A cool, clear morning - the first Saturday of Fall 2016. A good turnout of vehicles. If you couldn't find something that fascinated you, you weren't trying.

--Bob Collum

 

I got to Katie's this morning, as usual, around 5:30AM. Only one person was there, which was very odd - usually, there are at least 5 other cars there, with 10 more coming in immediately after me. It was low 60's and overcast, but I saw the forecast Friday night, which said it would not rain in Great Falls until 9:00AM or 10:00AM. Obviously, everybody else knew something I didn't (you get used to it), because it started misting around 6:30AM, and lightly raining at 7:00AM. Considering it was completely dry early, it was an amazingly light crowd - by the time I left at 7:30AM, the front lot was barely half full.

Still, I'll take the rain today... as long as it's clear and dry for the Hunt Country Classic British car show tomorrow, Sunday, 10/9/16. Here's a link to the show's site -

www.mgcarclubdc.com/hcc/hcc_main.html


Still, it was an interesting day at Katie's. Rich Brooks, of the Ford GT tuning firm GT Guys was in town to work on a few local cars, and decided to come over to Katie's. Rich used to work for Roush, and now does very high-end work on Ford GTs. (The white-black-and-yellow one is his.)

--Bob Collum

 

That McLaren 675 is stunning

 

A cold, clear morning with a beautiful full moon. What a morning for a drive!
As you'd expect, a great variety of quality vehicles there today.

--Bob Collum

 

I'm back from two weeks of vacation...

This morning featured crystal-clear skies, early morning temps in the mid-40's... Regulars at Katie's were pretty thin on the ground this morning; the front lot didn't fill up until probably 6:45AM. Though it was late getting started, attendance was fairly good.

--Bob Collum

 

A terrific morning at Katie's. Here's some of what you missed...

--Bob Collum

 

I can't tell you how often I am asked when "the last Katie's of the season" will be. The answer I always give is, "We have no sense... we show up all year, only opting for slightly more sensible cars if the weather is really rubbish".

This morning was a cold, clear mid-November morning, and notable only for being another great turnout, including cars we had never seen before. (Katie's has an amazing knack for bringing in new people and vehicles pretty much every week...) I hadn't seen any of these before... (I had seen the Indycar before, but had not seen the motorcycle wheels and tires they use when it's in the trailer.)

--Bob Collum

 

A holiday weekend is always a crapshoot at Katie's, as far as attendance goes. You know a lot of people are out of town, but with a good number of out-of-town guests visiting, attendance can be good. This morning we started fairly slowly, but we ended up with an excellent showing of beautiful vehicles.

A group of us were having breakfast while it was still pitch-black outside. We mentioned some cars we wished would show up, sometime. In particular, I mentioned two Italian/American amalgams - the Bizzarrini and the Iso Grifo - both with custom Italian chassis and bodies, with American V8s. When we went outside, less than an hour later, what did we find, but a beautiful, perfect version of the Iso Grifo, with a Corvette 327 V8.


--Bob Collum

 

There's always something new. That should be the motto of Katie's Cars & Coffee. There are certainly thousands of Cars & Coffee events, all over the US and beyond, and I'm sure they all have their fans. In the DC area, what sets Katie's apart is the variety of amazing vehicles that come here, with new ones almost every week.

Below: A Corvette with a modified front-end; a 1967 Mercedes, 'stanced'; a custom Chevy pickup. The next three pictures are of a Dodge Charger that I originally walked right past. A friend called it to my attention; it has a custom body, with a gorgeous rear spoiler, frenched-in details in the front and rear, plus flush doorhandles from a Corvette, and an 1100hp supercharged hemi V8.

--Bob Collum

 

I found a website with more info on the Charger...

https://www.detroitspeed.com/Project...rger-pg-1.html

--Bob Collum

 

I have missed the last two weeks of attending Katie's - I was out of town for a niece's graduation one weekend, and it was icy last week. Miss three weeks in a row? Unthinkable! With some minimal email confirmation, our group of breakfast compatriots showed up on Christmas Eve. Not much interesting in the way of cars, but plenty of car-talk.

--Bob Collum

 

For the last Katie's Cars & Coffee of the year (don't worry, we will continue thru the winter...), we had some 'special guests'.

A local Alfa dealer gave us our first look at the Giulia Quadrifoglio, while a new owner brought out his identical Quadrifoglio.

The LeMay Museum from Tacoma brought some old American cars down, on their "Drive Home" winter driving tour. The cars that made it to Katie's were the Chrysler 300 G, the '57 Chevy, and the 1917 Crane-Simplex Model 5, originally owned by JD Rockefeller. (The Mustang had transmission problems, and was laid up for repairs in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.) Here's a link to the LeMay Drive Home blog:

Read it on blog.hemmings.com

I'm told that the Simplex, which has no front brakes at all, had a braking system on the rear that squeezed steel bands around a drum in each rear wheel hub. Scary! And, yes, those are wooden wheels... I neglected to get a picture of the low crown nut the size of a baseball that covered the crank hole under the radiator - but you can barely see it in the full-car picture, just above the front leaf spring.

--Bob Collum