Accelerate Mpls

Aston Martin DB7 Vantage

Another month, another gathering of man and machine.  Of course I speak of Cars & Café, out at the AutoMotorPlex in Chanhassen.  This month promised, as usual, to be eventful.  I woke up a little early (4:40 am), as I did poor planning.  I had not washed the 300ZX (note to self: next month wash the 300ZX before the morning of Cars & Café). So, I washed the 300ZX and popped off the T-Tops.

As I was cruising out West to meet up with my buddy in his S2000, I saw black sky in front of me – then lightning  – and then I saw a car come over the hill with windshield wipers on (this was not going well).  I hit the gas and made it to his garage with the 300ZX still clean and dry.  We ended up taking his daily driver and leaving the 300ZX and his S2000 there, as it started pouring down rain right after I pulled into the garage.

Upon arriving, it was clear the rain, which was at this point a nice steady rain coming down, had affecte turn out.  Nooooooooo I cried to the car gods.  Luckily some of the cooler rides still managed to show up.  As I was admiring a nice Ford F150 Lightning, I heard something loud pulling into the complex.

I turn to see a true hard core car guy (you would have to be) driving a Cobra in (remember no top) through the rain.  Two Dodge GLH Turbos sat next to each other, both in ridiculously good condition.  I also counted not one but two Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbos (I drooled a little).  Quite a few Acura NSX’s showed up, along with a Lexus IS-F.

Two BMW’s caught my eyes this month.  One was a early 90′s 540i manual white on black with only 28k on the odometer.  The kicker?  It is for sale and they are asking only $25k!

Someone buy that car or buy me that car!  There was also a mid 80′s M6 in fantastic condition that caught my eye., along with an early 2000′s black Audi S8 that is a regular at Cars & Café.  I just love that car!

So good story,  I am walking by the club house and hear tires squealing like a burn out.  I look around and am quite confused.  Suddenly I realize that the sound is coming from behind this building in the VIP section.  I go running through the crowd, and as I turn the corner I almost fall over.

This Lamborghini Miura owner clearly had put the car in reverse instead of first gear (as best I can tell from the situation).  The car had gone backwards off the cement and onto the pebbles directly below.  Part of  the car definitely was resting on the cement.  The tires were squealing and these two guys were pushing the back of the Miura trying to get it back onto the cement.  Finally after a few minutes they accomplished this task, but not before you could smell the clutch and tires.  It was quite a scene.

Also filed in the – ahem – interesting category, was the Toyota Camry Solara parked in the American muscle section.  Hey at least it was on dubs!  Sitting next to that was a Chrysler 300C.  Not just any Chrysler 300C, but one riding on 24′s – and wait – it gets better.

The person had welded extensions (eyebrows?) onto the leading edge of the hood.  You can still see where the person welded and sanded them.  They were not painted yet (I am assuming they are going to paint them….at least I hope so).  Let’s not forget the white Toyota Yaris hatch with lime green wheels.

Jensen

On the list of awesome cars I would include the RUF 911, Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, and a Jensen that showed up.  The red GMC Typhoon that was for sale earlier this year was on hand, along with two Ford GT’s (they are Cars and Cafe regulars).  A new Lotus Evora made the trip, along with a Ford Mustang Shelby Super Snake.

One of the cleaner Oldsmobile 442′s I’ve seen was on site as well.  Obviously I have already mentioned the two Dodge GLH Turbo’s but I want to just mentioned them again in this section of awesome.  Last but not least was the regular BMW 200ti. It is a work in progress, but hot all the same.

One cool thing was this garage that had a Corvette Z06 in it.  Ok that car was nice but you know those bag chairs you take to soccer games and such?  Well they had one of those. and then they had a ginormous one that was literally super sized.  To get a idea of just how big it was they let me sit in it and I got a picture!

Overall the rain really put a damper on the attendance, or at least it felt that way.  With most of the people clearing out before 10 AM, it had to be one of the shortest Cars & Cafés I have attended yet.  Thankfully, the doughnut holes provided by Imola Motorsports stayed dry in the clubhouse.

Yes they were tasty,and yes I ate some.  Just for the record, doughnut holes always seems to taste better when they are delivered in a BMW M5.  I can not prove that, but that seems to be my experience.  Here’s hoping for a dry Cars & Café next month!

Once a month a magical event called Cars & Café where car guys gather to gawk at cars and drink coffee.  On the first Saturday of the month from early spring to late fall this event is held at the Auto MotorPlex in Chanhassen, MN.  Normally 400 to 500 cars show up with some being on site already stored in garages.  There are set parking assignments based on the cars origin.  This month’s event happened to be a mere 49 degrees and drizzling rain.  This is not the opportune weather for such a event and because of that the turn out was closer to 100 cars then 500.  I heard people calling the turn out everything from “weak” to “terrible”.  I personally was happy even with 100 cars though obviously would have preferred 500.

Parking Assignment Diagram

Ford Mustang with the BMW identity crisis

There are a good variety of cars that show up to this event and this month’s was no different.  Everything from the Ford Mustang with the BMW identity crisis to the Porsche with the Chevrolet small block V8 with supercharger as the engine.  Nothing truly seemed out of the ordinary here.  Coffee and doughnuts were provided by the sponsors.  I even caught Kevin Tan, pulling in.  Kevin owns the new European automotive shop in town called Imola Motorsports.  Also of note, Imola Motorsports is one of the various sponsors of Cars & Café.  Many of the garages at the complex are dreamy to say the least.  With car lifts, full kitchens in some, not to mention they are fully customizable to suit the owner.  The Auto Motorplex is one sweet place to be.  My buddy brought his Honda S2000 and I took our 1990 Nissan 300zx.  Of course the cold drizzle and sloppy roads made all the cars quite a mess once at the event.

Porsche with Chevrolet small block engine and supercharger

Blue on Blue Ferrari

Free and open to the public you do not even need to own a car worthy of being shown.  Many people come to be around car guys and look at the cars.  Parking is available right outside the gates.  The people that come whether with a car to show or not, are everything from the true car enthusiasts to people that just like to look at cool cars not to mention kids.  The first Saturday of November will be the last one for the 2009 season weather depending.  Between the coffee and the cars you should definitely check out Cars & Café.  My guess is with the weather the way it was today I will be done for this season.  Until next years Cars & Café……

My father and my 300zx with my buddies S2000

My buddy in his S2000 with his 1 ticket and 4 warnings on the way home...priceless

Pantera

DeLoreans

Note- For all the pictures check out my Flickr stream. My Flickr Stream