Malibu Autobahn From Prius to Pagani
Article and Photos by Steve Geldman, Image Photo Motorsports
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esides living in our terrific Southern California weather, we are also blessed with nearby beautiful coastal communities. Even if you’re not a beach person, who doesn’t like driving along Pacific Coast Highway with the windows down, wind in your hair (assuming you have any) and the sun’s warmth surrounding you? When you mix this up with a beach car-meet followed up with an ocean and mountain view autobahn (except for having speed limits), well friends, it doesn’t get any better. Enter Jacob Roy. In 2016, while attending his college junior year, Roy founded Malibu Autobahn. Today, Roy and his 10 or so assistants help run the events where people start arriving at a pre-determined beach location about 8:00 AM. The day this writer showed up, there was an organized group working a tented area as well as some assisting arriv-
ing drivers into parking stalls. Placed on tables were free cupcakes topped with very creative icing of the Malibu Autobahn logo as well as coffee being served. In the future they plan to have food and beverage that can last past the early arrivals. Friendly staff were there to answer any questions as well as hand out driving directions for the planned “autobahn” to depart at 10:00 AM sharp. Funding to run Malibu Autobahn, other automotive events and their website is through the combined help of their sponsor Galpin Aston Martin, volunteers and their own “media house”. The latter, which is found on their website, is their own small media business which includes offering still photo sessions, including aerial, of your vehicle as well as marketing their logo printed baseball caps, license plate frames and a few other cool goodies. Advertising for the Malibu Autobahn events are through word of mouth, emails, their website, Instagram and other fast news-traveling social media channels. Roy stated “Our main purpose to hold this meet is to simply bring people together through vehicles within our Southern California car culture.
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All cars are welcome, from Prius to Pagani.” Some guests may arrive in a stock BMW Mini, a Prius or VW Tiguan, but many are muscle and exotics. Lamborghini’s, McLaren’s, Aston Martin’s, BMW’s, Porsche’s, Lotus and a Bentley were among those on display. There were also classics, such as a Pontiac GTO, several Mustangs and early model Chevy Camaro’s. People arrive from all over the area including locally, OC, San Diego, Las Vegas and even at times as far north as San Francisco. As Roy explained, the meeting locations are typically at beaches from Santa Monica to just north of Malibu. To change things up, they also have been known to meet at other locations, such as a race track. The autobahn drives are typically along PCH and into the Santa Monica or Angeles Crest Mountain ranges, however that’s not always the case. They have also departed from the meet to Monterey for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. On this given Sunday, we first met at the northern end of the Zuma beach parking lot for a couple of hours and admired the other cars that had pulled in. Car enthusiasts are 98% extraverted so starting a
conversation about cars with an owner you’ve never met is about as easy as sipping your morning coffee. As planned, we all departed and drove up PCH to near Point Mugu, then up and around through Potrero Road into Hidden Valley and back to the PCH through Decker Canyon. It’s pretty cool having a Lamborghini Huracan Performante in front of you and a McLaren 650S following behind. Before the drive, I had the pleasure of chatting with two car owners, each driving a classic that got my attention. First up is Antony Bartlett from Pacific Palisades. Bartlett brought his striking silver British made 1959 MG-A 1600. Originally