Popular Event Barred by the Malibu City Council.
by Wallace Wyss –
Photos by Richard Bartholomew –
Oh, the Trancas Ranch Market, with all its satellite stores, is still there, at the far Northern reaches of Malibu but the organizer, Andy Cohen let it be known at the March 4th event that his Cars & Coffee was the last event he will stage there, the City Council nixing it.
He is reportedly searching for another location. I don’t know how many of the regulars knew but I wish they had known or there might have been a greater turnout.
As it was there were some unusual cars–a 3-wheeler made in Utah, sort of a Morgan in spirit if not in looks, a Porsche 959 accompanied by the man who has revived that car’s reputation, Bruce Canepa, a car restorer from Scotts Valley (near Santa Cruz), an AC Shelby Cobra 289 piloted by Beverly Hills collector Bruce Meyer and son (not just any Cobra but the first production AC Shelby Cobra), a black Daytona coupe with the silver band joining the flip-up headlamps, a Mercedes Gullwing (with plaid cloth upholstery–wonder if it’d my old ’54?) and several Mercedes 300SL roadsters, a maroon Rolls Royce Silver Cloud and a dozen top drawer Porsche 911 variants.
As far as personalities there was as usual Gerald Weigart, creator of the Vector, always promising me each time we meet that soon he will have an announcement on the re-emergence of his wundercar.
There was a pickup truck hot rod that was finished beautifully but by lacking fenders front and rear plus a hood, it was hard to judge the car’s re-styling. Some guys leave too much of the body off!
I will miss Trancas from the viewpoint of an artist–the light was not only right but the background hills were beautiful, the eats were good in the Trancas market, the crowd friendly.
I heard a rumor that it was a lawyer up on the nearby hill that got the event nixed, on account of noise. I wonder if he next will have cars traversing Malibu’s roads do noise tests. Guys like that won’t be happy until we all are forced to drive electric cars.
Oh there are still other Cars & Coffees in Malibu, including one sanctioned by the City Council, but it won’t be the same, Trancas had that Last Post of Civilization feel…
Wallace Wyss’ Ferrari Hunters Jacket
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Wallace Wyss
THE AUTHOR Wallace Wyss is designing more mock up film posters for his Ferrari Hunters series, which he promotes exclusively in Malibu.
More photos are in the slide shows below.
That’s too bad. Hopefully it is not cancelled. Some very nice cars there! The Blackhawk Museum Cars & Coffee (where I first met Mike) has been on the verge of being cancelled for quite a while due to complaints from neighbors due to noise and bad behavior. The complaints, in many respects, were valid as a few bad apples were spoiling it for the rest. Some were revving their engines extensively and racing on the street when leaving the event and accidents due to burning out when leaving the show then losing control of their cars and crashing (all true). I certainly hope the Blackhawk event is not cancelled as that would be truly unfortunate for the well behaved car guy/gal. Was there bad behavior such as I mention above at the Trancas event?
I’ve not been to the Trancas C&C but by the looks of it form past Cohen’s videos it looks to be a much more interesting car event than the ones that I’ve attended at Blackhawk, especially last week. Percentage wise, over half of the Blackhawk cars are the newer high performance American cars and very few classics, esp. European marques.
Boring.
Some reckless dudes did leave Trancas opening it up on Pacific Coast Highway after turning left, even when a Sheriff was parked in plain sight. Something there is in is (enthusiasts) that makes us want to strut our stuff. Fortunately there was not a big crowd egging them on as there grew to be at the Irvine event, where there were crashes caused by cars leaving when they spun out! I think the one on Cross Creek Road i Malibu is more immune from that as Cross Creek is a 5-mph road with a lot of pedestrians and by the time you get out to Pacific Coast Highway you are out of sight of those at the event.
I think that is the problem with some of the C&C events. While most car guys are respectful, there are some that think the are Mario Andretti and super cool, so they want to show off. When they do and rev their engines a lot and speed on public streets and otherwise drive recklessly, they tick off the general populace and neighbors and then the complaints come in. With Blackhawk, the Town of Danville had to get involved and there is a much bigger police presence there now. A few bad apples spoil the bunch!
c and c out in Corona ,if it is still on, is a good one because it is amidst car dealers in a business park not residential. and the freeway is right there if they want to drive fast after leaving.
We have the same issues in Folsom CA, we get a average of 300 cars and on any weekend, you may get a group of guys in a club that don’t attend often, maybe don’t know the rules and decide they are going to show everyone how great their car sounds. On the other side of the coin some people are just way too sensitive. It’s too bad it ends up this way because it’s good for the businesses and fun for the car enthusiasts.
We had a very decent showing of cars at our local C&C in Vegas until the shop owners and the guy responsible for organizing the show parted ways. It was more a social event then a “My car’s batter then yours” event. Well mannered people enjoying other Car Guys equipment / rides.
Then a new vendor took over and it is NOT a sanctioned C&C event. It is slowly turning into one of “those” events where a select few want to have rev contests and burn their way to the exit road to let everyone know they have the baddest car around. I really believe our days are numbered and we will be asked to leave shortly, and not politely.
Why does there always have to be one or two A$$ Holes that ruin it for all the others???
For what it’s worth, I DO have one of the baddest cars out there, but you can see that by looking, you don’t need to hear me prove it . . .
Really? So if I decide to drive my vintage/classic car to the location on a Sunday morning to get a cup of coffee, the Sheriff is going to ask/order me to leave? Lawyers! If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t need them.
Hello we would love to be a part of this we support you all! Please keep us informed of a new location. Kids love this too!! Isn’t it great that I can pull all my kids away from their activities and se some of the finest cars in the valley. We are so praying for you all and finding a new location to share your wonderful pieces of art! Don’t give up, this is important in a community, it brings people together, it pulls them away from their electronics and people actually have conversations!!! Can you believe it!!! Keep pushing!! We support you!! luccatruck.com