There were some fresh faces among the entrants in the 14th annual Saratoga Classic & Cool Car Show on July 27, reflecting a growing interest among Gen Zers and Millennials in collector cars.
The show drew nearly 300 car owners, who lined up their rides along Big Basin Way and in parking lots and alleys in downtown Saratoga.
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While a release by insurance provider Aviva Canada notes that the current market of collector car enthusiasts, is made up mostly of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, its also found that younger generations are showing interest in classic cars. An article by Tomorrow’s Tech cites a report that found that drivers ages 16-24 modified their vehicles at a higher rate compared to older generations. That was in evidence at the car show.
Sam King, a 28-year-old Menlo Park resident, attended the show as a spectator last year, but decided to enter his 2019 Toyota Tacoma in this year’s event. King said his youthful passion for cars started was reignited the more he drove his truck, which he uses as his daily car, and learned how it worked.
The gray truck is lifted six inches off the ground by 33×12.5 tires with shiny red 22-inch-by-12 inch rims. King said he wanted to put his own mark on his truck after seeing others’ modifications.
Thien Vo, a 35-year-old San Jose resident, showed off his 1956 Buick Special, which gleamed a bright Coca-Cola red. He had bought the car from a farmer in Oregon. It was already fully restored with a 1973 Buick 455 engine and reinforced frame. Vo said he liked the car for its price and the fact that not a lot of people own one.
Vo has been around cars for much of his life. He bought a classic car for his parents, and his brother started Cars and Boba, a meetup where people can drink boba tea and talk with other car enthusiasts. He said the younger generations’ interest in cars could be derived from a lot of different influences.
“It’s a lot of history, generations of people remembering their families driving these old cars,” Vo said, “or maybe there’s memories with the cars, or maybe they’re influenced by movies,”
A father-and-son duo entered their respective cars in the show. Jay Sathe, 30, said that even though he lives in Oakland, he has been going to the Saratoga car show for around 10 years since it’s close to where his parents live in Monte Sereno.
He showed off a 1958 MGA, a British sports car, in British racing green. It previously belonged to his grandfather in the ’80s, who restored it using parts from F14 fighter jets while he was working at Grumman in Long Island, NY.
“It’s a ton of fun to drive and a huge advantage is for something like this, compared to some of the other classics, it’s more affordable,” Sathe said.
His father, Nik Sathe, brought a black 1964 Jaguar E Type to the show. He has fond memories of he and his son working on their cars together during the pandemic.
“It’s fantastic to have another set of hands because it’s very hard to work on those cars alone, especially if you don’t have all the right tools and everything else,” Nik Sathe said.
The elder Sathe said he has always been mechanically minded, and he has noticed more younger people getting interested in cars. He said that it was important to keep this culture of being able to work on your own car alive because it’s important to know how things work and be able to troubleshoot problems and figure out how to fix them.
“I don’t think AI can actually fix a car that’s too difficult or too complicated (or) requires a specialized set of tools,” Nik Sathe said.
Despite these advancements, younger people are proving themselves by showing interest in continuing to work on their cars.
Hendsun Hwang, right, with the San Jose State University Spartan Racing team shows a visitor the club’s electric powered race car during the 14th Annual Saratoga Classic & Cool Car Show on Sunday, July 27, 2025, in Saratoga, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Spartan Racing, a San Jose State University club, showed off last year’s car, which they built from the ground up. Hiren Patel, the club’s chief engineer who is pursuing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, said that the club fully designed the Formula-style open-wheel cockpit car. It is a fully electric vehicle with a single motor and rear-wheel drive with a custom cooling system and custom battery that was made in house.
The club’s car was pitted in a competition against a hundred other universities and across North America, Singapore and Japan in which Spartan Racing placed second overall.
After doing much of the tuning and welding on the car, Patel said he hopes for a career in the automotive industry and wants to work for Lucid Motors.