Now What? Cars & Coffee Alternatives

• January 20, 2015
• / Story By
  Albert Roxas

With Cars & Coffee now gone, SoCal enthusiasts (including myself) are looking to the next alternative to getting the weekend morning dose of cars and caffeine. Immediately after the last Cars & Coffee, mini-meets have popped up in the interim. While the founders of Cars & Coffee decide what to do next, here are the locations and times of a few Orange County car meets...

Redhill Meet

Just a few exits over from Irvine Cars & Coffee, this meet in Tustin takes place on Saturdays from 7-9AM on the corner of Redhill Ave and El Camino Real. I was initially warned not to attend this meet, as the organizer was known to be one of the more obnoxious rev'ing guys from Cars & Coffee, but in the 3 times I've attended - there hasn't been any burnouts or anything dumb like that. Decent quality and variety of cars, but can be hit and miss. There's a DelTaco in the lot to handle any AM breakfast. Nice open parking lot with plenty of space. Nice variety of exotics courtesy of the OC Xotics Crew. New and old - something for everyone. 996, 997, 964 - a nice family of Porsche 911's. Nice old school air-cooled 911 RS America. Lambo's latest - the Huracán courtesy of Famous Autosports.

Fight Club

I actually chose this name, since I was invited under secrecy - the organizers want to try and keep the location and time on the DL. Started by some of the associates of the Cars & Coffee crew - this is a nice, quiet meet with some great cars. Ironically, my buddies and I had been meeting at this location for breakfast after Cars & Coffee for years. Scheduling for this meet still varies, once it's formalized I'm sure they'll release more info to the general public. In the meantime, here's some pics... Sick 458 Speciale clad in Schumi's Enzo livery. Rocket Bunny NSX should be familiar - debuted at Nitto Tire's SEMA booth! The newly completed RWB Porsche Targa showed up. A very wide variety from JDM to Italian Exotics, to good ol' German Horsepower. Fight Club usually has em all...

Sunset Beach

This event takes place on Sundays and reminds me a lot of the way Crystal Cove started, way back in the day. A very small group of cool old guys (probably not politically correct, but I have to keep it real) and some great cars. Lots of variety and lots of great stories. Runs from 7-9AM at Peter's landing. Nice Starbucks in the parking lot. Nice 25th Anniversary Lotus Esprit in British Racing Green. Ferrari Parking Only LOL. Nice 430 Scuderia next to a 250GT. Legit Brabus SL parked next to me.

Lamborghini Newport Beach SuperCar Show

This only happens once a month, but it's the one to attend if you miss Cars & Coffee and want to see some amazing stuff. Takes place at Lamborghini Newport Beach off of Baker and Harbor in Costa Mesa. Just a Porsche 918 Hypercar in RS Orange. No Big Deal. LOL. Not restricted to strictly Lamborghini's - the dealership welcomes all enthusiasts and vehicles. Nice old-school Porsche Turbo from Bisimoto. Yep, another Porsche 918 Hypercar. No Big Deal! There you have it! Four mini-Cars & Coffee alternatives have popped up within the past month, in addition to DrivingLine's previously-featured Tuners and Tea. I've heard of a few more that I'll be attending in the coming weekends... so stay tuned as we bring you the latest coverage of weekend-morning automotive goodness!