Raleigh Cars & Coffee

Took my Model S to the Raleigh "Cars & Coffee" meet up this past weekend (first Saturday each month), brought along a hastily assembled copy of Todd Burch's car show poster (chunked it up onto 4 sheets of 11x17 paper and taped to a poster board), and ended up being there from about 7:30 AM until 1:00 PM showing off the car and answering questions! :biggrin:

While I at least thought ahead to bring a cooler of water, went through all 6 bottles by the end of the afternoon, and eventually realized I'd forgotten sun screen, so spent some time attempting to hide in the shadow of a tree nearby.

Surprising percentage of people there knew what the car was and had various reasonable questions. Lots of people had heard about the NC legislation against direct sales; certainly no-one was in favor, and one elderly gentleman who apparently worked in/with the legislature in the past had not-too-kind words about the bill's sponsor (who apparently owns a chain of auto dealerships, imagine that)

At one point, another Tesla owner (with a silver Roadster) who was there for part of the day relocated his vehicle beside mine to give folks more EV goodness to ogle.

Someone who went to the show took a ton of pictures, and out of the hundred plus cars there, they ended up with 15 out of the 137 photos being of my car!!

Raleigh Cars Coffee - June 2013

If any other Tesla owners around Raleigh are available early Saturday mornings (get there by 8 to get a good spot is the word I went by, and worked out well for me), would be cool to put on a group display, similar to how various brands bunched up in different sections of the lot (BMWs here, Corvettes there, muscle cars that-away, etc)

I only heard about the event through my wife's hairdresser of all people (who has a day job as an auto mechanic for the state, and has rebuilt ancient cars in the past, but recently traded his 1930's era vehicle in for a sweet little Porsche)

I'll be out of town for the first Saturday in July, but should be able to attend the August event.

As a note, while the event has apparently been at Waverly Plaza in Cary for the last few months, it is relocating to the parking lot by the Crossroads Cinema starting next month. Sounds like a larger lot, which was definitely needed -- that lot at Waverly was over-stuffed! Glad I got there before 8 so I could score a spot next to a planter with a tree, meant I had plenty of room for folks to stand around next to the car, and could leave both doors open on the driver's side without blocking a parking spot.

Unless someone wants to head over to a print shop (or has a very wide format printer at home / office), whoever attends in July is welcome to borrow the sign I made up using Todd's poster image.

favo said:

Any Tesla owners planning to go this weekend? I've still only seen Model S up close once--in the Whole Foods parking lot--so I was thinking of going with a few friends on Saturday to check out Model S, while I patiently wait for Gen III news (or the TSLA to continue going crazy :biggrin.

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There was a black Model S who's owner was at the inaugural RTP EV meetup this past weekend who was planning to attend the C&C meetup this weekend. I won't be able to attend as I'll be out of state this weekend, so I loaned him the info poster I used in a prior show.