About the Pacific Coast Marque Club

The club began in the autumn of 1974, when eleven owners of European sports cars met in a garage in Pacific Grove because none of the existing marque clubs would have all of them. One had a Jaguar, two had Alfas, one had an early 911, and somebody brought a Sunbeam Tiger that would not start. The founding principle was written on the back of an envelope that night and has not changed since: any European car, any condition, provided you drive it.

Fifty-two years later we are just over a hundred and fifty households across California, Oregon and Washington, organised into seven chapters. Our members' cars run from a 1951 MG TD to a 2002 XK8, and the registry currently lists two hundred of them.

What we actually do

Mostly, we drive. There is a run or a meet somewhere on the coast nearly every weekend — breakfast gatherings on the first Saturday of the month, canyon runs, multi-day tours over the passes, and four track days a year at Laguna Seca for anyone who wants to find out what their car does above 4,000 rpm.

From November to March, when the weather turns, we move indoors. Members open their workshops for technical sessions on the things that actually go wrong: SU carburettors, Lucas wiring, gearbox rebuilds, and the dark art of setting up Webers. These are hands-on, free to members, and consistently the best-attended events we run.

Once a year, in September, we put the best of it on a lawn in Carmel for the Coastline Concours d'Elegance. Eight judged classes, a People's Choice trophy decided by ballot, and a firm rule that a car driven to the show is worth more than a car trailered to it.

What we are not

We are not a concours-only club, and we are not an investment society. We do not care what your car is worth. Several of our most admired members drive cars with visible rust and no intention of fixing it. A first-time owner with a running project is as welcome as a Best of Show winner — arguably more so, because they usually need the help and are more fun in the pub afterwards.

Joining

Membership runs from $35 a year for students and anyone under 25, up to $135 for a household. You do not need to own a qualifying car to join; the Associate tier exists precisely for people between cars, or those who simply like the marques. New applications are reviewed by the committee, which in practice means someone reads it and says yes.

Find the chapter nearest you, turn up to a breakfast, and see whether you like us before you pay anything. That is genuinely how most of our members started.