Fun and Sun in Vacouver
Mobile Shower and BC Sun
Recently a good friend of mine and I drove from Redmond WA up to the British Colombia All British Field Meet (ABFM) in Vancouver, BC at the beautiful Van Dusen Botanical Garden. About 300 miles round trip, it was a three day event, Friday - Saturday - Sunday May 15-17.
When I first bought my Jensen-Healey back in 1983 I was obsessed with the idea of a street/track day car, a car I could drive to work M-F and then do track days with various clubs, like the Alfa Romeo club, on weekends. (20260516_092447.jpg)
In order to make driving the car more fun, on the street and the track, I decided to improve the performance of every part of the car, from stock to what I wanted. This meant modifying the engine, transmission, drive-line, wheels, wiring, instruments, tires, seats, interior, aerodynamics, SCCA roll bar and bodywork. I wanted to improve the appearance of the rather bland looking stock J-H into something more attractive [to me].
I started building my custom car in1983 when I was 29; now I am 71. Unfortunately the track day car project never quite worked out because I had a stroke in 2005 and that set me back about 20 years. I did get in some track days in 2003 and 2004 but the car was not fully developed.
But I just love the car, I love to drive it, so now I drive for fun and to car shows instead of track days. At the show I try to explain to anyone who shows any interest in my car that a Jensen-Healey is a great little sports car and why it is the perfect sports car for me.
I had been wanting to attend this event for quite a while and this seemed like the opportune time to go. It is a big event, this year they had over 400 cars on display. The weather was supposed to be good after some rain on Friday and that's how it worked out.
So we left Redmond mid morning Friday with the top down, hoping to beat the rain forecast to the Canadian border. I knew that as long as we could maintain speed with the side windows up the rain would blow over the top of the windshield. I drive with the top down every chance I get
We almost made it, having to put the top up just before the Canadian border crossing as the rain caught up with us. We checked into the hotel and went to the Friday night social at the Van Dusen Garden, which featured a very interesting discussion on restoring old British sports cars. There were several speakers who are involved with restoration and they offered tips and resources.
Back to the hotel for a delicious dinner with my one of my favorite, some delicious French Onion soup.
Saturday was the big day for the show, and it was huge. The weather was a bit cold (for me) but dry. The number of cars was overwhelming. If there was a particular British car you wanted to see, it was there.
The (very very nice) officials at the BC ABFM made it adamantly clear that the "conventional" classes (like A-H, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, Triumph, Lotus, Jensen, Land Rover etc etc, were to be judged for awards based on originality and quality of condition/restoration. Any modification from factory specs was a basic disqualification even if it was a dramatic improvement. That actually makes sense because once you get away from the Black and White of originality into the Grey area of "improvements" you lose any standards of judging the cars. I think it is a good rule.
I have taken my car to various car shows, and in fact I am going to the Portland ABFM in September. When I register I always send them a link to the ultimatejensenhealey.com website so they can decide what class I belong in. Since my car is one of one and so heavily modified I am not usually in the Jensen or Jensen-Healey or Lotus group. I don't mind; I am just there for fun and to spread the word about what a great car the Jensen-Healey really is. I love my car just the way I built it.
I did get some time to wander around the show although I didn't have anywhere near enough time to see every car. There was so much interest in my car and I wanted to answer every one's questions about it ("what kind of car is that? May I see the engine?") that it was hard to get away. There were more Lotus cars than I have ever seen in one place before. There were some Jensen-Healeys, a Jensen GT and some Jensen Interceptors. The other sports cars ranged from the newest McLarens to the smallest A-H Sprites and MG Midgets and everything in between.
At the end of the day I was absolutely flabbergasted to win the first in class award with my backyard, amateur built special derived from an almost unknown sports car. I have no idea why, as it is very much a home built special that I spent 40 years trying to build. Maybe they liked the idea that I drive it everywhere. Or maybe they felt sorry for me for putting so much of my time, energy and money into such a long term project that was only meant to satisfy one customer me instead of enjoying a profess-ionally produced sports car. Just crazy I guess.
My car was entered in the Remanufactured/Replica class, which had some nice entries, including a D-Type Jaguar, a Knobbly Lister Jaguar, a racing Sebring Austin-Healey 3000, and the Mr. Bean Mini (with a chair on top). Which I had never heard of, but was interesting.
After I picked up my unexpected award it was back to the hotel for some more French Onion soup and hit the sack. Sunday we passed going on the ABFM country road drive and did a little exploring in the city; then even more French Onion soup and Monday we drove home.
There was even more good news after I got back home. At the presentation ceremony there was only time to hand out the 60+ first place awards. The 2nd place awards were to be mailed out at a later date. My car won the 2nd place award for the Entrants Choice award. Every Entrant in the ABFM got a ballot to vote for their choice of the best car in every class. My car finished 2nd in my group. I know it sounds funny but I won both a first place and a 2nd place award in my group, losing out to a beautiful 1955 D-Type Jaguar. Pretty good company. And no, I didn't vote for my own car, I was too busy to vote.
So we had had a great time. If you like cars and you ever get an opportunity to visit one of these meetings you might want to give it a try.
[BTW I was so surprised to win any award, let alone two, that I emailed the organizers to make that there was no mistake and that I hadn't been given an award intended for someone else. Here is their reply. If I misunderstood the award I apologize.]
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