Canadian Hot Rods & Classics…three issues in
If you’ve been with us from the start – just two issues and four and a half months ago – you’ll notice we’ve changed – again.
While going with a glossy cover on issue #2 was a smash hit, the size of the publication was giving our distributors a headache.
Some of our readers also found the tabloid format a bit cumbersome, so we’ve decided to shrink to a more conventional – but still unique – magazine size.
When the insanity of publishing my own magazine first struck, my primary mandate was to produce something different than the competition.
That’s still my aim, but I hope you like our new format. We’re going to stick with it – so stick with us. Feel free to let us know what you think of the magazine and send in your suggestions or contributions to mycarpublications@shaw.ca.
We’re always looking for club bulletins, features, pictorials, first person features or Rearview Mirror, Reader’s Rides and Roadside Attractions photos.
Through your contributions, clubs and gearheads from across Canada can keep in touch and keep track of interesting happenings and events they’d like to attend.
Above is a picture of me doing my best to smoke the tires on the CHC 2005 Dakota.
With a stock V8 Magnum and highway gears, this wasn’t easy. But it was fun trying. The scene of the crime is the annual Thunder in the Alberni Valley event that takes place every August at the Alberni Valley Regional airport in Port Alberni, B.C. (That’s Vancouver Island for folks east of the Rockies.).
If you’ve never attended – it’s a blast. There’s a Friday night car show and cruise and the whole city becomes a hot rod mecca for a few days.
In the past, I’ve attended as a spectator/journalist, but this year I couldn’t resist my 1/4 mile urges. You see, despite having gasoline for blood, the last time – and the first time – I travelled “officially” down 1320 feet of asphalt it was at St. Thomas Dragway (Sparta, ON) in the late 1980s and I was behind the wheel of my dad’s 1948 Chevrolet pickup street rod. I think the mouse-motored pickup ran in the low 90s, but since it was only an exhibition event, I never got another chance to race.
Since then I’ve become more interested in circle track racing (more on that in later issues) but a second round exit in the Street Class at Thunder in the Alberni Valley only whet my appetite for straight-line racing.
The Dakota’s best time was 17.071 at 78.50 – not fast by any measure – and the car that beat me in Sunday’s second round of eliminations was a freakin’ Pontiac Sunfire. On a more positive note, thanks to a tip from Ray Digby of Nanaimo’s Smokin’ Oldies car club, my reaction times improved from very slow (.785, .839) to very quick (.560 – with perfect being .500.) over the course of five passes. But the truck performed as well as it could with the factory setup and a rookie driver.
I’m contemplating a few easy changes for next year’s event that may get me down the track a little quicker; maybe a chip, different exhaust, rearend gears, cold air kit.
As if I, or my bank account, needed another project. Anyway, enjoy the pics and brief wrap up on Thunder in the Alberni Valley (pages 9&10).
Speaking of projects, I’ve been working on a backyard shop that should soon house the ’57 Ford Courier Sedan Delivery you read about in issues #1 and #2. Once that’s done, we’ll start monitoring the progress of CHC Delivery. Meanwhile, if you’ve got a project in your garage, give us – and CHC readers – a sneak preview. Send us a jpeg along with some info and we’ll put it in our In Progress feature. Till next time.