From its humble beginnings in 2003 the River City Classics Car Club show in High River has become one of the major automotive events of the year. Their firstrst show, only three weeks after 47 founding members formed the club, had 124 cars turn up. Last year there were a little over 1200 paid entries, with an estimated 10,000 people attending.
Author Archive for FastFred2017
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Radium 2017
We all know the old saying you can’t fool pets or babies. Old-car people should be added to this category. They know by instinct if you are genuine…
or not. For example, what do you drive? Last year about this time I ran across a ’34 Ford street rod I wanted to buy. I had no money.
Airdrie Okotoks Shows 2017
Last weekend being the middleofAugustpresented the usual dilemma. Airdrie and Canmore had their big car shows on Saturday, Okotoks and Claresholm on Sunday.
Studebakerpaloza
They warned us it was coming. While snapping pictures at the regular Friday A&W cruise night, I was informed that next week it would be wall to wall Studebakers.
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Car people in the Calgary area still insist on having their car shows all on the same day.
I had a choice of going to the 34th Annual Presidential Show or the Al Azhar Show at Cross Iron Mills.
July 14 2017
OK, here it is – we want YOU and your Collector car/truck/ classic/street rod/sportscar/rat rod or just cool old iron there next week, Friday July 14th for a special occasion.
Three Hills 2017
The plan was to take the ’34 Ford Bonnie & Clyde car because it needs a good run.
Over the past 16 years we’ve done several stories in this series. Everyone thinks they are all gone, but that’s just not true.
I got a call on one of my TGIF stories. Gladys had read The Sun at a coffee shop that Friday morning and noticed the author was described as a borderline hillbilly.
She figured he sounded non-threatening, so she called me up and asked if I knew anyone who would be interested in a 1960 Plymouth Belvedere. Her husband Ray had bought it new.
I pictured something sitting in an overgrown back yard, with maybe a tree growing out of it.
“Does it run? “ I asked
“Oh sure, we still drive it once in a while, but we have a new SUV now.”
Like a kittycat with a piece of string (there were no laser pointers back in 1960) I had to go check it out.
Ray opened the garage and there sat the big black beast. It had the original wide-block 318-V8 and pushbutton 3-speed automatic.
It wasn’t rusty, the seats weren’t torn up, the bumpers and chrome looked like new.
Whitewall tires and dogdish hubcaps adorned the original steel wheels. I had to chuckle at the fender-mounted mirrors. It was a complete time warp, like something one might find in Medicine Hat.
Ray fired up the engine and it sounded good (it was rebuilt 8 or 10 years ago, at 129,000 miles). He told me how he didn’t want one of those (at the time) new-fangled slant sixes, so he ordered this car and waited two months for it to arrive at the dealership in North Battleford, Saskatchewan where he was living.
I glanced at the odometer – it now has 131,000 miles, so its just broke in.
Ray told me how he had gotten a job in Edmonton selling hardware ( it meant something different back then) which came with a company car. He was still single and had left the 40-below F. weather ( we had studied Centigrade in school and determined there was no use for it) to visit a friend in Calgary.
As he was leaving, it was slippery and he bumped another car. He had to leave his new car here and take the train back to Edmonton. He returned the following weekend to pick up the car, all fixed.
“Lot of damage?” I asked.
“ Oh yes, a whole new grill…I think it was $150 to fix it. But it was new, so the insurance looked after it.” But he continued to tell me that Edmonton was still 40-below and Calgary had a chinook that weekend. He quit his job and moved here.
His plan was to move to BC, but he never left Calgary – we can relate to that.
One fond memory was when he picked up the new car at the dealership. At the first traffic light, a young kid excitedly asked him if he REALLY was Batman.
Back then, a full-size car was just that. The couple remembered many trips to Radium, Jasper, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Great Falls and Spokane.
Sometimes there would be four adults and five kids in the car. One can insert their own favorite ethnic joke here, or gasp at the lack of seatbelts.
Over the last few years the car has been used by many wedding couples. Can you picture pulling up to Prom in this?
It was an enjoyable afternoon and the couple indicated they would probably sell it now, after all this time. They weren’t interested in kijiji.
I told them I’d ask around. It isn’t what you would call a pretty car, but ugly is in now, big time.
It’s a goldmine for someone, without breaking the bank. And, of course if somebody buys it they will need an appraisal…
Fred Nelson is an accredited Calgary auto appraiser who is sometimes mistaken for Homer Simpson. He has no credentials as an Automotive Journalist, and no interest in acquiring same. Phone him at 403-242-3856 or FredNelsonRacing.com
You’ve all heard of the Alberta Advantage, but are you familiar with the Alberta Answer?
In 16 years of writing these stories for The Sun, many times I gave local businesses a good plug by mentioning a reliable service they provided.
After the story ran, I would suggest to the owner that now would be a good time to run an ad in The Sun.
With slight variations, the answer was usually “Oh, Good Heavens, No. Why, if all my customers showed up at the same time, I wouldn’t know whether to have a bowel movement or rewind my wrist-mounted timepiece” (I’m paraphrasing).
For a good number (not all) of them/us the latest recession in Alberta has really only meant “less overtime” or “Yay, this year we can finally take a vacation.”
Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when Bob and Peter at Lakeview Automotive signed a contract to sponsor my stories in the Friday Driving Section of The Calgary Sun (TGIF = Thank Goodness It`s Fred-day).
Lakeview is a busy shop, but even with the day-to day repairs and fleet work, they still carry on Fred Crane`s tradition of doing Classic cars and trucks, but mostly Mustangs. And they are unafraid of a few new customers, even if they were caused by my stories.
After many, many years Fred sold the main part of the business to Bob and Peter. He`s still there as a consultant, and along with Trevor, does the restorations and pumps up the power (and brakes, wiring, etc) on the older stuff.
But now he doesn`t have to look after time sheets, ordering parts, hiring and firing and so on. He has his own hoist in the shop and just whistles while he works.
Both Fred and this writer still belong to the local Mustang Club, but we seldom make it to the meetings…too busy with life.
It has been nice to write what I please without a lot of direction from my sponsor.
They`re too busy to specify, and I don`t need any co-writers. But they did have an invitation for me to see their latest venture. Even better, Peter took me for a spin.
Most people who own a Classic Mustang have a new one, also. When Ford brought out the Retro Mustang, it caught on immediately. Then, they started upping the horsepower.
But in 2015, everything changed. With the introduction of the independent rear end, the whole car was transformed.
The new 5-litre V8 came with all the forged guts to be able to handle serious power. The best way to make said power is to pressurize the incoming air & fuel mixture.
Kenne Bell has long been associated with hot-rodding Buicks, and they engineer their products to perfection before releasing them.
Lakeview has just finished the installation of one of Kenne Bell`s 2.8 litre Twin-Screw superchargers on their white 2015 Mustang. It looks like it came from the factory like this.
First thing I noticed was the chrome pulley rotating behind the left nostril of the Ram Air Cervini hood. This blower has its own cooling system, separate from the car`s cooling system.
With the optional pulley, the engine makes 700 horses (it came with 435). The sound is pure music to the ears.
There are lots of two and three-year-old Mustangs whose warranty is about over now. If you want new life breathed into your ride, this is the way to go. The boys are confident enough in this package that they told me to announce a discount of 25% on labour on all Mustangs for 2017.
If the streets are good and dry, drop by Lakeview and go for a ride. You`ll be convinced in a block or two.
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Fred Nelson is an accredited Calgary auto appraiser who is sometimes mistaken for Boxcar Willy. He has no credentials whatsoever as an Automotive Journalist, and no desire to seek same. Phone him at 403-242-3856 or FredNelsonRacing.com
By 9:00 o’clock the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there was nary a dark cloud on the horizon.
Everyone shook off their cabin fever and began pulling in. It was obvious we would fill up our overflow spaces as well. We had 328 registered, plus all the Club members’ cars.
I took the new (to us) ’34 Ford Bonnie & Clyde car and used it as a billboard to display our TGIF stories. It was better than my little red MG because it has way more windows…and I have way more stories.
A couple of these pictured were big winners, and for sure, there were brighter colors. But some were just too cool to walk on by. A few will be upcoming stories.
And if you get a chance, fire off a phone call or email to thank my sponsor, Lakeview Automotive. They make it possible to bring you this stuff.
Also, our Wednesday Cruise Nights started up this week on the grass at the Military Museums on Crowchild Trail and Flanders Ave. We rarely miss one.
Fred Nelson is an accredited Calgary auto appraiser and borderline hillbilly. He has no credentials whatsoever as an Automotive Journalist, nor does he have any desire to acquire same. You can reach him at 403-242-3856 or FredNelsonRacing.com