Graham Tharp was 3 years old when his parents detected his uncommon gift: while driving in their Burbank, Calif., neighborhood, he could name the makes and models of automobiles, and could identify farm equipment pictured in books or parked in rural areas. "I remember one day when I had taken him to nursery school," recalls his mother, Faith Tharp. "Laid out on a table, there happened to be cutouts of different kinds of tractors. Graham reached down and picked one up and said, 'This is a great so-and-so,' very clearly articulating the name and type of tractor it was. It took us all by surprise!" she says, laughing. "We were shocked!"

Although this ability likely could be plucked from the Tharp family tree (grandpa owned several car dealerships and father, Stanford Tharp, shared his automotive interests), "I think it probably speaks to the love of moving things that most boys seem to have," she says.

In Hollywood, these interests are portrayed with frenetic energy onscreen. "Gear-heads" as Americans might call them, aren't nerds hunched under car hoods with oil-stained jeans and blackened fingernails. Through the lens, their smoldering rebellion plays handsomely against whatever glossy-but-threatening V-8 is rumbling under the hood-think Nicolas Cage behind the wheel of a Ferrari in Gone in 60 Seconds, Vin Diesel gunning a sport compact in The Fast and the Furious, or Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in Die Another Day, navigating the wheel of a sophisticated Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.

In fall 2001, Graham Tharp '05, along with Jeff Simonetti '05 and some other friends, did something that both perpetuated this stereotype and knocked it off its blocks: they chartered what would later be known as The Claremont Colleges Automotive Enthusiasts Club, a group whose campus-wide roster has climbed to 150 members, including 40 women. To Faith Tharp, this club was a natural extension of her son's automotive interests. To Graham and other founders, it was classically CMC-a perfect opportunity to thread common interests with entrepreneurism.

Its members do not meet regularly. They don't drive lowered vehicles with their names, or the club's acronym, lettered on tinted windows. They don't cruise local streets or haunt hamburger stands on Friday nights. In fact, many of them don't own cars. Unlike the narrow automotive interests of many car clubs, the CCAEC's tastes are more diverse, albeit upscale.

"The students are getting to meet a lot of fantastic people they wouldn't necessarily meet otherwise," Michael Lajtay '88 says of CCAEC members. Pictured, clockwise from left: Becca Cantor (PIT '05), Florence Shaffer (HMC '03), Sean Cramer '04, Kevin Shin '04, Jillian Kurvers '05, Graham Tharp '05, Katie Hall '05, Elliott Temkin (HMC '05), and Jeff Simonetti '05.