CPPAutoClub creates wonderland for new, experienced car enthusiasts
By Alexander Franco, October 7, 2025
From tight and entirely engine-swapped bays to bumper scrapes, Cal Poly Pomona’s automotive club welcomes everyone to their car meets, no matter their knowledge of cars.
Regardless of whether students even have a car, multiple board members emphasized students can come check out unique cars and their builds, or even practice their car photography after getting the owner’s permission.
The CPPAutoClub meets every Thursday night, but the location is not publicly released. Multiple board members stated they do this not only as a safety measure but also to make meeting management easier. To find the location, a member must join the official Discord found on the club’s Instagram page.
“That’s where I think social media reach helps, but it’s also a double-edged sword,” said computer science student and CPPAutoClub co-president Elias Mohn.
In the past, CPPAutoClub has had situations that have gotten out of control where CPP’s University Police Department got involved. There have been incidents that have led to police chases, forcing meets to end for the night, as it leaves a reputation that unfairly reflects the entire club and its members.
With the benefit of having every driver’s information at their disposal through the club’s verification process, the board can easily pass on the driver’s information to the UPD for further investigation.
“We try to keep a good stream of communication with (UPD) as much as we can, because we don’t want to cause any trouble for anyone, and we want to be able to have this very chill, relaxing time,” said computer information systems student and co-vice president Srikar Devalaraju.
At their highest, the club had around 200-400 members showing off their cars each meet. However, incidents were more likely to occur due to the amount of people attending. “You really have to learn how to mitigate with people,” said environmental biology student and the club’s head of communications Johnny Heluo. “Sometimes you got to put your foot down.”
Summer Schwartz, an electromechanical systems engineering technology (EMET) student and head media communications for the club, believes CPP being mainly a commuter school benefits them, as it’s a place where members can converse and meet up outside of the weekly car meet if they desire.
“I think that it gives a lot of peace of mind, especially because it is a commuter school, so people aren’t usually here all the time,” Schwartz said. “Having a community of people that you can rely on and come to, outside of car work as well, like if you need help with anything.”
Now, as the number of attendees have reduced, club members have found they prefer a smaller group as it’s a more welcoming environment and less intimidating for someone trying to join the club. Mohn also feels it’s easier for the six board members to keep track of 30-40 members rather than 400 all at once.
E-business student and co-president Morgan Swanson described the club as a “family,” because he believes the meetings are a way for members to relax while seeing each other and their cars.
“It’s fun running into and seeing everybody’s car on campus or wherever it might be,” Summers said.
The club has plans to create merchandise, car decals, sponsorships and possibly collaborate with other colleges and their automotive clubs, hoping to find themselves as a top automotive college club.
