.