rcollum

An extremely light turnout - most regulars must have been at the beach! Still, it's always good to get together with friends. --Bob Collum

The first day of September was overcast, but dry. I saw some lightning on the way to the event, but never saw a drop of rain. Nevertheless, attendance was down... but still not at all bad. I saw my first Corvette ZR-1 there today. One of my favorites is the Intermeccanica Italia - a simply gorgeous spyder. --Bob Collum P.S.: Don't miss the McGovern party on Sept. 8th: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?12099-Kevin-McGovern-Party-09-08-18-2-00PM-Ellicott-City-Maryland&p=108225#post108225

For some reason, I missed posting this earlier. This is their 22nd year. Kevin is a Seven owner (plus quite a few Lotus), and we always have a good turnout of Sevens. If you can, please come on out! ====Kevin McGovern has a picnic every year, for all kinds of car people. We are invited. This is a great event, with lots of fun people, an amazing group of cars, and good food. R.S.V.P.: kevinmcgov@aol.com 22nd Annual Lotus Summer Party Place: Kevin and Denise McGovern’s Date: Saturday, Sept. 8th Rain date: Sunday Sept. 9th Time: 2:00pm- 7:00pm Come and enjoy a swimming pool, tennis court, and friends. There will be plenty to eat and drink. Bring your family and a Lotus (or other interesting vehicle) if possible. There will be plenty of room to park on the lawn. Directions below. (Google directions are inaccurate!) Direction to the McGovern’s: 11356 Homewood Rd. Ellicott City, Md. Take Route 95 to either Route 100 or Route 32 From Rt. 100 : Follow 100 west to 29 south to 108 west. Stay on 108 west. At 4th traffic light ( Homewood Rd) turn right *Stay on Homewood Rd for 7/10th of a mile then turn right into our driveway. It is a large opening with stone pillars and a gate. If you go over a bridge you have gone too far. Follow the driveway back and go through a set of white brick pillars. Continue until you get to the house From Rt. 32 : Follow Rt 32 west to Cedar Lane/ Sanner Rd exit. ( the first exit after Rt 29) Make a right at the end of the exit. Take Cedar Lane to the end. Make a left onto Harpers Farm Rd. At the third light Harpers Farm Rd becomes Homewood Rd. stay straight. Follow the direction from * For those using Google Directions: If you are instructed to turn on Castlebridge Rd do not turn. Instead go to the next right turn which is my driveway and turn into driveway and follow it to the house at the end of the drive

Below is the sign posted at the exit from Katie's, onto Georgetown Pike. The other picture was taken a few weeks ago, of a guy who decided to do a burnout up the exit, towards Georgetown Pike. Are you impressed? The cop, who was sitting across the street, and beat the truck thru the intersection, was not impressed. A large group of Katie's regulars applauded the cop. --Bob Collum

Cameron's has become a NoVA Lotus gathering place. I go pretty much every week, and Bob Scates is a regular, too. It's a small but interesting collection of people and cars, and we don't start until 8:00AM on Sundays - come on out! It would be nice to see more Sevens here - let me know if you want to come out! --Bob Collum

A perfect-weather day at Katie's... and, a good turnout of 'our' cars. I had my Seven, and there was a Westfield Seven there, as well. Greg Smoak showed up in his blue Elise, Mickey and his daughter were driving their Evora, and there was a grey Exige from Maryland. I saw a yellow Elise as I was leaving, but I didn't get a picture of it... There was a brand-new Ford GT there today, too. --Bob Collum

In recent weeks, Katie's has had too many incidents that reflect poorly on the vast majority of attendees who know how to act. From the medevac of the McLaren driver, after he put his brand-new car into a tree, to the pickup driver who did a burnout, directly in front of a policeman, Katie's is coming under ever-more public scrutiny. This morning, I spoke to Mike Kearney, the owner of Katie's and the Old Brogue. Mike is also in charge of the Great Falls Village business owners' association. As such, Mike is the recipient of complaints from the other business owners, regarding parking and other issues. If you move one of the orange pylons to park your car, Mike hears about it. If you park in one of the marked 'No Parking' areas, Mike is the one that gets the call. In short, all of us who come to Katies Cars & Coffee are guests of Mike's. Too often, when Mike asks someone to move from where they are parked, Mike gets abuse from the people who are in the wrong. That's not right - we are guests at this venue. Katie's is arguably the best gathering of its kind in the area. Several of us have been coming to Katie's since it 'officially' started, in April of 2010 - some even earlier. It is a privilege that should not be taken lightly. Amazingly, I have heard people complain about being asked to move their car, saying that Katie's makes a fortune off the cars & coffee. Let's be clear - on a great Saturday morning, Katie's makes a small percentage of the dollars the restaurant takes in on an average Saturday night. Believe me, this event is becoming more of a pain for Mike and his staff than it is worth. (And, by the way, if you don't buy anything from Katie's, inside or outside - you have no room to complain...) Mike and the staff have adjusted to our crazy-early schedule, and are serving us as early as 6:00AM. Put yourself in their shoes - do you think it's their first choice to get up so early on a Saturday morning? It's damned tough to recruit for positions on a schedule like this. To put it as bluntly as possible - we could lose this venue. I was a regular at the Kohl's Sunday cars & coffee in Fair Lakes, which we lost a couple of years ago, because of several bad actors. It's no fun, but we were all to blame, for allowing those few to ruin it for the rest of us. If you value this venue, make it clear that we will not tolerate childish behavior. Loud engine revving? Take it elsewhere. Burnouts? High-speed runs down local roads, to & from Katie's? Take it to the track. If you behave like the guests you are, you will be welcome. People that cannot behave should be firmly but politely asked to leave. I would welcome any suggestions regarding self-policing, to save this venue. --Bob Collum

A beautiful day for a drive, which made for a good turnout at Cameron's! I was joined by Bob Scates in his esprit, and Jim Hurd in his Evora. We had Dino's Murcielago, and a Ferrari F430 there, too! --Bob Collum

It threatened rain this morning, but we never really had any, to speak of. As a result, attendance was a bit lower than usual. Still, a lot of interesting vehicles and people. Our friend Paul has a '32 Ford Roadster, with no top. We kept our umbrellas at the ready to keep his seats dry. --Bob Collum

I believe there were 7. Next year, this event will be in Sturbridge, MA on August 23-26, 2019.

The national Lotus club meet was August 10 thru 13, 2018. We had a decent showing of Sevens, both Lotus and Caterham. --Bob Collum

For our second year in a row, Debbie and I will drive our Caterham 7 in the DC chapter's America's British Reliability Run. This is a terrific event: well-run, with amazing people, and for a good cause. Our Military Kids provides activities for the children of deployed or hospitalized National Guard and Reserve members. There are two ways you can participate: 1.) You can join the event, if you have an appropriate British car. (Since the 'look' of the Seven is appropriate for the 'old British car' vibe, they will accept most Sevens for this event.) If you have a 25-year old (or older) other British car, it is also acceptable. www.dcbritishreliability.org/ If you can't participate directly in this year's event, you can help us raise funds for our team. 2.) Debbie and I are soliciting donations for our team... Any amount donated is much-appreciated! www.classy.org/team/181442?is_new=true Thanks! We hope to see some other Seven people there! --Bob Collum

We had very good weather today, and a lot more cars, too! I had taken Friday off from work, to fully detail my Elise, in preparation for the annual Lotus Owners Gathering in Cleveland in two weeks. Is anybody here going to LOG in Cleveland? --Bob Collum

A perfect-weather day for a drive to (and from) Katie's! --Bob Collum

It rained heavily last night, but was mostly clear and rain-free all morning. It's not supposed to rain until this afternoon. A lightly-attended C & C this morning - but still a bunch of nice people! --Bob Collum

Another great Saturday at Katie's. No Sevens in attendance, though - it threatened rain, and made good on the threat around 8:00AM. --Bob Collum

If Katie's on Saturdays is "too early" or "too crowded" for you, this Sunday cars & coffee event might just be for you. It's a small but enthusiastic group of car people, and Cameron's is a good little coffee and bakery shop. Bob Scates and I brought our Lotus today. --Bob Collum

My first trip to Katie’s was in 2009. A friend (Alan) told me it was a really cool, small gathering of interesting cars and car people. I took a few pictures; they show an original Mini Cooper, two Elises (Alan’s and mine), and a fire engine. The picture was taken after 8:00AM. Crowds were not a problem. Fast-forward to today, and you have to get to Katie’s INSANELY early to get a ‘good’ spot. As the popularity skyrocketed, so did the quality and variety of vehicles. I have learned a lot by asking questions about what I didn’t recognize or understand. I have a network of friends and acquaintances that all started at Katie’s. There are downsides to such a huge, popular event. Over the years, we have had accidents involving vehicles coming to or leaving from Katie’s – a couple of modern Ferraris on Georgetown Pike and 495, a Cobra replica, and the sad, fatal accident of the young man driving his S2000 down Walker Road. One of the most widely-reported Katie’s stories was the parking accident between the Mercedes and the Ferrari – I heard people on Metro talking about that, the week after. This past Saturday, we had another landmark, and not in a good way: a guy with a ~$300,000 McLaren 720S, bought the day before, crashed the car on Walker Road, and had to be medivac’d out to the hospital. This story has made it to the Fairfax County Police Facebook page, and onto the TV news. The McLaren driver’s injuries, thankfully, are not life-threatening, but he after-effects of such a story will color peoples’ opinions of Katie’s Cars & Coffee. This is NOT meant to be an accusatory screed; God knows, there will be plenty of vitriol from non-car-people. What I want to do, is remind us all that we in the car hobby are very visible, very identifiable targets for people who would like nothing better than to shut down car events they see as being breeding grounds for antisocial behavior. Even many of my car friends have an instant, visceral reaction that ‘that guy (or girl) is an idiot!’ Take that reaction and move it to the large number of non-car-people, and you can see that incidents like this can make for increasing hostility in the general public about “car events” in general. We car people need to move beyond the too-easy excuse that it’s only “idiots” that cause these problems. The roads in this area are filled with people driving distracted and making completely illogical moves in the middle of traffic. Suburban roads, like the ones surrounding Katie’s, are packed with wild deer, which can dart in front of you like a furry kamikaze. These variables could mean that anyone could be involved in a very serious accident, whether or not it is “your fault”. Like me, I’m sure you have done some unsafe moves in your car. We all need to keep in mind that the way we drive our vehicles has consequences. Use whatever helps you to keep that in mind… Do I want to be injured, or to die? Do I want to damage my car? Do I want to hurt or kill someone else? Do I want to have to endure all my friends referring to me as ‘crash’? Those of us who used to enjoy a Sunday cars & coffee at Fair Lakes, VA (Kohl’s) know that it’s possible to lose a venue because of bad actors. Let’s do what is necessary to make sure we, as a group, clean up our behavior, and keep this weekly event safe, and thriving!

I drove my Caterham, accompanied by Mark Franke in my Elise. Chuck Stone brought his Westfield. The Lamborghini Espada is a personal favorite of mine; an Italian oddity, with a 12 cylinder engine, and seating for four! I did a walk around the lot with Michael D. --Bob Collum

I got my seven back from the shop Friday evening. (Cracked header repaired - thanks, R & R Auto!) No surprise that I was the only Seven there, since the NJMP track day for Sevens ran from July 4th thru 6th. I did have several Lotus friends there. A good morning, for sure! That last shot is a bonus - who knows what it is? I figure I'll never see another one! --Bob Collum

A warm, clear, beautiful morning at Katie's. As you would expect, there were a lot of cars, and a lot of people there. Another Seven-related car was there today - Graham brought his Acura-engined LoCost Seven. (My Seven is in the shop, having a crack in the header welded.) Graham is eagerly anticipating his first participation in the Sevens track event in NJ, coming up. --Bob Collum

A good turnout this morning. Two Lotus in attendance - Bob Scates' Esprit, and my Elise. A small, but enthusiastic group, including a Ford GT, a '32 Ford Roadster, a Viper, several Porsches and Corvettes. --Bob Collum

A newcomer visiting Katie's on a morning like today could be forgiven for thinking "what's the big deal about this?" Today's light mist, which kept away the majority of normal attendees, was not enough to keep regulars away. Most other local cars & coffee events would be happy to have the number, quality and variety of vehicles there today. Occasional light mist aside, it was not at all unpleasant to walk the lot, perusing what people brought out. My Elise got a lot of attention today. Michael D. was there today, with his dog, Buddy. --Bob Collum

A pretty good turnout on Father's Day - Bob Scates and I made sure Lotus was represented. Mike D. was there in his Porsche Cabriolet, and Paul M. was enjoying his '32 Ford Roadster, 'Henry'. Dino had his Lambo, and Bob Williams drove his just-purchased Porsche Turbo. A really nice bunch of people. --Bob Collum

Well, finally - perfect weather on a Saturday morning! That means a lot of cars & people at Katie's. Chuck Stone parked next to me in his Westfield Seven. As it turns out, Craig Chima was involved in Chuck's Westfield, and in my Caterham! Michael D. came by, and we talked for a while. We had another Dodge Demon there today. My friend Pete and his son drove their Beck Porsche replicas. The Stanley Steamer is a crowd-pleaser. Check out the rearview mirror hang-tag on the Cobra... --Bob Collum