Autolifers Cars & Coffee

AL PRESENTS: CARS & COFFEE

Take it back to old school

Text and Photos: Reinis Babrovskis

There used to be time when car meets were all about fun, making new friends and talking a load of rubbish all day - be it cars, football or other nonsense. Somewhere in the middle of all this we lost it all. We killed it with prizes, we killed it with "clubs" and "stands", we killed it with envy and jealousy. We killed it completely. It is time to go back to the basics. Today's "Cars and Coffee" was a proof that we've had enough, and we just want to go back to having fun.And
what an amazing turnout and excellent coffee morning it was! Well done to the Northern Irish car enthusiasts "Autolifers" for organizing the Cars and Coffee morning at the Bandridge outlet.

To be honest this is what Cars and Coffee is all about... a sunny weekend, catch up with some old faces and see what's everybody up to in the cold winter weekends over a cup of lovely Costa coffee. We expected a turnout of 10-20 friends, what followed was truly amazing: the car park suddenly was filling with dozens of spectacular cars. From supercars to classics;  and they just kept coming.

The Banbridge Outlet was a great choice for the event location, plenty of shops and food places to keep everybody happy. Even the 4 legged friends seemed to enjoy it. No car event is complete without cute dogs.

You know what else was amazing? Despite the colder weather nobody sat in their cars nor spent their day behind the phone screen. We actually remembered what it was like to socialize with one and another.

Was there any entertainment? Plenty - Kash Man made sure he entertained everybody upon entrance/exit of the car park.

Oh and you know what, I noticed another thing...it is actually possible to arrive at a car event with a Honda and not sit at nine thousand revs all day long. So refreshing to see, well done. And whilst on the Honda theme...

One car I was really looking forward to see this morning was Will's Honda S2000. He brought out the turbocharged S2000 that runs a healthy 500hp from the F20C engine. This vehicle really can properly embarrass a few cars on the road. It also attracted quite a lot interest once the engine bay was opened.

And the best of it all - it actually looks pretty "normal" on the exterior.

This car was built by Will and Michael from the Honda specialists "Type Two." Michael knows a thing or two about Hondas and has a few himself, the choice of the ride for the day was his FK2.

As I was saying, this event had nothing to do with awards, there was no "best car", "stance of the show" etc.; however, it would be a sin NOT  to mention the MKII Jag that was present. If there was one car I think everybody stopped to have a look at this coffee morning, it was this ultimate retro stance mobile. Absolutely epic car and real credit to the owner Graham.

This was also the first time I saw Warren's brand new 2017 GTR in person and I must say it looks very neat. The sharper lines on the revised front bumper nearly makes it look like the Lexus LFA smaller cousin.

And whilst I would have loved to photograph all the cars that attended, I actually rather spent the day talking to the lovely owners about them. And you know what, I loved it. Sometimes it is nice to step back and just enjoy it. Bust trust me the car park was filled with amazing machines.

When all the club/stand/blog war, trophy bitc#ing, revving & donuts have finally been put behind us, we can finally start to enjoy something that really joins the car scene together -us, the actual enthusiasts. No winners, no losers - just friends, cars and coffee. What an amazing first event held by the Northern Irish car enthusiast society "Autolifers". I can't wait for the next one. Thank you all for coming and it was great to meet so many new people.