A LOVE FOR THE CLASSICS
Vintage car passion spawns road trips to B.C., a Facebook page and weekly cruise-ins
Blame the Hollywood film industry for 22-year-old Kyle Hanger’s fascination with old vehicles.
First, it was The Love Bug movie that left an indelible impression on him. He was just two when his mom sat him down to watch the Walt Disney comedy. Ever after, Hanger was enamoured with 1963 Volkswagen Beetles.
Then a few years later the Calgarian watched The Fast and the Furious, a film starring Vin Diesel driving a supercharged 1970 Dodge Charger.
“That car just blew me away,” Hanger said. “I respect all cars, including imports and exotics, etc., but that Charger really impressed me with its aggressive look and sound.”
Ironically, as much as those cars impressed him, neither a 1963 Beetle nor a 1970 Charger was Hanger’s first car. He was 16 when he bought a 1967 Mercury Cougar. For more than 30 years the car sat in a field north of Calgary, and rusted.
“It was going to be a restoration but it’s one I’m still working on because the floor pans were gone and some of the unibody structure was compromised,” he said. “To get that car fixed, it’s currently at a restoration shop because it’s more work than I could handle.”
But that didn’t stop Hanger — who earns a living in auto-related industries and has also worked construction jobs — from collecting more vintage vehicles, most of them now stored on different rural properties and in a two-car garage he rents.
Like he said, while mechanically inclined, the rusted-out Cougar was more work than he expected. That’s when he bought a 1973 Ford Gran Torino. This became the first classic car he returned to the road — and it also started an annual summer tradition.
“My best friend lives out in B.C. in the Ladner area,” Hanger said. “Every year since I’ve had the Gran Torino on the road, I’ve been driving out to visit him and take in the car scene.”
This year, he and two friends — Liam Herman in a 1973 Pontiac Parisienne and Eric Reszewicz in a 1983 Chevy Silverado — convoyed their vintage vehicles west. Hanger drove his 1974 Plymouth Fury III sedan purchased from the props department of the TV series Fargo, a production that has filmed in locations in and around Calgary.
“For some people, the Fargo connection might increase the value of the Plymouth, but it was really only used in the background as a secondary police car and none of the main characters had anything to do with it,” he said.
The Fury and the Silverado performed flawlessly, but Herman’s Parisienne experienced a couple minor problems. These were overcome, and the trio made it to Vancouver in mid-August. Along the way, they stopped at the White Post Auto Museum and Mike Hall’s vintage car collection in Tappen, B.C., to view the Ford Torinos.
Hall’s collection made headlines in late March after he announced his five-acre property complete with buildings and more than 300 cars was for sale for $1.45 million.
“We can dream!” Hanger said of that proposition.
While in the Vancouver area, the trio attended small parking lot meet-and-greets and a couple of larger car shows. Herman and Reszewicz returned to Calgary before Hanger, who planned to drive back in late August.
As a vintage car enthusiast with a collection that now includes six vehicles — two 1967 Cougars, the Gran Torino, Fury, a 1977 Maverick and, yes, a 1963 VW Beetle — Hanger started the Facebook group We Are the Classics (Alberta).
“I enjoy the old-style car culture of cruising, listening to music, and just meeting up at a diner to show off our rides, and the Facebook page helps us promote that,” Hanger said of the group that counts 659 members.
Locations such as Peter’s DriveIn on 16 Ave., Angel’s Drive In on 47 Ave. in Bowness and Lloyd’s Rollersports Centre on Macleod Trail have been frequented by the group for meet-and-greets. The main gathering spot, however, is the Glendeer Circle A&W on Friday nights. The group later moves to the Tim Hortons at Barlow Trail and 61 Ave. S.E., and also meets up there again on Saturday evenings.
“Anything 1970s or older we consider a classic,” Hanger said, adding, “If you drive a 2000 Honda Civic and don’t own anything older that’s OK, too, we’d still enjoy seeing you out because it’s all just about a love for classic cars.”