Do you have a passion for fast cars, scenic drives, and classic automobiles? If so, you might be curious about which states cater best to car lovers. The experts at Speedway Motors have developed a ranking system that evaluates each state based on the factors most important to auto enthusiasts. Their in-depth analysis reveals which parts of the country offer the best experience for those who live and breathe cars.

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How the Rankings Were Determined

Determining the ultimate destination for car fans isn’t an exact science, but the research team considered a variety of key factors to ensure a well-rounded assessment. Here’s what they looked at:

• The percentage of roads in excellent condition
• The average number of snow days per year
• The frequency of hailstorms annually
• Registration costs and duration
• The price of fuel per gallon
• The percentage of uninsured drivers
• The number of car shows held in the state
• The availability of auto racing venues

Do these factors align with what you’d consider important for an ideal car-friendly state? We think this method covers all the essential aspects—driving conditions, costs, events, and opportunities to enjoy the thrill of the road.

Top States for Car Lovers

Based on this ranking system, the following states earned top spots for their well-maintained roads, favorable weather, affordable fuel, and exciting car culture:

• Florida
• Alabama
• Idaho
• North Carolina
• West Virginia
• Tennessee
• Arizona
• Indiana
• New Hampshire
• Kentucky

Florida takes the lead as the best state for car enthusiasts, thanks to its warm climate, minimal snowfall, and well-kept roads. Car lovers will also appreciate the numerous auto events, such as the prestigious Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, where rare and luxury cars take center stage. Racing fans, on the other hand, can enjoy the adrenaline rush of the iconic Daytona 500. Even though fuel prices are slightly above average, Florida’s thriving car culture more than makes up for it.

The State with the Most Car Meet-Ups

This chart’s strength comes from the way it breaks down specific aspects that appeal to car lovers. For example, if you don’t care about driving as much as you care about attending car shows, you can re-evaluate the rankings and bring the states with the highest scores for car shows to the top of your list. This would make California the top state in terms of car shows, with more than any other state. Monterey Car Week alone can satisfy even the most passionate enthusiasts!

The State with the Best Roads

For those who express their love of cars with road trips, you’ll be interested to know that Alabama has the best-kept roads in the nation. 75% of them are well-maintained and in good condition. They’re closely followed by New Hampshire at 74%.

States with Low Gas Prices

It’s hard to enjoy a good road trip if you blow your budget on gas. Oklahoma offers the most value for your money, with average gas prices of $2.53 per gallon at the time of the study. Texas came in second place at $.259 per gallon.

A Guide to the Best Beaches in America

Visual guides like this one from Florida Rentals can be handy for planning a vacation. The team has released a scoring system that points us toward America’s best beaches. Grab your flip-flops and dive in. There’s a wealth of information to find here. The team created its own scoring system to help us understand why these 20 beaches are considered the best. At a glance, you’ll be able to see which beaches are best, but if you want the details, the team outlined the criteria they used to judge the beaches and the score they gave each beach in each category.

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How the Beaches are Ranked

Everyone has different qualities they look for in a beach, but we think the Florida Rentals crew did an excellent job pinpointing what’s most important to a variety of beachgoers. These are the factors that were used to create the scoring system:

• Air temperature
• Water temperature
• Humidity
• Annual sunny days
• Annual precipitation
• Wind speed
• Annual comfortable days
• Miles of beach
• Beach crowdedness
• Suitability for water sports
• Boardwalk presence

The Beaches with the Best Scores

The final high-score list represents beaches all across America, although it’s clear that California and Florida have the lion’s share of top beaches. After crunching the numbers and weighing the factors, Florida Rentals determined that these beaches are best:

• Laguna Beach – California
• Monterey Bay – California
• Panama City Beach – Florida
• Destin Beach – Florida
• Santa Monica – California
• Augustine Beach – Florida
• Coronado Beach – California
• Cape Cod National Seashore – Massachusetts
• Pete Beach – Florida
• Ka’anapali Beach – Hawaii
• Clearwater Beach – Florida
• Siesta Key Beach – Florida
• Hilton Head Beach – South Carolina
• Miami Beach – Florida
• Fort Lauderdale Beach – Florida
• Gulf Shores – Alabama
• Ocean City Beach – Maryland
• Waikiki Beach – Hawaii
• Cape May – New Jersey
• Coney Island – New York

Finding a Beach Based on Specific Qualities

The great thing about this chart is that we can ignore the official ranking system and focus on what matters to each of us personally. For example, if you think the bigger the beach, the better, then you might believe St. Augustine Beach in Florida is the true winner. It has a stunning 42 miles of coastline, the most of any beach on the list.

Many beach lovers prize good weather the most, allowing them to spend a long day on the sand and in the surf with comfort. For these beach fans, the overall winner, Laguna Beach, truly is the top beach, with near-perfect weather in all seasons, along with warm sun and low humidity.  Others may want to avoid the country’s most famous beaches because let’s face it, sharing a beach with a crowd of people kicking sand all over your blankets and picnic baskets can ruin a beach day fast. For low crowds, Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts offers the best proportion of miles of beach to the number of visitors.

The team at Pulsar offers us a visual look at a unique niche within the film industry through the lens of optical technology. Infrared optics are used to elevate fictional settings, highlight characters, and improve camera technology and special effects. The study sheds light on a previously overlooked aspect of filmmaking and storytelling, providing a fresh perspective on films we all know and love.

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How Optical Tech Enhances Filmmaking

In the film Predator, infrared optics are a prominent feature of the storyline. An advanced race of aliens used infrared to better hunt for sport in terrifying twists and turns. But the filmmakers used infrared to their own benefit, too. They portrayed the aliens’ infrared vision by using an Inframetrics thermal video scanner to bring the vision to life. The film is full of optical challenges that director Joel Hynek overcame in fascinating ways, including the aliens’ unique camouflaging effect.

The team’s chart includes a recent and powerful sci-fi film example, Dune 2. In the film, the planet Giedi Prime is portrayed in a haunting grayscale that enhances its brutal, joyless atmosphere. The film’s director, Denis Villeneuve, used a groundbreaking technique to achieve the effect. He filmed in infrared and then removed saturation in post-production to create a unique, almost ghostly, ethereal appearance for the actors, along with a stark, sharp grading for the architecture and scenery. The technique is now known as “The Harkonnen Effect.”

Infrared technology is especially powerful when filming military movies. For example, in the Oscar-winning Zero Dark Thirty, filmmakers blended infrared light with night vision optics to create a tense atmosphere that reflected the gritty world of Navy SEAL warfare for the film’s dramatic climax. Filmmakers used infrared for a similar effect in the A24 film Zone of Interest. In the infrared scene, a woman sneaks through the cover of night to leave food for Auschwitz prisoners during the Holocaust. The director chose infrared lighting to show the act as a small, hopeful point of light during a period of intense darkness.

Optical Technology as a Plot Point

From the silly to the scary, the chart also thoroughly covers examples of optical technology used to enhance the plot or define a character. The team highlights superheroes like Daredevil and Superman. Superman uses infrared vision to store solar energy in his eyes and blast lasers at his foes, while Daredevil uses his superior senses to create a mental heat map that helps him overcome blindness. Nick Fury sports a pair of infrared glasses in Marvel’s Secret War series. The beloved cartoon alien Stitch from Disney’s Lilo & Stitch boasts a long list of special abilities, including heat vision that causes his eyes to glow red.

Plenty more military films are featured here, too, starring characters from the armed services who use real technology to overcome tremendous odds. Some of the weapons featured include a Barrett M82A1, PVS-7 goggles, and Accufire Incendis.

Pulsar’s roundup of optical technology used in film does a perfect job of demonstrating both realistic and imaginative uses of the tech, as well as demonstrating the ways filmmakers have applied new optical technology to cameras to push the limits of special effects and filmmaking.