rcollum

Not a huge turnout, because it was foggy out - but, it was mid-forties this morning, even really early! A friend just bought a Ferrari 599, and brought it out for the first time... A huge number of Porsches there, as there always seems to be when there's iffy weather... Ed drove his X 1/9. --Bob Collum

Dammit! I got up early, and checked outside. It was 29F, no breeze, and dry. I really wanted to drive the Seven, but I jumped in the Elise, and drove towards Katie's, as I normally do every Saturday morning. 3 blocks from my house, I see that Fairfax County has, again, sprayed massive amounts of brine solution on the roads.... Grrr..... I was already out, so I continued on to meet friends for breakfast. Turnout was decent, and, at least it wasn't ridiculously cold! I had the only Lotus there, but saw some 'Lotus friends' - including Michael D, who sold his Seven last year. --Bob Collum

...more from today... --Bob Collum

A late-ish arrival to Katie's this morning. A year from now, this might not make sense to most people. (It took me a couple of seconds for this to register with me...) --Bob Collum

Well, we've made it to February, though Punxutawney Phil says we have 6 more weeks of winter. It was 15F when I got to Katie's this morning, but at least there was no wind. A reasonable amount of cars showed up. No Lotus there, save mine. --Bob Collum

I drove my Elise to Katie's today, to make sure my new battery is working, and that there are no issues with the charging system. All is OK! A lot of nice cars today; a big turnout, after several weeks of salt and cold and a little precipitation. Everybody was ready to get out of the house. (I was disappointed to have the only Lotus there, though...) Three of my breakfast friends in front of the McLaren. A Ferrari Daytona. 'SpeedyCop' brought what looks like an old Dodge, but is a diesel Mercedes underneath; this is a LeMons car. My friend Pete's beautiful 550 replica. --Bob Collum

I missed last Sunday, stuck at home with a cold. I missed a good time - among a few others, Paul came out in the 7-degree weather in his '32 Ford Roadster; very manly! We had a bigger turnout this week, and great variety - my Seven, Dino's custom Chevy truck, Chuck's 911, Paul's roadster. Later arrivals had everything from a slammed Caddy, a jeep, a Cayenne, a Jag XK-R, and a couple of newer 'Vettes. --Bob Collum

Thanks! I'm glad to be of service, doing something I love. --Bob Collum

I planned to drive the Elise to Katie's this morning... the Elise planned differently. I had a problem starting the car, several weeks ago, and discovered that I needed to use my CTEK charger on a different setting (the cold weather setting), since it is an 'AGM' type battery. It seems that the battery was at the end of its life, since that strategy worked, but only for a few more weeks. Now, I need to buy a new one. Oh, well. A decent crowd at Katie's, even including a Ferrari and a Lamborghini. Oh, and my Subaru. Well, it turns out the Seven WILL start, so I'll drive that to Fairfax Circle tomorrow! --Bob Collum

Here is a link to the 2018 Katie's Cars & Coffee thread: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?11840-2018-Katie-s-Cars-amp-Coffee-Thread-Great-Falls-VA

The Northern VA Sunday Cars & Coffee thread continues into 2018 with a new thread - http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?11839-2018-Northern-VA-Sunday-C-amp-C-Thread

Why, you must be 'of a certain age'! I did, in fact, nearly freeze my Slauson off - it was 2F (actual) when I left my house at 7:45AM today. I decided to hold off on driving the Seven.

For reference, here is a link to the 2017 Katie's Cars & Coffee thread: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?11439-2017-Katie-s-Cars-amp-Coffee-Thread-Great-Falls-VA

People of a certain age might remember, when Johnny Carson hosted the Tonight Show, he arranged with the network to have Fridays off work. In order to keep his audience, the network would broadcast a rerun of an earlier show, and it was billed as 'Best of Carson'. In the bad-weather months, Cars & Coffee events are more sparsely-attended, and farther between. Today, 4 of us showed up at Fairfax Circle (Cameron's), and we were driving our 'winter rides'. For that reason, I am attaching some pictures from a Cars & Coffee from this weekend, back in 2012, at Kohl's, a late-lamented local Cars & Coffee. I'm calling this 'Best of Cars & Coffee', to tide us over until we actually have interesting cars to show. --Bob Collum

For reference purposes, here is a link to the local 2017 Cars & Coffee events thread: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?11616-2017-Northern-VA-Sunday-C-amp-C

We have a pretty good showing of hot rods, especially at the Saturday morning cars & coffee events at Katie's. We have one regular that brings one of his 5 Steve Moal hot rods, and we have a good number and variety of other quality hot rods there. (The pictures below are from a single day at Katie's.) --Bob Collum

The ice and snow on the roads kept most of us away from the last Katie's of the year, on Saturday, 12/30/17. A few of us couldn't tolerate an entire long weekend of no car stuff, so we went to Fairfax Corner on a frigid last day of 2017. Chuck drove his Porsche Macan, and Mike D. arrived in his Porsche Cayenne. I drove our Subaru Legacy. Hmmm.... Who is the pretender here? I am driving the only car of the three with a horizontally-opposed 6 cylinder. --Bob Collum

There were only two of us at Cameron's on Christmas Eve - at least, only two of us were there for the 30 minutes I was there, before leaving for Christmas with the family... Paul's '32 Ford looks great next to our Elise. --Bob Collum http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=13712&stc=1http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=13713&stc=1http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=13711&stc=1

Today was Christmas eve eve. It rained overnight, so it was wet, but warm. It was 45 degrees when I arrived at Katie's, with no winds. I think the relatively low turnout this morning was partially the weather, and partially a result of people having left town for Christmas. No matter - our group of Katie's regulars celebrated the season with breakfast at Katie's. --Bob Collum

The Capital Triumph Register is proud to announce that the 21st Annual Britain on the Green (BOG) will be held at historic Gunston Hall, the colonial home of patriot George Mason, on April 29, 2018. BOG, which welcomes all British cars and motorcycles. is well-established as one of the premier all-British shows in the metropolitan DC area. Mark your calendars now and plan to attend as we expect this year to be the best ever! In addition to hundreds of beautiful British vehicles on display, we'll have live music, a Food Truck Alley, a sponsor/vendor Midway for your automotive needs, activities for children, and tours of the Gunston Hall mansion and gardens for participants and spectators. The featured model at Britain on the Green 2018 will be the Triumph TR250, celebrating the 50th year since its introduction in 1968. Participant's Choice honors will be awarded in 25 or more classes of British cars and motorcycles. There will also be a number of special awards including Best Resto-Mod, Best Survivor. Best Display, and of course, Best of Show. Finally, we will have Hagerty Youth Judging in which the next generation of British car drivers picks their favorites. So please plan on joining us on April 29th for the 21st Annual Britain on the Green. It is a great day to bring out your car, celebrate the arrival of spring, and kick off the British car show and driving season with friends, family, and fellow enthusiasts. Cars pre-registered by April 15 will receive the collectable 21st Anniversary show poster by famed artist Joseph Craig English. All for $25, a savings of $10 from day-of registration. Further information on Britain on the Green can be found at: www.capitaltriumphregister.com/bog/ Date/Time: April 29, 2018 9:30 AM - 3:00 PM Location: Gunston Hall 10709 Gunston Road Lorton, VA 22079 www.gunstonhall.org/ Sponsored by: Capital Triumph Register capitaltriumphregister.com/ Britain on the Green 2018 website: www.capitaltriumphregister.com/bog/ BOG Show Car Registration Prices: Pre-registration received by April 15, 2018: $25 per car Registration after April 15, 2018: $35 per car BOG Spectator Admission Prices: Adults: $10 Children 6-18: $5 Children under 6: free Family of 5 (2 adults, 3 children): $25

It was cold but calm weather this morning, so turnout at Fairfax Circle was light, but enthusiastic. It was me, Mike, Chuck, Howard, Laura, and Bob S. and Ed. I'm having battery problems with the Elise, and the Seven was blocked by two other cars, so I was Lotusless today. --Bob Collum

Winter Saturdays at Katie's can be different. Locally, we had a light snow from Friday afternoon thru the evening, so the roads were a bit slick Saturday morning. The cars that show up on mornings like this tend toward the utilitarian, so we see AWD, or German cars, or both. One of the more interesting vehicles there today was a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. This is a Jeep with the Dodge Hellcat 707hp engine; an interesting combination. Not everybody drives what you expect, though! --Bob Collum

OK, I get it. We're in December, and it's supposed to be at least winter-like. I don't even mind weather in the 30's. I even understand getting a dusting of snow - it makes for a prettier Christmas. What annoys me, though, is our local government deciding that it's up to them to prevent the impending ice age - they sprayed their anti-ice chemical goo on the streets on Thursday night, and put more chemicals down Friday night and Saturday morning. All this for what you could politely call 'light flurries' Saturday morning. As a result of all the chemical crap on the roads, most people did not come to Katie's Saturday, and those of us who did, largely brought boring, everyday cars. Still, there were a couple of dozen enthusiasts at Katie's, and (as we do, rain or shine), we talked cars. A day at Katie's (even without my fun car, or any fun cars) is still a great time, talking about cars and stuff. There is an astounding amount of knowledge at Katie's. (And, yes, some of their 'beater cars' are far nicer than all my cars put together.) --Bob Collum

I had a last-minute invitation this week to participate in the Middleburg, VA Christmas Parade. I have heard good things about this event from friends in the Jaguar and the Triumph clubs, so I joined in. It's a huge event - there were thousands of people lining maybe 8 blocks of downtown. The parade is in segments, with several separate parades all morning and early afternoon. Various segments of the parade has small floats, bagpipers, equestrians and horse-drawn carriages. There are breaks in between each event. I got to our staging area around 1:00PM, and did some minor 'decoration' of the Seven. The cars - probably hundreds of us - were called to start around 2:00PM. We were staged on a side road for about 10 minutes, and then drove very slowly down the main street, through crowds behind barriers on each side. The parade itself lasted maybe 15 minutes for our group. We were the first car group - I'm sure the whole automobile portion of the parade was at least an hour. I was behind a drag-racing-prepped Camaro, complete with massive tires and a blower. His car died two blocks before the end of the parade. Luckily, the route was downhill from there, and some volunteers pushed him though the end of the parade route. --Bob Collum

While this first Saturday in December was chilly, it was well worth getting up so early. On the way to Katie's I saw the amazing near-full moon, and I pulled over and took a crappy picture of it. --Bob Collum