Vintage Motoring

The organizers of Cars & Coffee in Irvine have issued a statement addressing the problem of modern car groups hoarding the limited amount of display area in the PAG lot.  Apparently this has been an issue for a while, but the final blow was when “NSX day” showed 100 cars, and then 75 Honda S2000’s crashed the gate, taking up most of what was left of the parking lot.  They were asked to park elsewhere but reportedly ignored the gate workers, yelled insults and drove in anyway.  After the show, the organizers sent out the following message:

I just returned from Cars&Coffee. Way too many “normal” cars in the display area. We had to close the “Display” lot at 7:15am because of overcrowding. Today was not the vision of C&C. We have decided to “re-calibrate” Cars&Coffee, starting next Saturday Feb 7th and future Saturdays, only “pre” 1978 and “Special Classic Automobiles” will be allowed into the “Display” lot. All others will be directed towards the “Spectator” lot and parking structure. There is a new “Every Saturday” car show starting in Orange County that may appeal to many enthusiasts starting March 7th at the “Orange County Market Place”. Please pass the word.

Freeman

A large number of interesting cars that should have been in the show were forced to park elsewhere or leave, as the lot was completely full before the official opening of the gathering.  Arguments are still raging about the details of what happened, but the problem is obvious and the organizers of Cars & Coffee have been forced to take rather drastic action to prevent it from happening again.

The “tuner” crowd are understandably upset about the new rules, and undoubtedly owners of super cars will be equally so.  However most car enthusiasts would surely agree that the average person would rather see something unique or different at a car show than to walk past rows and rows of the same cars they can see at the dealership near their homes.  Gatherings like these are the most fun when a person can see a mix of classics, hot rods and newer cars that are unusual, modified in an interesting way or somehow different than the cars that should be parking in the spectator lot.

It seems a fair assumption that the new rules are a result of the inability for anyone to come up with a way to let some newer cars in and turn others away, without appearing discriminatory.  Hopefully the organizers will find a way to balance the rules but for now it appears they have eliminated their greatest problem with the gathering and gained valuable time to evaluate their options.

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