The last week of the year is always a contemplative one, sandwiched in between a headlong rush towards Christmas and waiting around for a toast and the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.”
It’s a lazily reflective time; a time for remembrances and resolutions.
For me, it’s also time to dig through the folders from the past year and pull out a few memorable gems, the stories that still linger on the palate. Here’s a look back at the best drives of 2015.
January
We begin with a little insanity, in a Tesla P85D perched atop Cypress. Already supplanted by the P90D, the top-dog electric machine from California spent the previous year making headlines for its blistering, supercar-crushing acceleration.
Love it or hate it, the Model S has already left its mark on the automotive industry, and where the twin-motor, near-700 horsepower P85D is concerned, it’s also about to leave its mark on your spleen. With only a single speed in the transmission, and instantly-available peak electric torque, the speed was immediate and surprising. It really does feel like Chewie just punched in the hyperdrive.
Later in the year, Tesla’s long-awaited Model X crossover would have a few people scratching their heads over its unnecessarily complicated gullwing rear doors, but the first flash of the year was electrifying.
February
Remember the original Hawaii Five-0? I bet you can play the big brassy theme song in your head right now.
Set on Oahu, everybody’s favourite tropical cop show came with its own fleet of Malaise-era machinery getting caught up in chases, and perhaps none was as memorable as Jack Lord’s Mercury Marquis. Turns out there were only three of these used over the course of filming, and the last spent a full six seasons as both hero car and stunt machine, working without backup.
After making a call to Illinois, where McGarrett’s other car resides in freshly restored splendour, I dug up the original machine on the set of the rebooted Hawaii Five-0. It was in pretty sad shape, but fired right up when called upon. Together with Lord’s former stuntman (who also doubled for Tom Selleck on Magnum P.I.) we went for a slow cruise below the palm trees, deep in the heart of the Pacific.
March
Early spring was all about the surprise of finding RX Autoworks, an award-winning restoration shop tucked away in a nondescript building not far from Lonsdale Quay. From the outside, the place might as well stock lawnmower parts. On the inside, ancient and irreplaceable machinery gets brought back to life.
The crew at RX restorations has a couple of prestigious Pebble Beach trophies to their name, as well as wins at Villa D’Este. Meeting them really opened my eyes to the appeal of the pre-war vintage car, especially when mechanic Rob Fram talked about taking a twin-supercharged early Alfa-Romeo out for shakedown runs at 5 a.m. – this is a car worth around $15 million, and they’re hammering through the straight-cut gears like the hounds of hell are after them.
April
Knowing Rob was handy as he helped get my dad’s ’67 MGB back on the road after we broke down on a thousand-mile road trip with the guys from Classic Car Adventures. A budget-oriented rally for those of us with non-Pebble-Beach-deep pockets, we were part of dozens of mixed old machinery circling the province from Penticton round through Salmon Arm to Lillooet. It was an epic trip, and the old ’B soldiered on mightily.
Relying on an old British car to go the distance is one kind of madness, but another, more high-octane brand can be found in yet another nondescript workshop in Langley. I’d been out to HPA performance before, but this time founder Marcel Horn handed me the keys to his latest mad science project: a twin-turbocharged V-6 Golf R with 740 h.p.
No, that’s not a typo. This humble little hatchback was capable of running door-to-door with the just-released Lamborghini Aventador. After driving it, everything else just seemed slow.
May
In May I met Harjeet Kalsi, an electrical engineer with the greatest attitude towards cars ever. You’d expect anyone who owns a mint green Aston-Martin Lagonda to be a bit crazy, but Kalsi is refreshingly sane and candid.
“This is a car built by humans,” Kalsi says of one of the most tricky machines to keep on the road. “There’s no magic, you just figure stuff out.”
Harjeet is a regular at the annual All-British Field Meet at Van Dusen Botanical Garden, and he’s currently restoring a rare supercharged Studebaker Avanti to concours spec. Watch this space.
Another happy story of a different kind of car person came later in the month, when I drove a pristine 1977 Honda Civic belonging to a Japanese woman named Hiroko Marunaka. Hiroko wasn’t a gearhead at all, but just had a deep appreciation for well-loved objects. Her Civic – called Kinjiro, for golden boy – was nearly flawless and utterly charming.
We drove the car from the remnants of Japantown, cleared out by Canada’s internment of the Japanese during the Second World War, below the drifting cherry blossoms, to the war memorial in Stanley Park that lists Japanese-Canadian volunteers in the First World War. Later, after the article came out, I heard that Hiroko’s application to immigrate to Canada and continue her nurse’s training had been approved. It made me hopeful for the future.
June
In June I learned about a (maybe) barge of Czech-made Tatraplans sunk beneath the waves between here and Victoria, found a gent who collects the oft-overlooked Dodge Rampage, drove a Delorean DMC, and found an adorable collection of tiny Subaru kei-cars.
However, the best story out of the month was that of the Green brothers. A pair of longtime B.C. Hot Rod Association members, Ken and Eric Green, grew up watching stoplight drags on Kingsway and eventually built their own dream cars. One was a Morris, the other an Anglia, and while both cars were fitted with Ford V-6s, each was custom-built to match either brother’s personality.
The twist is that Eric was dying, having contracted a muscle-wasting disease that left him chair-bound. He hadn’t been in his workshop in six months, but we brought him down to tell the story of his car; watching the brothers talk together was like seeing them as boys once again.
July
Hot days in the middle of the year saw me behind the wheel of a couple of oddities. A reader emailed me about his Ford Sierra Cosworths – think of them as the Mustang’s English football hooligan cousin – and we dragged one out of storage and took it for a boot. It didn’t disappoint, and as a reminder, always shoot me a note if you’ve got something interesting in your garage: I’m always looking for a good story.
As far as good stories go, you couldn’t do better than the Fred Phillips collection in Calgary. Housed in multiple buildings, this eclectic mix of machinery ranges from the sublime (two Lamborghini Miuras and a Bizzarrini 3500GT) to the ridiculous (a 4x4 AMC Scrambler baja racer from James Garner’s racing team).
August
The highlight of the end of summer was attending Monterey’s car days, including Pebble Beach and the historic races. This last was incredible, and seeing old racers dance once again around the circuit at Laguna Seca was otherworldly. The heritage F1 cars were particularly captivating, and their drivers didn’t hold back.
Pebble Beach’s concours d’elegance was a bit more of a spectacle than a gearhead’s delight, but there was one pretty special moment. Another Calgarian, Grant Kinzel, brought his very pretty Ghia-bodied Abarth to the show, and nearly walked away with a best-in-show. Having restored the car essentially single-handedly, this was a huge achievement; better yet, Grant was up on stage in cowboy boots and a T-shirt, in stark contrast to the hoity-toity Pebble Beach crowd.
September
In the hills near Hiroshima, the roads curve and loop, and are open and lonely. It’s the exact opposite of Tokyo’s crowded core, and there’s no better place to be than in the seat of a first-generation Miata.
I spent a few days in and around the city, as the only Western journalist covering the anniversary of Mazda’s main proving grounds in Miyoshi. As a fan-pleasing hurrah, they trotted out their Le Mans winning 787B and did a few hot laps. It was utterly ear-splitting.
Things got a bit weirder when I met up with Tomohiro, a friend who once owned one of Walter Wolf’s custom-made Countachs. He had a Le Mans spec Murcielago racing car, which he promptly took out on the street: a terrifying machine.
October
Later in the fall, things got closer to home with a look at the vehicles of our own North Shore Rescue. They’re busier now than ever, and the snowfall makes life tricky – happily, their mobile offroad ambulance-cum-command centre makes sure “Knuckles” (Tim Jones) is still in the field in spirit.
I also interviewed a very interesting young woman who was into pre-war cars. We took her early Rolls and Bentley out for a drive down by Spanish Banks, getting lucky with the weather for once.
November
In November I managed to get the last drive of the year in a Porsche Boxster Spyder, a car with the heart of a 911 and a slightly overcomplicated top. I ran the thing top-down out to Port Renfrew, giggling all the way despite frozen ears and a chilly nose. Sometimes bad ideas are the best ones.
December
A quieter month spent at home working on smaller stories, the real drive of the year came on the way down from Squamish after a family hike.
Two small people chattered away happily in the back, as the sun shone on snowy peaks and our fingers all defrosted.
I’ve made my must-drive list for the coming year, and have set a few email chains in motion. 2015, you were a very good year. Come on, 2016.
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and automotive enthusiast. If you have a suggestion for a column, or would be interested in having your car club featured, please contact him at [email protected]. Follow Brendan on Twitter: @brendan_mcaleer.
