Cars And Kopi Singapore | Christmas Meet

I only started to come down to Singapore early this year and every time I go there, I seem to discover more and more about the car culture of that island. It is one beautiful place to be for a couple of days. It even came to the point where I felt like not wanting to leave. Last weekend, was my third time in Singapore. The initial plan was just to have a quiet weekend of some exploring and alone time. I try to put cars on hold. But on the night I touched down in Singapore, my good friend, Dennis came to to meet me at Boat Quay for a nightcap. That's when he gave me the heads up about a classic car meet happening on that coming Saturday.

The meet was dubbed as "Cars And Kopi" which was a early morning meet held in the upscale neighbourhood of Dempsey Hill. The meet is organized by Garage 36 which is a blog that started off with writing about their misadventures of owning an E36 and E87 BMW. They managed to organize Cars And Kopi for quite a few times now. The goal is to hold a laid back car meet that mainly focuses on classic cars. Quite a tall order especially when you're living in a country that just craves to scrap cars once they hit a decade old.

Any staple of a classic car meet would be the classic European sport cars that usually become a highlight. Among that caught my attention was the Ferrari 308 and the Lotus Esprit which were iconic poster boy sport cars back in the 80s. Never forget of course the classic Porsche and the Noble M400.

Later on that morning, I was indulging in a sight of Americana with the classic Chevrolet Impala. Seeing an Impala at a car meet in Singapore was totally unexpected knowing that the Singaporeans are only allowed to drive right hand drive cars. To be honest, I am a bit curious on how can anyone get a right hand drive Impala. Regardless to that, this particular ride seems to bring its own aura and character.

More British built classics pull up to rides pull up to the meet. Both are also staples of the classic car meet. One would be the Caterham open top decorated with reindeer antlers and Rudolph's red nose just for Christmas. Another that is a little favourite of mine which is the original Austin Mini Cooper.

Classic Toyotas seem to be a favourite in many places. One of the highlights I would say is the freshly restored and painted 70s Toyota Celica GT in green. According to the owner, the car spent 11 months in the paint shop. Despite that, the hard work and patience clearly paid off.

Fast forward to the 80s, this is one of the most iconic Japanese sports cars ever. The Toyota Corolla Trueno AE86 was popularized by the motorsport of drifting and even became an icon of pop culture in the Manga comic 'Initial D'. So it's no surprise that the last ever AE86 in Singapore is owned by Singaporean drifter, Benjamin Chiam.

Of course not being the only Japanese classics there, among the other rides that turned up was the iconic R32 GTR, The RX7 FC3S, a baller Nissan President and of course the rare and lesser known fifth gen Mitsubishi Mirage.

Nismo LMGT4, Spanner approves

For the past year, I haven't been interested into car meets as often as I was since I find it difficult to enjoy and just admire cars but the guys at Garage 36 really pulled this off so well. Not only the cars that came out were so diverse, especially in a ridiculously regulated country like Singapore but you can feel the good vibes that just doesn't come at any other typical car meet nowadays. I even managed to make friends including this beautiful, four legged girl named Spanner. But hands down, when I have the chance, I will definitely want to come down again. Enjoy the photos!

Lexus RC-F passing through

Honda Civic Type R from LHB.