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May
19
British Cars at Van Dusen
Filed Under Cars, Life, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
It’s been a holiday weekend in BC as we celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria (born May 24 1819), the monarch on the throne when BC became a Province of Canada. Now in it’s 23rd year, a show featuring British cars is held at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens on the Saturday of the long weekend. Being a lover of most things automotive (with the exception of the previously mentioned Pontiac Aztek), I dragged the family off to the Gardens for the All British Field Meet. Although my first love is still Alfa Romeo, having recently rediscovered being English I wanted to take a look at what Vancouver could offer – I was not disappointed
There must have been 500+ vehicles on display covering so many long forgotten British marques that have been lovingly cared for or restored in British Columbia.
The array of old Triumph TR2′s through to TR8′s, Morgans by the shed load, E types aplenty, Jensens, Sumbeams, real MG’s and Mini’s and so on, all set in the beautiful grounds of the botanical gardens which is named after a local lumberman and philanthropist W J Van Dusen. What a spectacular show in wonderful surroundings, even to the extent of being slightly surreal as I listened to a brass band play ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines’, surrounded by old British cars with the spectacular North Shore mountains appearing like painted movie scenery in the background.
Outside the gardens I had another really pleasant surprise. Not one but two Alfa’s, including a stunning 2600 Spider. Until now I’ve only seen a couple of more recent Alfa’s, so this was a real treat for me.
In some ways, what really made the day was the weather. After a number of false starts, spring hit Vancouver big time with the temperature rocketing to around 30 degrees, in fact, it was almost too hot. I’m certainly not complaining though, it was an excuse to finally break out the shorts.
Reflecting on the day as a whole, it was indeed a strange day. I decided that I’d get up just before 7am local to watch the FA Cup final, so I had a very English start to the day. However, the day finished with a distinct Gallic feel as the family attended a farewell party for friends moving back to Quebec. English speakers were definitely in the minority, but that’s what living in the Lower Mainland seems to be about, one of great cultural integration, and that’s why living here is so interesting and enlightening. It’s amazingly humbling when one realises that one is the minority.
I’ve posted lots more pics from the All British Field Meet on my Picasa site, just click here.
May
18
New wheels, old wheels
Filed Under Cars, Driving | Leave a Comment
When we bought our first car here it was clear that new tyres would be needed on the front of the car fairly soon. The great day arrived and it was one of shock and awe. Okay, the Focus had after market rims fitted, however, I really wasn’t expecting replacement tyres to require a mortgage to purchase. So it was either bite the bullet and pay $250+ per tyre or think out of the box.
The answer was a return to rather boring, factory fit alloys together with stock size tyres. The rims actually came from a used car parts dismantler (scrappy), Ralph’s, and were a pretty good price. Ralph’s turned out to be like an old school scrappy. I stepped out of the car in to a pool of oily water, the yard was surrounded by wooden fencing and the office was full of guys up to their armpits in grease – this is used car parts as it should be. My mind flew back to days of rummaging around scrap yards for that illusive bit, clambering up a couple of levels of stacked cars and hoping that they didn’t over-balance whilst you tried to remove a coil or similar. I can vividly remember one visit to a yard in Essex with my cousin. I bought an indicator column and he wandered out with a limb caused by the hidden shock absorber under his overall’s.
I didn’t get to see the yard itself at Ralph’s as my replacement rims were already waiting for me when I arrived. Now that’s good service. So, I was spared the complete trip down memory lane and to be honest it was rather pleasant not to have to contort the body around stacks of rusting metal.
So, rather than spend mega-bucks on new tyres I replaced rims and tyres for less than the price of 4, 17″ tyres.
The result is a car that looks less cool (can a Focus look cool?) but actually runs smoother and gets better mpg. Oh, and one more thing. It’s still the normal thing to rotate wheels over here, something I can’t remember having done in the UK for 20 years. I suppose this goes back to the days when rear wheel drive cars were prevalent and tyre wear could be evened out. However, with most cars now being front wheel drive, why on earth spend time and sometimes money rotating rims? I’m really not sure of the benefits.
On my back from Ralph’s I had to take a snap of what some may recognise as the rear end of an old Talbot Horizon (albeit in it’s Dodge form). This car must be around 25 years old and is pretty typical of some of the old cars I see on Canadian roads. Before leaving the UK I used to feel that my 7 year old car was, well, rather past it by UK standards.
Over here I see plenty of 20+ year old cars in daily use. Of course there are lots of newer models as well, but I truly haven’t seen so many 1980′s cars in regular use for 15 years or so. I’m not certain if that indicates a lack of car culture, maybe the car is more often seen purely as transport or maybe Canadians like to get what they can from their cars, bearing in mind the daft prices of used vehicles.
