BIG BLOCK PARTY
NORTH VANCOUVER STREET TURNED INTO HOT ROD NIRVANA.
The hot rod, custom car and engine builders on Charlotte Road invited a few of their friends over for a block party and more than 100 cars showed up.
Affectionately called Hot Rod Alley, Charlotte Road is only a few blocks from the end of the North Vancouver turnoff from the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and it is only one block long.
The street is a bit of hot rod heaven with the businesses more like custom car cruise-in clubhouses. There is Canada Custom and Hot Rods, Air Speed Custom Werks, Luke’s Automotive and Precision Custom Engines — all serving the high-performance automotive world with customers as far away as the U.S. and Europe.
The Charlotte Road cruise-in was essentially the 18th annual Bob & Dan’s Car Show. For 17 years, the show was held at the Marine Pub in Burnaby. But the pub was torched at the hands of an arsonist in January. Now the $15 entry fee that got hot rod and custom car owners a beer and burger is a thing of the past. But Charlotte Road has its own brewery with a tasting room.
Custom car owners Bob Larson and Dan Belanger often visited the shops on Charlotte Road and the BC Hot Rod Association has held several cruise-in evening barbecues there. So the decision was made to hold the show there.
“We had to get a permit from the city to close down the road and liability insurance to hold the event,” Dan Belanger says, noting that wasn’t necessary when the event was held at the pub.
Bob Larson, who drove his radically customized 1940 Mercury coupe to the show, said organizers expected about 40 cars. More than 100 cars showed up and, as a result, the road was jammed with rows of classics, customs and hot rods.
“Most businesses are closed on Saturday and everyone has been super co-operative,” says Laurie Peterson, who operates Canada Customs & Hot Rods.
Peterson displayed his own radically customized white 1963 Studebaker Avanti with a supercharged and intercooled Chevrolet LS 3 engine powered through a Tremec six-speed manual transmission, along with some of the hot rods he has built for customers.
His brother Geoff’s company is Air Speed Custom Werks and he showed off customized Volkswagen cars and vans he builds for owners from as far away as Switzerland.
Luke Balogh has been building hot rods along with modified vintage flathead Ford V-8 engines and Chrysler hemi engines at Luke’s Automotive since the shop was started by his father on Charlotte Road in 1971. The shop originally specialized in Volkswagen repairs.
Luke was 14 when he built his first hot rod. He purchased a 1932 Ford pickup for $20 and installed a Volkswagen engine in the rear using parts from his father’s shop.
At the Charlotte Road car show, his beautiful 1949 Meteor coupe was displayed with the hood up to show off a full-race flathead V-8 engine with Edelbrock finned aluminum heads and triple carburetors.
Alongside were two 1934 Ford coupe hot rods built by Luke — the first is Chrysler hemi powered with a custom supercharger that pumps out enormous horsepower. The second is a tribute to the famous Mooneyham and Sharp 554 coupe as it was in 1960, when it tore up California’s National Hot Rod Association sanctioned drag strips. It is authentic, including the Ford flathead V-8 engine equipped with custom Ardun heads and a supercharger.
At the end of Charlotte Road across from Canada Customs and Hot Rods, Ron Newton shows off some of the race engines he has built putting out as much as 1,700 horsepower. Along with partner Dwayne Van Vliet, the shop supplies engines for almost all the monster trucks that perform in stadium shows all over North America.
Outside on an engine stand is a freshly built 427-cubic-inch engine for a 2010 COPO Camaro with 1,300 horsepower. Precision Racing Engines has its own dynamometer to tune and break in the engines it builds and determine the true horsepower.
“We have built engines for customers all over North America and as far away as Greece,” Ron Newton says. He points to a Hot Wheels miniature monster truck that features a Precision Performance Engines decal.
Even Charlotte Road businesses that are not in the automotive trade had nothing but praise for the Saturday show.
“It’s fabulous and great for the street,” said Don Graham, who restores antique furniture in a shop beside Canada Customs and Hot Rods. “I’m a real car guy and have something in common with the guys next door. We both started out by building model cars when we were kids.”