Category Archives: Uncategorized
A couple weekends ago we opened the doors to the RROC and ended up at the Highland House Farm and Roost for lunch.
It was a great excuse to get our 1935 Bentley out of storage and back on the road.
Hamish Crawford kindly showed us around his Winery including his many British cars that share space with fermentation vessels! Out of this setup comes 100% local Saanich wine such as The Laird’s Ginger Sweethart which is apparently good to mix with scotch!
Among three Healey 100s that came from the Island for the VanDuesen show was this spectacular, restoration debut, 100M from owner Chris Yarrow.
This is what you could call a factory 100M which was shipped with competition features directly from the factory.
After subsequent purchase from the Daniel Doucette collection alongside a very original XK120, this 100M was restored by Rudi & Company with paint and body work by Coachwerks Automotive Restoration, chrome by Electroshine Metal Refinshers Ltd and upholstery by Tom Steger and Style’s Auto Upholstery.
Devil is in the details and Chris has gone to great lengths to get this car period correct.
This week we serviced a French car! That being the this 1955 Citroën Traction Avant with the 9-window Familiale body.
The Traction Avant dates back to 1934 and was notable for using a front-wheel drive system combined with a steel monocoque chassis.
This particular car was purchased from Chicago, but appears to have spent much time in Europe.
Today Hamish Crawford stopped by in his new monochrome MG TC speedster.
It has a distinctive checkerboard pattern in the radiator that was original to the car and was typical mod from the 1960s. Long gone are the sweeping fenders, replaced by simple cycle fenders. This config is seriously waxing nostalgia, as Hamish did up a similar car when he was a teenager.
Under the hood is a the full monte; that being a blown supercharger that eschews the obligatory twin SUs for a setup more akin to a Blower Bentley!
We have had quite a few BJ8 Austin Healeys in the shop, but this on is distinctly different as it was delivered new to Germany.
It has numerous detail differences, the most notable being small behive signal lights where the North American federalized cars got the large plastic lights. This is possible with BJ7 fenders and a completely different front shroud with small light beds that would be very difficult to replace.
Other detail differences include rear BJ7 fenders with behives where the reflectors normally are, fitted steering lock, hexagonal wheel nuts and a slightly revised chassis tag that lists the weights.
