Engines growled and bright colours popped at the Oak Bay Marina on Sunday as dozens of car aficionados flocked to the oceanside lot.
Driving stylish, well-maintained vehicles, these folks were there for a bi-monthly meetup hosted by European Cars and Coffee – a casual, non-member group that helps lovers of fine automobiles from across Greater Victoria connect with fellow enthusiasts.
This year, the club celebrated its 10th birthday – a milestone that highlights its ever-growing popularity. While it began with just 15 vehicles at the Willows Beach esplanade in 2014, today, 80 to 120 people attend every meetup, and the group’s Facebook page boasts over 1,300 members.
For those without European cars, the event provided a chance to learn about what draws so many to the four-wheeled machines.
Oak Bay local Ron Dempsey, who helped found the club, explained part of the appeal is the uniqueness of the vehicles.
“You can … see such a huge variety of cars, whereas … cars of today – they’re safer and more efficient, but they all start to look alike,” he said. “Older cars are kind of the antithesis of that.”
The autos also connect their drivers to the past.
Long before Dempsey was old enough to hold a driver’s licence, he was drawn to a small, zippy German machine – one he would eventually buy and race up and down the West Coast.
“My kindergarten teacher had a BMW 2002,” he said. “She used to get to school first and would always park right beside our door that we’d line up at to go into school. From when I was five years old, I remember standing beside this boxy, little BMW and, because it was like nothing else like my father owned, it always tweaked my interest.”
For Phillip Abrami, who rolled up in a 1990 BMW Z-1 – a vehicle sold only in Europe that boasts a carbon-fibre body and retractable doors – it was nostalgia that got him into cars.
“Our family used to go on a lot of road trips and it was really the best time for us all to be together,” he said. “We loved those road trips, we loved being all together – and I guess that was the springboard for my interest in cars.”
Another attendee, David Baron, sitting in a foldable camping chair, explained his Bentley R-Type, produced between '53 and '55, was originally owned by Leslie Nielsen – the Regina-born actor known for gut-busting masterpieces Naked Gun and Airplane.
What Baron enjoys most about older vehicles – specifically European ones – is the excitement they offer.
“It’s an event just to go down to Home Depot,” he said. Last September, he extended that thrill, driving from the Island to the Grand Canyon and back in his elegant, British machine.
The work it takes to keep the machines' hundreds of parts in working order is a draw, too.
“I enjoy fiddling with it,” said Baron. “I enjoy scratching up my hands and getting all oily.”
Terry Sturgeon, on the other hand, who drove his bullet-shaped 1967 Jaguar E-Type to the gathering, explained he was attracted to cars initially because they were hard to acquire.
“Guys like me – in my era – were drawn to cars because they were something you couldn’t have,” he said, adding that, when he started working in 1961, he earned only $165 per month, while the Jaguar he lusted after cost over $7,000. “Cars were quite a privilege to own.”
As some popped the hoods of their cars to show off their sleek, well-maintained engines, others sipped coffee and shared banter most would mistake for another language. For Dempsey, the connection that cars foster is what the group is all about.
"When you want to have a casual chat with a friend, you meet at a coffee shop, so this is kind of an extension of that," he said. "It starts about being about cars – it ends up being about people."
In the upcoming weeks, the district will offer two events for car lovers. The Oak Bay Car Collector Festival will see parts of Oak Bay Avenue closed to traffic on July 13. Then, on July 19, hundreds of Jaguars will fill Windsor Park for the Jaguar Club of Victoria's annual Concours d’Elegance and car show – North America’s largest open-air gathering of Jaguars.
