Car Shows (pics)

[ProstheticConscience]

Thought this spanking new forum needed a thread to discuss and share pics from your favourite car shows. So here it is.


Anyway to kick things off, next weekend is one of my personal favourites from my neck of the woods: the annual all-British car show here in Vancouver.

http://www.westerndriver.com/?page_id=10337

I grew up a few blocks away from Van Dusen Gardens where it's held. It started off with just a couple of dozen cars in the parking lot; now it features hundreds of cars spanning all the way from the British automotive industry's infancy right up to new MacLaren hybrid hypercars. The focus is usually the British 60's roadsters: E-type Jags, MGs, Morgans, Austin Healys, Minis, etc etc etc. It wasn't there the last couple of years, but once I saw a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 straight out of Goldfinger.

Don't want to turn this into my backup instagram account, but here's a few notables:











Oh, and that last one? Three quarters of a million dollars and it could be yours.

Click to read more...

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Also, oddities from the same show:



This was my wife's favourite from that year. It's Jon Fleuvog's (shoe designer) custom car. Don't even know that kind of car it originally was. *edit* It's a Jag of some kind. I recognize the front end now.



This one's there every year. IIRC it's in the record books as the least fuel efficient production car up to that time: the Aston Martin Lagonda. Here, featured in a disgusting green colour for whatever bizarre reason.



The show also features the first motorcycles...



...and also lots of these guys. Sunbeam Tigers were great for power-to-weight, but the big problem was the fact that after shoving an American V8 engine in the space created for a 4 banger, they overheated like crazy. Some British ideas didn't translate...



...like that. Yes, there is in fact at least one Reliant Robin in Canada. I just hope to god it's not allowed on Vancouver streets. I've traveled and lived in the UK and Ireland, and when I first went to London I remember seeing these things around and thought: "You know...I'm not an automotive engineer...but I do believe I see a design flaw."

Always hoped the Top Gear guys would come over and mention the ABFM on the show, but sadly it wasn't to be.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Another year, another ABFM is upon us. Usually it's grey and rainy, this year it managed to be really nice. Lots of new participants, lots of new vendors, lots of things to see. Like usual there were fleets of MGs, Triumphs, jags, rollers and Bentleys. Also things like this:



1911 Rolls Royce limo.



Jensen-Healy racer. First time entrant. Tried to get a better shot, but too many people were milling about around it, and I got impatient.



1948 custom Ford Anglia. It's a resto job, but still nice.



The Austin Sprites always look so happy...



...but others are just sad.



Still, a good time was had by all. The brass band up in the right corner of this pic was playing the theme song to Indiana Jones.



We're now well into the hundreds of cars, spread over several acres. Took about an hour and a half to really get a good look at them all. Can easily spend the rest of your life talking about cars and swapping stories with their owners. Petrolheads unite!



...even if you're in the army.