bay area "crystal cove"

Crystal Cove and Derelict Doughnuts down south are both sponsored by the shopping centers. Orange County happens to be home to a huge number of antique, vintage, classic, hot rod and exotic cars. Find a central location with a big parking lot and someone who sells coffee or breakfast, and you have a winner. It will take someone with the desire to make it happen.

FYI, both of those events start at 7 am and are over by 9 am so that the parking lot is cleared for regular shoppers. You can't just pick a location without the support of the owner or manager. Stanford Mall would work great for those who live on the Peninsula or in the South Bay.

 

I'd think it would be possible to get the Stanford Shopping Center to sponsor (or at least allow) a decent gathering of cars in the front on a weekend morning. It certainly doesn't hurt their image to have a large number of exotic cars gathered in their parking lot.

However, do we have enough exotic owners in the area to really make it like Crystal Cove?

 

Based on what I've heard there are more exotic owners in the Bay Area (norcal) than socal. It just doesn't seem that way because people up here keep a lower profile.

It would definitely be nice to have some sort of "Crystal Cove" gathering here. I just don't know if I can wake up that early on weekends!

 

No conclusion was ever reached on the other thread.

The other thread stalled around the question of location (there's really nothing "central" in the Bay Area) and got mixed up with driving activities.

Stanford Mall is probably an OK location and is as reasonably upscale as anything around, but it's actually not that central in terms of the freeway system. The other suggestion might be something closer to freeways that connect the intra-Bay area traffic flow such as 92 & 101, e.g. Hillsdale Mall. This would make it easier to get there from East Bay & SF and it's just as far for those in the South Bay (but Stanford might get more folks out of Atherton, Woodside and LAH).

I think it's smart to keep drives separate from car gatherings. If people want to separately go off and do a drive as a subgroup, then they can do it between themselves after the gathering.

Finally, if you do it weekly it might take a long time to get enough minimum attendance to keep it interesting (oh I was just there last week, I'll skip it this week); but if you do it monthly, do it the same day and time each month so that people don't have to look for a notice about it; they just know it's happening and can stop by if their morning is free.

The early morning thing gives me a hard time too, I really have to want to do something to be there at 7AM. But the advantage to it is that it doesn't run into most people's weekend family time, which will cut into attendance too.

Just some thoughts.

 

I think this may be the difficulty in starting a crystal cove. Different attitude here vs. socal. I like, like many owners that I know, prefer to keep a low profile and do not get excited about "showing" our cars.

Now if you do something special (like getting Balboni at crystal cove), then it could get popular quick

 

haha.. like what? Relaying pavement after all the burnouts? lol.. j/k. Rafo hit the nail on the head..people here (Norcal) seem rather reserved about their exotic car ownership.

 

Agreed with Arun - I see no benefit to Stanford, SMC, or the new leasee.

BA people tend to be a bit different in how they display them. You'll get the regulars of some of the shows (Hillsborough, for instance), you'll get the random circles (Alfa, or the candy story types, etc), and then there are guys who just enjoy the cars for themselves.

--Dan

 

hey Dan, do you know any Enzo owners personally who would be interested in coming to the meets/drives?

 

yes, depending on the drive. some are finicky, and i tend not to care what they bring.

--Dan