By Tim Odell[singlepic id=734 w=640 h=480 float=center]
Every Saturday down in Irvine, CA there’s a little gathering called Cars and Coffee. It’s an informal car show where you’ll see everything from LeMons cars to priceless vintage race cars — and everything in between. We fired up the Country Sedan and made the trip beyond the Orange Curtain to join Jeff in his Chavmobile. Hit the jump for lots of pretty pictures and some of our favorites from this week’s show.
[Ed: You’re gonna have to bear with the formatting on this one. Can’t seem to get the pictures on their own lines…]
In it’s current condition, the Mad_Science Country Sedan isn’t exactly car-show worthy. Every panel’s dented, there are some surface rust issues, and I didn’t even bother to vacuum it out. But hey: it’s still probably the only 60s Ford Wagon there, right? Dang:
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Actually, my pristine ’68 Country Squire driving neighbor was a cool guy, and may have a bunch of spare parts for me, as well.
Not far down the row, both members of the local Vehicross Owners’ Society made a showing:
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Spotted the car-show ubiquitous GTo–whaaa?!
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There was an assortment of Alfas, one of which appeared to have a snail stuck in its exhaust plumbing
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Snails were everywhere, even infecting this otherwise nondescript 80s Buick:
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…and the engine bay of this helpless VW Transporter. Luckily, it had some friends around to console it (although they all looked pretty down):
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There was a Lotus Cortina, rocking a classy paint and super-clean engine bay. It’s also the very car that shows up when you Google image search “Lotus Cortina”, on account of it having previously appeared on Bringatrailer.com (and oddly enough, being from our home-town of Los Gatos)
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This Superperformance GT40 clone offered an important lesson about knock-offs and safety wiring. Hint: they’re color coded for a reason.
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While I just picked up my new future daily driver, I’ve already got a good idea for what might replace it: a BMW e9, aka CS, CSL or CSi 2800, or 3.0. These things are gorgeous and just so happen to share lots of parts with early e12s (5-series) or certain e12 based 6-series. Are they reliable? Note the 400k mile example:
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Far and away, the most striking vehicle there was this unrestored (but apparently driven) early Ford Woodie complete with flathead V8. For a car to last this long without going to the crusher or getting all Beach Boys-ed out is truly mind-boggling
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Here’s the remainder of my shots. As I’m going through them I realize they don’t do a great job of capturing the scale of how many different cars were there. Luckily there’s friend-of-Hooniverse CnCpics.com, who’ve got 747 pictures to share with you, or sell you for a small fee. Their collection is impressively comprehensive. For example, I somehow I managed to miss this Nomad prototype.
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Ross Ballot 
Jeff Glucker
Astute, you are.
If your Country Sedan could sing, it might have taken something from Cavo:
I need to see this show
Don't take this too far now
The cars seem so lonely without me
Feel like you’ve seen the best
Could have been the cool cars, the cool cars
Could have been the coffee, the coffee
Could have been the way you looked at me
That told me we were going
Could have been a bad ding, a bad ding
Could have been the real thing, the real thing
Could have been the way you looked at me
That told me we were going to CnC
By the way, does anyone know if they are having Cars & Coffee on 12/26 and/or 1/2? I'll be in SoCal for Christmas and would love to go.
Hey, that Ford Waghoon IS one of the cool cars.
I would bet on the 1/2 show going down… though who knows 12/26 might happen as well, their boards are most likely the best source for that info!
I am thinking I'll be around then as well! 😀
Sweet! I already told Mrs. engineerd that I might disappear for a while one of those (OK, maybe both) days to go to Cars & Coffee.
I may meet you out there… email me Je**@Ho********.com as we get closer…
Of course, there are snails at a car show. After all, that's what makes the S car's go.
Dang it, I was going to say that!
GTO-Snap! I need to go to a good car show. I really, really like those VW Buses.
Just a pair of over head shots of the auto-crowd
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Just a pair of over head shots of the auto-crowd
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Likewise.
We're gonna do our best to make this a regular thing…provided I can maintain motivation to get up early enough to get a parking spot after driving ~50 minutes down from Northeast El Lay.
Lazy bum! 😛
My drive is worse as already duly noted. But then again, I've already been told a couple of times that I'm insane in the membrane.
But then again I don't show my clunker so I don't have to worry about finding a spot.
zing
I hope to have Dill back down in rotation soon!!
Hmmm I haven't been out there in a while. I'm girlfriend-less this weekend, maybe I might head up there.
pssssh. no troubles doing it here. only thing holding me back is hanging out in the lonesome ad c&c while you and jeff spoon in the uberbird!
Bring the Uberbird=Win the show!
it is my DREAM to drive that in there…
Which E30 rolled at THill? They brough there car to C&C the week or so before the race…
I see what you did there.
I hear ya, man. We actually had WATER FALLING FROM THE SKY in San Diego yesterday. And it was windy, too!
Treacherous. Absolutely treacherous.
I spent a week there one night. Awesome City, went to MCRD for my brother's graduation and then partied like a rock star in the gas lamp district.
glop blft blab… turpig iz hurd…
Now I feel better about Fargo's temperatures that are struggling to get into positive territory this week… the snow's only been enough to make the commute more entertaining.
*golf clap* there is a joke with that punchline… I've always been a fan.
Man, what a great collection of machinery. It's nice living where I do, I mean we have some pretty unusual local rides and plenty of interesting stuff passing through Tombstone, but never a complete spectrum of greatness like this.
Bastard!!! You Bastard!!! 🙂
Snow and sleet headed into Detroit tonight.