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Cars & Coffee 2019

Fred CookPosted on Posted in Events — No Comments ↓
Cars & Coffee at BMW of Sarasota. That’s Jim Wilson’s 1973 TR6 in the foreground and Pat Kelly’s 1961 Frog Eye with the bonnet up. Our cars often gain more interest than the late model Ferraris, Lamborghinis, et al which tend to look alike.

Over the past several months, the popularity of Saturday morning car shows hosted by local car dealerships has grown so that there is now one almost every weekend. These “Cars and Coffee” events are similar. The dealer clears a space in their front lot and opens it up to whoever wants to bring a car to display that morning, any make, model and age. The hosts supply complimentary coffee, with some throwing in donuts or even a light breakfast for participants. The original such event, Cars and Coffee of Suncoast Porsche, is still the largest. But it now has competition from Cars and Gasoline of BMW of Sarasota and from Cars and Caffeine of Elite Motors. In addition to these Sarasota venues, a monthly event has now been added at The Atlanta Braves training center at Cool Today Park in South Venice.

Our club usually has 8-12 cars present. The C&C events are great for the auto hobbyist to see all kinds of makes and to meet and talk to their owners. These events each have their own identity: one has super cars, another muscle cars and another hot rods. Our cars fit in with all of them. The photos below are from events this year. The classic cherry red MINI was imported from Brazil for $6,000. The owner added the wheels, fenders and stripes, but it came with automatic and AC. It got a lot of attention that morning.

The foregoing information and photos were provided by Jim Wilson. The observations and culinary reviews that follow were provided by Bruce Skraggs.

There’s always a huge turnout for the oldest event, Cars and Coffee of Suncoast Porsche. It’s heavy on Porsches but packs a lot of really cool cars. But I must say the donuts are in short supply and aren’t that great.

BMW of Sarasota is a newcomer, with fewer cars but still some really great ones. This show gets my vote for the best donuts and coffee and they even serve a hot breakfast. Our Club generally has a good turnout for this one and I think it will be huge in a few more months.

Elite Motors Cars and Caffeine is even newer. Not great donuts, but the coffee was good. Currently there is a smaller turnout, but it is new and should catch on.

Ed. note: Bruce has not yet had a chance to review the Cool Today Park cuisine.

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