InMotion
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GREATER VICTORIA Advertising Feature
#2-2333 Government St.
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Locally Owned and Operated 20 Years in Business
• February 15, 2013
Events North Vancouver hot rodders cover & Activities... FEBRUARY 17 – Steve Copp Construction Winter Hornet Series Enduro, 1 p.m. start at Western Speedway. FMI: www.westernspeedway.net MARCH 5 – Vintage Car Club meets, St. Luke’s Church Hall, 7:30 p.m. FMI: victoria.vccc.com APRIL 2 – Vintage Car Club meets, St. Luke’s Church Hall, 7:30 p.m. FMI: victoria.vccc.com APRIL 18 TO 21 – Victoria Harbour Boat Show in the Inner Harbour. FMI: www.bcyba.com
Send your driving, boating or biking-related events to
jblyth@telus.net
The cars lined up to enter the NBC Studios in Burbank California.
7,000 kilometres on dream road tour They got bumped out of the Tonight Show only because Jay Leno was interviewing U.S. president Barack Obama. The occupants of 14 hot rods driven by enthusiasts from ALYN EDWARDS Vancouver’s North CLASSIC Shore got into the show RIDES the next night. They drove right into Burbank, stowed their hot rods in the NBC parking lot, were ushered into the green room to be feted with buffet food, had their own special section to take in the show and got their photo taken on stage with Tonight Show host and fellow classic car fan Jay Leno. The group from North and West Vancouver wore uniform red T-shirts emblazoned with North Shore Rod & Customs, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. They had the time of their lives. They had set out last October for a 7,000-kilometre swing down the West Coast as far as San Diego, visiting a dozen hot rod shops and private collections. They would join the last leg of the Streetrodder Magazine national tour involving 100 cars. Their final destination was the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas – the Holy Grail of car culture events. The average age of the North Shore hot rodders on the tour was 65. The average age of their cars was 70. The only rule required each participant to drive their cars. No ‘trailer queens’ allowed. The oldest hot rodder was West Vancouver’s Jerry Abramson, who is 80. He drove his Chevrolet V8-powered 1932 Ford three-window coupe hot rod with co-pilot and fellow enthusiast Gord Gowland. “I had one like this in the ‘50s and decided that I really liked it, so I bought a finished hot rod to travel in,” he says. “The tour was really well organized and a lot of fun but the guys
Some of the 14 cars owned by members of the North Shore Rod & Customs Club on the hot rod tour. Local hot rod and custom car owners in Lake Havasu, Arizona put on a special mid week show of 500 vehicles for the members of the hot rod tour.
drove a little slow for me.” The tour was organized by Al McGillivray, who retired from 30 years in auto sales and leasing to build and drive his pro street customized 1967 Chevy II with a 400 horsepower engine. He was assisted by retired pipefitter Tom Southern who drove his 1928 Ford Model A Ford hot rod. Al had done a tour by himself in 2009, visiting shops en route through the West Coast states. He and Tom did two subsequent tours and then mapped out the entire route for the 2012 tour. They arranged stops at iconic hot rod shops like Jim Meyer Racing Products in Lincoln City, Or., Bruce Canepa Design in Santa Cruz, Ca., Don Orosco’s shop in Monterey and Hollywood Hot Rods in Burbank, Ca. They also set up
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restaurant and overnight stops. The tour went off like clockwork. The group joined the much larger Streetrodder Magazine tour in Burbank following the Tonight Show visit and headed south to San Diego, east to Phoenix and then north to Las Vegas. They would drive up to 500 kilometeres a day. That tour opened doors to amazing private hot rod and custom car collections and hospitality that went beyond anyone’s expectations. “When we arrived at Lake Havasu in Arizona, the local club put on a special downtown show in our honour with 500 cars,” Al McGillivray says. “We couldn’t have been treated better.”
88 Parts & Labour Reg. 98.88