Cars & Coffee: Trancas Country Market 10.1.2017

Living in Los Angeles is one of the best ways to spoil yourself with cars. It’s a city where being homeless means you have a front row seat to an F40 hauling ass through a tunnel, and if you’re willing to wake up a little early on the weekends, there are countless car shows to make it worth your while. Automotive events dot the map like gas stations every Saturday and Sunday, but one of our local favorites is the monthly Cars & Coffee held at Trancas Market in Malibu.

It’s a Sunday I look forward to because it’s the kind that consistently delivers a good “car day.” It begins with a groggy drive toward the Pacific Ocean and then a quick shot up the coast, with the traffic here consisting of cyclists, crossing surfers, and at least a few other cars heading to the same place you are. Arriving at Trancas any time after 7AM means you’re on the late side, and with each iteration of the morning meetup this unofficial start time seems to get earlier. It starts so early because there are far more cars than parking spaces. Size-wise, it’s in the sweet spot where the event is still gaining popularity, but the venue’s neighbors haven’t declared it too big or loud or crowded yet. It’s either attracting new cars or the same people keep coming back with different ones, but either way it means each month is bound to include a new roster of machines from all disciplines and decades and places.

After taking a few laps around the various pieces of the overall parking area and long bouts of waiting for the forest of legs to exit the camera viewfinder to get some shots of the popular stuff, it’s time to complete the day with a drive through the tangle of canyon roads. There are countless, all leading up from the beaches into the dusty garrison of mountains that rise up from the water and then reconnecting and splintering off from each other further inland. You can likely spend days in this area without getting bored or repeating the same road. Anyway, that’s my routine for Cars & Coffee, what do you do to make yours special? What is it about your routine that hoists you out of bed when the sun’s still asleep?