Interests of Mike Kobeissi

Mike Kobeissi collects exotic and rare cars and hosts Cars and Coffee gatherings at his office. Both interests belong to a car culture that Southern California did much to invent, and the entries under collector car culture treat its museums, shows, markets and meetings as subjects in their own right.

Collecting exotic and rare cars

He collects exotic and rare cars. Collecting of that kind grew up in a state built around the automobile. Road and Track’s history of California car culture runs from the aftermarket speed parts made for the Model T to the coachwork of the Walter M. Murphy Company, which opened in Pasadena in 1920 and closed in 1932, and on to the dry lakes timing association formed in 1937 and the hot rod magazine Robert E. Petersen started in 1947.¹ The entry on the Petersen Automotive Museum takes up that part of the story.

The market for such cars is followed closely. Hagerty explains that its Price Guide Indexes, first published in 2009, work like stock market indexes, averaging the values of representative cars in excellent condition within a segment; its Blue Chip index follows 25 of the most sought after collectible cars of the postwar era, and its 2024 figures showed the market still searching for a floor after the pandemic.²

Figure

Measuring the collector car market

Year the indexes were first published

2009

Indexes published on a regular schedule

11

Sought after postwar cars averaged in the Blue Chip index

25

Tastes inside the market have changed as well. At Pebble Beach, The New York Times reported, a road tour added to the concours in 1998 answered criticism of show cars that looked perfect but did not run, and an auction house head credited it with changing the collecting world, as buyers turned to cars that could be driven in tours and events.³ The collector car market and concours d’elegance entries go further.

Cars and Coffee

He hosts Cars and Coffee gatherings at his office. The format is an informal Saturday morning meeting of owners and onlookers, and it began in Orange County. Driving Line traces its start to a gathering founded in 2003 by two enthusiasts at Crystal Cove, between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, where an early 7 a.m. start kept the crowd to the committed; as it grew, objections from nearby residents ended it, and the last Crystal Cove meeting was held on October 14, 2006.⁴

The gathering moved to a corporate parking lot in Irvine that same month. The Orange County Register reported that about 350 enthusiasts came to the first Irvine meetings, that by 2014 an average crowd numbered 1,000, and that its organizers called a halt because it had grown too big to manage.⁵

Figure

How the Saturday gathering spread

1. 01
   2003Two enthusiasts start a Saturday meeting at Crystal Cove, between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.
2. 02
   October 2006The last Crystal Cove meeting is held and the gathering moves to a corporate parking lot in Irvine.
3. 03
   2014Average crowds near 1,000 and the Irvine event closes after eight years.
4. 04
   After 2014Gatherings under the same name take place across the world.

Hagerty counts 410 mostly consecutive Saturdays over eight years at Irvine under John and Linda Clinard, notes that the event is credited with launching the Cars and Coffee movement, and notes that such gatherings now take place across the world.⁶ The Cars and Coffee entry covers the format in full. The office where his gatherings are held is described in the Kobeissi Properties entry.