Fall Season , Cafe' Racers and New Cars

 Finally, I'm back at my desk after 3 weeks in New York and living through hurricane Ian. Fortunately Tampa Bay dodged the bullet, er, storm and we can live to drive our cars another day. We are so fortunate after seeing the videos from parts south of here. Fort Myers Beach is no more and from Naples up to Sarasota the devastation is unbelievable. Pray for all those that have to clean up and pick up the pieces.

Today we held a very well attended Tampa Bay Cafe' Racers lunch with a spectacular array of cars covering 1969 - 2022.  Check the pictures to see how many brands are represented.  As Florida goes, today was ideal with low humidity, temps in the '70's and great food on the porch at Mugs Sports Bar & Grill. ( I highly recommend it if you are in the Clearwater area.)  Here's the parking lot line up:

As you can see it was a picture perfect day and there were many stories of summer travels, races attended and races won by at least one in our group.  (Lime Rock Vintage Races)  Another in our group traveled 10,000. miles in 50 days of driving across the US and another spent 4 weeks touring the west in a Mustang convertible, among many other jaunts.   Back road drives and a spin down the Tail of the Dragon were part of those side trips.  And your author made a mad dash from New York to Florida in 19 1/2 hours covering 1300 miles to be back in time to ride out hurricane Ian. 

New Cars -  One of our members has a new Porsche GTS and an Audi R8 on order and I picked up a 2022 Hyundai Elantra N and a 2022 Civic Si up over the summer.  The car market has been crazy with used cars bringing record prices, consequently more reason to trade.

                          Honda Civic Si

                                                  Elantra N- Hyundai's 'M' Car

So there's excitement in the air as fall comes and new cars start showing up.  Good friends reunite and tall tales come alive as Tampa Bay Cafe' Racers gather every other week.  Watch this blog for more in the coming weeks, including driving impressions of the 2022 Honda Civic after a 1300 mile drive!

And if you are in the Clearwater/ St. Petersburg Florida area and want to attend one of our Cafe' Racers lunches, message me here or on Instagram @wownowpics.  We meet every other Tuesday at noon. Next meeting is October 18th.   

               Thanks for visiting this blog, brought to you by Paul Ziegler, Publisher and

               author of "Echoes From The Glen".