POPPY ROCKS
High school car show revs up
This weekend is a little short on car events, but does feature the DW Poppy High School Car Show, the unofficial kickoff to Metro Vancouver’s outdoor car show season.
I’ve attended the past dozen Poppy shows, and in that time have posted 5,042 shots from it on my website (carnut.ca). It’s cool to look back to see what cars were unveiled at their first show after being finished over the winter.
I did a bit of math and based on a guess of $12 for a roll of 36-exposure film and processing, I would have spent over $1,600. Of course, we live in the digital age, but in my opinion it would still have been money well spent.
My passion to create images of cool cars is every bit as strong as fellow carnuts’ passion to build and restore cars. At the DW Poppy Car Show the cars stream onto the field after waiting patiently at the gate. This year’s show will have the added dimension of a lot of cabin fever endured by carnuts due to the overwhelming rain that has fallen over the past few months.
That pent-up feeling was on full display last weekend at the Vintage Car Club of Canada’s Otter Co-op show in Aldergrove, where good weather, lots of great old cars and a packed event made for a lot of smiling faces.
Two cars that caught my eye were Paul Bourgeois’ 1926 Ford Model T Tudor Sedan and Mike Vantilborg ’s 1930 Model A Cabriolet. Bourgeois’ sedan has always been my favourite body style of the Ford Model As and Model Ts. Lots of room in the back for kids, cameras and camping gear.
By 1926, the T had been in production since 1909 and was as good as it was going to get. The competition was improving their cars and many had newer designs.
In 1923, the Model T sold over two million cars, but the numbers declined to 1.5 million per year in 1926, the last full year of Model T production. To keep this in perspective, the bestselling car in 2016, the Toyota Camry, sold 355,204 units. After shutting down for a number of months to get the new Model A into production, Ford once again had a hit. The Model A in many ways looked similar to the Model T, but the improvements were impressive.
Vantilborg ’s 1930 Model A Cabriolet features a fold-down convertible roof, but also roll-up windows; a huge improvement over the roadsters that did not have roll-up side windows. Vantilborg has owned his Model A since 1974, and it took 37 years to finally drive it.
Hopefully I will see you at Poppy … and remember to bring a kid with you.