SUNDAY STORY:Shifting gears

Freeman J. Thomas showed off his red 1956 Porsche Speedster for the last time Saturday at a weekly informal car gathering at the Crystal Cove Promenade.

Thomas, a design director for Ford’s North America Strategic Design in Irvine, was joined by hundreds of other car enthusiasts in the shopping center’s parking lot for the now-defunct car show in Newport Beach.

The Irvine Co., owner of the center, has asked car owners to look for a different site for the gathering, which has grown bigger, drawing more than 200 specialty cars and 600 spectators.

The loosely organized car show was started three years ago by Marc Greeley and Bob Cheatley, who died in July.

When Thomas was asked why he and other car lovers showed up at 7 a.m. to the event, he said: “For coffee, cars and camaraderie.”

The Irvine Co. estimated between 1,200 and 1,500 people showed up to the event.

Next Saturday, Thomas and Greeley will still be able to meet for coffee and admire classic and exotic cars, but at a new location, the Ford Premier Automotive Group in Irvine.

Ford representatives offered their parking lot to Greeley when they learned the car show was not going to meet at Crystal Cove starting Oct. 21.

Irvine Co. spokesman Bill Rams said he is glad the car show has found a new location.

When the car show began, it was small and informal, Rams said.

“It just evolved into something that is too big and too complex for the shopping center. An event of this size, with so many participants and of such complexity, should require a special event permit,” Rams said. “We hosted it for three years and in a way it became a victim of its own success. It outgrew the center.”

Some residents who live behind the shopping center, filed complaints with the Irvine Co. about the noise created by the revving engines of the cars every Saturday morning.

While standing in an alley behind the businesses, Greeley pointed out the noise coming from a semi-truck and a trash truck.

E. Reeves Callaway III, and other car owners were disappointed with the decision of the Irvine Co.

The founder of Callaway Cars Inc., said the gathering included wealthy and respected members of the community who patronized the center’s businesses.

“Someone would kill for this demographic,” said Callaway, who was showing his 2000 blue Corvette. “The Irvine Company has managed to alienate that entire population with one stupid move.”

Greeley agrees.

“The demographics are the best in the world,” Greeley said. “The Irvine Company is asking us to leave and is hurting their retailers. It’s not hurting the Irvine Company’s bottom line.”

Marc Wilsey, owner of the Pacific Whey Café and Baking Co., said retailers such as himself like the car show.

“We think it’s our single best exposure opportunity. That’s the truth,” Wilsey said.

When asked if he thought he would lose money now that the car show will no longer be held Saturdays, he said: “Let’s just say (business was)very good. It’s the perfect way to start the weekend.”

Rams said businesses like Pacific Whey Café and Baking Company and Starbucks will continue to be successful after the car show is no longer held at the center.

“The Crystal Cove Promenade is a very beautiful and successful center, and the retailers there will be able to continue to succeed and do healthy business,” Rams said.

At the car show on Saturday, some like Thomas E. Shaughnessy of San Clemente spoke of the uniqueness of the event.

“There’s a car culture in Southern California that is not duplicated in any other place,” Shaughnessy said. “This exists no where else in America.”