January Caffeine and Octane: Then and Now

Since this weekend's monthly meet was postponed due to freezing conditions around the Atlanta metro area, I figured we'd take a look back at some previous January meets. January is one of the toughest months for car shows. Why, on one of the coldest months of the year, would anyone want to get up at the crack of dawn, pile on layers, and walk around a parking lot freezing their toes off?

Well, since it's inception over a decade ago, Caffeine and Octane's consistently been an exception versus rule exercise. Yes, crowds are smaller in the earliest and coldest months of the year, but they're far from modest. I'll start by giving you some images from January 2013.

The mercury hung around 40F the entire morning, but there were several roadster drivers who toughed it out, bundling up and leaving their soft tops at home. That includes this guy in a Porsche Speedster replica.

Bundling up wasn't limited to the drivers of course. Spectators were just as ready for the temperatures, and I caught this couple both sporting Ferrari and Porsche attire from nearly head to toe.

Even the Rolls-Royce girls were out in full force. Wearing all black, they posed in front of a Rolls-Royce Ghost and a white Bentley Continental GT.

The chill was most apparent though when cars started to leave. After sitting for hours, the exhausts of supercars and muscle cars alike chugged out wispy white smoke against the overcast sky.

Of course, this was when Caffeine and Octane was still in its old location off Windward Parkway in Milton. The pictures I took in January 2013 didn't show it, but it was pretty apparent even then that the venue was reaching its capacity. Show cars had space, but spectator parking was hit or miss, with people parking at hotels across the street and even in the grassy undeveloped part of the business park where the show was held.

By 2016, the show had arrived at its current location. Perimeter Mall hosts the show in its massive outer parking lots, letting spectators and others hang out until about 11a.m. when the mall opens. By then, I'd armed myself with a new (to me) Canon 60D with a wide-angle lens, able to better capture the crowds that gathered even when Georgia was at its coldest.

Here, cars file in and out on the mall's ring road, a four-lane thoroughfare inside the parking lot. Many people just take laps, turning out onto the main road, going around the block, then turning back into the parking lot, since spectators line the entire route. Think of it like the Woodward Dream Cruise, but with fewer lanes and more Acuras.

An even better variety of cars showed up in 2016, with the show becoming more organized. Now it has its own website and PR team, and works closely with show car owners, television personalities, filmographers, and the local police department.

Built by Sunbeam in England and powered by a Ford V8, the Tiger is one of the lesser known 60's Anglo-American successes.

Mike Finnegan, writer for Hot Rod Magazine and host of the Youtube series Roadkill chats with Rutledge Wood, an Atlanta native and star of Top Gear on History.

The show now has a dedicated section to showcase the variety of cars that attend. This condensed piece of Caffeine and Octane can include rare vintage sports cars, six-figure supercars, and some grey market import oddities. Within the showcase, there are also several featured cars, given their own section in the middle of the show area.

But outside of the newly-designated area, it's the same Caffeine and Octane you remember from the earlier days, just on a much larger scale. Mopar guys hold down a couple rows, but aside from that the rest of the showfield is a mixed bag. Lowriders, Japanese cars of every shape and modification level, motorcyles, late-80s German sports cars, and even minivans are on display in the more outer reaches of the parking lot.

So the show has changed in a big way over the past three years, and now we're looking at an even bigger future for it, with the first Caffeine and Octane at the Beach event being held on Jekyll Island in March of this year. If the past is any indicator, this will be one you won't want to miss, and this January should be bigger than ever.