Any Given Reason Burger Meet 3

The concept of Burger Meet is simple – a car park meet to get as many readers of Any Given Reason and their cars in the same place as possible. The emphasis is on diversity and informality, and the vague idea of standing around a car park eating burgers is about as far as the planning goes.

On the evening of Saturday 28th December, the readers of Any Given Reason descended on the Hagen Arms Hotel at Echunga in the Adelaide Hills to watch the sun set with burgers, beers, and of course, cars. And what a spectacular array of cars it was – but more on that later.

The thing that makes organising Burger Meet such an exciting, rewarding and completely terrifying experience is that I have absolutely no idea who actually reads and follows this blog. I get traffic statistics but they’re just abstract numbers and graphs, so when I put the word out that Burger Meet 3 was happening I had exactly zero idea who and how many people would actually come. I guessed about 80 cars and thought it would be pretty cool if we could fill the car park, but when streams of cars started pouring in and it wasn’t even the 6pm start-time yet, I started to get a little nervous/overjoyed.

Sighting – Americans in the East End

In the interests of transparency, I’m not usually a huge fan of American cars, and I dare say most Any Given Readers probably share that opinion. But just look at that ’59 Caddy – you can’t deny its appeal. It’s probably as far removed as is possible from the small, nimble cars we love so much, but in the right context, I doubt it would be any less fun. For quite a while I’ve had a desire to jump in one of these things with a whole bunch of mates, and just go cruising on a hot summer night.

This is the kind of scene I’ve got in my mind. And if B.B. King and Eric Clapton were there with their guitars, well that’s even better.

And on the same day, not even two hundred metres around the corner, was parked this C2 Corvette Convertible. I’m not overly educated on my Corvette history, but this looks to be around a 1966 model, and in my eyes probably the prettiest of the Corvette convertibles. Some, like the C4, look a little uneasy as a convertible, but I think the loss of roof only enhances the C2’s sharp lines. And as one of the smallest and lightest of the American sports cars it ticks all the boxes – it has the American Graffiti aura without the land yacht zip code.