FANTASTIC CARS COME IN ALL SIZES
Last weekend was the perfect way to end the summer season thanks to lots of great shows.
As always, Saturday’s Crescent Beach Concours was outstanding. I was there for morning roll-in and the selection of cars was absolutely stellar. Too many great cars to pick my favourite, so I’m lucky not to be a judge. John Carlson taught me most of what I know about working on engines and it was great to see him there as chief judge.
I spent lots of time talking to many owners and one cool story concerned three generations of car nuts presenting a 1968 Fiat 500 bought new by Grandma (or Nonna) in Italy and the SILA Bimboracer owned by grandson Massimo Calandra. This was an electric children’s car built by SILA in Turin, designed by Giovanni Michelotti, and based on the open Ferrari Spider of its time and has Connolly Ferrari leather interior. Young Massimo was a hit with the judges.
Another Italian supercar of its day was the 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Touring owned by noted car collector and vintage racer Jon Shirley of the Seattle area. This car has a supercharged straight eight-cylinder engine and its snarling exhaust note rivals any of the muscle era’s V8s. It rolled in to a prime spot in the centre of the field and won best of show.
But choosing best of show must have been tough because there were so many cool cars. There was a 1909 Pierce Arrow 24 Runabout that came in with protective bags over the brass to protect it, along with a 1910 Russell Knight 22 owned by Peter Findlay. The 1929 Franklin Speedster at the show has an aluminum body and a similar vehicle was given to Charles Lindberg in hopes of promoting the benefits of the Franklin’s aircooled engine.
Another cool engine was the six-cylinder in the 1936 MGNB. After the ’30s, most MGs were stuck with all sorts of four-cylinders, so this was a pretty unique car to see.
The flip side to small engines was the big, bad Shelby GT 500KR of Postmedia columnist Alyn Edwards with the 428 Cobrajet. Alyn took a day off of reporting and judging to just come to the show as an entrant.
Beside the Shelby was the biggest, baddest of the ’50s wild decade, the audacious 1959 Cadillac Series 62. The rear of these cars are probably the most photographed tails of all time.
Other crazy ’50s tails included: the 1958 Imperial 4-door Southampton, owned by Ernie and Colleen Stepney; Doug Taylor’s 1957 Mercury Turnpike; and the 1957 Dodge Custom Royal D-500 of Bob and Josie Cunningham.
Similar to the Dodge Custom was the Orange Creamsicle-coloured 1958 DeSoto two-door hardtop Firedome Sportsman owned by L’Donna Lynds.
This weekend I am going to take a cue from Alyn and enter my old Chevy truck in the Langley Good Times Cruise-In, and look forward to meeting up with all my B.C. Hot Rod Association buddies at 6:45 a.m.at the Starlight Drive-In and all drive in together to park as a group. I have not been able to make it for the last few years, but am really looking forward to being an entrant this year.
I am going to start the weekend off with a visit to 192nd Street in Surrey for the classic Cruise-In held every Friday evening and also visit the Currus Metalworks open house.
Sunday will probably include a trip down to Cloverdale for the Bill Larson Memorial Pub Run and Newton Boys Hot Rod Run Show and Shine.
For decades the McLander brothers put on this awesome show, and although they are sort of retired, it is still a super-cool show and there is great food at the pub. Another good place to eat that has a car show Sunday is the Cat and Fiddle Pub in Port Coquitlam.
The suggestion for this weekend: bring a kid and an appetite!