GEARHEADS CELEBRATE INDOOR SHOWS' RETURN
The Vintage Car Club of Canada Easter parade event that began in Vancouver in 1959 and the 24th annual British Columbia Classic and Custom Car Show are weekend highlights — the first shows of the year and the first indoor show in three years.
For more than two decades, Richardt Scholz has produced the classic and custom car show at the Abbotsford Tradex Centre. But it has been a no-show since 2019 because of COVID-19.
“This could be the best show we have ever had because people have been building cars for the past three years with nowhere to show them,” Scholz says of the show that will feature 220 special interest vehicles.
Some of Canada's oldest custom car clubs are celebrating anniversaries and will put on major displays. Marking its 65th anniversary, the 450-member B.C. Hot Rod Association will display 36 member cars.
The Pacific International Street Rod Association, marking a half-century, will show 32 cars and the Langley Loafers, also celebrating the 50-year mark will have a major display. One of the features will be matching red, white and blue Corvettes, the best of America's iconic sports car that rocked the car world in 1963 with its split-window coupe. The red coupe has a 340-horsepower engine, the blue coupe has the optional 370-horsepower fuel-injected engine, and the white coupe is a the ultrarare ZO6 model with all the racing options including a fuel-injected engine and special-order fancooled front disc brakes.
Alongside the restored ZO6 Corvette, will be a fully restored ZO6 chassis by Corvette ZO6 expert Mike Boivin to illustrate the engineering that went into the race-prepped Corvette for 1963. There were only 199 ZO6 Corvettes built in 1963. They were all split-window coupes and General Motors wanted to sell them only to experienced racers. The car restored by Boivin and painted by Gary Salomon is one of only four white Z06 models produced. The restored chassis is for one of only five silver models.
To get more young people interested in the hobby, the show features a 100-foot racetrack with where kids can run radio-controlled cars for free. Children 12 and under get in free when accompanied by an adult.
Vancouver's Peter Trant will celebrate Easter Sunday as he always does: by driving one of his collector cars to the Vintage Car Club of Canada (VCCC) Vancouver Chapter's Easter Gathering, which has been a major club event for more than six decades.
Trant has chosen a special car: a 1929 Ford Model A Murray-bodied Town Sedan that was first driven in the Easter Parade by his late friend and Crest Realty founder, Ed Aveling.
The Model A was meaningful to Aveling because he used to service them as new cars at his father's Ford dealership in Yorkton, Sask.
Aveling drove the freshly restored Model A in every VCCC Easter Parade starting in 1964 until 1998.
In 1959, Woodward's department stores wanted to promote the new Oakridge Mall, south of Vancouver's city centre. VCCC was invited to display antique and classic cars for the week leading up to Easter Sunday, then hold a show and Easter Parade starting in the parking lot.
The event has always been open to the public and draws crowds. This Sunday, the VCCC Easter Gathering starts at 10 a.m. in the rear parking lot of Trev Deeley Motorcycles, 1875 Boundary Rd. The VCCC will be collecting donations for Ukrainian Relief and the Vancouver Food Bank. The British Columbia Classic and Custom Car Show starts today and runs through Sunday at the Tradex Centre in Abbotsford.