Announcing Petrolator.com -- easily find nearby cars & coffee events

"Ryan A." (rba)
04/24/2015 at 12:35 • Filed to: None

According to our calendars, Spring is here — despite it being 35 degrees this morning in Boston. Cars & Coffee events are starting up again.

After being frustrated with missing events, I spent the winter building a website to help. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! allows users to search for events that are nearby. Searches can be saved to your calendar application and are automatically updated as fellow user submit events.

The content is (almost) entirely user-submitted. Your neighborhood hoonigans are counting on you to submit events local to you.

I’d be very happy if you’d take the time to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

DISCUSSION (22)

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 12:43

Added the local event for Dayton,Ohio.

You are a Gentleman and a Scholar!

7:07 > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 12:48

Guess I better pack and get on the road

Kinja'd!!!

thebigbossyboss > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 12:49

Can we submit events for Canada or is that not allowed because we are a hat?

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 12:55

You sir, are my hero.

thebigbossyboss > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 12:57

I tried to add it and got a handy dandy error message!

http://petrolator.com/events/9.ics

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 13:02

Who is your content host?

twinturbobmw > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 13:03

Decided to try it out and added an event. Works great!

Twinpowermeansoneturbo > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 13:58

That’s awesome! I’m in Boston myself, and I only wish that Larz had Cars and Coffee on Sundays, because I work every Saturday. Luckily, I’ll be able to make it to some of their lawn events.

Ryan A. > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
04/24/2015 at 14:20

It’s a Rails app running on Heroku.

Ryan A. > thebigbossyboss
04/24/2015 at 14:21

I only tested for the United States. I’d be really happy if it was used by people in other countries.

My only worry is that Google Maps might work slightly differently when geocoding the address lookup. Give it a try and see if it works :)

Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 14:24

Added an event that recurs each week, but I’m too lazy to re-add each weekly occurrence one by one. Any chance of implementing a feature to do that for me?

Ryan A. > thebigbossyboss
04/24/2015 at 14:24

Thanks for letting me know.

Ryan A. > Twinpowermeansoneturbo
04/24/2015 at 14:26

The lawn events are great at Larz Anderson. They do such a good job putting it all together.

The cars & coffee hosted by Herb Chambers are really good, too. Herb always makes sure there is at least one very, very special car there. He had a 918 Spyder there last week and a real Shelby GT500.

Twinpowermeansoneturbo > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 14:35

I've actually never gone to any of the events at Larz or Herb Chambers. I'm planning on doing the Porsche day and BMW day at Larz this year though.

thebigbossyboss > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 14:48

No problem at all. Thank you very much for making this.

StndIbnz, Drives a MSRT8 > Ryan A.
04/24/2015 at 15:16

Nothing in Michigan this weekend huh? :-(

Ryan A. > Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop
04/24/2015 at 15:35

That’s #1 on my list of things to do. It’s harder than it seems.

deekster_caddy > Ryan A.
04/26/2015 at 11:12

Love the concept, this is much needed!!! I just tried to submit an event I’m going to attend and got an error message

http://petrolator.com/events/14.ics

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

We’re sorry, but something went wrong.

If you are the application owner check the logs for more information.

I tried to enter the Elm Bank Estate show - www.elmbankautoshow.net - it’s a great show! I’ve been before and will be attending with my MG this year.

edit - apparently the event posted, the error came in that it was trying to present an ICS file to me afterwards. Or something like that.

deekster_caddy > Twinpowermeansoneturbo
04/26/2015 at 11:13

Stop by the MG/Rover day! I’ll be there with my ‘54 TF and more attendance is always needed at MG day!!!

deekster_caddy > Ryan A.
04/26/2015 at 11:23

Great, now I have to decide on May 9th if I go to C&C Herb Chambers Burlington or C&C Larz Anderson!

Twinpowermeansoneturbo > deekster_caddy
04/26/2015 at 17:00

Okay, I just might! I presume you already have a mechanic you work with, but if not my friend Maurizio Cerasoli is excellent for older British cars. His shop is called Vara’s Garage/MC Racing and is located in Needham.

deekster_caddy > Twinpowermeansoneturbo
04/27/2015 at 10:39

I generally do all my own work, but I am looking for somebody who knows what they are doing to help me dial in the carbs. I’ll look him up, thanks for the suggestion!