Caffeine Cruisers -- another southern California automotive tradition

Keeping with the early morning coffee reference, Caffeine Cruisers has quickly become a southern California, South Bay tradition. Now in its second generation, Caffeine Cruisers originally started meeting on Saturday mornings at the corner of 190th Street and Anza in semi-lovely Torrance, California, about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. However, as the crowds began to grow it became obvious that the parking lot at this suburban venue was far too small.

The "new and improved" version of Caffeine Cruisers still meets in semi-lovely Torrance, California but has moved to a larger, new venue that organizers say offers "4 times the parking spaces so there is no need to arrive before 7 a.m. for a parking spot and no need to park in the aisles or among(st) the ordinary cars." They also claim there is no longer a need to cruise the parking lot like a Costco parking vulture, hoping that someone leaves and you can grab their parking spot.
 

 Caffeine Cruisers is held every Saturday morning from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the parking lot on the southeast corner of Artesia (174th Street) and Hawthorne Boulevard in semi-lovely Torrance. Caffiene Cruisers bills itself as the "South Bay Alternative to Donut Derelicts" and is a good venue for people who don't want to travel south and dip behind the "Orange Curtain" into Orange County.

 Getting to Caffiene Cruisers is easy. Take the semi-lovely and always crowded Interstate 405 (parking lot) to the Artesia (174th street) off ramp and head approximately 1/2 mile west to the intersection of Hawthorne Boulevard and Artesia. If you cross a big street and see a Nordstom's department store on your left, you have gone too far west. The venue is directly across the street from the Nordstorm's. In keeping with the name, the event is staged in the parking lot between a Starbucks coffee shop and a Sizzler restaurant.

Caffiene Cruisers features traditional hot rods, rat rods, customs, classic collector cars, sports cars from the 1950s up, muscle cars, motorcycles and even an English car or two (when the owners can get them to run). The photos on the flyer for Caffeine Cruisers even shows a fire truck, a Ford woody surfer wagon and a drag racing Fiat

For more information log on to www. caffeinecruisers.com. Watch your spelling. Caffeine is spelled with a "C" not a "K" and the Web browser is very rude if you don't spell the name correctly.