Gaston County (NC) Cars and Coffee

TIP OF THE DAY: "El Camino" is Spanish for... "The Camino."

Well, I've seen a thing or two, and now I've just visited the Gaston County Cars and Coffee for the first time. There was a great mix of old and new, original and modified, everyday and exotics on display.  One thing about this monthly event is that instead of a bunch of car fans gathering in some random parking lot near a coffee place, this is TOTALLY DIFFERENT. 

Early morning at Gaston County Cars and Coffee.
By the time we left there were twice this many cars. 

Yes, this was TOTALLY DIFFERENT because it was a bunch of car fans that gathered in a nice green park, on the grass, with a food truck and a coffee truck. Actually, it was a nice change from some broken up parking lots, so Julie and I enjoyed about an hour of looking at some cars and trucks. 

I'll guess it's easy to remember your license plate #0-0000

Some of the highlights for me were what I like to call "Things You Don't See Everyday," (TYDSED) which now that I think about it would be a good name for a blog or a podcast or a hit YouTube channel that made me money. But, here we are on the NMS blog not making money, but just talking about car stuff. 

72 MG

The first TYDSED was an old Honda N600 that followed us into the park. Man, a friend of mine had one of these in high school, and from riding in it I can 100% verify that these are TINY! Actually, he had the next Honda import to the US, the first generation Honda Civic, but trust me, it was SMALL! The N600 was the first  Honda car imported to the US. 

Honda N600
Air cooled engine right up front

Honda engine bay. 
And this was too large for the Japanese domestic Kei car class!

Next up, from across the field of cars I saw what I thought was a Cobra replica pulling in. Nothing wrong with that, they're still cool cars...but wait a minute. This was NOT a Cobra in any way, it was an Allard. I overheard the owner describing it as the last model of Allard, so that would make this a 56-58 year model Mark II Allard Palm Beach. Oh man, it looked really cool. There is a later version of the Allard company making cars, but one of these originals from the British auto maker are very cool. They didn't make a lot of these, so it's definitely a TYDSED. 

Allard MkII Palm Beach

Optional Jaguar engine, cool chrome rear bumpers.

Allard interior

Two Allard badges and the big letter A will get your attention!
Or maybe the big "A" is for AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

OK, that's two old cars, how about a new one? We spotted a new Lotus Emira. They just went on sale in the US in 2024. 

Lotus Emira

Back to some old stuff!

1965 rear engine Chevrolet Corvair. What's so special?
Check out the lower right Frigidaire Air Conditioning unit!
Probably not a lot of Corvair convertibles had AC back then!

Foreground: Replica 1959 Porsche 356
2nd Car: Porsche 914

What's the word? THUNDERBIRD!

OK, you can read this one. 

Cool old hot rod. 

Early fifties Chevrolet truck reminds me of the one my grandfather used for work. 

Another nice hot rod!
PRO TIP: DO NOT mix the front wheels with the rear wheels. 
Ask me how I know this. 

1955 Plymouth Belvedere 3 row station wagon, on line is also known as the Belvedere Suburban. Tell all your Chevy friends!

1955: before my time.  I'm not that old. Really. 

The V8 Hy Fire engine is just an awesome name!
From reading about this, it was poly-spherical, with two spheres in the combustion chambers, to sort of emulate the Dodge hemispherical engines.