Katie’s is the only cruise-in in the Washington, DC area that will get the crew from Bubba’s Garage up at 5am to be in the parking lot of Katie’s Coffee House by 7am. For us, it takes a little over an hour to drive to this fantastic cruise-in in Great Falls, VA. Many of these die hard car guys meet year-round from 7am until 9am. You will find everything from European exotics to American muscle cars parked on the lots. Often you will find vehicles slowly cruising the lots that most people only get to see in a museum.
Great Falls is one of the wealthiest areas in the country. When you work hard to earn some extra cash why not spend it on some cool toys? You will always find at least a few Lamborghinis and Porsches at Katie’s Cars and Coffee.
Throw in a few Ferraris, Jaguars, Aston Martins, high end Audis, a Lotus or two, and Mercedes and we have ourselves an expensive showing of European car porn.
Lately the flavor in the parking lot has changed. Where once it was rare to find any domestic vehicles at Katie’s, you now see close to 25% American cars. Still, many of these are on the high end such as Ford GT’s and Chevy Corvettes.
Not everything driven here is crazy expensive. You have nice American Muscle cars and vintage European drivers that any normal guy or gal can own.
Do you like Minis? Normally you can see a couple putting around. Very common are the British variety but on this day we saw an Italian Mini. And not just any Italian Mini. It was a 1966 Innocenti Mini T Woody! Cool. The owner had outfitted his ride with period luggage like he was traveling on vacation.
How often do you get to see an Isetta diving around. This BMW Isetta made Peg squeal as it cruised around the lot a few times. Sadly, he never parked so we couldn’t talk to him.
On this crisp Fall day there were many Austin Healey automobiles showing. A couple of them drove in with their tops down. Brrr, the temperatures were in the high 30’s. Some car guys are just crazy!
Want to see a Fisker Karma? There is a good chance one will be somewhere in one of the lots during Katie’s Cars and Coffee. They are so quiet that you would forget that they put out 402 horsepower to the differential. Peg liked this $100K hybrid until I told her that Justin Bieber drives one.
Rare diver? Check. How about a Volkswagen Golf Country? While it might not be much to look at only 3000 of these light off-road models were ever made. This model came with 4wheel drive, bull bars, and skid plates.
The cruise-in at Katie’s is one of the first places new vehicle models will make an appearance. On this trip we were treated to a Morgan 3 Wheeler. This $40K vehicle is classified as a motorcycle here in the states. It is powered by a 1990cc V twin motor that produce 80hp and is capable of speeds around 115mph. This Standard Bespoke model is built by the Morgan Automobile Company in Great Britain.
So what was our favorite car on this outing? It had to be the Volkswagen Beetle from VWVortex. “The Super Beetle Project” as it is called by VWVortex is one sick ride. This 500hp monster is wrapped in ORACAL Matte Azure Blue Metallic film and sits on 19-inch fifteen52 three-piece Split Formula TR wheels. The drive train was replaced with a 4MOTION all-wheel drive system from a Golf R. This car won the Gran Turismo Best European Import Award at SEMA this year.
So, get out of bed and go enjoy Katie’s Cars and Coffee!