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PHOTOS: Cool cars draw large crowds to Aldergrove

The VCCC showcase reached full capacity just half way through the event
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Lower Mainland car enthusiasts and hundreds of spectators ushered in the seventh annual Country Car Show on Sunday along with warm rays of sunshine.

For the second year in a row, the show was held at the parking lot of Aldergrove Community Secondary School (ACSS).

Regan Lewis, chair president of the Fraser Valley chapter of the Vintage Car Club of Canada (VCCC), was charmed by the large turnout.

“We’re already at capacity,” Lewis told the Aldergrove Star. By 11 a.m. – just halfway into the six-hour event – the parking lot was unable to showcase any more automobiles.

“Last year we had around 37 cars,” Lewis said, corroborating a statement made by a VCCC volunteer.

“This year, we’re at somewhere around 300 or more,” he lauded.

The car show had such a large turnout that the car club is already in talks with the high school about expanding next year onto their back field, to incorporate more vehicles.

Lewis showcased two cars in the show.

One was his late father’s 1931 Model A Victoria Coupé, which the pair began restoring in 1979.

Lewis took care of the vintage car after his father Richard passed away half a year ago.

“He was the one who first got me interested in the car club,” Lewis admitted.

The vintage model hosted metal “badges” from national parks including those in Banff and Yellowstone on its front grill.

“With the old cars, when you drove up to the park gate they’d recognize the badge year so you didn’t have to pay each time,” Lewis elaborated.

“They were valid, from the year of purchase to the next year,” Lewis added.

RELATED: High school mechanics get ‘huge head start’

Darlene Krups, from Surrey, showcased her husband’s bright orange 1975 General Motors Company Jimmy 4x4 truck.

“I’m the one who gets to show it off,” Krups remarked.

“Out of the last five competitions I entered the car in – we won all of them,” she admitted.

“This has been a 20 year project for my husband and many of his friends,” Krups emphasized, detailing that the front of the truck was restored with Jimmy parts and the rear a 4x4 truck and numerous of suspension modifications.

“I give the car a pep talk every night before a big show, I tell it to get ready, to be good and to not die on me or anything,” Darlene joked.

Various other lifted and souped up trucks were lined up in the lot.

One unlikely automobile – a beat-up stunt car with a built-in roll cage and wanted posters on its hood was a unique sight for onlookers.

Its owner, Jesse James, will compete in a ramp rollover tournament at the Abbotsford Agrifair (Aug, 2-4) with the heap. The car will be launched off ramps and face the test of gravity.

James hopes the car – which he built with a friend – survives a full rollover for each day of the fair.

“We’re just happy when it starts back up after rolling,” James said, “it’s a real adrenaline rush.”

Featured at the show with Otter Co-op was retired Township Councillor Charlie Fox and his 1918 Canadian-made Ford Maxwell, which currently boasts under 18,000 kilometres.

Fox came into possession of the car after a trip to Osoyoos and some convincing from his wife.

“The Maxwell was first designed during the time car companies were hoping to get women interested in purchasing their own models,” Fox explained, “hence its narrow seats and stylish upholstered leather.”

Chrysler eventually bought the Maxwell brand and later used the body style of the classic car for eight subsequent years, Fox said.

READ MORE: Aldergrove to host Country Car Show

Robert Baker stood by a much newer car on Sunday, a white ZL1 Chevrolet Camaro.

“It’s only my second time driving this one,” Baker admitted.

It was a lengthy journey for him to finally locate and acquire the rare model.

“There are only 300 or so of these ever made,” Baker said, “I found this one in Alberta, and had it shipped straight here through a broker” – to his Langley home.

The ZL1 model has high-tech modifications that include shocks with a computer-engineered systems that alter the current concentration of “fluid that goes through the shock chamber,” Baker explained.

“It can re-dampen up to a thousand timers per second,” Baker said. The vehicle also has five race modes that are “made for a track,” he elaborated.

The Corvette’s speedometer can visibly clock up to 330 miles per hour.

ACSS ACE-ITstudents, beneficiaries of a part of the proceeds from last year’s car show, hosted a table of worn down car parts where brave show-goers could test their “Car IQ,” guessing the parts for prizes.

One 19-year-old student, Scott, admitted he once knew very little about cars, before enrolling in the school’s auto-service technician program in September.

Scott and other students now offered 25 point car inspections for vehicle owners, by donation.

Part of the 10$ registration fee car owners paid to showcase their unique vehicles will go to several local families in need, VCCC’s previous president, John Jackman, said.

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