The cars and coffee phenomenon has taken the automotive enthusiast community by storm. Everyone from performance shops to coffee shops are hosting these events on weekend mornings. Its a great way to get your car out and talk with others about cars. It’s no secret that attending cars and coffee is one of my favorite things to do. In Ohio, the largest such event is the Dayton Cars & Coffee.

Dayton Cars & Coffee is in its sixth season and continues to grow. It is open to all cars and has ample parking available. It has a close proximity to Central Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Eastern Indiana. It takes place every other Saturday morning during the warm months. As many as 1,000 cars show up on any given coffee morning.

I met up with my buddy Steve and his wife Kris. They drove his 1969 Camaro RS. We fueled up and headed west to the Dayton area. It was about an hour and twenty minute drive. When we arrived at the venue we found it to be well organized and laid out. There were three main parking areas with office buildings in the center. There were signs instructing participants where to park and real restrooms available. There is even a parking garage below available in case of weather, which came in handy today.

We saw many cool and interesting cars and heard about them from their owners.

Panoz

At the meet today there were two Panoz cars on display. For those not familiar with Panoz, it is a custom American sports car manufacturer. I don’t recall seeing one outside of Gran Turismo video games. They are hand built with low production numbers, so it is rare to see one.

The Panoz Esperante was one of 33 made during its production year.

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We spoke to the owner of this Panoz Roadster. He had one custom built at the end of the production run. Each Panoz has a vehicle name plate with the name given by the owner. This roadster is named Ruby, for her ruby red paint.

BMW

There is so much to like about BMW and the performance cars they produce. There were two 3.0 CS models in attendance. The black 1974 was a perfect example and well preserved. The car features styling and top technology from 45 years ago.

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Volvo

We spotted a couple of vintage Volvo cars at DC&C. The 1966 Volvo Amazon is owned by Chris and is a great restoration. The exterior and interior colors were borrowed from the popular Volvo P1800 option list, but are still period correct.

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Chevrolet

Even though Chevrolet performance vehicles are quite common at car meets and shows, there were several that stood out in Dayton. Forgeline is an event sponsor and top tier wheel manufacturer based in Dayton. They brought out their freshly built Forgeline Camaro powered by an LT4.

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Five Star Detail brought out the cleanest 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS you can find. I guess you can’t own a detail company and not have a beautiful shine.

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Dayton Cars & Coffee is known for surprise appearances by newly released models. I was hoping a C8 Corvette would show up, but it didn’t happen. As a consolation prize, all other Corvette generations were well represented. How often do you see more than one C1 or C2 at a show?

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One of the featured cars this week was a 1966 Chevrolet Corvair based Yenko Stinger race car.

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Nissan

There were a lot of really nice and well built Nissan cars. I spoke to one owner about his Fairlady Z. It was recently imported from Japan and it still had Virginia 30 day tags.

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Nissan Skylines are becoming quite popular as JDM imports with this event having several on display.

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Ford

There was a real deal Ford Shelby GT350 survivor this week. It was in rough condition but it was legit.

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We checked out a black on black Mercury Cyclone that went 165 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

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Ferrari

There were several Ferrari examples on display from various decades. As an 80’s baby, I am always excited to see a Testarossa in the wild.

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So many cars! I will try to share some of the other cars on Instagram. Too many to put into this post. Be sure to subscribe and follow!