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Cars And Coffee : IrvineWords: Joey godinez
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Saturday, August 31, 2013, 5:16 AM. You had a long Friday night partying on a Labor Day weekend. You normally sleep in, and the last thing you would want to do is wake up at 5:16 AM on a Saturday morning and drive 52 miles. To what? A parking lot. A place usually meant to store your automobile while you accomplish the reason you actually drove to that point. But, this is no ordinary parking lot… This is Cars and Coffee.
I have been yearning to visit Cars and Coffee for years now and regret not having visited before. To car enthusiasts, Cars and Coffee is a weekly pilgrimage to a parking lot in Irvine where they gather to admire cars…and maybe have coffee too. What makes this special compared to your run-off- the-mill parking lot meet is the fact that most of these cars are our dream cars. Think of your dream car and it probably has grazed this parking lot before. From Hondas to Bugattis, from steam engines to quad turbo charged V16s to maybe even a rocket- engine car. They visit this little lot like the animals of the Savannah visiting a little watering hole or a spectrum of show cars at an international auto show.
The meet’s stars, are two Bugatti Veyrons, and even without them, the drive would have been worth it. But luckily, they were there! One of which is a Mansory Vincero and the other a Veyron Grand Sport Vitese, costing approximately $2.2 and $3.0 million each. Aside from the two stars, there were still two other Veyrons and a lot full of cars that sum up enough cash to buy out a small-cap company.
Mansory
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Vitese Grand Sport
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Other Veyrons
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On this particular Saturday, a gang of new and old Porsches, Lamborghinis, Nissan R35 GTRs and others, as you see from the pictures, came in. The spectator parking lot and the adjacent parking building was also packed with a great number of onlookers. Mind you that even the spectator lots could hold its own meet. I spotted AMGs, M3s, Nissan GTRs, and Bentleys to name a few.
Not only are these proud owners financially independent, some of them are celebrities too. I spotted Barry Meguiar of the Meguiar’s car care product line and host of the show Car Crazy on Speed Channel. He came with his awesome black Chevy Bel Air.
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For a more unique build, meet the Juke-R. Imagine a compact size econo-box and shove in a Nissan R35 GTR engine and drive train… and that’s exactly what this is. A monster!
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I visited Cars and Coffee with fellow Fresh Produce photographer, Chris Chan. While walking around, he bumped into a new friend from his class. As it turns out, this friend regulatly visits Cars and Coffee too, and Chris has seen and photographed his black 2005 Porsche Carrera sitting on a staggered set of Work Meister S1.
Talking about Porsches, I noticed that the brand was very well-represented that day. An old-school roadster, to a stanced one, to the exotic Carrera GT. Even a Le Mans type race car kit car was present.
Old
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Mid
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Later Models
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GT
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Kit Car
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My favorite among the Porsches is the Singer Vehicle Design 911. I do not know much about this tuner but from what I can see, he has breathed new life into an older model 911 by mixing new technology and old feel of a Porsche.
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As you can see from the pictures, there’s just so much more going on at this event than can be mentioned in an article. It truly is an awesome and epic event that takes place every Saturday, at a humble parking lot. One visit is enough to fuel every car enthusiast’s inner childhood dream for a week, and then it’s time to wake up at 5:16 AM again next Saturday morning… Whether it’s a $3 million exotic or rumbling domestic, there’s always a parking spot available for you at Cars and Coffee.
