Coffee and Cars OKC, September 2024

Made it to Coffee and Cars again with a surprise tuneup.

I’ve been working on Pearline a bit the last month, doing a lot of detail work. I replaced some of the dash controls and spent a lot of time cleaning and touching up.

This morning, I woke at 4:45AM and got out of the house around 5:30AM, heading for Oklahoma City. The local Coffee and Cars group meets monthly on at Remington Park. Remington Park was a horse-racing facility that was turned into a casino. It has a very large parking area, just perfect for such a gathering. I’d previously been to Coffee and Cars 2 years ago at a different location with limited space, so I knew to get there early or else I wouldn’t have a spot. With this new location, there’s plenty of space.

I arrived about 6:45AM for an 8:00AM “official” start. I pulled in behind a blue Shelby Cobra. There were at least 100 cars already lined up with some of the groups marking their territories with cones and banners. I found a spot with plenty of room around me and set about to finding coffee and a breakfast burrito.

I saw at least a dozen OKC PD vehicles around the lot and plenty of uniformed officers walking around. I know some Coffee and Cars groups have a problem with certain vehicle owners doing burnouts (cough, Mustangs and Chargers) as well as Jeep owners thinking they can drive over whatever obstacle they see. So, it’s understandable that the venue owner wanted police presence there.

I returned to find a 1980 Porsche 911 a few slots down. I had breakfast and chatted with Stephen, the driver of said 911. Before long, a few other Porsches arrived and started chatting with their fellow owner. I made a polite exit and began applying glass cleaner and tire shine to Pearline’s exterior.

Once the event started, I roamed around a few times, looking at the other cars. I found a sizable group of Triumph owners and chatted with them. They seemed pretty friendly and invited me to their next club event.

I found an older gentleman with an immaculately restored 1935 Auburn Cabriolet. Auburn was a sister marque to Duesenburg. There’s a photo below. It’s a beautiful car and he was happy to chat about his car and the history of the company.

As 10:00AM rolled around, people started leaving in ones and twos. By 10:15AM, the exits were backed up. I bid my neighbor Stephen a hearty goodbye and made my own way out.

When I was driving up to OKC and about the last 15 miles into town, Pearline was starting to sputter. As I left the lot, she was definitely not running right and loped badly as I pulled up to the first stop light.

On a whim, I drove over to Mike Glass’ shop to see if he was there. His shop is about 3 miles from Remington Park. Mike often has a social group on Saturday mornings, so I hoped to find him there. Lucky for me, he and another man were still there, looking over a 1950’s MGA. As I came sputtering up, I got a wave from them. Mike could tell from a distance that I needed the carbs adjusted. He correctly identified the problem just from the sound. When I had the oil changed last, the local shop must’ve attached the air filter plate upside down. This was causing the carbs to not get the right mixture of air, making the car too lean. As a side-effect, 2 of the 4 plugs were fouled.

Mike cleaned the plugs and then adjusted the carbs while I watched. I still don’t feel comfortable messing with the carbs and I don’t know that I ever will. So, please keep Mike’s long health in mind for my sake.

The trip home was much smoother and the mild September sun felt great after a summer of 100F+ (38C) days.