Cocktails For Cars

Call me what you will, but it takes more than hanging out in a parking lot on a Saturday night to get me excited about a car event.  I haven’t had a cup of coffee for at least 10 years, so that Cars and Coffee better have some top shelf donuts if I’m going.  And thats at a bare minimum.  If skipping your morning coffee makes you grumpy for half a day, me skipping my weekend morning bike ride makes me grumpy for close to a week.  Just ask my wife.  While I can appreciate a line up of Cobra replicas (Faux-bras?), the local chapter of the P-Car Club of America, and in-process project cars, I crave something unique.  I crave an experience!  Major bonus points if my wife finds it entertaining.

Heritage Museums and Gardens is home to, you guessed it, multiple museums and gardens that dot 100-acres of land.  We’re talking fine art, a vintage carousel, vintage windmill, a massive award winning hydrangea garden, thousands of rhododendrons…and of course their American car collection.  Their collection specializes in Pre-War automobiles and horseless carriages, which naturally need specialized knowledge and maintenance.  I’m a certified car nut, but have absolutely no idea how to fire up the 1909 White Model M that served President Taft or where the heck you get new batteries for a 1917 Millburn Light Electric.  Thankfully, the “car guys” at Heritage do.  (If one happens to be reading this, how do I join your ranks?  Seriously, email me.)  

Enter Cocktails for Cars at Heritage Museums and Gardens, a shining example of how awesome car events can be.  

To help offset the costs of maintaining their historic collection, Heritage Museum and Gardens throws an annual soiree at the end of the summer.  It’s sort of a garden party meets car show, and believe it or not, my wife is excited to go every year.  Bonus points unlocked.  The museum pulls out a few cars from their collection and allows a select number of cars owned by the public to be displayed via an easy application process. If your car is selected, it's displayed alongside Heritage's collection while everyone mixes and mingles over cocktails and snacks.  

Last year, my very pregnant wife and I attended in a very jet-lagged state having flown in on a redeye flight from a Hawaiian Babymoon.  Lucky for us my ’88 M3 was selected well before we left. I shined it up and tossed a cover on it in my garage before we left for paradise.  After a power nap and a mist of quick detailer, we were off on the perfect bookend to our vacation.  This year, I took a chance and submitted my fairly rare, fairly boring looking ’91 325iX.  After hearing about the snacks, cocktails, good conversation, and an excuse for our wives to wear hats, (do not underestimate the allure of a hat-appropriate event to women) my brother decided to one-up me and sponsor the event with his budding business.  Being the Mercedes whisperer that he is, he brought a 2002 Mercedes SL500 Silver Arrow Edition that he’s selling.  It’s very nice and SL’s have a way with always being welcomed with open arms by car skeptical significant others.  Clearly, you should buy it.  

I like to think of my 325iX as a survivor thats beginning to show juuust a bit of patina.  It proudly sports a replacement fender and door skin along with many scratches and unevenly faded paint.  I spent the days leading up to the big evening in the garage with my brother, going to town on my car with his buffer.  He was busy swearing like a sailor, fiddling with an O2 sensor in his SL, and praying to the automotive gods the threads remained intact after removing it.

It turns out the car gods smiled upon us all.  My iX’s paint was shining way better than it had the right to, the SL’s check engine light stayed off, and the weather was picture perfect.  There was a car representing every decade from the 1910’s to 2020's, thirty four in total.  An incredible 1911 Baker Electric Model V was bookended by a brand spanking new 2024 Corvette E-Ray.  Somewhere in the middle my humble, AWD, Bavarian sedan was parked next to a Z8 and a pair of Ferrari 360 Modena’s.  Naturally, a ’70 Chevelle and a Faux-bra were in the mix, but there were many unexpected showings…a ’72 Citroen SM, a ’65 Studebaker Wagonaire, and the show stopper…a 2005 Ford GT X1.  

The snacks were epic with spring rolls, fried lasagna bites, bacon wrapped scallops, grilled chicken with spicy peanut sauce, and adult lunchables…I mean charcuterie…making the rounds.  Attendees came from on and off Cape Cod and it was a cross section of seemingly all demographics interested in cars.  From Millennials who make their living spinning wrenches like my brother and the Rickaby’s of Outermost Automotive to Boomer’s waxing poetic of the virtues of American design and manufacture of a ’55 Packard Caribbean.  (I’ll have to read up on how that worked out for Packard.)

Cocktails for Cars at Hertiage Museums and Gardens literally has something for everyone. The food, drinks, and camaraderie were so good I hardly took any pictures. You never know who you'll you run into or what you'll see as you walk around the field. Maybe I'll see you there next year?