Category Archives: Meets

Holiday Get-Together!

Shortly after Thanksgiving, it was starting to get a little dreary here in BC. The rain seemed relentless, and the classic car motoring season gone for the year. Our recent cold-snap, and subsequent sunny weather, has us dreaming again of hanging out with our classic cars and friends. The weather at this time of year can be a little unpredictable, and up here in Squamish they’ve already salted the roads, so we were delighted when Robert and Jaclyn called us up to see if we’d be interested in joining them for a casual indoor hangout at their restoration shop. If the weather is good, feel free to bring your classic! If you choose to leave yours at home, however, you’ll find plenty of classics to check out inside. We hear project Valdy, the Porsche 912, is looking quite different from our last group visit!

Together we’ll be providing some light snacks, as well as a selection of drinks for you to enjoy while you peruse the projects and catch up with your Classic Car friends.

A Special Project
Much like our Thanksgiving Run, we’d really like to take the opportunity to help out others in our Communities. If you’d like to join us in helping out, we’re collecting donations for two programs during our Sunday get-together. RWM & Co. and Classic Car adventures are arranging to sponsor two families in need this year. We’ll be putting together a hamper for each which includes all the items needed for a holiday dinner, as well as toys purchased for the children of the families. If you’d like to be involved, you can do so with either a financial donation (we’ll take care of the shopping) or send us an email and we’ll share with you some toy options the kids are asking Santa for.

If you’d prefer a simpler donation option, we’ll also be collecting non-perishable food items which will be donated to the Ladner Food Bank. Our Thanksgiving Run donated over $450 in food to the Squamish Food bank, and we look forward to helping out families in South Delta.

Meeting Time and Directions:

Sunday December 7th2pm to 5pm
RWM & Co.
Unit #1 – 7440 Ottawa Street
Delta, BC
V4K 0B4

For directions, you can use our Google Maps pin to get you to the Boundary Bay Airport area (and Ottawa Street). Once there, the new building at 7440 Ottawa Street is quite easy to find.

Saturday: Classic Car Appreciation Day

Official Declaration

Summertime motoring is in full swing for Classic Car owners, but this year things are a just a wee bit more special in British Columbia. Earlier this year, the B.C. Government proclaimed July as “Collector Car Appreciation Month”, and July 12th as the designated “Collector Car Appreciation Day”. Here at the CCA offices, we felt it appropriate to commemorate the date with an informal gathering of Classic Car enthusiasts.

What: A casual meetup with fellow classic car owners and enthusiasts. Start your weekend off right, and join us this Saturday at the Park and Tilford mall in North Vancouver for a summertime ‘Cars and Coffee’ get together. Enjoy a coffee and the company of fellow car nuts and we celebrate a government declaration we can all appreciate! Open to all Classic, Collector and Retro Cars*, we expect there will be a wide variety of cars to appreciate!

When: Saturday July 12th 2014, 8:00-10:00am.

Where: Meeting at 8:30am in the Park and Tilford parking lot, gather in the South-West corner of the parking lot, or wherever there is parking available. [MAP].

* Now, you might wonder..what designates a “Classic, Collector or Retro-Car?” For an event such as this one, we prefer to leave the interpretation fairly wide open, you never know what sort of vehicles might show up. Certainly if your vehicle is made before 1979 it qualifies as a Classic. If your car was made between 1980 and 1989, and is eligible for Collector plates in BC, it definitely qualifies as a Collector car. “Retro Cars” is our designation for vehicles of interest, which don’t fit in the first two categories. Perhaps you have a modified vehicle which can’t get collector plates? Or perhaps it’s an early 90’s classic, which hasn’t quite made the year range. Truthfully, we’re all car people at heart. If you’re a car-nut like us, we’re not going to turn you away. This is about Collector Car Appreciation, simple as that.

Road Exploration – Join the fun!

I’ve been living in BC for about nine and a half years now, and have had the pleasure of driving many of the great roads in this province. Between our own Classic Car Adventures’ events, coaching Mountain Biking or rallying with the West Coast Rally Association…I sometimes feel like I’ve seen it all. I’ve been as far North as Smithers, all the way to Tofino and as far East as the Alberta border. I once tried to highlight all the roads I’ve driven on a Provincial map, but it simply ended up soggy with ink and unreadible. Despite all of this, there are still roads untraveled…and it’s driving me crazy!

Some of my “must try” roads are going to require a significant amount of pre-planning. I’ve always wanted to drive to the Yukon, why? Just to say I’ve done it. I’ve heard the road to Bella Coola and back is incredible…but that’s not exactly a day trip from Squamish. My ultimate adventure is a story for another time, but lets just say I haven’t tried it yet for fear of having to leave a Beetle buried deep, VERY deep, in the BC backwoods. So while some of the roads on my list are perhaps overly adventurous, some are just a morning away.

Case in point: The Highline.

This potential gem links the community of D’arcy (North of Pemberton) with Seton Portage, a community about 25km West of Lillooet. Officially named “The Douglas Trail Road”, it was finally ruled a Provincial Highway in a court decision back in Feb 2013. I’ve been paying close attention over the years on Motorcycle forums, to figure out when the best time to try the road is, and this is the year! From the un-confirmed reports I’ve read, the road is quite a bit better than previous years, smoother then the Hurley, and should be doable in a classic car. Since adventures such as this one are more fun, and safer, with friends…I’m inviting you along!

Vehicle Eligability
I’m bringing my classic car, but feel free to bring your modern day vehicle if you like. I already know we’ve got a Ford Focus & an approaching-classic Honda along for the trip. I think we can be open to Adventure bikes as well, but would like to discuss mixing cars and bikes with the riders first to ensure we’re as safe as possible.

Important Note:
Please note that this is not an official CCA event, but just a group of friends getting together for some back country road exploration. There will be no sweep, and instructions will be a sheet of Google Map directions (if Dave remembers to print them off).

Packing List
If you’re planning on attending, you’d be nuts not to have the following with you:

Warning Triangle (30cm reflective sides)
Tow Strap
Spare Tire (I don’t recommend a space saver spare, at the very least throw a full size one in the trunk)
Tool Kit
Basic spares
Minimum 2 Gal spare gas tank.

When
– Saturday June 14th, email the link below for timing and schedule.

Lastly, to ensure that we don’t leave without you. Please email Dave to confirm you’ll be meeting in Squamish at the North Petro Canada on Saturday morning.

Dave Hord – 1979 VW 1302s
John Hinde – Ford Focus Wagon
Tony Latham – Honda Civic Rally Car
Jos Van Berckel – BMW 1200 Adventure Bike
Regien Van Berckel – BMW 1200 Adventure Bike
Mark and Jeff Dykstra – Ford Cortina or Dodge Dakota

Vancouver Open House

Lets be honest, you can’t really complain about the warm sunny winter we’ve been having here in Vancouver. But for many of us, the Classic Cars are tucked away in storage, insurance policies dropped to Storage-Only, and we’re feeling the withdrawl from our Classic Car Adventures. While hosting all our friends who brought their Spring Thaw entry forms up to Squamish, we couldn’t help but think of how much fun it would be to get a group together. With in minutes we had an offer to use RWM&Co’s shop, and it was a perfect opportunity to launch the Valdy 911 Project.

Over the course of four hours we had between 175 and 200 of our closest car-nut friends drop by for a visit. In addition to the incredible cars being worked on inside the shop, the road and parking area outside was better then a televised Vehicle Auction. There were Triumphs, Porsches, Rovers, Volkswagens, Ferraris, Aston Martins and more. At times I think the crowd checking out the cars outside was bigger then the group inside. But most incredible was the diversity amongst the group. We saw lots of old friends, and made plenty of new ones.

Also in attendance was Brendon McAleer from the Vancouver Sun & Province. He’s written a great article on the event, which you can find on the Drive.ca website. The beginning of the article may make it seem like our events are races, but CCA events are not a competition and there are systems in place to deter over exuberant participants. Ask any past participant about our yellow card system!

Center stage for the event was Dave Koszegi’s ‘new’ Porsche 912. Originally purchased for it’s motor, upon picking it up Dave discovered it has a history unique to B.C. We originally teased the idea of a Classic Car Adventures Restoration during the Fall Freeze, guests on the event were the first to see the car up close. Over the next two years Dave is going to have the 912 restored to its original glory, using shops and experts he’s met on CCA events like The Spring Thaw. You’ll be able to follow the whole process right here on the CCA website.