OVERVIEW

The vintage automobile is a fragile thing, brittle, unreliable, and built to a set of safety standards that are at least a quarter-century out of date. Naturally, the only thing to be done with such a death trap is to drive it at-speed over very long distances on challenging roads.

At least, that seems to be the viewpoint held by Dave Hord and Warwick Patterson of the aptly named Classic Car Adventures. Their B.C.-based company specializes in gathering together all sorts of antique machinery for multi-day events barrelling around the province.

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Here, in a converted aircraft hanger at the Boundary Bay airport in Delta, a small, informal crowd has gathered to discuss this year’s calendar of events. It’s chilly, but that hasn’t stopped a squadron of classics from showing up, with everything from a Renault 8 Gordini to a pre-war Aston Martin parked out front.

Inside, gearheads of all shapes and sizes mill about, trading stories and greeting old friends. There are any number of partially completed restorations scattered around the workshop, with a rough-looking Porsche 912 parked in the centre of the room. A gentleman borrows my pen and paper to jot down the phone number of somebody who’s got a cache of hard-to-find spare parts. An announcement is made: “Brown Rover TC? Brown Rover TC? You’ve left your lights on.”

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While there’s a fair smattering of grey throughout the crowd, one of the curious things about this gathering is that there doesn’t seem to be any archetype. There’s a chap or two in a tweed hat, but also buttoned-down members of the local Porsche club and t-shirt-wearing hot-rodders. There’s a mix of ages, a mix of accents. It’s all a bit of a classic car owner hodge-podge.

For the CCA team, this heterogeneity is a recipe for success. While many enthusiasts see a classic ride as a collectible to be cherished, or an investment to be protected, Hord and Patterson seem to have remembered that these somewhat-elderly machines are, y’know, cars. They need to be driven, and driven purposefully.

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The brainwave that kicked things off six years ago came while the pair were piloting a vintage VW Beetle in a semi-legal race from Vancouver to Las Vegas. Before anyone gets too upset about road safety issues, let me just point out that a period-correct Volkswagen Beetle driven in anger is about as threatening as a ticked-off banana slug.

Their first event, the Spring Thaw, was formed by dropping in at various car shows around the Lower Mainland and simply chatting with people. At the time, Patterson lived up near Whistler and was involved in various performance rally events – among other things, he’s currently involved with the web series put out by North American Subaru Impreza Owners Association and covers various rally events with TSN.

Combined with the Hord’s easy-going, gregarious manner, a ground-swell of interest resulted in a first-year gathering of about sixty cars or so. Almost every conceivable marque was represented, with old VeeDubs parked alongside concours-quality vintage British Steel and heavy-duty Detroit Iron, gorgeous Italian coachwork and cobbled-together French élan, even a sturdy Swede or two.

There are two major CCA events every year: the Spring Thaw, which will be held in April of this year; the Rush to Goldbridge in August; and the Fall Freeze in mid-September. Each one uses fresh roads every time, always blazing a new route, and provides varying degrees of challenge. The Rush to Goldbridge, for instance, carries the warning. “The event consists of mixed paved and gravel roads, with some significant mountainous terrain.”

Significant! It’d probably be a dawdle in an all-wheel-drive crossover, but in something with 1950s drum-brakes, some nervous gulping might be in order.

Entrants show up on the day with no clue where they might be headed, are handed a sheaf of instructions, and off they go. While there’s a cap of 1979 for the cars to make sure that nothing too fast shows up, exceptions can be made if a vehicle is particularly rare, or fits the spirit of the event. As Hord’s such a huge fan of DeLoreans, one of those stainless-steel beauties is always welcome, as long as you let Dave have a go behind the wheel.

Even so, the rallies operate with a “no-man-left-behind” attitude. Most classic car buffs are handy with a wrench – you pretty much have to be – and if one of the fraternity breaks down en route, everyone pulls over and piles out to help. “I’ve come around a corner to find a dozen cars on the side of the road helping somebody who’s stranded,” Patterson says, “Fifteen people underneath a Fiat. They got it fixed, too.”

Lest I’ve painted a picture of a group of maniacs careening around local roads, it should be pointed out that most of these machines have modest horsepower levels far below that of your average family sedan: a speed limit is a challenge rather than a restriction. Also, just going the distance is the real test of mettle and metal, and it’s not a race. Many participants choose to nurse their steeds along at a much more relaxed pace and soak up the sights and sounds of driving in a convoy of motoring history.

Part of the entrance fee includes breakdown coverage from Hagerty insurance, a classic-car specialist, and there’s a chase car with spares and essentials. However, even if your car does break and can’t be fixed, there’s an impetus to keep moving forward.

Dave Koszegi, a long-time participant who’s been entering since the beginning, has one such story to relate. His Porsche 356 is a special car, formerly owned by a high school teacher that gave a wayward teenager some much needed career counselling. Now a real estate agent, Kosegi was able to buy and fix up his teacher’s old car, a fond memory on four wheels.

Unfortunately, like many classic restorations, it’s a work-in-progress, and the engine gave up the ghost in the middle of one of the rallies. The word got out, a phone call or two was made, and another Spring Thaw-er showed up with a co-driver and two classic 911s, handing the keys of one over to Kosegi so he could complete the trip.

Speaking of blown 356 engines, the Porsche 912 parked in the middle of the room has its own interesting backstory to tell. Found in Victoria in distinctly unrestored condition, its durable air-cooled four-cylinder fired right up and ran when Koszegi purchased it as a potential donor car for the stricken 356.

However, as the former owner handed over the keys, he casually remarked that the car had originally belonged to the folk singer Valdy, now living on Saltspring Island. The car even came with one of the singer’s vinyl LPs.

Aided and abetted by B.C. Ferries, who gave Koszegi temporary employee status, the 912 drove onto the mainland under its own power and is now to undergo a two-year restoration project. The company taking on the project is RWM & Co., housed in the very hangar/workshop where this open house is taking place.

The company is operated by Robert Maynard, a U.K. import himself, and the owner of a reasonably large and eclectic fleet of classic cars, everything from an Alfa-Romeo to a Camaro. Many of the cars in his shop belong to other co-adventurers, and he’s tucked his bright red 1969 Opel 1600 GT indoors. This last is a car he’s taken on a few of CCA’s rallies, though he usually tries to take a different car each time.

If you’d like to follow along with Maynard’s restoration of the Valdy 912, monthly updates will be posted on the CCA website at www.classiccaradventures.com. There’s also a host of pictures of these classics roving about B.C., forming congo-lines through the corners.

And, while you’re there, why not consider having a go at one of these excursions yourself? You don’t need a great deal of money to do so, you just need an old car and something that’s often missing from modern motoring: a sense of adventure.