How Aaron Ross Is Building Community at Austin’s Vintage Euro Night Car Show at Top Notch
The former pro BMX rider has traded two wheels for four, creating spaces where cars, art and connection come together
Even the greatest athletes reach a point when their bodies begin to charge interest on a life spent defying gravity. For former professional BMX rider Aaron Ross, that reckoning arrived slowly after years of pushing his body and sustaining injuries.
Ross spent the better part of two decades as one of the most recognizable names in BMX, traveling the world on sponsored team trips and featuring on magazine covers. Now nearing 40, he remains committed to pushing the limits and innovating. The question is: where is that energy directed next?
“You have to find somewhere to put that energy,” he says. “As BMXers or road bikers, we’ve all put our energy into something new as our bodies have fallen apart from hitting the ground for 25 years.”
Shifting gears
For Ross’ next chapter, he leaned into his passion for cars. It felt less like a pivot and more like a homecoming. The interest was already there, with his grandfather a certified Porsche mechanic trained in Germany, and his father restored American muscle cars in the garage. What he was missing was the sense of community the skate park had given him, something he craved more as he spent less time there.
His friend and former boss Jim Bauer, a die-hard car enthusiast who’d built an enviable collection in California, relocated to Austin with his family with the arrival of X Games Austin. It was then that something clicked. In 2013, within six months of Bauer’s arrival, Ross sold his motorcycles and bought the 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera he’d been circling for nearly a decade.
The parking lot philosophy
In 2015, together with Bauer and BMX world fixture Jed Rogers, Ross helped launch Gruppechat, an inclusive community of people who love cars. In 2023, they started Vintage Euro Night, a monthly gathering of pre-1999 European cars at Austin’s iconic Top Notch Hamburgers in Central Austin. What started as a text chain of old friends now draws 300 to 400 people on a good night.
“BMX was hanging out in parking lots, sitting on curbs with my friends, watching them ride at campus or school,” Ross says. “Now we’re just sitting in the Top Notch parking lot. There’s no difference to how we hang out.”
Every fourth Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m., the Top Notch carhop lot transforms into an open-air showcase, free to attend, with a raffle each month for anyone who grabs a burger or shake and drops their receipt in the bucket. The hierarchy of the lot tells its own story: the oldest, most interesting cars earn the prime spots up front, while newer arrivals fill in around the perimeter.
The range of cars that show up is part of the appeal. Ross is deliberate about keeping Vintage Euro Night accessible, in spirit as much as in price point.
“We are not a car community built on the most expensive car,” he says. “There’s kids there whose first car is a BMW they bought for a few thousand dollars, and on the other side of the parking lot you have a million-dollar Lamborghini Countach.”
That democratic spirit draws people who wouldn’t typically self-identify as “car people.” Someone once approached Ross at a show, unaware of his BMX background, and told him the event reminded them of a skate park, with a mix of people from different walks of life drawn together by a shared enthusiasm and an easy sense of belonging. Ross wasn’t surprised.
“There are nights where 10 to 15 BMXers or skateboarders show up and it feels like you’re at the skate park again,” he says. “These aren’t just car people — these are my friends that I’ve known for 13 to 15 years.”
The effect compounds. Ross has watched the community convert more than a few skeptics into owners. People show up on a whim and leave with a new sense of what’s possible.
A family tradition in motion
Family is woven into the fabric of this community. “I started Vintage Euro Nights to stay closer to home, so I can bring my family to the event,” says Ross.
Ross’ daughter, Honey James Ross, who just turned six, has grown up helping at the Top Notch shows. She especially loves working the raffle table, handing out receipts and calling up winners. Jim Bauer’s daughter, Charlee Carrera Bauer (whose middle name is inspired by the Porsche model) has been working that same table since she was eleven, and is now fourteen.
That intergenerational warmth is part of what sets Vintage Euro Night apart. Spouses, kids and first-timers with no particular car knowledge show up and find themselves staying for hours. The event draws people from all walks of life, seasoned collectors and curious newcomers alike, united by the simple pleasure of being somewhere together.
For Kelly Chappell, the impact of Vintage Euro Night has been both personal and practical. Chappell, who grew up eating at Top Notch before purchasing it with his two business partners 16 years ago, has long been part of Austin’s car culture. But attracting a younger generation had been a challenge.
“Aaron (Ross) and his crew have brought an entirely new crowd to Top Notch,” Chappell says. “It’s shifted the dynamic in the best way: younger, more diverse, more energy and more people hanging around to enjoy food. It’s grown our brand and introduced us to people who might not have come here otherwise.”
Where cars meet the canvas
In February 2026, Gruppechat — along with furniture designer Keith Lockerby — leveled up with Manual Focus, a curated art and car show that took months to produce and exceeded expectations on opening night. The name nods to analog photography; the ethos nods to everything Gruppechat was already doing but with even more intention. Cars were selected months in advance, each chosen to “make you feel something,” says Ross.
Cars in the first show included the DuPont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (Jeff Gordon’s NASCAR winning car), the Lamborghini Countach model featured in “The Wolf of Wall Street” and the Ford GT40 (best known for breaking Ferrari’s winning streak in the 1966 Le Mans).
Photographers who’d been shooting Top Notch on film for years finally had somewhere to print and hang their work alongside the cars that inspired them.
“We gave photographers a place to display their work because it’s hard to get into a gallery, and art galleries are selling less,” says Ross. “So we’re just supporting the people who have supported us.”
Ross emphasizes how organically this new venture developed. The four founding members of Manual Focus didn’t convene to build a brand. They were just friends who wanted to throw a party and happened to have complementary skills — graphic design, car curation and social media promotion — to pull it all together.
Manual Focus is designed to grow with an entirely new lineup of 35 cars each year, pop-up appearances at other shows around the state and the monthly Vintage Euro Nights continuing to be held by Gruppechat.
What keeps it moving
Ross mentions a man who runs Morning Motors, a car show that he attends in the Eldorado Cafe parking lot every Sunday morning. Each week, this organizer personally texts every regular instead of posting in a group. When Ross asked why, the answer surprised him: the weekly messages became his quiet way of checking in and staying connected to the community.
“These hobbies are started by people who just want a community or need a friend,” Ross says.
More than cars, this is about connection. The way Ross brings people together has evolved over time, becoming something bigger than it started — now a parking lot full of people, happy to be showing up.
It serves as a reminder that a different pace doesn’t mean leaving the old tricks behind. It just means shifting gears.
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