CABRIOLET GALA RAISES $200,000 FOR CANCER RESEARCH
TRUCKIN’ TIME: In the Gotham steak house recently, Brian Jessel auto-dealership partner Jim Murray handed a $200,000 cheque to Pancreatic Cancer Canada Foundation executive director Michelle Capobianco. Generated by the recent Cabriolet gala, the donation commemorated Jessel’s father Bernie, an old-time auto wholesaler who said: “Drop me from a plane over the Prairies in the middle of winter and I’ll have $100,000 worth of cars in no time.” Meanwhile, although the dealership sold 2,587 new and 2,360 pre-owned vehicles in 2017, Murray said: “The market is challenging this year.” Dramatically different, too. “Sixty-five per cent of sales will be SUVs,” Murray said. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t have one.”
THEY WILL: New and future Cabriolet gala sponsor Garry Zlotnik may soon have a $200,000 (or more) cheque to write himself. That would be when 200 guests attend his July 5 wedding to Cyndi Ankenman in the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel.
ROCKIN’ ROLLS: Rolls-Royce likely wouldn’t call its new Cullinan SUV a truck. Still, with Bentley, Lamborghini and Maserati already offering SUVs and Aston Martin and Ferrari versions near, Rolls-Royce had to stay on the pot. Named for the 3,106.75-carat Cullinan diamond, the 25 models Open Road Group owner Christian Chia will receive and sell at a new Burrard-at-Fifth showroom this year should cost around $500,000 each. The 2,660-kg Cullinan’s claimed offroad capabilities aside, one can’t imagine buyers bashing through body-damaging bush, scrambling up ladder-steep trails and tiptoeing over rock fields better suited to Jeeps with oversized tires, locking axles, skid plates and winches. When you read this, Chia, who usually races Porsches in Asia, will have just spent 12 hours with brother Marcel and cousin Michael campaigning a Spanish SEAT Leon sedan on Italy’s fivekilometre Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari racetrack. Pity they couldn’t have entered a Cullinan with the offduty drivers sharing a Fortnum & Mason picnic hamper, albeit not while perched on the tailgate’s slide-out leather seats.
DO BUG ME: Far from the effulgence of Rolls-Royces, BMWs and suchlike, the humblest of sports cars celebrated its 60th birthday at the 33rd annual
All British Field Meet. Several Austin-Healey Sprites occupied the VanDusen Botanical Garden lawn, reminding visitors that $2,000 was more than you needed to buy, insure and even race what was basically an entrylevel Morris Minor sedan with an elementary roadster body. Headlights seemingly glued to the hood gave it the Bugeye nickname that still endures. Let’s hope there’ll be plenty still running for the marque’s centenary.
NAZ NEWS: Colin James sang blues from his imminent 20th album when the ARThritis Soiree ran in the Hotel Vancouver Roof. No blues, though, from six-time chair Naz Panahi who reported $330,000 raised for Arthritis Research Canada. She’ll move on, said Panahi, who twice chaired the Canadian Cancer Society’s Daffodil Ball. No doubt we’ll see her charitably active again soon.
FOR A GOOD TIME: The Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s $40 self-guided Heritage House Tour on June 3 (vancouverheritagefoundation.org) should be partial but pleasing.
FULLY DRESSED: For the Canucks Autism Foundation’s June 9 Reveal gala, the Dior boutique recently donated 10 per cent of one day’s sales. Gala co-chairs Clara Aquilini and Christi Yassin were delighted when one supporter spent $400,000 in the Hotel Vancouver store. You’d need a truck to move that much merch from kitty-corner Le Chateau.
FLOATING WORLD II: Vancouver Aquarium president and CEO John Nightingale now has a fishing-float necklace that came from Japan — piece by piece on ocean currents. They also carried material from the 2011 tsunami that Douglas Coupland salvaged on Haida Gwaii for his Vortex installation at the aquarium. His Floating World show opened at the Vancouver Art Gallery 31 years earlier. The gold-painted necklace acknowledges Coupland’s respect for Nightingale’s convincing the aquarium board to invest in a show that portrays oceans negatively. The Smithsonian Institution, Connecticut’s Mystic Museum and Britain’s Tate Modern reportedly want the show following its 11-month run in a 10,000-litre tank the aquarium had handy.
TAPPED OUT: Your sore feet (and ears) should be recovering from the excesses of National Tap Dance Day on May 25.
SAFE BET: Dax Droski, Jordan Kallman and Tyson Villeneuve will stage the 10th annual Deighton Cup at Hastings Racecourse on July 21. Hundreds more mostly young folk attend each year. Nattily sportive men puff on cigars. Women wear shrinkwrap dresses with hems higher than their towering heels. Many swig real champagne. The formula was too successful not to repeat. That’s why May 26 sees the Greenwood Stakes — it commemorates Toronto’s defunct Greenwood Raceway — launch at that city’s Woodbine track with 1,000 expected, Villeneuve said.
SETTING IT STRAIGHT: Hamfisted typing saw Vancouver Art Gallery director Kathleen Bartels’ name rendered as Barrels on May 19.
DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Given the mayoral race’s pantomime antics, past contenders Barb E. Doll, Frank The Moose, Mr. Peanut and especially Sage Advice might consider running again.