I had what you would call a very "Exotic" weekend. Not the kind with dancers, but the kind with cars. If you're into automobiles costing well north of $100,000, then you'll enjoy this weekend report.
Columbus Cars and Coffee at Esoteric
Saturday morning I attended the "Milligan" Columbus Cars and Coffee meet held at the Esoteric Fine Auto Finishing shop in New Albany, Ohio.
By my "unofficial" count, close to 100 automobiles showed up for this second meet of the season.
There was a nice mix of foreign exotics and modern American muscle.
Porsche and Audi dominated the foreign manufacturers, while Corvette, Mustang, and Dodge had the best showing on the American side.
Sprinkle in a little bit of Italian engineering and you've got a pretty nice pot of modern high-performance sports cars.
Highlights from the morning included this 1966 Porsche 911. Sixty-six was the first year Porsche began selling their cars in the United States. For its age, the Porsche was immaculate. No clue about the Montana license plate, though.
The morning also afforded the opportunity to see Chevy's flagship C7 Corvette ZR1 in person for a second time. This one had the high wing spoiler and all the carbon fiber aero parts.
This rare Fisker Karma drew a lot of attention when it showed up midway through the meet. Notice the solar panels on the roof.
Not to be outdone by all the high-performance cars was this armored military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Esoteric shop.
Last but not least on the list of highlights were these two "slammed" to the ground Mustang 5.0s and a Dodge Aspen RT.
A little known fact about the Aspen RT is that it couldn't be sold in California because it only averaged 15.2 mpg, which didn't meet the state's fuel economy standards.
With this being my first time at this particular Columbus Cars and coffee event (I've been multiple times to the one at Lennox Town Center), I've got to say I was mighty impressed. The team at Esoteric did a wonderful job hosting the event. The Roosevelt Coffeehouse provided "free" coffee and donuts to anyone in need of a little caffeine and sugar. A shuttle bus was available to transport spectators from remote parking areas to the Esoteric shop. This helped keep traffic congestion around the event to a minimum. I highly recommend attending one of these meets if you have a chance.
The next meet will be July 20 at Huntington Bank. In between now and then will be the Esoteric Open House on June 15, and the Exotics on Scioto Mile June 22.
2nd Annual Toy Barn Car Show
The Toy Barn of Dublin, Ohio held their second annual car show on Sunday. I attended the inaugural show last year and thought it was a huge success, especially for a first-time event.
Because of limited parking, pre-registration was required if you wanted to show a car. The dealership cut-off registration at 160 vehicles, which I believe was reached several weeks before the event.
Despite cold temperatures, wet roads and a little bit of mist in the air, the show still managed to have large number of cars and spectators. In fact, it was the crowd of spectators that surprised me the most. They turned out in droves in less than ideal weather conditions.
The Toy Barn changed a few things up from last year's show. They eliminated the five "free" oil change prizes. And instead of raffling off a single $500 Marathon gas card, they split it into five $100 gas cards to give more folks a chance to win. Also gone were the two tickets to those who registered a vehicle to be used for complimentary food and beverages at any of the food truck vendors.
However, like last year, Jake Ballard (former OSU and NFL tight end) from 97.1 The Fan was on hand to MC the event. Evan Blankenship from the band North to Nashville once again provided the "live" entertainment.
Just like the Columbus Cars and Coffee meet on Saturday, the Toy Barn
If you ever wondered what $5 million worth of automobiles would look like, here you go. There's a McLaren Senna, a Bugatti Chiron (blue car), and two McLaren 720s. No question these four cars attracted the most attention during the show.
All four cars made a grand entrance and exit.
For the soccer moms out there, a Lamborghini Urus SUV with a custom wrap made a brief appearance. When it took off down Post Road, you could tell it was quicker than snot.
Contrasting all the high dollar foreign exotics was this Yugo parked across from the $5 million worth of exotics. Someone had a sense of humor.
There weren't as many "classic" cars on display this year as compared to last year. The exotics and weather must have scared them off.
Kevin Martin brought his '62 Chevy pickup truck and Kevin Kelly came in his '32 Ford hot rod. A Hudson Commodore, '67 Buick Skylark, and '68 Mustang convertible were the only other pre-70 American cars I saw.
Overall I didn't think this year's show was as good as last year. I'm sure the weather had a lot to do with that. The Toy Barn set the bar high with their inaugural show which created high expectations to live up to. Don't get me wrong, it was still a good show, especially considering the price of admission -- free! If there's a third annual show next year, you can bet I'll be there. I do love seeing cars that are completely out of my price range.
Southwest Ohio Events
To give everyone a little taste of some of the cars outside of Central Ohio, I'm going to close this week's report with a couple of car shows from southwestern Ohio.
Our good friends, Jeff and Pam Shankle, spent the weekend in the Cincinnati area attending two shows down there.
On Saturday they participated in Green Township VFW Post 10380 Cars & Courage show.
The show registered 109 automobiles.
Besides the Shankles, Angela Gilliland from the Central Ohio area also participated in this show. You may recognize her 2005 Dodge RAM 1500.
Jeff's 1951 Ford pickup received the best Korean War Era award.
Here are a few other cars, trucks and bikes from the show.
On Sunday, the Shankles traveled just north of Cincinnati to attend the 42nd Annual Sharonville Classic Car Show.
This year the show registered 458 cars. Here are some of the vehicles from that show.
I can't believe the first month of the season is now history. As the weather warms up, the number of events should also start to heat up as well. May looks to be a big month for shows and cruise-ins, so stay tuned and log in often...