By Ross Ballot
Sunday morning car shows come in a wide variety. Here in the Northeast though they tend to fall into one of two categories. On one end is the traditional Cars & Coffee. You know the kind; any random parking lot serves as the backdrop for a few hours spent conversing about and looking over fellow enthusiasts’ cars. And on the other end is an event like New Canaan’s Caffeine & Carburetors. It’s an all-consuming affair, swallowing the entire main square of a small New England town. With two roads shut down, hordes of people swarm the streets to drool over high-dollar exotics, historical classics, and everything in-between.
Shining blue skies, seasonably warm; all the right ingredients were there for it to be a spectacular show. And it was: the array of vehicles on display was simply astounding. It’s easy to become jaded and not fully grasp the caliber of vehicles at shows like these once you’ve been to more than a handful. But that is never the case at Caffeine & Carburetors. Time and time again, jaws seemingly drop to the ground. And they continue to even after: I thought I took a picture of a “normal” Porsche 911. Turns out it was a Singer.
And for that variety? If you can name it there’s a good chance it was present. Ford GTs, Toyota Supras, Corvettes, and every variety of Porsche imaginable (Speedsters included). There were Vipers, Skylines, Jaguar XJR-15s, and even a McLaren Senna. Trucks were present too, with attendees ranging from Bronco to Unimog. The scope of vehicles represented at Caffeine & Carburetors cannot be properly captured without being present at the event itself, but I’ll try my best to do so.
It’s time to let the pictures do the talking.
Kamil Kaluski
TWO XJR-15’s?? Yeah, definitely not run-of-the-mill…
Possibly both belonging to the dealership though?
Is that 1903-ish vehicle one of the very early Fords?
Maybe a Cadillac?
http://icdn-6.motor1.com/images/mgl/PvKZX/s1/1903-model-a-the-car-that-started-cadillac.jpg
http://transpressnz.blogspot.com/2011/11/1903-cadillac-model-runabout.html
“Cars all look the same…”
Wow! Some very nice cars, and the variety alone would have made this a fun event. The clean, stock-appearing CJ made me sorely miss my ’77 -7, and the picture of the Aston made me remember how much I drooled over the V8s as a kid. And what’s up with the 4wd VW Mk2? Was that an option, or is this a frankenstein build?
If my (very brief) research is right, the Golf Synchro is 1 of 7,700 or so sold from 1990-1991. Not sure how many were actually imported to the ‘States, but I doubt it’s more than a few.
Almost right – there are Golf Syncros, which are your usual MkII with 4wd (or is it awd? – I have definitely read about the difference, but can’t remember at all), and there ist this thing, the Golf Country.
There was a concept, Golf Montana, and people placed orders at the dealers – so VW built it (thats the story at least).
It has some sort of subframe and a lowered engine (and of course it is a syncro).
Seems there have been 3 versions, a more utiliatarian one, then the most produced, which seems to be a little nicer than the basic golfs, and a “chrome edition” – you can see it on the german wikipedia.
They are still available new, if you’re not insisting on full scale.
https://www.ethanproductions.com/hotwheels-newDB/images/nocode20171009104815453.jpg
Bad name choice for the event, way too many cars that don’t have a carburetor.
https://www.jegs.com/c/Intake-Manifold_EFI-to-Carburetor-Conversion-Kits/11939/10002/-1
Haha, valid point. In all fairness though there was tens if not hundreds of carbureted cars there that I didn’t take pictures of because, truthfully, more modern cars are what interest me more. For those who like carbs though there are certainly vehicles aplenty at every iteration of this show.
Henri Chemin’s French beauty is likely to sell for a seven figure price tag. It deserved more than just a background shot of the quarter panel.
Good eye!
Very good eye indeed. Couldn’t get close enough to get a clear shot…
but that Golf Country. Dang.