Cool Cars with Chris: Car Talk, Driving Tips & Auto Life Jan 5, 2026

015 | Cars & Coffee 101: What You Need to Know Before You Go

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Ac Cobra

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Hey, what's happening? How are you doing today? Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the year

2026. Happy New Year to you. And if you have some New Year's resolutions, perhaps maybe one of them

is to get out and about with your cool car. So today we're talking about what it's like

going to your local cars and coffee. What to expect, what to do, how to approach the crowd.

What do you say to people? Well, you're out there. You don't even have a cool car.

You'll find out all that and more on this episode. Let's go.

Okay. Welcome back, everybody. I got courage back here stopping by the podcast studio. How

are you doing, buddy? I'm doing good, man. Coming off the holidays, getting into the

weekend and doing good. Always glad to be here. Yeah, man. Speaking of cars and your cool car,

how is the old hot rod end doing these days? Are we allowed to say hot rod with a two liter turbo?

You know, I don't know, man. I don't know. I mean, people, you know what's funny is that

you ever seen a Tesla with like a spoiler and a fake exhaust tip or fake, fake, you know,

like hood vents or anything like that. Full-on body kits. Yeah, I've seen it.

Yeah. Well, I'm sure it happens. You know, people do that kind of stuff there and the

two liter is fine. It's fast. You know, it's fun. It's fast. I mean, it does sound like a two liter.

You know, it doesn't sound like a V8 or like that, but I don't think, I don't think you'd want it to

really. It's got a little grout to it for sure. Yeah. Little burbles. I like the little

burbles it makes a little, you know, like the little, you know, crackle and crackle too.

And I guess it is. Yeah. No, but it's doing good. I did replace my front lip,

actually part of my front lip over the weekend. Or I guess it was yesterday.

I replaced the front lip just because I, you know, when I first got it, I wasn't really used to where

the ground clearance was going to be. And so I just, you know, I just destroyed one side of it.

It was like the bottom part was all shaved off and everything. So there's a company that makes a

really, really affordable front lift. It actually still looks really good. And so they do it

in pieces. You have the front part that goes over the front, but then you have the two

edges that are separate pieces. And so over the weekend, I just changed those two out and

looks perfect now. And now since I know angles and everything, I haven't had any situations

in the last couple of days. So it's been good. The joys of owning a lowered car or I guess lower

car, I should say. I guess just like, yeah, cause I'm on stock springs. And so I'm not

like lower ride height wise, but yeah, just, just by dropping it a bit with the, you know,

the lower approach angle with the lip is even enough to change the way that you drive the

car. So, you know, that's, that's the things we do for, for the cars we love, I guess.

Right. Right. I remember I used to scrape things over with my Z a lot. I hated driving over bumps

or certain angles, scrape, scrape, scrape, bang, bang. I was like, Oh my God, that broke

something. That broke something. You know, you hear it and he's like, Oh my gosh.

So, so I know completely though. I know you sent me a video this week about your

older, your, your Z and van, dude. I listened to that a few times because that thing

sounded awesome. Oh, thanks man. Yeah. It made, it took me back to my Z days, but man,

you know, I, I know it hurts not having it, but you know, that's, that, that car sounded

like it was a really cool deal for sure. Oh, it was definitely hot. You know, the thing

was about that car, it wasn't too over the top loud cause I saw one Z roll by and it must have

a tome exhaust or no exhaust or something like that. It was a three seven. Anything

that was loud as you can believe it. You can hear everything like four blocks away,

kind of loud, you know, and mine, there wasn't quite like that. It was never quite

like that. You know, it was very subtle, very mild. It sounded like it was supposed to sound

like that. Cause some of these modifications, some of this exhaust people do, you can tell

it's an aftermarket exhaust just by the way, how loud it is, the way it is. But mine kind of,

it sounded like, as you heard it, you're thinking like, this is probably, it could

work. I didn't get over the top with tips too. The tips in the back were pretty normal looking.

And I was like, as you heard it, it sounded like it probably should sound this way.

Like the car, it was fitting to the car's look overall.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, you know, if the car, I mean, yeah, I mean,

certain cars, you hear them, they turn on, you kind of expect them to sound a certain way,

you know, and it's kind of reminds you of a joke I thought about. If somebody have a Tesla

could like crank like a V8 soundtrack playing in their car next to somebody in traffic,

just to kind of throw the guy. There is, there's a video floating around like on YouTube

or whatever where there's a guy like, there's a bunch of cars leaving cars and coffees.

And they're like, you know, they're all driving out there making noise and like this guy like

drives by with his buddy in the passenger seat and like a model three. And they're cranking,

like they're cranking like a V12 sound, like they're just on the stereo and they drive out.

And it's so entertaining because everybody's just like vibing with it and laughing. But

yeah, that's, you know, you got, you can do that if you want,

you're not making a lot of noise when you're leaving.

If you have the right sound system, it'll sound just real cause some sound systems like,

you know, may not sound that real sounding cause like having the sound of a V8 or V12 in front of

you sounds different than like coming through a, you know, stereo or whatever. So speaking of

seeing cool cars like in person, you've been going to all the rounds for the cars and coffees

down here in San Diego. And have you been to all of them or just the one?

No. So I've been around to a good amount because they all, they kind of,

they have weekly ones and they have some that are monthly just depends on the particular folks

that are hosting it. But I've been through and around a handful of the ones kind of within

like San Diego area and some of them here and like the, you know, inland empire, we call it,

but you know, up here a little bit further north. So they're making the rounds for sure.

Does they always in the morning, right? Or are they made different times today?

For the most part, they are like, you know, usually you're, you know,

you're getting coffee in the morning. So a lot of times they are in the mornings.

They do the, you know, I know there's one that, you know, they,

they sort of call it San Diego cars and coffee, but it's hosted by a particular

detail shop over in the Mirmesa area or Mirmar area. And they've started to actually

do more of these like sort of sunset type vibe, you know, cars and coffees.

They still call it that, but they do it in the evening time,

like the last few hours of the day from like five to seven, where you still had like a little bit

of daylight. And so that's really, you know, when I was getting back into kind of going to these,

because I, there was a long, a good point where I didn't really go too much, you know,

in the way of like car events or anything. And, you know, you hear that and you kind of,

you know, kind of wonder like, what is it? And, you know, really there's no like

defined term really. It's, you know, I know we were talking about it before,

but it's really sort of this, you know, I don't want to say impromptu because

they're, they're, they're, they're scheduled, like we know when they are,

but they're really, you know, they're, they're kind of just whatever you bring,

whatever you are interested in, you, you bring it out to these events. And, you know,

they're usually free. A lot of times if you're charging to be at a, at a,

you know, car event, then it's a car show. So anybody shows are different than car cars

and coffee? Yes. Like I would say there's a, there's a different definition. A lot of times

when people are marketing or, or promoting a car show, it's because like there's usually

a fee involved or, you know, it's a sponsored event by like some, you know, some company.

And, you know, again, that's, that to me is totally different from a cars and coffee where

it's literally just like, we have a location, we have a time we're going to meet,

but whatever you bring, you bring whoever comes, comes like, you know, you know,

we're not saving spots for anybody. Whoever's there is there and they're a part of this kind of event.

And that's what I feel like a cars and coffee really is versus a car show.

Now, is there like vendors selling stuff too, or are there just people showing off their rides?

You, you have some of them. So one of the most popular ones that, you know, I tend to go to

in some of the times where you see some of the craziest things is over in Rancho Santa Fe,

over here in San Diego. That happens every week, every Saturday. And I do a little,

you know, not shameless plug, but I do a little thing on my Instagram where like

every week, I'll just, and it's never really the top five. It's just like the ones that are

kind of on my radar for that week. But I'll shout out like, you know, the events that are going,

going on that week and Rancho Santa Fe is usually always on there because they're always there.

But, you know, you have people like, you know, you have people selling hot wheels and

some people now have started to come out and sell t-shirts or, you know, some of the,

actually the real estate companies that are there in Rancho Santa Fe and that little town,

they'll open up specifically on Saturday mornings and, you know, have some of their like magazines out

and, you know, kind of promote some of their showing. So there isn't a, there's an opportunity for people

with, you know, businesses or little ventures to come out and, you know, kind of sell products

or promote their products there. But a lot of times even those like they're not,

they're not paying to be there. And, you know, anybody there, you know, can shop or,

you know, look at their stuff with their own discretion. So, you know, there are vendors

and things like that, but that's not like a requirement per se, I guess you can say.

Right. Now, these things happen usually on the weekends, I'm assuming. Mostly mornings,

like you're saying Sunday morning, Saturday morning, probably. Now, there is a specific time

like frame these things happen at and do, when they do like an event that say a parking lot of

some business, say Walmart parking lot, for example, they have to let Walmart know they're

doing it or how does that work? Yeah. So any of the events with like any type of longevity

have a relationship with the location that they are hosting them in. So, you know, if you ever see

kind of one offs that, you know, or that they're just popping up and, you know, they they hosting

it in a Walmart parking lot, for example, you know, if though, if they haven't really cultivated

that relationship with whoever owns the property, they don't tend to last very long.

You know, one, one really big example of this. And actually, I just happened to go to this

one today, which I haven't been in a little while because it's a bit of a trek to get there. But

South OC Cars and Coffee is actually hosted at the San Clemente Outlet Mall over it. Well,

obviously in San Clemente, and they've had this relationship with the outlet mall for, I don't

know how many years now, it's it's like a it's like a symbiotic relationship where I

mean, even on their banners within like the outlet mall on their movie theater, they're

promoting OC Cars and Coffee every weekend. So they have a cohesive relationship with that

that facility to host every single Saturday. And they, you know, they have people that work,

you know, work gates to let people in, you know, making sure people aren't getting crazy,

revving, you know, burnouts, things like that. You know, they really have a

than a side show. They they want to make sure that this doesn't become a side show

or or what do you call it a takeover? Yeah. Yeah. So old takeover cars and coffee typically

is more of your casual like, I mean, I'm going to classify like older person, maybe it's like

an older person crowd that goes these things. I would think then like the younger like

side show, you know, takeover type people. That's yeah, I'd say that was, that's maybe a

little bit debatable because you, you get, you know, maybe a say the more mature younger

folks that, you know, are just noted, like, you know, I'm not, they're not into maybe just

doing that kind of stuff. And they want to just be able to be in an environment where,

you know, I get to show off my car that I'm proud of. And amongst other people that are

showing off their cars, they're proud of it. And we're not looking to just draw all this

attention to us doing these crazy things. Like you get a little bit of that, but you do

obviously get a little bit more the other side where you, I will, I won't put them

out there, but you get a lot of the Corvette, you know, the Corvette memes of like the typical

Corvette owner. Yeah. The jeans shorts and like the, you know, the socks pulled up and

you get the jeans shorts and the, you know, he says he got the, what's the whole thing

about the Corvette? It's like the one of one meme. What's that about?

Yeah. We're like, you know, where your particular Corvette is one of one, say

because of like maybe a certain interior color paired with like a certain exterior

color. Oh, I definitely figured that out. I don't have to get that, you know, there's some

other things where like you really, yeah, at the end of the day, yeah, like, you know,

some people do really have like, you know, say a special Corvette because of like a

combination of things, but it's, it's usually something that's not really that,

I guess that important to point out, you know, it's somebody next to you with like,

say another zero six, for example, like it's essentially the same car. You just have

maybe a different, you know, color combo with your interior exterior, maybe like a,

you know, a factory installed option that was slightly different, but you're, you

essentially have the same car. And, you know, when you start to, you start to,

you'll get a little bit more of a, put yourself on a pedestal because you have

this special car. I think that's where that starts to come from, where that

little bit of the meme culture comes from around that.

Do I love me some good memes? Let me tell you. I love me some memes, man.

You know, speaking of the number thing, or the thing you're saying is that my truck,

since a special edition has a special edition Roush plate on the da, on top of the,

like where the, I guess the center console is, you know, the dashboard. It's got a

Roush serial number and a serial plate, like the, the num, the year, the date,

the whatever the model, I don't know. It's like, it's like, it's a little bad.

I think that Shelby's do this too, where they have like its own, like badge,

serial number or whatever for the vehicle. It doesn't say like specifically who is

built by or anything. I don't think so. No, I don't think so. I think it says Roush off road.

It's kind of starting to, I've cleaned it. So it's kind of starting to fade,

like paint starting to come off the thing, but, but it's on the dash.

So it's kind of a neat little like homage, I guess, the fact that like it's

something that is not necessarily one of one, but it's, it's one of whatever,

how many they made of these, you know? So, I mean, different than the regular F 150,

where they made like, you know, a million. So, but okay. So at the Carson coffee,

you got the older guys come with their Corvettes. Do you got like,

because I would go, but like, I don't have a cool car. Am I even accepted to even

go to these things? Oh, you have to have a cool car to go. How's it work?

Man, Chris, I'm going to expose you a little bit because I know I talked about this with you.

I'm like, I'm telling you, people bring everything. Like I imagine, I know that,

you know, whenever this episode comes out, you probably have already made it to one of these,

but people bring everything. I'm like, I'll give you one big example of something that

just blew me away. And we can maybe flesh this out a little bit later, but

it really doesn't have to be like, you know, some people think cars and coffee, I gotta,

you know, unless I'm coming in like the latest, you know, the latest Lamborghini,

the latest Ferrari or the coolest like classic muscle car. Like it's,

isn't even worth going. I was walking through OC cars and coffee this morning.

I went with my little guy and, you know, we saw the craziest things. We saw McLaren

Senna's, you know, the new Revolto Lamborghini, you know, the SLR McLaren's, all kinds of stuff.

We were walking towards sort of the outer edge of cars and coffee. And we came across,

I had to be like early nineties or maybe late eighties, but it was a pristine Ford Escort GT.

Five speed manual. It was a two door, no, I think it was a four door, I believe,

but you walk up and you're like amongst all of these cars, you see, you see this thing that

looks totally different just out of place. But when you went up to it, you realize like this

thing was like abs, it had some imperfections just being an older car. But, you know, a month,

like seeing that park next to a 9-11 GTS, like was what it was parked next to,

you would think that this is like, you know, this is a little weird, like what's going on

here, but people are proud of what they're proud of. And, you know, the fact that somebody has

preserved a, you know, an Escort GT to that point where it still like brings some attention like that

is I think what a true cars and coffee is about. And, you know, people were in the

trucks, you know, people would really appreciate the Rouse truck out there. I know for sure.

I know the guys out there in Escondido, like they did a whole truck day a little, you

know, probably a few months ago. Yeah. Yeah. I see some of these trucks. So dude, I see

me some of these, they've got the, I like 50-inch wheels and they're lifted jacked up in the air.

And they've got like, you know, lights on the wheel well and lights everywhere. And they're

like, he's big, you know, F 350s and all this craziness and stuff like that.

That's just, that's just some people style. Like some people really are into that. You

know, some people actually gravitate more to more of a subtle truck, but with some

performance upgrades. And they know that like, you know, it has, you know, again, that name,

that Rouse stain, like, you know, they, I did, there's a big crowd of people that are,

you know, they want to know that their car or their truck or whatever is OEM.

Like they, you know, they have more of that sort of concourse mentality where,

you know, doing anything that's like aftermarket or not, you know, in Rouse case,

like, you know, it's aftermarket, but it's like a partnership with the manufacturer.

So it's still considered like an OEM plus kind of scenario. That sort of thing is what they

gravitate to. But, you know, once you get into real like modifications by companies that weren't

OE spec, they sort of turn away from that because that's, they're not really into that.

And so there's just a huge, you know, kind of hush posh of people that, you know,

there's some people that really are into heavily modified things, but

there are people that really are, you know, into keeping, you know, your car or your truck

in as close to stock form as possible. And I think there's good, there'll be appreciation

for people that, you know, have things that are still in that realm of OEM plus, you know,

kind of situation as well. I think also for like the older stuff too, like that,

that's where he's just said, you know, like, you know, something like that where it's,

hasn't been crazily overmodified with like crazy, you know, hood scoops and everything

else and fake events on the side and, you know, all that nonsense and stuff like that.

So, so the cars and coffee. So what do you, I mean, just goes there, parks,

just hangs out in front of their car. What, what, what actually happens to these places?

That I think that's another misconception that I, you know,

Oh, they don't do that.

They'll park their car and hang out.

So they do park their car. That's the, the one big rule. I did, I did a

interesting video on this a while back and I actually deleted it because it just didn't

do very well. You know, that's my shortcoming in life, but I, I did this video on like

the one, the one rule that you should follow when you go to a cars and coffee

is that you have to reverse park your car or your truck.

Oh, I always do that anyways.

But yeah, like some people it's just like their nature. They do that anyway,

but you, you look a little weird when you, when you just drive into a cars and coffee and you

just park, you know, like you were just going to the grocery store or going to a doctor's

appointment and, you know, nose in guys that do the car show parking when they

take up four spots across the side.

They don't do, don't be that guy.

Are they, are they, do they exist at the cars and coffee?

I'm tell, like today there was a guy that had a, he had a, he had one of those like

SL Mercedes, the SL 55 or whatever. And, and he, I noticed when we came in that he had

like taken up two spots and he parked at an angle and a guy in a 911 saw it and he

actually purposely parked next to him. And when we made our rounds and came back around,

I noticed that he had actually straightened out a bit and like straightened his car now

so that like people can actually park next to him. And so, yeah.

Was it, was it that busy though? Do these places get that busy where you have to like

take every spot?

The, the OC one is like, you know, again.

Okay. And the parking lot is limited then, I guess. You can't, there's a lot of spaces.

It's a, it's a pretty big parking lot, but the zone they, they, the zone that they

designate specifically for OC cars and coffee is like, you know,

and you basically, if you don't get, if you don't get there before, or if you get there

anytime after like nine, 10, nine, 15, you know, you're probably going to just park on

like the regular parking side. And you know, people come just to enjoy it as a show because

it really is like, you know, yeah, I would just enjoy it and check out the cars and

and meet new people and talk to people and have just like conversations.

If they're willing to talk to me, I think I'm worried about if some of these guys are

like, don't look at it, don't touch it. It's here. You know, I'm wiping it down, but just don't,

just move on. But are those guys there or they have more friendly people? I don't know.

It's, it's a mix. Like you're going to, you're going to get some people that, you know, I,

I saw a guy that was cleaning his, he had a like older Nova. He was cleaning this car

like before he drove, drove in. Yeah. It was a, you know, it was old,

the older Chevy Nova and he was cleaning it outside the cars and coffee before he drove in.

He was, you know, I was driving in because there's a back way to get in and he was

parked off to the side cleaning it to then drive in and park and show,

show the car at the cars and coffee. And so teach their own. I'm not judging anybody,

but you're, you're going to get a mixture. And I say it's a little less maybe at the smaller

cars and coffee because OC cars and coffee considers themselves actually one of the biggest

cars and coffees in the world that happen weekly. But other cars and coffees that go on

around, you know, around us in San Diego are, you know, they're more closer knit.

They're smaller. You know, there's not as many cars that are showing up there.

And there's a lot of the same faces and things like that too. Well, that's good.

Cause I think that you wouldn't go back to a place if you were treated like crap.

If everybody was rude to you and everybody was like jerks and, you know, whatever and

stuff like that. I don't think you'd go back to a place like that or go back to an event.

So if the same people are going back, but also that can backfire too. Cause sometimes

like, they can go back to school when you have like the, the, you get some clicks.

Yeah. They, they don't want outsiders coming into their click kind of a thing.

That's another thing worries me. I'm going to a cars and coffee thinking like,

I'm an outsider coming in. I don't have a cool car. I'm here as a looking Lou.

I want to meet people too, but I don't want it to be like, like, who's this guy?

Who's this guy without a car coming here? Oh, you have to do Chris is telling

me you got a podcast. Oh, okay. I said, yeah, it's cool cars with Chris.

Perhaps you heard of it. Yeah. No, I know you like, yeah, you know,

like I might get a T shirt, you know, whatever it says, you know, one thing on that though is

that, you know, I've just, I've, I've met some of the coolest folks at like these cars and coffees

and some of the coolest folks with the coolest stories around their, their particular car,

their particular build. And, you know, I, I, I generally like, you know, I try to,

you know, converse with a lot of people. And, you know, even if I see somebody,

because I, back to your original question where it's like, you know,

do you park, you stand next to your car? Like, I've never really been in that mentality. And

again, I've, you know, maybe it's just that I don't have like this, this cool, cool car that I'm

like, you know, some people don't feel the same way. Like to be totally honest, my, my,

my one of one Corvette, you know, yeah, that's, yeah, like those guys versus that,

like, you know, I'm just showing up in my four door family car. Like this is,

when you picked this up from, was it rental car? What do you got a rental car?

Yeah. Like, did you just drive the rental car over here? Like, again,

some people think that way. And I'm, you know, I doesn't upset me, but I've never been one to

just kind of post up at the car and just wait for people to come and ask me. Like I park,

like, you know, even now, like with the bonds, like I do open the hood of the car,

just to show people the intake and, you know, some of the things like that. But

I'm usually out. I'm going, like, you know, looking for somebody else,

like looking for another cool car, you know, again, meeting some different people,

just, you know, if I do see somebody that's standing next to their car,

like I'm usually the first person to ask them, Oh, like, you know, what,

how long are you on the car? Like, you know, what, what, what have you had done to it?

If I know, like it's completely stock, I'd be like, Oh, you know, did you,

did you get it this way? Or did you have to restore it and, you know,

do some different things to it to get it back to OEE? And, you know, I'm,

I'm just one of those where I'm like genuinely curious about.

Oh, definitely. And so, you know, you get a mixture of people, but I've just never

been the one to be posted up and sort of wait for people to come to me.

Like I've always been the one to kind of park the car, like, you know, yeah,

find a good parking spot, you know, open the hood, let it sit. It's always cool.

Maybe when you're coming, coming to leave or coming to get something and somebody's there

and you strike up a conversation, but, you know, I try not to bank on that.

I'm just, I'm there to see what else is cool there.

Right. I'll probably be more like conversations, you know, in fact,

the original name of this podcast was going to be cars and conversations

originally, but then I thought that seems a little too, I don't know, I mean,

generic. I thought, you know, like, did I switch over to cool cars with Chris,

which is also kind of a generic, but I don't know. I thought like,

I thought like, I don't know, one of the word cars and there's somewhere

and stuff like that. And I don't know. I just kind of landed on. I was kind of,

you know, debating between both, but I would love to go to a cars and coffee

and just go around and do it like reporter interview style and like

ask everybody questions about their car. But I don't know how willing people

are to talk with their stuff. I don't know how willing they are to like

be on video or be recorded or anything like that. I don't know how willing,

you know, how willing people are to do that, but I look forward to going to one.

That'd be fantastic. Checking the things out. And I like it when sometimes, you know,

they'll have like an event like downtown or like in the city streets,

I'm like the cars will all line up and park that kind of stuff.

I'm assuming it's kind of like that a little bit where they have the streets to

appeal park their cars in the street thing kind of thing. Sometimes do that.

I say a lot of times like those that are like sort of in a city center area or

things like that are usually now more in that bucket of car show because they've

typically kind of at that point gotten a permit with the city. And like,

this is actually like an event that, you know, people are coming to and like,

there's, there's kind of rules around, you know, what they can do.

Although I will say in your area actually kind of La Mesa area,

I think they do have sort of a weekly thing or like bi-weekly thing where they

sort of just like within like a little town center, they'll do a little bit of a car.

They call it a car show, but they, which contradicts exactly what I'm just saying,

but they call it a car show. But essentially people just kind of roll up and,

you know, it's a lot more kind of tailored towards like the classic muscle car kind of

area. Yeah, the ones I've seen have been more of like, lots of Mustangs, a lot of,

you know, my favorite, absolutely favorite is the AC Cobra, even the replicas,

they're all replicas these days. I was going to ask you like, what's your,

what's your favorite? My favorite of all time is the AC Shelby Cobra,

like the classic original one. I've seen a lot of them actually got a ride in one of them once.

And they're all replicas, even the one I wrote them was, are all replicas, you know, now,

but even though like there's a company factory five, I think it is, they send you a kit and

you build it yourself. And you can buy them, I guess too, but that's my absolute dream car.

Even a replica, I'll take a replica all day because they are very well built.

They've got modern suspension on those things and they can put any engine you want.

They want LS, you want by Coyote V8, fine, you want to put whatever, even a classic with

a carburetor, you can do that too. And I've seen a lot of, a lot of them out there.

And I've seen a lot of them. There's a company on social media, I started following,

and they like this big and fail, they even fail the Shelby's, the Cobra's they have

for sale or whatever. And they're just so beautiful. Like the, the paint job, they're

beautiful, amazing. That's a good choice. That's the car I've always wanted since

probably I was a kid. And, and I've seen a few of them at the, that was the ones I

do see at the car shows, but I do see them at the, at the places I've been to.

So it's a pretty, it's one of the few cars that's like pretty, it's pretty popular.

Like you, you're likely to see one at a lot of the places you go, but you still get excited

every time you see one. Like it hasn't lost its luster to see one out in person,

but it's not as though you don't really see them that often. Like, you know,

that's why I didn't like them a lot. I did see them quite often. I was like,

you know, when you start seeing things a lot, you're like, I kind of like that.

I kind of like that. You know, versus something you see once and then forget about it.

And then yeah, which is, you know, that's what happens a lot of times is like,

you know, you see it, you, you see it once in a blue moon. And yeah, you get like really,

really excited, but it's not like that. Like that Corvette 101.

With the weird trim, weird trim on the, on the floor where you never gonna see.

Yeah. Yeah. Which you'd never see in that again.

The gas pedals are different, slightly different shade of black.

This one's got a stain in this one spot that I bought from the factory.

101. Yeah. Speaking of that, I got my truck fixed today. I had the windshield fixed.

I had a chip on my windshield. I had two chips in windshield. Just noticed it.

Man appointment was safe, safe, safe light, safety light where it's a company's called.

And I made it in there and I went in there today and they did the resin.

They put the resin in there and they did the sealant and stuff like that.

But I can't. Oh, so they didn't have to replace your full windshield.

No, no, that's expensive. No, they, because I had to replace it on my other

truck like twice already. And I remember paying for that, but this one here.

No, I've had two chips. The chips like twice and they came out.

One time they came out to the house and they did it. They did the resin thing.

And this time that guy did it in like five minutes or whatever.

It's like really fast. The price wasn't fast. It was.

Because the last guy took a while doing it.

But see, I filled it up, whatever and all the stuff for you. Okay, great.

Whatever. And did you actually have to take it somewhere?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This time. Well, I could have had him come to me,

but I'm like, I probably have a showing going happening tomorrow at the house anyways.

So, you know, so I'm like, why don't we just like leave

and then just, you know, they're local. Oh, they're local.

We'll have to find from here. Okay, great. I'll go there and just get out.

Yeah. I did that and stuff. So it's much cheaper than replacing them when she'll,

but still, you know, you all pay money for that stuff. So I can't watch the truck.

I can't watch the truck.

Little, little public service and a perfect public service announcement on that too,

is that some people think that they have protection against that with their insurances.

Oh, no.

Which you, you have to specifically have like a glass break insurance policy,

like along with your regular insurance to cover that. And I found that out a couple of years ago

when I got a crack, a full crack on my, I was driving in Arizona,

where they tell you like automatically, like if you drive like just a regular car,

try not to drive behind big trucks, because it will happen where you just get a rock

shift to just get, just hit your windshield and cracks it.

Right. Right.

The moment I'm like leaving from a work site out in Arizona,

like on the highway. Oh gosh.

And right as I'm getting, I'm getting ready to change lanes to go around this guy with

this lifted truck. I hear like the, just like on my hood first,

and then the windshield. And as I'm driving like four hour drive back home,

like I just see the crack spread all the way down the worst.

That's what I was afraid to do. I saw the chip and I'm like, oh,

I hope this doesn't spread the third spreading. It's game over.

And I think it's, they tell you how, how, how big it has to spread.

Before they can see, we can't, we can't feel it with a sealant.

It has to be like a few inches, maybe it's probably a few inches.

Yeah. Like if it's, honestly, if it's like, if it becomes noticeable,

like if the spider effect starts to happen, like that's usually,

that's usually like a sign that you're going to have to replace it.

Like it's usually if it just like, if you just get a chip and it stays there,

like you get a little, like, you know, little line here and there off of the edge,

you're usually fine. But yeah, like anything over an inch,

I think is where they draw the line, which, which is crazy.

That would almost irritate me more if like it was just about like an inch and a half

two inches of crack, but I have to replace the whole windshield for that.

I would be frustrated. I had to do it on my other truck, my other F-150,

the one that had the engine replaced. I kid you not, it had the thing.

I was going to Disneyland. We just bought the truck.

We literally just bought the truck like the week before. I remember maybe not

that long, but they just bought the thing brand new.

And on the five freeway going up to like Anaheim or whatever,

and it's like some rock chip thing flew in the flu. And it was, it hit so hard.

I thought they went through the windshield.

It was so, it hit so hard. It impact so hard. And it was a chip too.

I looked in the safety light and things like that. And eventually it's in a pain to replace it.

I don't know if I had insurance on that or not. I don't remember how that worked on that.

But, but yeah, they changed it out. And the guy looked at the odometer.

He's like, crap, you like to have like no miles in this thing.

Yeah, he just bought this. Yeah. And it went out.

So, and then it happened again on me, maybe, I don't know, 10 years after that,

if I mean that I want me five years after that, it went, it did the same thing.

I went to the truck one day and fallen into tea from the sea went up from the middle up and

teed out to both sides cross. I'm like, oh man. So it's no fun, but they're in business for a reason.

And yeah, I've never seen one like Shatter though. Does it actually do that where

if it gets really bad, does this like fall apart or is it holding place?

No, you really have to be like in an accident or like have like something like a lot,

like a big, big rock like thrown at your car or something.

I feel like for it to have that sort of spider effect and like potential.

And it takes a lot even to actually get a windshield to fully like in, you know,

come into the car, like to deform fully and break its way into the interior.

You know, there's videos of people like just kind of stomping on like windshields and

the amount of force that it takes them to actually get it to fully break

is pretty impressive actually, which, you know, obviously you want that kind of safety

when that's like the, that's your main defense between what's in front of you and what's,

you know, what's coming in the car. So when I saw that, I was reassured.

Like I feel a lot safer in this thing, but I'm sure that the cheapy,

cheapy windshields are probably not that strong. I think I asked you like,

you want, when I did the other truck, they want to do the real one,

you want to do like the cheaper one and save a few bucks.

I've never actually, because I've always kind of thought that like they're,

they're all created equal to the extent that

I think they are. Yeah. Like certain,

certain newer windshields have like integration to their like,

they have certain ways that they integrate to like their cruise control or like

they like their defroster or like certain things where like you have to have that stuff,

like along with the install, but I've always assumed that like glass is like,

like, you know, windshield glass is windshield glass. Like I might be wrong, but

Yeah, I don't know. I keep breaking my iPhone cover. I keep dropping that thing.

I was by, I was by the pack of those things. I broke the back one too. So like the,

the one that covers the lenses, because my ex-wife, she broke hers and she has her like

big old like chart of glass sitting in there with the camera lens is, I'm like,

yeah, I think it's broken. Everything fixed, whatever. But you know, I bought the cover.

I guess I cover the front and cover the back. And I've broken both many times. So

it does come in handy because I'm always dropping my phone. I'm always dropping the thing.

So, but the cars and coffee, man, sounds like a great place to go and hang out and check it out.

And they only go for a few hours in the morning. And they're usually at a, at a designated area.

And they usually always have it at the same designated area every single week, usually.

And I'm assuming that if it rains, not as many people show up, I would think

There's many, but you got a really good, what they call it a rain or shine mentality.

Yeah, I would think, I would think. Well, the thing too is, I guess if you get older

and, and the kids are moved out or, you know, you know, whatever, you got your one of one

Corvette or whatever it is, 1985, one on one Corvette. And you're like, you know, I mean,

it's your, it's your community. It's your group. It's your thing you do. It's a thing you do.

You know, maybe you're not working as much, maybe you're retired, but you don't work

at all. Right? So this thing you look forward to all week long, you play,

wrench it on the car or you're probably doing whatever. And then you take it out

on a Sunday drive and you take it to your cars and coffee and then you cruise around

afterwards at a Sunday cruise. Now, the thing I was thinking about is that with cars and coffee,

is it a like Southern California thing or does this happen everywhere?

Oh no. Yeah. This is definitely, you know, country wide, you know,

beyond that even, you know, they have different forms of it in other countries,

you know, Japan's a big, you know, big of like just having these like car events.

Although a lot of times, you know, I've never lived there. So I don't really know, but

a lot of what gets publicized is actually a lot more night events that they're doing,

like sort of parking garages and different things like that.

Oh, like Tokyo Drift, like movie. I remember there in the parking garage doing that kind of stuff.

I'm going to butcher this, but like the Wongan style, like, you know, those kind of deals,

like that more like night mentality is a lot more popular. I feel like in place like Japan

and things like that. But I mean, Europe, like I know they've adopted this mentality a lot.

And no, I mean, it's, it's definitely, you know, pretty widespread. This, this concept of,

you know, grabbing a cup of coffee, whatever it is, like getting together with car enthusiasts

in your local area and, and just hanging out talking about cars and meeting new people.

Like it's, it's, it's become a pretty widespread deal.

But I would think that like, if you live in a colder climate area, you know,

like we're in Christmas time right now, that I would think that they wouldn't be doing

morning cars and coffee in like Minnesota or Wisconsin.

Well, I mean, yeah, it's interesting too, because then it's, that's a good point to bring up is

because I know a lot of people in those areas have that mentality of like,

they're, they're usually storing their cars for,

Oh yeah, totally. Yeah.

They're, they're cool cars. They're going away for like, you know, three, four, five

months or so. And so, you know, those, you're, you're probably right that in certain

areas, they really start to really have like a real snow season. You know, they're,

they're probably not like, you know, they, they might have another car that they, you know,

are okay with kind of taking it out in the snow and things like that. But,

you know, cars and coffees might sort of die out around a certain time of season.

And like these more, these more, you know, kind of weather oriented places.

It's probably a summertime thing for them. It's like a summer cars and coffee thing.

I think, I think when you live in a climate like that where it does get like lots of

snow and gets cold, you know, majority, half the year, at least half the year that

when you do have that summertime window, spring summertime window, you are maximizing every single

day and making sure that every single day that it's warm and sunny, you're doing something, cars and

coffee, driving around, washing the car, you're, you know, going to wherever you guys go out there.

I don't know, but you're probably showing things off and doing things like that.

I, I would imagine that that happens quite a bit in climate.

But when you live in SoCal, man, you don't really got to worry about that.

Well, you get the rain though. You get the rain to worry about.

You get the rain, but yeah, again, like I said, there's people that show up there.

The few weekends ago, we had like a pretty, pretty heavy amount of rain. And I had,

I put out one of my weekly things on Instagram and I, three out of the five places that I posted,

they were having events told me that they were going to cancel them that week.

Rancho Santa Fe was the one that didn't as well as another one. I can't remember.

It might have been that's Candido, maybe, but they, you know, the three out of the,

the other three said that they're not going to have them because of the rain.

But there were still people that were like, yeah, I'm, I'm going out to cars and coffee.

Like, you know, unless it's like literally just downpouring, like flooding, like I'm,

I'm still, I'll take a little bit of a little bit of drizzle.

It becomes more than just about the cars.

I think it's same thing with a lot of different communities out there.

Like this, it's, it's more than just checking out cars.

I think it's more about the community around the cars and the people and the friends you

meet. And it's your club. It's the same reason why people go to certain things,

you know, week after week. It's just to hang out with people they know and get to hang out and

talk to people they know. It could be, you know, it could be anything. It could be your local bar

or your local, you know, pool hall or pool hall, still a thing. I don't even know.

Yeah. I got those around. Yeah. So like things like that or your, or your, you know,

whatever, that's probably why the bowling league year. Yeah. Well, the bowling league,

it's not something to do bowling too. I mean, but of course you're doing like a team thing

or goal thing. For example, you, you know, do that. If you don't really hang out with

the stuff like that, it's things, it's about community and about bonding over something.

The cars are like the bond, but I think the real reason why we go

is do you meet people and, you know, hang out with people we don't know and interact and kind

of get out of our, our like, you know, house, get out of our own, like, you know,

our own bubble and get out and, you know, get around some people that, you know, appreciate

this, this, you know, maybe it's not the particular type of car that we're into the

particular brand, but people that appreciate this car culture that we, that we, you know,

have love for, that we enjoy. And, and yeah, no, I mean, I think you're completely spot on. And

again, you know, just that back to that one, you know, video that I made a while back and

I might make us like a short form iteration of it at some point, but I entitled the,

the, the video like winning cars and coffee, like, you know, because I heard this term

start come out or just like kind of phrase start popping up a lot over the last year or so

is like, you know, what, what wins cars and coffee? Like, what do you bring to cars and coffee that

like wins like, you know, the environment, although like I said, like, it's not a true show. Like,

you're not, you're not in it for a trophy. Like, you're not winning anything. But,

you know, there's, there's certain times where like, somebody brings something where it just,

you know, it sort of shuts down the show. Like you, everybody ends up gravitating to that

thing, whatever it is. And it doesn't always have to be the highest price, you know,

supercar, hypercar. Like I've seen people, you know, bring some, you know, pretty obscure,

you know, kind of cars that like, you know, on the surface, like this is like somebody that wasn't

into cars probably would think you were crazy that like all these people were gathering around

this one car or whatever. But there's something about the car culture that knows that this car

was special. And that is, you know, that one cars and coffee for that day, because it was,

it was what brought people, you know, over to it. But I think at the end of the day,

like, you know, winning in general is just, you know, it's just us coming together and,

you know, having that sense of community with other people that are into cars and that enjoy them.

Because, you know, it's, it's cool when you drive on the freeway and you see

like a cool car drive by you or, you know, you're, you see maybe a couple of cool cars

on the back row that you're driving through and you, you know, you pass by, oh,

there's a cool car driving by or whatever. But there's something different when you come

together in one spot and you have all of these unique cars and these, these unique people with

their unique stories that you get to meet around in these, you know, in these type of environments.

And I think that that's truly how we all win at cars and coffee is just being a part of that.

Because we're all bringing sort of this unique, you know, this unique story of our build or

our car or whatever into this, you know, this group event, this car, this car show,

this cars and coffee, and we're allowing other people to now be a part of that and enjoy that.

And so, you know, I might sound a little crazy about it, but I just enjoy the fact that we

have these things that are free, that are, you know, organized, that are family friendly,

and that we can all just come together and enjoy something that we all have a passion for

at the end of the day. Fantastic, man. I think I love that. That's,

that's great, man. That's, that's all about being community, having a community

and being around the cars and seeing the cars. Now, on that note, are we allowed to take pictures

of different people's cars or how does that work? Oh yeah, a hundred percent, you know, any,

should I ask first though, anybody, honestly, anybody that like gives you any slack for taking

a picture of their cars, it shouldn't be at a car and coffee. In my opinion, like,

I mean, I'm, you know, again, being, you know, quote unquote, YouTuber, content creator,

like, you know, you're thinking like content. When I go like a lot of times, yeah, I'm going

because I, you know, I know there's something cool is going to be there. Like I do a lot less of just

like general cars and coffee content now because for some reason with my content, I just haven't

really seen a lot of just kind of viewership around that. Like, you know, people are a

little bit more like, well, if I wanted to see what was there, I would have went.

And so it's true. It's true. Yeah. You know, you're right that, like,

there's some channels that purely just like, they're go to an event and they'll film it and

they get a lot of views around it. I just, I don't know. I haven't really had a lot of success with

that on my channel. And so a lot of times, like, if I'm, if I'm filming out of cars and coffee,

it's because of say, like a larger theme of the video that I'm trying to kind of articulate.

But I still always like, I'm always filming something like, you know, I have like the

meta glasses where I've like, you know, taken video.

Yeah, I'm filming it. You know, sometimes nobody knows it. Like, you know, I'm pretty careful,

like, you know, to ask somebody if I'm filming them, like to make sure they're okay with it.

Like they're, oh yeah. Well, the camera, I guess. So when I do go to one of these things,

I'm just gonna bring my phone, I think and probably like, you know, maybe some

slight video for reels, that kind of stuff. No harm, no foul. I'd say in that. Like,

I mean, obviously, you know, sometimes I'll ask somebody if they have like YouTube or

Instagram. Like I'd love to tag you in it. Oh, of course. I think about that. Yeah.

You know, but at the end of the day, like, you know, taking pictures, like all of that,

that's what they're there for. So I wouldn't be at all. They are there for that.

They are there to take, they are there for their car to be taken pictures of.

They are. Yeah. Like if, you know, to be there to bring your car out, like if you,

again, if you were at all, like if somebody was at all expecting that somebody wouldn't do

that or that they would try to maybe like charge somebody to take a picture of their car,

like they got the wrong mentality of the whole thing.

Make some money on that end. There you go. Yeah. Like I'm like, go, go to a car show.

Like that's, that's where you belong. Right. I just kind of wondering about that because

with cars, even though they claim they're one of one or whatever it could be, right?

With their Corvette and you take a picture of it. I mean, if you just Google

whatever your Corvette and any color, I'm sure you'll find a gasoline pictures, right?

So it's not like, it's not like your picture you're taking right now is the only picture

that exists of a car like this. Yeah. So it's not like you're taking a picture of a unique

waterfall or something like that. It's only in this one location kind of a deal. So it's,

so when I think picture of a car, I was kind of thinking this too. I just take a lot of pictures

when I used to go to the auto show and they have some of these kinds of cars and these auto

shows and I take pictures of all these kinds of things because I was there and all that's

always fun. But like you're saying with people not watching the video because

it's of the cars and coffee showing the cars that, you know, maybe they don't care to see

or they've already seen it or something like that. Maybe, you know, maybe that's what it is.

I don't know. But like I said, figuring this stuff out on YouTube is a total mystery to me,

man. It's a really mystery to me. I'm totally like almost like, like YouTube's fun at all,

but I don't know, man. It's like, there's a, there's a, there's a big gray area that,

you know, we're, we're all trying to figure out what that whole deal.

And I, yeah. And I hope to like, I don't want it all like discouraged, you know,

view or anybody from, you know, maybe making content around that. Cause like there's,

there's certain events that, you know, some people just, you know, didn't know about,

didn't make it to, you never really know. I guess at the end of the day, you never

really know where sort of your viewership is going to, you know, appreciate in terms of,

you know, certain content that they're going to appreciate. And so I don't want to discredit

saying like, Oh, nobody watches like that kind of stuff. Like I, I, I found that it was just,

it didn't necessarily translate that well into viewership on my channel. But again,

I've seen channels that succeeded that, you know, and, and it just, it really just depends at

the end of the day, your execution, you know, again, all the other things, your thumbnail,

your, your description, your titles, all of that. But, you know, I, I think it just

really, it depends on really on just what you enjoy making this content too.

Like, I, I somewhat get a little, like to be totally transparent, I get a little stressed

when I go to cars and coffees, like especially bigger ones where like, you know, I'm not

capturing all of what like I saw, like, you know, I, I'll maybe start filming and I'll get a

couple of like little highlights and things. But then I start to realize that like,

there's just so much here. And like, there, you know, if I was like to film all of this,

like it would take me forever. And I'm not really going to enjoy like what's going on.

Well, you can do quick, like you can go in there because I used to do this kind of stuff too.

You just do a quick little, like three seconds on every kind of thing, you know,

like a quick little pan here, pan there. Well, I've seen some guys that just do

like, say like a time lapse, like they'll just do a time lapse.

Oh, the walk around and like get it like stable cam kind of thing or whatever.

They got a stable cam and they'll just time lapse it, you know, slow enough

so you can see what's going on, but they're not necessarily focusing on

like individual cars. And that's always a cool concept too,

which I've tried to kind of implement too. Like I'll just do maybe a walkthrough and

like time lapse it and things. But no, there's ways to do it for sure.

And I again, I think that that, you know, there's definitely room for that type of content

because, you know, we're not all making it out, you know, when you have cars and coffees that

where you have three that are happening for in one area at, you know, on the same day at the

same time. Like there's going to be, you know, situations where you don't see something crazy

that, you know, happened like,

I just wish the cars and coffee was like a normal time man, like 10 or something like that.

Like, or even noon, we'll call it cars, cars and lunch. Let's do that.

Cars and lunch, like that. That's, yeah. You know, we'll meet at the In-N-Out burger

if we can find parking, you know,

Hey man, dude, there's niches there and there might be, that might be a thing.

You know, that, yeah. You can't be the only one.

I mean, you can't be the only ones that appreciate just having a little bit more time to sleep in

on the weekends, but still want to do something. Well, that's just that by sleeping for work too.

So it's like my natural, my natural rhythm is not to be up, you know,

in the middle of the morning, I guess or whatever kind of thing, but I'll try.

I'll give it a shot. I will give this a try and head over to cars and coffee and see how it

goes out and encourage, I want to say thank you once again for stopping by and talking

all about cars and coffee. You've been to a bunch of these. You are the cars and coffee

king, man. I don't think I deserve that crowd, but I've definitely been to my share of them.

And so like I said, hopefully it opens the door for some people that, you know,

maybe on the fence of checking them out, just, just check them out. They're, they're

approachable. They're, they're impromptu. They're, they're really just for you to

get involved a little bit more in the car culture. So hope that helps some folks out there.

About this episode

Dive into the world of Cars and Coffee gatherings with insights on what to expect, how to engage, and the diverse car culture you'll encounter. From classic muscle cars to modern supercars, these events are about community, passion, and sharing stories rather than just showcasing the flashiest rides. Learn about the differences between Cars and Coffee and traditional car shows, the etiquette of parking and photographing cars, and how these meetups foster connections among enthusiasts of all kinds. Plus, hear personal anecdotes about car maintenance, modifications, and the joy of being part of a vibrant car-loving community.

Ac Cobra MkIII Chevrolet Corvette Chevrolet Nova Ford Edge Ford F-150 Ford Mustang Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Shelby Cobra

Original notes

Ready to hit your first Cars & Coffee but not sure what to expect? Whether you're rolling in a modded turbo, a lifted truck, or just showing up to vibe with the car community — this episode breaks it all down.

Chris is joined by returning guest Courage for a deep dive into the unwritten rules, etiquette, and awesome stories behind one of car culture’s most beloved meetups: Cars and Coffee.

From SoCal meets like South OC and Rancho Santa Fe to whether you need a cool car to attend (you don’t), this is your go-to guide for car meets in 2026 and beyond.

🎧 In This Episode:

What actually is Cars & Coffee? ☕🚗
Cars & Coffee vs. car shows — what's the difference?
What to bring, where to park, and how to not be that guy
Do you need permission to host a car meet?
Is it OK to take photos or film other people’s cars? (Yes!)
Stories from real meets: Ford Escorts, Roush trucks, and that “one-of-one” Corvette guy
Tips for first-timers: even if you're not driving anything fancy
Should you make content at Cars & Coffee? 🎥
What it means to “win” Cars & Coffee — and why it's about more than your car

00:00 🎉 Welcome to 2026 + What This Episode Is About

00:41 🛠️ Courage Returns: Mods, Mishaps & Car Updates

03:08 🎧 Exhaust Talk: Chris’s Z & the Right Sound

05:10 🌅 Cars & Coffee in SoCal: The Local Scene

06:34 🤔 What *Is* Cars & Coffee? (vs. Car Shows)

08:02 🛍️ Vendors, Hot Wheels, & Saturday Mornings

09:29 🅿️ Do You Need Permission to Host a Car Meet?

11:05 👖 Corvette Memes, One-of-Ones & Badge Culture

14:10 🚗 Do You *Need* a Cool Car to Attend?

15:16 💎 Hidden Gems: The Ford Escort GT Story

16:53 🛻 Trucks, Roush Builds & OEM+ Love

18:09 📏 Parking Etiquette + Don’t Be *That Guy*

20:25 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Breaking the Ice: How to Talk to Strangers at Meets

24:11 🎥 Content Creation at Cars & Coffee: Should You?

40:17 🏆 “Winning” Cars & Coffee & Why Community Matters

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If you're curious about how to attend Cars and Coffee or wondering what happens at a car meet, this episode is your ultimate beginner’s guide to car culture events. We cover everything from Cars and Coffee etiquette and how to park at a car meet to whether you need a cool car to attend. Learn the differences between car shows vs. Cars and Coffee, and get real-world tips on meeting other car enthusiasts, filming at car meets, and how to make car content. This episode dives into modded cars, OEM plus builds, Corvette memes, and the culture of one-of-one badge flexing. Whether you're driving a Roush F-150, a Ford Escort GT, or showing up with no build at all, you'll find insights on where to go for Cars and Coffee in SoCal, including South OC and Rancho Santa Fe. Plus, we talk about taking photos at car meets, filming with respect, and how to win Cars and Coffee by showing up and being part of the car community. This episode is for anyone interested in car meet tips, car event do’s and don’ts, or how to get into car culture in 2026.