At every car meet there is a moment, usually within the first ten minutes. Someone parks up, climbs out, and before they have even locked the doors a stranger is standing beside the car asking what it is. Nobody bothers with proper introductions, and nobody asks what the other person does for a living. The conversation simply starts with the car, and more often than not it carries on long after the coffee has gone cold.
That moment is the reason Takona exists. Cars are the universal leveller, and we have watched them quietly work their magic on people every month since 2019.
When a T.50 met a Citroën Méhari
At a recent Coffees & Cars, two arrivals made the point better than we ever could. The first was a Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 prototype, Professor Murray's spiritual successor to the McLaren F1 and about as rare a sight as British roads will ever offer. The second was a Citroën Méhari, the cheerful plastic-bodied runabout Citroën built on 2CV underpinnings for farmers and beachgoers.
On paper they belong to different worlds. One came from the mind of a man who designed championship-winning Formula 1 cars. The other was designed so you could hose it out after a day on the sand. Yet both spent the whole morning surrounded, and the crowds around them looked remarkably alike. People crouched to look underneath, leaned into the cabins and asked the owners the same handful of questions.
If anyone wondered what either car was worth, they kept it to themselves.
What stayed with us most was the people. In each crowd were people whose paths would never normally cross, standing shoulder to shoulder over the same bodywork and swapping stories as though they had known each other for years.
Why cars bring people together
Most of everyday life quietly sorts us into groups. Where we work, where we live and what we earn all shape who we meet and how those conversations go. A car meet ignores all of that. The only thing that counts in the car park is a shared fascination with the machines in it, and that fascination has no interest in your postcode or your payslip.
Part of the reason is that every car comes with a ready-made conversation. Each one has a story: the long search to find it, the weekends lost to fixing it, the road trip that nearly ended in a lay-by, the dad who owned one just like it. Ask an owner a single question and you will usually get ten minutes of history in return, told with real affection. Those stories are what people connect over, and they are every bit as rich in a well-loved hatchback as they are in a hypercar.
It is also why the most expensive car at a meet rarely holds the room for long. People admire it, of course, but they drift just as happily towards the immaculate classic that has stayed in one family for decades, or the first car someone has poured every spare pound into.
Enthusiasm recognises enthusiasm, whatever it happens to be parked in.
The car starts the conversation, the people keep it going
Ask the regulars why they keep coming back and very few will start by talking about cars. They talk about the people. The person they met over an open bonnet who now messages them whenever something interesting comes up for sale. The little group who started parking next to each other every month and now head off on drives together. The newcomer who turned up nervous, knowing nobody, and left with half a dozen new names and a reason to come back.
That is the real charm of a car meet. The car gives you a reason to wander over and say hello, and an easy subject once you get there. After that, the friendship tends to look after itself.
Why it matters more than it might seem
For a lot of people, making new friends as an adult is genuinely hard. The opportunities to meet people outside work and family thin out over the years, and it is easy to drift into isolation without really noticing. A shared passion changes that. It gives people a low-pressure way to show up, join in and talk, with nothing expected of them beyond an interest in cars.
That is why mental health awareness sits so close to the heart of Takona. For some, a monthly meet becomes a fixed point in the calendar, a reason to get out of the house and a place where they know they will be welcomed. A car park and a cup of coffee might not sound like much, but connection often begins in small, ordinary places.
Takona Coffees & Cars: every car and every person welcome
Coffees & Cars began informally, with no sponsors and no grand plan, simply as a place for people who love cars to meet. It now runs at five locations on the second Sunday of every month, and the spirit has never changed. It has always been about the love of cars rather than what you drive.
Coffees & Cars at a glance
When: the second Sunday of every month
Where: five locations
Who: every car and every person, whatever you drive
So bring the car you love, whether that is a supercar, a classic, a daily driver or a project held together with optimism. Or bring nothing at all and come for the coffee and the conversation. You will find people from every walk of life, all with one thing in common.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Coffees & Cars meet?
Coffees & Cars is a relaxed morning car meet run by Takona. Car enthusiasts bring their cars, grab a coffee and spend the morning talking cars with like-minded people.
When are Takona car meets held?
Takona Coffees & Cars runs on the second Sunday of every month across five locations.
Do I need a special car to attend a car meet?
Not at all. Every car is welcome, from hypercars and classics to daily drivers and modified hatchbacks, and you do not need to bring a car to come along. A love of cars is the only requirement.
Why are cars called the universal leveller?
At a car meet, a shared passion matters more than money, background or job title. Owners of very expensive and very affordable cars talk as equals, because the conversation is about the cars and the stories behind them.
Wear the community between meets
Plenty of regulars like to carry a bit of the community with them between meets. You can browse the Takona clothing range, made for people who live and breathe car culture. And if you have not made it to a Coffees & Cars yet, come and find us on the second Sunday. Bring a car, or don't. Either way, there will be someone to talk to.
Cars. The universal leveller.