66 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasantPodcast.com McLarens, Vipers, Hummers, half-million-dollar street hot rods – you name it. About the only exotic car we haven’t had yet is a Bugatti.” Added Curtis, “The Porsche Club has staged their cruises here, and the British Car Club has more or less adopted this as their meeting spot as well.” Of course, not everyone has an Isotta Fraschini in their two-car garage, so you’re just as likely to see a Jeep Cherokee or a Hyundai Sonata parked next to a Bug Eye Sprite or a classic 1960s Toyota Land Cruiser looking as if it’s ready for a race through the streets of Tokyo in pursuit of Godzilla. Jim D’Damery of Darrell Creek, who works as safety director at Wando Trucking, arrived one Saturday in a pedestrian silver SUV. A diehard Corvette fancier, he explained that his regular ride was having electrical problems, so he drove his backup vehicle so he wouldn’t miss the meet. “My Vette wouldn’t start this morning, so I just jumped in my truck and came anyway. No one even noticed,” said D’Damery. “What’s important to me, and I think, to everyone who attends, isn’t so much the showing off of fancy cars but the camaraderie. We may come from all walks of life, but our common bond is our love of cars.” Charleston Cars & Coffee’s unofficial photographer, Lane Anderson of Dunes West, echoed that sentiment. “Most of us aren’t mainstream sports fans. In South Carolina, you can run into a hard-core football fan just about anywhere,” noted Anderson. “But when you start talking about cars, most people go blank. With the people at our Saturday meets, you can sit around and talk cars forever!” On this Saturday, he left his BMW 128i at home and arrived in his Beck Speedster, a 2006 factorybuilt recreation of a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster that’s guaranteed to have any classic car buff salivating. Parked nearby Anderson’s Speedster was another vehicle that always attracts lots of attention – a fire engine red 1939 Ford known as “The Bootlegger.” Owned by Bob Demschick of Mount Pleasant, this meticulously customized street rod comes complete with a whiskey barrel – which Curtis swore is nonfunctional – built into its trunk. Demschick said that when he has shown The Bootlegger up North, it’s always gotten its fair share of attention. “But down here, folks really crowd around for a close look, and they love it. After all, just about everyone living here seems to know someone or is related to someone who’s run moonshine.” Dan Whitton, a lifelong car guy who runs Whitton Marine Inc. on Clements Ferry Road and calls the Corvette “the backbone of the entire General Motors empire,” noted that all the attendees at Charleston Cars & Coffee have at least two things in common: “They are car guys, and they are not golfers. Cars are their hobby.” So, if T-tops are more important to you than tee times, make it a point to motor on over to Towne Centre any Saturday. You won’t be disappointed. And, except for your coffee, it’s all free. For more information, visit facebook.com/ CharlestonCarsandCoffee. automotive
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