Photo Report: the Perfection of Bay Area Car Meetups in November

While the Eastern and Northern regions of the country start tucking their roadsters, cruisers, and drifters away in garages for the winter, West Coast car enthusiasts throw on some scarves and sweaters and keep the party going well through November and beyond. This month, I took my 1983 Volvo 240 DL to two shows, both of which touted an enormously diverse range of vehicles, people, and stories. 

The first show is a regular event that many Bay Area car freaks have come to cherish as a curated but laid-back treasure of a show, with an incredible backdrop. Held once a month right next to the beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin Civic Center in San Rafael, the Pre-Stage Automotive Gathering, run by the ever-creative folks at Breakfast Club Rally and catered by Red Whale Coffee, brings hundreds of people and dozens of cars together for an early morning gathering that feels as welcoming as possible, every single time. 

At each Pre-Stage, a themed section makes up the front of the lot; this month’s choice was pre-2000 BMW M cars, which always creates a buzz of fanaticism and Instagram opportunity. E30s and E36s (and a handful of their predecessors) battled for photogenic supremacy and attracted the gazes of wishful-thinking teenagers and wistful old timers alike. 

The rest of the lot is open to all, and BCR really does mean all. My Volvo was joined by several other Swedish bricks, Mercedes coupes from the 1950s onwards, more Porsche 911 generations than you can keep a tab on, cute little kei vans, old school American pickups, burly muscle cars, German tuners, Italian stallions, and even a couple track-ready Ford GT40s. All of this was made even sweeter by the gorgeous autumn sunshine, of course.

Then came the rain, and with it, the Motoring Coffee Cold Start event at Marina Middle School in San Francisco. A coffee shop run by the Motoring Club, an automotive enthusiast group here in California, the Motoring Coffee has two locations: one here in the city and one in Los Angeles. The semi-annual Cold Start events are uniquely San Franciscan, though, and take advantage of the massive Marina Middle School lot to welcome a smaller, but more thematically-focused group of cars. 

This Cold Start emphasized fall colors, and my Volvo, being beige, was placed in a row with vehicles in various shades of red, orange, green, and brown. The result was a cheeky nod to autumnal joy, and the crew was eclectic, with modern brutes like the F90 BMW M5 rubbing shoulders with cult classics like the Datsun 510 and Z. 

While the rain lent a certain chill to the air, Motoring Coffee’s free-flowing hot brew and the warm, intimate vibe of the crowd made this Cold Start one to remember. The bright array of cars contrasted against the dull gray of the sky and imposing school building, and excellent staging by event staff made for ideal photo ops.

As spoiled as we are in the Bay Area when it comes to weather, we are even more spoiled when it comes to the year-round spread of welcoming and diverse car shows. Here’s hoping that the holidays still have a few more automotive surprises lying in wait!