“There’s so much here, so much to see – more to even do. It seems to get bigger and bigger every time I come,” said a longtime Caffeine and Octane visitor.
IAN PALMER / WABE
ByF. TYLER ELROD
It’s a car enthusiast’s dream at Perimeter Mall one Sunday morning: Ratrods, Volkswagens, McLarens, Lamborghinis, BMWs, Mustangs, Jaguars — old and new alike — a row of fifty plus Dodge Chargers, and even a couple of Austin Powers inspired “Shaguars.”
And that’s just within a 50-foot radius of longtime collectors Skip and Brandon Smith’s Classic AutoSmith vendor tent at the Caffeine and Octane car show.
“Today there are 7,200 parking spots here and every car spot will be taken, plus parked on the ends and there will be people cruising around the entire mall here trying to find a parking spot,” Skip said.
Prior to becoming North America’s largest cruise-in car show, Caffeine and Octane started out as a group of about a dozen friends gathering outside of an East Cobb Panera bread in 2006. Held from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the first Sunday of every month, the show quickly expanded. After bouncing around in Alpharetta and Roswell, it settled in the expansive Perimeter Mall parking lot in Dunwoody around a year and a half ago.
Since February, it’s even broadcast across the U.S. as a monthly TV show airing on the Velocity channel.
“There was no organization to it whatsoever [when it started]. It was a word of mouth,” Skip Smith said. “Before long there were 30 cars, and we were still on the Panera Bread side of it. And then we moved around to the front [lot], that was a big deal. Then we filled one side of the front of the avenues. Then the other side.”
The array of vehicles on display is a testament to the inviting culture Caffeine and Octane has created for both collectors and fans.
Longtime Caffeine and Octane attendee Michelle Hardman, whose love of cars stems from her family’s ties to General Motors, tries to attend the event every month to see “the variety of cars” that the show has on display.
“There’s so much here, so much to see – more to even do. It seems to get bigger and bigger every time I come,” Hardman said.
Today, Skip Smith guesses, there are around 8,000 different classic and contemporary cars at the event sprawled across the lot brought by enthusiastic owners looking to share their love of cars with no strings attached.
“There’s no fee to bring your car. You show up, you get a parking spot, you hang out, show your car, talk to people,” he said. “And at 11:00, it all goes away.”
“This is more than a car show, this is an experience.” – Skip Smith
It doesn’t go away for Skip Smith and his son Brandon, however. As a lifelong collector, the elder Smith is always on the hunt for new vehicles, but a few years ago that proved difficult. With the show’s rapid expansion, he needed a place to store and service the cars he wanted to display.
Brandon Smith, who has been working on his father’s cars since he was 6, came up with the idea of opening a service shop to handle the influx of volume created by Caffeine and Octane’s rising demand. Thus Classic AutoSmith was born.
“I’m guessing it was about 5 or 6 years ago, listening to Skip and his buddies talk about ‘if I had more space or if I had this and that I would’ve bought that car,” Brandon Smith said. “So I put it together where I wanted to build something where all these guys could expand their collections and I could house them for them.”
Little did the pair know that their personal growth would aid in the overall expansion of the show from Dunwoody into living rooms around the U.S.
“Bruce Piefke, the gentleman that owns caffeine and octane, came by and said he wanted to try and take caffeine and octane to the next level. To really kind of put it out there so everybody could see what was taking place,” Skip said. “This is more than a car show, this is an experience.”
Piefke, together with Skip and Brandon Smith, filmed some scenes inside of Classic AutoSmith. He then spliced that footage with shots from the Caffeine and Octane car show and put together a pilot. After showing it to several networks, the Velocity Channel signed off on it. Skip Smith, along with car and motorcycle designer Bryan Fuller, world champion motorcycle drag racer Rickey Gadson, and YouTube personality David Patterson, serves as the television show’s hosts.
And the idea is working as intended –the growing popularity of the television show, coupled with consistent advertising on social media, has helped promote the experience that is Caffeine and Octane in other parts of the state.
“Two weeks ago we went to Jekyll Island. Advertised it for about four months, and we booked every slot [that’s] 350 cars. More like 400 showed up,” Skip Smith said. “Every hotel room on the island was taken, and there was so much traffic that the state actually quit taking the toll money to come in. They just let people come in.”
That’s quite a ways to come for something that started out as a word-of-mouth get together between car buddies at a Panera Bread. And with the television show’s first full season coming to an end on April 9, the next logical step is to use its success to drive Caffeine and Octane far beyond metro Atlanta.
“The other thing is to… take it to other cities. There are caffeine and cars, coffee and cars in cities all across this country” Skip said. “And there are guys and gals that just get together. People that like cars always seem to get together.”
