In a desolate industrial district on the north end of downtown Saint Louis, Missouri, there’s a steel supply warehouse named Shaprio Metal Company.  This area isn’t a place you want to be alone at nighttime, and maybe not so much during the day as well.  But once a year, an event unfolds that sheds light to this area by inviting cars, music, and beer along with the best part of all — burnouts.

Dubbed the Shapiro Steelfest — for one day, parked along the city block sidewalks are rat rods, street rods and motorcycles all here to celebrate what makes up the bones of these machines; and that’s Steel.

While onlookers pack the sidewalks huddled around rusted steel metal contraptions, the ambiance is the sound of burnouts and tire tire smoke as car after car stops on the main strip for an opportunity to perform a smokey tire show for the crowd. While the roadway is traffic controlled by the local fire department . . . to which they even use the firetruck water hose to wet the burnout box.

There is no real way to describe this event.  It’s massive, entertaining and combines raw steel with senseless burnouts in the streets — the Shapiro Steelfest is certainly a spectacle for any gear head to see.