Coffee & People: building the UK’s most inclusive car community

Recently we (proudly) posted a picture of an immaculate Morris Marina Coupé on our social media feeds. We did so because it was a genuine stand-out car among the crowds that visited our recent sell-out meet at the Impney Estate in Worcestershire and it deserves celebration.

It hasn’t always been the case. Scroll back a few years through the Top Gear television archives and you’ll find a series of stunts involving the destruction of Marinas, at the time derided as ‘rubbish’ cars. A backlash from owners club members simply entrenched the TV writers and producers, who responded with ever more elaborate demolition.

In conceiving Coffee & Chrome Collective, we want everyone to feel welcome. Your passion may have led you deep into vehicles popular in automotive culture – think Porsche 911 of almost any flavour or any generation of Golf GTi – but we don’t see that enthusiasm as any different to pride in, say, a ’90s Kia Pride or a three-year nut-and-bolt restoration of an Austin Princess. 

It’s the people that bind this project together, along with a shared passion for cars and motorcycles. You can see it on the faces of the thousands that turned up to Impney Estate to enjoy coffee and talk about the vehicles that brought them there.

As we pull together the upcoming meets for our collective – and make plans to extend what membership means beyond the sunny Sundays, vanilla lattes and Americanos – one thing remains central to our mission: we want varied vehicles and varied owners. 

Whatever you drive, join us. If you want to be involved – and remember, it’s free – simply pre-register for our next event here. We’ll send you everything you need to know about what to do next via email.