Caffeine and Octane, August 2015

Man was I worried when I heard they were moving Caffeine and Octane again. (And this goes to show how long it's been since I've gone; they moved to the new location at Perimeter a year ago)

Crowds at Caffeine and Octane, August 2013 (old location).

I liked the Mambo's Cafe location. Sure, I've never been to the restaurant, but what a cool name, right? To me, the show always fit in perfectly in that little business park. Sunday meant no worries when it came to traffic, and trees shaded most of the parking lot, so my exposures were pretty easy to get right.

But taking a step back, I suddenly saw why the change of venue needed to happen. See, the show started out at The Avenue, a small corner of parking lot in a small shopping center. It outgrew that space, so it moved to Mambo's. Now it's at Perimeter Mall, where it's allowed to run free and mostly without space limits.

A very small cross-section of spectators at this month's Caffeine and Octane.

There must have been at least 50 Dodge Challengers alone this morning.

I looked at the vast landscape of cars, roughly grouped by make, model, or style. It's like old times, only a lot better. One guy brought three cars on a trailer, all directly imported from Japan and registered here in Georgia.

The Izuzu caught my eye first-- a Giugiaro design with Japan's signature fender-mounted mirrors. Next to it, a Mitsubishi/Jeep one-off, and next to that, an R32 Nissan Skyline.

It soon became obvious that there was a "main show area." This is the place you wanted to be if you had something expensive or otherwise interesting. Drivers rolled in at around 8:30 only to be turned away, off to one of the adjacent parking lots where the crowd of cars got less and less uniform.

This is a common theme with Caffeine and Octane. There is a main section, started presumably by a group of particularly early risers. Everyone then disperses from the epicenter, with a select few groups sprouting off into other areas of the parking lot. With these further-out groups, though, there is the risk your car will be lost, overlooked because of its meager surroundings.

I'll come back to the organization of this particular show, because it's the most well-organized C&O event I've been to. This, of course, had to be down to planning on the small group level, groups of people who drove in together, or found each other and choreographed parking. E34 M5s had a small section, so did classic Datsuns, Subarus, American Luxobarges from the 70s, and the aforementioned Challengers. It all made for an excellent display.

Car shows change location all the time. For younger shows with a younger following, it's usually due to people acting a fool--free-revving and doing burnouts. But for Caffeine and Octane, it was for a much more positive reason. I only hope the show continues to outgrow itself, a testament to the strength and community of car lovers everywhere.

Keep scrolling for more from this month's show.