Cars and Coffee March 8th is "British car day".

[maverick1]

Any of you socal Atom owners planning on attending this weeks Cars and Coffee event?
I read that it is supposed to be "British car day" and the Atom is British.
Cheersâ?¢

[fiestycolumbian]

Yeah, I had heard that. Ill see if I can make it. It would be fun to see all the old school British makes there.

Fiesty

[nickpoore]

Not gonna be able to make it.
My car is in a few (self removed) pieces...

[hondahamster]

hey mav are you going? Well if you are i will meet you there
Hey calscot are you also coming in, maybe in your porsche, or in your new IS-F
We can maybe go for a PCH coastal drive afterwards.!

And maybe fiesty will not get pulled over this time!

[CalScot]

Last year, this was a great event. Some very rare and mint vintage stuff. Weather will be perfect, so why not!

[Mr.Woolery]

Sounds like great fun, but unfortunately I won't be able to make it due to scheduling conflicts.  I hope that y'all have a GREAT time though. 

[Driver]

Looking forward does anyone know what June 7ths' Cars & Coffee is supposed to be?

[Jacob Potts]

Today's Coffee and Cars was a great event!  Incredible cars!  I met fiesty and CalScot there.  In the ritual blastoff from the C & C site, fiesty let me ride along (around the block)!  It was fantastic!  Many thanks to fiesty and to CalScot for great companionship at the drop of a hat.  And thanks to fiesty's younger brother, for holding my stuff while I got to blast around the world's fastest city block! :-)

Travelogue and photos coming soon.

Jacob :-)

[fiestycolumbian]

Your welcome Jacob, hearing a grown man yell like that was priceless.
It was quite funny, Calscot stuffing muffins and coffee down, grining, chattin up cars, flirting with other scottish women(oops did I just reveal that ), and Jacob who just in awe of the event, giggling and laughing like a child. Both seemed to enjoy themselves quite well, and of course the hamster who was brought to his knees after seeing the GT-R in person.

Here is a pic of Jacob smiling before leaving:
http://cncpics.com/v/mar08/080308/CnC08 ... dex=4          (he was already smiling like a child before we moved an inch!)
http://cncpics.com/v/mar08/080308/CnC08 ... ewsIndex=4

Here is a pic of me leaving, driving so fast the SLR camera couldnt keep up!:
http://cncpics.com/v/mar08/080308/CnC08 ... ewsIndex=4

Jacob, waiting on your long review!

Fiesty

[hondahamster]

That was a fun weekend, and i wasn't dropped to my knees,  i was merely opened my eyes an inch wider, with big money signs in them Come-on the Gt-r comes out in 3 months, so to see one on the road before that, is just amazing.

And yeah that last picture was us breaking the speed barrier  

Same time next week

-hamster

[maverick1]

Jacob....I noticed from the pic that you were not wearing a helmet during your Atom ride. Did you get any bugs lodged in your pearly whites??
Fiesty, are you still wearing your HANS device when you drive on the city streets? I'm looking to get the new HANS sport model and a new HANS specific helmet. Probably go with the 20 degree model and the sliding tether since the Recaro's are more upright than the Sparco's.
I'm hoping CalScot will let me try his Hans/helmet to see if it works well in my Atom.
Guys...any suggestions for a reasonably priced Hans adaptable helmet?
Cheersâ?¢

[Jacob Potts]

[quote="maverick1"]Jacob....I noticed from the pic that you were not wearing a helmet during your Atom ride. Did you get any bugs lodged in your pearly whites?? [/quote]
Amazingly, maverick, I did not get a single bug either in my teeth or down my gullet (I had my mouth wide open at surprise at the Atom's acceleration!!!!  Still!!!!!!).  :-)
[quote="maverick1"]Fiesty, are you still wearing your HANS device when you drive on the city streets? I'm looking to get the new HANS sport model and a new HANS specific helmet. Probably go with the 20 degree model and the sliding tether since the Recaro's are more upright than the Sparco's.
I'm hoping CalScot will let me try his Hans/helmet to see if it works well in my Atom.

Guys...any suggestions for a reasonably priced Hans adaptable helmet?

Cheersâ?¢ [/quote]
Maverick, when fiestycolumbian tore around the block, he was wearing his helmet and his HANS device.  Smart man. 

And, yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was there:


Posing in front of fiestycolumbian's Atom
otherwise known as
"Take this photo for you wife, Jacob, or she'll never believe you were there!" :-)


Posing in front of a pristine Jaguar D-type.
otherwise known as:
"Take this photo, Jacob, or your wife will never believe it was there!" :-)

More in a bit,

Jacob :-)

[Alec]

Jacob,

I nearly didn't notice the cars behind you as I was too busy admiring your AtomFest cap. 

Alec.

[Jacob Potts]

[quote="Alec"]Jacob,

I nearly didn't notice the cars behind you as I was too busy admiring your AtomFest cap. 

Alec.[/quote]
Thank you, Alec! :-)

Yes, it is really something, in that temple of motordom, to have something (be it ever so humble) that is truly unique!

And, thanks to the peerless Randy, something dashing and debonair! :-)

Here comes the travelogue and photos!

Jacob :-)

[Jacob Potts]

Cars and Coffee March 8, 2008

After flying into LAX and reuniting with my sole precious bag, I picked up my rental car: a tepid, grey, anonymous Saturn "Aura".  "Aura" means "gold," so why was it grey?  The Atom-derived Ecotec engine (ahem!) provided good acceleration,  but otherwise the Aura was a reliable snoozemobile.  I christened mine, the Saturn "Aroma."

Trembling with fear about drive-by shootings and gang-infested neighborhoods, I ventured forth from the relative safety of the razor-wire topped Hertz compound, onto perilous Sepulveda Boulevard.  The Aroma and I tiptoed a palpitating three miles south of LAX until I saw my hotel.  I only had to turn left oh, a half dozen times to find where the entrance was.

Ensconced at last in a nice, large apartment ("suite" I believe they call it), I carefully checked my maps, made inquiries of the locals, and followed the trail (only four lanes wide) to Manhattan Beach.  There I watched the sun set. 

Wow.

Sunset over the Pacific.  I dined excellently in a restaurant named The Kettle (1138 Highland Avenue, Manhattan beach, CA 90266 {310} 545-8511).  If you go to Manhattan Beach, bring tons of quarters to feed the parking meters and eat at The Kettle.

Sadly, in my excitement (L.A.!  Cars!  Atoms!  Weddings!  Land of the highest concentration of Toned, Top-Heavy Women in the World), I stayed up until 1:30 A.M.

The hotel desk didn't give me the promised 5:30 wake up call.  Consequently, I woke up, by myself, at 5:43 A.M.  Apart from that one gaffe, I would highly recommend this hotel.

Did I say I woke up?  I was dyyyyyiiiing!  Please, if you come to L.A., don't sleep for four hours the night before you drive a long way to see Atoms.  You want to see the road.  Especially the L.A. freeways.




When I had dressed, was somewhat awake, but had yet to break my fast, I exited my hotel room to my first L.A. dawn.  Fog, and low clouds of leaden grey greeted my bleary eyes.

Curious: Thick water beaded the windows of my trusty rental Saturn, but the air felt dry dry.  Not even a whiff of moisture could I sniff in the breeze.  The bank clock told me it was cold: 48 degrees F. The air, however, was so dry I did not feel it the cold that much.  Nevertheless, semper paratus, I took my black trench coat.

Setting forth on my Cars and Coffee adventure, I promply got lost in first mile of trip.  MapQuest said turn right at 0.1 miles: I should have actually turned at 1.0 miles.

A few anxious U-turns on the untrafficked streets led me eventually to "the 405," "the Ventura Freeway," my 40-mile-long entrance to Cars and Coffee.

At the sixth hour of a Saturday morning, the freeways were beautiful: wide, well-marked, and almost deserted.

It was a Looong way from my hotel to the second-to-the-last exit on the 405 before it ceases existence and flows into the broad waters of I-5 south to San Diego.  Wonderful trip, though.

Fog lifting from Signal Hill, becoming low strips of grey clouds that I passed under.

When I got There

INCREDIBLE

When I parked, a grey Lamborghini Gallardo was parked across from my Aroma, in the visitor's parking lot.  Evidently Gallardos are not exotic enough to make the cut on this Cars and Coffee morning.



A half a dozen Vipers sat hissing their disapproval of their banishment in the Visitor's parking lot.  A dozen or more Porsches, any one of which would have broken a Dallas neck, should it have passed, lined their lonely row in the visitors lot.

Now feeling very tired and very hungry,I followed the nylon-jacketed crowd, mostly male, across the street.

In the parking lot of Mazda USA, hundreds of people milled among incredible cars.

People at Cars and Coffee were uniformly friendly.  They gave me advice on where to go (no, not that kind of "where to go", but where the various bits of automotive wonder were parked, where the Atomites might be, etc.) and where to get (YES!) breakfast.

Car heaven.

This particular Cars and Coffee Weekend was British Car Weekend. 

All KINDS of British cars.




D-type Jaguar



Zagato Aston Martin



I cannot remember them all: it is a blur of sheet metal, Ye Olde Englishe Engines, and wire wheels.


Riley


A line of MG's


[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]A line of Loti


[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]And a LOT of motorcycles

At the Mazda USA cafeteria, I ate breakfast with the first new M3 owner in the U.S. and his fifth-grade daugther.  The new M3 owner got his car the same day the dealers got their demo cars. 



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]He had driven it only 100 miles so far.  He was just breaking it in.    No chance for speed antics yet.



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]I found the ATOM!  Happy, Happy Joy Joy!



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]Only one Atom graced Cars and Coffee this weekend: fiestycolombian's 245.



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]An interesting detail to fiesty's Atom 245 is the insulation that he has added inside the curved plastic side panels:


[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]Driver's side


[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]Passenger's side

"Only one Atom" was enough to leave the new Aston Martin parked alongside, to be ignored.



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]Shortly after, it left in a huff:



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]After milling through the crowd a while, I found fiesty.  He had brought with him his younger brother, hondahamster.  Along with them was CalScot himself, his burr finely tuned.  So good to see them.!!!!!

Insane cars populated the parking lot:
a Ferrari F360 with a monster turbo



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]a new Ford GT with two turbos



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]A Dodge Viper modified by Hennesy with twin turbochargers.  It sported a VERY hard-edged exhaust note.


[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]Two Lamborghini Murcielagos
One cabriolet


[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]One hardtop



[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]Two Vectors
one cabrio
One hardtop.
A Lakester rod
A Chevy Nova dragster
Another drag car with a huge supercharger sticking out of the hood.

The very mead and elixir of cartopia.

CalScot said something to me in his Scottish burr.  Thankfully, I had fiesty there to translate for me.  "He said, 'This happens every Saturday.'"

Every Saturday!  The mind boggles.

After overdosing on automotive nirvana, we went to parking lot exit, to see the burnouts.

fiesty let me ride in his car around the block.


[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120][size=80]Photo by Matt Young
As we exited onto the road, fiesty nailed it.  I did something rather foolish.  Still unacustomed to Atomic acceleration, I opened my mouth in surprise as we rocketed from the parking lot.


[font=Palatino Linotype][size=80]Photo by Matt Young

The bugs missed me.

fiesty blasted around the block.  The Atom's back end would kick out under too much Hondaic horsepower.  fiesty's wrists would wrap and the back would tuck in.  The wind folded me into the car as the road blurred just around the bars of the chassis.  Soooooooo fast!

I was laughing like a fool when we circled back and fiesty picked up his younger brother.  By then it had warmed up to a nice temperature.  I bid my fellow Atomites a fond farewell and headed back north.

Anoter warning for you L.A. driving neophytes.  Calculate the risks:
[list]
[*][font=Palatino Linotype]Too little sleep
[*][font=Palatino Linotype]A long, tension-filled drive over unknown roads
[*][font=Palatino Linotype]A good, filling breakfast
[*][font=Palatino Linotype]filling one's eyes with the incredible cars, all on the street, all driven there
[*][font=Palatino Linotype]the joy of meeting up with fellow Atomites
[*][font=Palatino Linotype]An exhilirating blast in an Atom
[*][font=Palatino Linotype]A long drive back, thrumming over miles of roadway, in a bland, sussurating rentomobile[/list]

[font=Palatino Linotype][size=120]Whose with me for falling asleep at the wheel?

Well, as I was northbound on the 405 to my "home", I suddenly feared I had taken the wrong turn.  Everything looked wrong.  What was spread out, now seemed strange.  What was strange quickly escalated to menacing.

The traffic at 9, not 6, A.M., changed also.  All of a sudden it got real intense.  Lots of cars, close around me, going real fast.  Where is my exit?  Did I miss it?  Am I wandering into a South Central LA shooting range, where tourists are the target of choice?  Will I ever see my wife and kids AGAIN? ? ? ? ?

The exit appeared, as it were, out of nowhere, a beacon of harborage to a storm-tossed wayfarer.

Back along the friendly confines of Sepulveda I run, back to my hotel.  Now to take a nap before I am off to the wedding. Or as they often spell it in Nigeria, a "weeding"! :-)

Jacob :-)