VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION Meets, Tours & Events My Six Cylinder Tour Journal... London 2012.

I leave tomorrow morning for the Six Cylinder Tour in London Ontario, Canada. I've decided to keep a journal of the event, both for you guys to follow along, and so that Jane can see that Hector is keeping me out of trouble! My departure time is tomorrow morning at about 9am. I'll be heading to Burlington to meet up with Paul and Maggie, then onto St.George to pickup my trusty sidekick (or am I his sidekick?) Hector.
Today was spent packing up the spare gear for 5 days of touring beautiful Southern Ontario. I picked up an old Coke cooler (1955) at an antique store this year, and have put it to use as a toolbox for the spares. I got the idea from a thread on here where there was talk about old suit cases. The cooler is now loaded with two gallons of coolant/water, a carb, fuel pump, water pump, jumper cables, tow straps, hoses and belts, rotor cap, and and points. Also got the chairs, and wash bucket packed. More tomorrow night, I can't wait to get there and see all those beautiful Chevrolets!

I know that Miner and Williams are headed there too.

Have fun. We're looking forward to your Travelogue.

Somehow they slipped through our heavily armed border, Bill!!!

We've arrived at the hotel, and have been meeting and greeting. Lots of 49-54 Chevs!! We may have to do our own 49-54 tour someday! About 60 cars registered. They are all arriving now. I'll post pictures later tonight...

Yes, it's ture. The Ohio group is well represented in London. So far I have spoken with the Taggarts, Donleys, Carters, Zellers, Williams and maybe more. We just arrived with the only problem on the way was a horrendous downpour in New York State.

dtm

Oh... so THAT's where our Seattle rain went!!!

Today was our 49th day in a row without rain. The second longest stretch in our history. The longest was 51 days back in 1951.

To keep this thread on track ... here's a map of where they are:

Okay... I got sidetracked with the journal, as I was out visiting last night, then we had an early morning start. Last night was the welcoming banquet with a guest speaker. John Hudson talked about his experience in The Great Race, with his 1940 Chev. His former navigator, Ray Rice also chimed in with his own version of events as well! The two of them really played off of each other well for a very entertaining and informative evening! This morning we were on our own for breakfast, then heading to Hensall for our first stops. Our group was divided in half to tour two different facilities. Our group headed into Coach Works Canada, a manufacturer of mobile homes. Nobody in the group bought a double-wide, as far as I could tell! We saw the manufacturing process, and the houses at each stage of contruction. Lunch was served at a local church, and then we went and saw the other half of the tour. It was a company that creates ice sculptures, ice bars and ice hotels for various parties and companies. It was really amazing what they do as artists and as business people. Another stop at a gentlemans house to view his collection of vintage tractors, toys, and collectibles.

Now to the good stuff! Here's some shots of the cars!

Met Paul & Maggie, and Hector... and stopped at Timmies! Eh!


At the hotel...

1953 convertible at the hotel...

Another beautiful day in Southern Ontario! We started out at 9:00 and headed to Coyles General Store. I hung around the parking lot while Hector ran in and bought some licorice. All 60 cars were in the lot at the same time... quite a sight! Next we headed down the road to the airport to see the Canadian Harvard Association's hangers. They fired up one of the Harvords and taxied it out to the runway... then taxied it back because an oil seal blew, and it was covered in oil! Kind of like an old Chevy Six! I pulled the car into one of the hangers for some photos, then we were off. Next stop was in Tillsonburg to see the restored farm house and museum of the Tillson's. A beautiful display. Then it was off to a bee hive farm that also had a petting zoo. Lots of rustic buildings. Next we toured the train station in St. Thomas, which is undergoing a massive restoration. They are doing an amazing job to preserve one of the last structures standing of it's type.

Here's the pictures!

The group at Coyles



One of the Canadian Harvard Association Harvards taxis out



My '51 in the hanger...



At the Bee Keepers





The Great Race '40 Chevy at St. Thomas station.

Hope they had something else to pet at the Bee Hive Farm other that honey bees !

Wednesday was another great day of touring. Our group was split into two, with the first half heading to Stratford to attend the theatre, and the second group headed west to view more collections. We went with the second group, so if anyone from the first group could add something about their tour, it would be appreciated.

Our first stop of the day was to view a collection of vintage radios, phonographs, records, and one man band organs. The gentleman had a huge collection, all of it displayed in his very neat home and shop. He had everything from the 1800's to 1950's, and it all worked. Watching the trailers with the organs was really neat, and the music was nice too! Hector wanted to dance!
The next stop was at the Komoka Railway Museum, were we saw some local railway history, and took turns riding their miniture live steam display. Then it was off for a lunch at Tim Horton's, and a quick drive through of a local retirement home. The folks were all outside hooting and hollaring as we drove our 21 vintage Chevrolets past.
While we were waiting to leave, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to "Back Roads" from this forum. It was really nice to meet someone that I had been "typing" to for a couple years now. Jim is driving a beautiful '31 coupe.
Next it was off to view another car collection. The gentleman was a Ford man, with a bunch of model T's, and model A's. We were able to let all of that slide though, as there was a '32 Chev coupe in his barn. He had really nice wood, metal, and machine shops, and could build entire cars himself. The collectibles around his display area were nice too.
The last stop of the day was at a VCCA members house. Tim Wilson had a beautiful collection of Chevrolets from '31 to '50 all lined up when we arrived. His garage was full of vintage gas memorbilia, and a '48 sedan delivery. It was an interesting place to see.
Finally, it was back to the hotel for dinner and cards. In the evening I spent the better part of an hour walking around with a drunk local that was complimenting the cars, but threatening to rip the visors off, as he didn't like them. He was aggitated with me, as I kept having to ask him to not touch the cars. A couple of times I thought I was going to have to help him leave the lot the hard way! Here's the pics from the day!

Today was an absolutley incredible day! Our tour was pretty short, but they really saved the best for today! Our first stop was in a residential neighbourhood to view "some guy's bicycle collection"! It was neat to see the reaction on all his nieghbours faces as 60 beautiful Chevrolets all descended on their street at once! As we milled around on the sidewalk waiting to go in, most of us were thinking "this won't be worth the wait" Boy, were we wrong!! The owner of the house had converted his basement into a shop and showroom for some of the worlds rarest and most expensive motorcycles and bicycles. His memorbilia, and collectibles were also out standing. We saw bikes that were 1 of 1, or 1 of 5 known in the world. They ranged from the late 1800's to the early 1940's. Some he valued over $180 000 dollars each!

Next we went to Steve Plunket's house. Steve is a collector of classic Cadillacs, and uses his cars, property, and wealth to host various events to raise money for charities. Every year he hosts a weekend concert that draws 3000 or more cars to the Cruise in. His garage has been featured on many television shows, and many of his cars are Pebble Beach Concours winners.

When we arrived, Paul Rozon and I quickly came to the conclusion that the photographer had never done a group car photo shoot before. We helped her come up with a plan to fit sixty cars on the field so that they were all visible, then spent the next hour or so lining them up. A HUGE thank you to all of the other drivers for their patience, as we relayed instructions and directions from our photographer to the field. Some cars we had to move 3 or 4 times to get it all positioned right, and it was a bit of a rush at the end, as we had to be off the golf course by 1:15! The picture was shot, and then we headed to see the collection. Two halls held about 60 Cadillacs. The pictures speak for themselves!







(Not the offical photo... I snuck up the ladder and took this myself!)

The final part of the weekend was the closing dinner. We headed back to the hall that or Welcome dinner was held for a roast beef dinner, and some entertainment. A couple came and played some country and fiddle music, and also had a little comedy routine as well! They were awesome. Then some awards were presented. I was truly surprised and honoured to win the Spirit Award, as well as Longest Distance Driven by A First Timer! The longest distance award was made by Chevy Chat's own "Back Roads", Jim Koontz! It features a 1931 Chevrolet hubcap! I really feel undeserving of the spirit award, as I am sure that everyone was having just as much fun as I was, and showing it as well. The Six Cylinder group is a welcoming, and hospitable bunch, that really made it easy for a first timer to join in the fun. If you've never done one of these tours, you have no idea what you are missing out on!

Thanks for contributing to this thread -- and to Dave for posting it in "near-realtime"!!!!!

--Bill Barker

Brewster, great posts. Looks like the tour went extremely well. Thank you for the pictures and the descriptions.

Bruce, Great job on the pictures and the posts. Nancy and I went to the play which was great! This report is one of the reasons you received the Spirit Award. Thanks, Dale and Nancy

Brewster,

Great narrative and pictures. You can be proud of the job you've done and well deserving of the award.

Thank for sharing your photos and I'm glad you all enjoyed the tour. Looks like some wonderful sights and a lot of stories! Hope to join you guys sometime on a 6 cylinder tour in the future!

Thanks for the comments, guys! I hope my journal helps a couple of you guys to make the decision to join a tour in the near future. They really are a lot of fun! I go to few cruise nights a year, and it's a huge difference hanging out with guys that appreciate the original cars, and also drive the same styles. Also, a HUGE thank you to my good friend and "Nagivator" Hector... I wouldn't have gone if he didn't attend with me. I didn't want to spend a week in the car by myself, and I certainly picked a great person to bring. I learned a lot about him, his love of cars, the VCCA, and his experiences as a member of the Royal Highland Regiment (The Black Watch) in Normandy and Europe during WWII. It really was a great week!

Thanks for all the pics Bruce - It feels like I was there myself. Thanks for sharing!

What a great Six Cylinder Tour. Isn't it great when one of the participates takes alot of photos and then shares these with us?
The tour was well organized and a fun time was had by all.

dtm