The Car Club at CU by Elijah Rivera

This article was published in the second issue of SHIFT Colorado magazine.

In the shadow of the Flatirons, on a Friday night toward the beginning of the school year, there is a gathering of auto enthusiasts. Walking around, the sun slowly setting over the sprawling college town below you, you see sights common to any car meet in the Centennial state: Suburus and Volkswagen Golfs in various states of modification, Mustangs anxiously awaiting their next burnout, and BMW owners being told to stop 2-stepping before the cops arrive. You also see some sights that you’d expect to see at a Cars & Coffee event, not here among those that hate to wake up early, including an immaculately kept 1972 Mercedes 250C brought by TFL Studios, an equally well kept BMW E30 convertible, a neon green Mercedes AMG GT Coupe, a survivor 1986 Toyota FJ60, and an older gentleman with a very expensive and fast Nissan GTR. From these scenes, both typical, and extraordinary, one can glean that this car club is thriving, and this success is attracting attention from outside the “Boulder Bubble”. What's less evident from this scene is just how humble of a beginning this club really had. To see for oneself, one must start at the beginning. Interestingly enough, the story of this group of auto enthusiast alumni is a tale of two clubs.

The first club has its origins in 2014 as the Colorado Auto Rally Sports Club, a small club which hosted meets among friends who happened to be studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The club was officially permitted by the university and its small gatherings among car friends continued like this for years, up until the summer of 2019. That’s when the previous club runner needed to find someone else to run the club for reasons unknown. Enter Emalee Takashima. Emalee, an automotive enthusiast, was in the same summer Japanese class as the club’s president. When the owner mentioned his mysterious need to relinquish control of an entire University sanctioned club, Emalee said she’d be happy to “take the keys” as it were. Thus, after attending mandatory leadership workshops and filling out a mountain of paperwork, Emalee became the new (and current) president of the club.

As mentioned before, the genesis of the car club question, is in fact a tale of two clubs, and here is the story of the other half. In the Fall of 2018, another small club of auto enthusiasts was born on the CU Boulder campus called the CU Car Club. The collective endeavor of good friends Jon Packwood, Drew May, and Matthew Bowersox, this small club would hold spontaneous meets of 5 to 10 enthusiasts, which eventually grew to 10 to 20 throughout the school year, in addition to a remote membership of around 60. Eventually, Jon got into contact with Emalee and they decided to merge the 2 clubs into one. When he’s not DJing as STRM, Jon takes on a role in the club analogous to a Secretary of State to Emalee’s Presidency: He helps to support organization and promotion of the club. Unfortunately, fellow founding member of CU Car Club and Jon’s close friend, Drew May, passed away in June of 2021. Since this tragedy, Jon and others within the club have done much to commemorate and memorialize their friend, the most visible aspect of which being various “#ForDrew” decals placed on the cars of many regular members of the club.

Meets are held regularly throughout the school year and these meets attract current and former students, as well as those familiar with the club through its growing social media following. Aside from the regular meets, The Car Club at CU hosts various larger events throughout the year, the biggest of which being the Saturday mega-meets at WeatherTech Broomfield in collaboration with CSU Car Club and Colorado School of Mines Car Club. These meets happen in the morning and tend to draw a pretty diverse crowd in addition to the members of the respective clubs. The parking lot of WeatherTech fills with the usual stanced Audis, BMWs, Volkswagens, and Suburus that are popular among the young crowd. However, at these gatherings it can also be common to see various vintage vehicles in well kept condition, like a museum quality 1926 Packard, or a slammed 66’ Chevy Suburban. Offroaders, new and old, are also dispersed within the crowd of cars: seeing a red 1976 International Harvester parked next to a first-gen Ford Taurus SHO is another example of the juxtaposition going on at these meets. The mega-meets themselves are much more family oriented than the regular night meets, so while there is revving on occasion, there have been no “Mustang moments” thus far, and the clubs involved have done a good job to keep it that way through communication with meet participants. WeatherTech also is not in as food centric a location as most Cars and Coffee-esque gatherings are, so one or two food trucks (often serving tacos and/or BBQ) are happy to show up and meet the demand. Coffee is also served inside WeatherTech itself in the cafe, because you can’t have cars without coffee. Large day meets like this are always a great opportunity for intergenerational interaction between car enthusiasts, which is incredibly important for the continuation of the auto enthusiast lifestyle. Sometimes the difference in taste online can create an animosity that makes it hard for there to be overlap within the community, like USDM versus JDM,  classic versus modern cars, etc. However, this animosity has a hard time thriving in an environment such as the mega-meets, where groups that are usually in opposition or completely ignorant of each other, can interact with each other, and break down boundaries within the community. At events like this, it is not uncommon to see a student show up in a Toyota MR2, and then one of their parents show up behind them in a first generation Ford Mustang. Both student and parent may not like the same cars, but at events like this, it's hard not to build at least some mutual respect. The occasional car that most didn’t know existed but now they love, inspiration for potential builds, and cars that a person thought they hated but maybe is not that bad are all found at this event. A positive, welcoming atmosphere where discoveries and friends can be made is so refreshing, and it can be easy to forget that this is what the car community is all about when you stay online instead of getting out to experience it for yourself.

The Car Club at CU also hosts dyno days about every semester or so. Only regular members are allowed to sign up for the dyno itself, but spectators are welcome and often present. When at such an event, you do see the cars that you’d normally see at a regular meet, but here they can actually be loud and show what their car can do without disturbing the peace or endangering the community. Each car awaits its turn in the parking lot of the dyno. Predictions are made, the owners brag about their new turbo, tune, etc. or make excuses. The moment finally comes for one of them and the car is loaded up onto the dyno. More predictions are made as anticipation mounts: will the Suburus survive? Which BMW will go into limp mode? Which Mustang is the loudest? Why didn’t I bring ear protection? Then the run begins, this is it as we cover our ears and glue our eyes to the dyno screen. After a few runs, the test is over, and we can hear each other. Predictions are vindicated or refuted, more excuses from the owner, and then we prepare for the next vehicle. Events like this have a great atmosphere. Maybe it is because participants know that they can let loose in a controlled environment so the usual tension that can be felt at any parking lot meet is dissipated and people don’t have to keep their guard up. There is often trash talk at these dyno days, but it is always playful, and seldom taken seriously. Though the other events are great fun, the sense of joy is ever so slightly more palpable here. It's great to see a friend and/or fellow member make as much or more horsepower than they were expecting and the cheerful vibe reflects this. When there is an eventual breakdown, those present do their best to help out, and be supportive.

The community built up by the Car Club at CU under Emalee’s leadership has been a positive one for the student auto enthusiasts that needed an outlet in a town that isn’t too friendly to such enthusiasm. But more than that, if these club hosted events are anything to go off of, the club’s growth is having a positive impact on the Colorado car community as a whole. The success of this club spells hope that no matter what the automobile may look like in the future, this community that we love will live on in the generations to come, even in the shadow of the Flatirons.