Cars breed rivalry, friendly rivalry, mostly, and there’s a raft of social clubs springing up devoted to car fans and coffee – enter cars and coffee.

CAR ENTHUSIASTS tend to be a bit, well, tribal. Here in this country, there’s the big one: Ford Vs Holden, but there are numerous others: V8s Vs turbos; front-wheel drive Vs rear-wheel drive; Subaru WRX Vs Mitsubishi Evo, and pretty much anything Vs anything that’s slightly different, even by a model year.

But car people are united in one love, coffee, so mix cars and coffee and you have yourself an event. There are quite a few of them around in now, in the various states. It’s pretty simple, roll up in your ride, park, and wander around checking out the metal glory while sipping your preferred variant of Joe. You’re likely to see everything from restored classics to modern JDM specials (Japanese Domestic Market), side by side with muscle cars or 4WDs. Feel free to chat to the owners, because that’s what everyone comes for.

While C&C meets are something of a petrol-head’s paradise, they can serve as a useful research point for the average car buyer because if your car is the sort of reasonably cool one that attracts enthusiasts, then there’ll be plenty of owners there to show you what they’ve done to their cars, why, how much it cost and why they love it.

Now you might think that enthusiasts are one-eyed, and there’s some truth in that but in reality most are very honest about the pros and cons of their car, and far more knowledgeable than your average car salesman. That makes them a goldmine of information for any prospective purchasers. But it’s only really the cool cars that you’ll see there – as an example, there are two clubs dedicated to the Toyota 86 in Melbourne and many more nationwide. I’m yet to hear of even one Yaris Owner’s Club or a Camry’s Enthusiast’s Society, but I’m happy to be proved wrong…

So if you’re into cars, looking for a bit of information or just got nothing better to do of a Saturday morning then look for a Cars and Coffee or similar meet near you.

These photos were taken at a Road Track Rally event held at Foresite Training in Laverton, Melbourne – gold coin donation, second Saturday of each month. More on the Cars and Coffee Facebook page.  

We also visited Cars and Coffee in April 2015 – anyone spot their car?