Vancouver Impromtu Summer Car Show

By John Anthony MacGregor (Vancouver, BC)

Well.........here it was......the end of summer. I had just returned from the ICCCR in Amherst Mass, and was all excited about seeing so many beautiful cars, and reconnecting with the many great faces and personalities that keep me interested and informed. So..........what to do with all of this enthusiasm? It was nearing the end of a perfect summer with barely a drop of rain for two months (does it rain in Vancouver?). I had spoken with Chris Dubuque several times as of late, as he was helping to make a restoration of my 1972 DS 21 transmission and many miscellaneous parts possible, and Chris had told me he and the rest of the family were headed to Vancouver on the up coming weekend to visit.

It also struck me that most if not all of the people I saw in Amherst were my Citroën friends from Seattle.........time to do a local event and get some of the tucked-away treasures out for a drive. Thus, the Vancouver impromtu summer car show idea was born!

With less than a week's notice (the weather forecast predicted sun at least until sunday), the email was created to everyone I could find in my library of names......and magically on Saturday, about 10 cars showed up! It was great........sometimes the less amount of planning that goes into things, the more spontaneously fun they can turn out to be!

We are lucky to have a very very enthusiastic core of Citroën enthusiasts.........and true to form, they were all there (with the noteable exception of Jean and Chris Adshead who were still on vacation in New York City, and Wim Vanderbom and Svetlana Boot who were on a weekend holiday in Osoyoos, but don't worry, we'll make sure they're there next time!).

First to arrive were some non Citroëns, but some interesting people with the passion for Skodas (yes, we welcome cool Czech cars like Skodas and Tatras anytime!), then Freda and John Vasilopolous arrived with their beautifully custom restored DS21. John has done all of the work on this car to make it a beauty, right from the ground up, and working every night after work on this and some other Citroëns he has owned.

Then we were lucky to have a new DS owner show up........Dixie Plaxton in her recently aquired 1967 DS 21. This car used to be a familiar site at Seattle get-togethers, as it was a single headlight car that was a mustard colour (excusez moi........do you have any grey poupon mustard? ). Anyways, the car has been repainted, and some work done on it, but still was in need of some things to be worked out. Dixie was most happy to find some other kindred spirits who could answer her technical questions and give some advice.

Shortly after.......we had some 2CVs show up......a nice grey/grey charleston that was on it's last appearance in Vancouver before heading east to a new home, and then a spectular 1957 grey 2CV showed up........owned and loved by the main character in Poltergeist-The Legacy TV series, Derek DeLindt. Derek was invited along thanks to the quick thinking of another local car member Pat Gannon (who arrived in his stunning CX Pallas) along with his family, who saw Derek on BC ferries one day and told him about the event. Gary and Karoline Cullen even graced us with their very cute red 2CV....just one of their cars!

Other attendees that arrived a little later in the day included Beth and Brian Yates with their beautiful black 2CV6 (Brian has two more freshly arrived CXs at home), Mark Lally and friend from Seattle in his trusty CX prestige showed up a little later in the afternoon, along with Leonce and Lisa Leblanc in their trusty blue DS. There were several other curious onlookers and passers by that found our cars to be unique and fascinating Last but not least, Chris Dubuque arrived with Denise and the girls for some fun in the sun in their discreetly parked yellow Beetle (hey, we're all inclusive here........you guys could have parked it closer!)

After spending the afternoon in the sun, we had a wonderful mini citroen parade from the Planetarium and beach area up to Earl's restaurant. Derek DeLindt led the parade with his beautiful 2CV, and we all went in order.....quite a feat given that their were 3 stop signs,5 turns, and 10 cars in city traffic! Dinner was fantastic, with a large table set aside for the group, and we had the bonus of the late arrival of Zal and Dana Saper and their beautiful blue DS.

So.......what has all of this taught me! There's lots of work to do to get more people out to events like this (making sure phone numbers and email addresses are up to date), but the effort more than pays for itself when you are surrounded with some great people and innovative cars. Stay tuned........we'll be doing lots more events here in BC!