Ramblings of a car guy.

I've always liked cars.

My dad's 1959 Riley One-Point-Five. My first car photo circa 1966 near Reading, UK.

I can remember almost all of the cars my parents had. I remember as a ten year old watching cars drive by the house and trying to name them all. I remember the first time I drove a car; it was a '64 Dodge station wagon with a push button automatic! 

Dad's '64 Dodge wagon circa 1971. Calgary, AB.

 I remember the car I took my driving lessons in and some of the routes taken. I remember the subscriptions to several car magazines that I would read almost the moment they were retrieved from the mailbox. I remember my first car and all the following purchases, most of them anyway, and fortunately the good ones outnumbered the bad ones. I remember buying my first socket set so I could fix the broken rear end in my first car. I remember the first car I bought brand new, where I bought it and how much I paid for it.

My 1959 Beetle. Calgary AB, circa 1974.

59 Beetle interior shot

 

Putt Putt: Memories of a first car

I've been involved in the Festiva community for almost twenty years and over that time I've met a lot of other owners, both locally and internationally. I've also had the opportunity to help some owners keep their cars on the road. I recently parted out a Festiva as it was beyond saving with rust having taken its toll. I asked its owner, Sara, to share the story of that car and here it is...

May I introduce Putt Putt!

My younger sister (Jana) purchased the car in July 2013,shortly after she turned 16, from a guy in Calgary named James; she named it “Putt Putt” because of the sounds it made. It was just shy of 118,000 km and from what I heard, it was very lightly used and had just been sitting in a garage mostly

One time when she was driving our cousin home from school, smoke started coming out of the radio and they had to pull over and get picked up. Luckily it turned into nothing worse!

European hatchbacks: third in a series.

Welcome back to France! After a quick trip across the channel in the previous Euro hatchback post we've returned to take a look at the Renault Clio and Citroen AX econoboxes and their hot hatch variants that were not available in the North American market.
 

European econoboxes and hot hatches.

The Renault Clio was introduced in 1990 to replace the successful but aging Renault 5.

A Festiva by any other name

May of us have nicknames for our cars and Festiva owners are no exception. Sometimes our cars are named by others, some names stick and others don't.

Here's a few of those names, and stories behind them, from friends in the Festiva community!

Ben in Kentucky:

It was my brother who named Frito. Shortly after acquiring the vehicle he was cleaning it out for me and found an empty bag of the Frito’s snacks in the interior. His brain connected that to the film “Idiocracy” in which one of the main characters names is Frito, and also features a white Festiva GL in a rather hilarious monster truck segment. I liked the name, particularly for its unique brevity, and for its similarity to the another white Festiva in the community called “Pedro”.

Frito: a very well travelled Festiva!

European hatchbacks: second in a series.

Welcome to the second of four posts featuring a number of econoboxes, and their "hot hatch" variants, that were not available in the North American market. These will be models available from the late 80s until the mid to late 90s manufactured in France, the UK, Italy and Japan!

European econoboxes and hot hatches.

In this week's post I'll introduce you to cars from both sides of the English Channel.

What's next for the Festiva?

There's a number of things we'd like to get done on the Festiva before the first car show we plan to attend in July.  Relatively minor projects include installing a water temperature gauge, rebuilding the lower radiator hose, replacing the rear transmission mount and installing new strut mounts. 

Heading to the mountains for some cross-country skiing

What's in your automotive library?

In the years before there was YouTube and the internet the main source of information on how to fix cars came in a book or manual. News of things happening in the automotive world usually came in a magazine of some sort. In the 80's and early 90's I had subscriptions to Road & Track along with Car and Driver. I picked up the occasional Motor Trend along the way and it was in their August 1988 edition that I first read of the Festiva and its potential.

A portion of our automotive library.

That got me thinking... what books or magazines do I have in my automotive library?

A forgotten econobox

When was the last time you saw a Yugo? Well, friends of mine recently posted a couple of photos of one in Pennsylvania.....

Yugo in the wild. Pennsylvania 2020. Photo credit Isaac Rodriguez

Yugo in the wild 2020 Pennsylvania. Photo credit Isaac Rodriguez.

Just what is a Yugo and why don't we remember them? The Yugo GV was manufactured in Serbian city of Kragujevac and introduced to North America by Malcolm Bricklin. The year was 1985 and Bricklin was having a rough go with the Pininfarina Spiders and Bertone X1/9s he was importing and needed a product to bolster his business.

Summer car show plans

There are a lot of choices when it comes to car shows in and around Calgary. Our current plans are to display the car in three events this summer.

The first one will be the Spring Hill 567 Corner Classic on July 18th. Entry fee for this show is a donation to the Cochrane Veteran's Food Card program. Two groups, the Cochrane Spring Show and the Spring Hill Charity Show & Shine, have joined together into one show for this year. I took part in the 2019 edition of the Cochrane spring show and had a great time.

At the Cochrane Spring Show 2019

The second show will be the Okotoks Show and Shine on August 16. There were well over 500 vehicles at last year's show with upwards of 10,000 people enjoying the show. 
 

Okotoks Show and Shine 20119

The Bowness Auto Parts show is on August 30th. We've been in that one the last couple of years and have really enjoyed it. It's nice an close to home, it's free, and there's always a great turnout.

Bowness Auto Parts Show and Shine 2019

There are lots of other shows to choose from and a number of places to find out about them. A quick search on-line will give you a wide range of choices. Here's a couple of those links :

• My Star Collector Car show listing
• Dreamy Skies Photography show listing
• Best classic car shows in the west according to RV Direct Insurance

What are your favorite shows to visit or participate in? Let us know in the comments below.

It's show time!

Part three in a series:

You've picked your spot and parked the car, now what? I'll give the car a quick check to make sure its looking its best. Make sure you haven't missed any garbage, that the glass is clean and there are no obvious dirt on the outside. One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post is that any non-essential items that you might normally carry in the car should probably be left at home.

All set up at the Okotoks Show N Shine (August 2019)

 
Once the show gets rolling be prepared to answer questions about your ride. With our Festiva most people don't realize how different it is from a stock version. To help with that we have a poster made up that highlights the major changes. We've also have a sheet that goes into more detail which is laminated to keep it in good shape and dry if it's raining.

 

Show sign.

When you purchase personalized plates in Alberta they send you two but we only have to display one on the car. That allows me to use the other plate on the sign. The poster is in an inexpensive frame from IKEA to keep it out of the weather and it's all mounted on a piece of foamcore from the Dollar Store

The info sheet... printed on two sides and laminated!

Be sure to take some time to check out as many of the other vehicles in the show! Before leaving your car make sure anything of value is secured out of sight. I'll put a couple of extra cards under the wipers and have the info sheets in a conspicuous spot. 

Do you have any tips or suggestions for car shows? Let us know in the comments.

Show N Shine planning time.

Part two in a series:

You've decided on a show... what's next? There's lots of things to consider... time commitment, location, costs, in town, out of town, what do I need to bring, what to do during the show and others. If the show you're interested in going to has preregistration I recommend registering early to ensure that you can get in and show your ride.

Found a shady spot at the Okotoks Show N Shine August 2019

Show N Shine season is almost here!

Part one in a series:

So you've decided you'd like to share your automotive passion at a Show and Shine! How do you find them? Which show or shows should you enter? Are there different kinds of shows? Is your car good enough? Over the next few posts we'll try and answer these questions and more based on our experience over the last couple of years.
 

Westiva, a local meet for Ford Festivas held annually. August 2017.

Something's missing!

For those of you that followed our "If you plan it they will come" road trip you'll remember that somewhere between New Orleans and San Antonio the Festiva's engine developed a misfire. It ran a little rough under 3000rpm but seemed to smooth out a bit above that and we were able maintain highway speeds. Fuel consumption increase by about 25% for the remainder of the trip but there were no other apparent issues. We made it home safely and now it's time to figure out what's going on with the car.

Safely home after our "If you plan it they will come" road trip.

The first diagnostic step was to run a compression test. I discovered that there was something missing in cylinder number three.

If you plan it they will come... day nineteen

Tuesday October 15th

Frosty morning in Buffalo WY

It was quite chilly when we woke up this morning, chilly enough that I had to scrape the windows before we left the campground. Noticed on the way into town for breakfast that it was only 35ºF/+2ºC! Our dining choice for this last day of the road trip was the Busy Bee Diner attached to the Occidental Hotel on Main Street. The Busy Bee has a long history in the town as does the hotel.

If you plan it they will come... day eighteen

Monday October 14th


 

Monday morning moon-rise over the Rocky Mountains.

Part of our original plan for today was to leave the RV at Bass Pro and take a run up Pikes Peak which would have taken about four hours. This has been on my bucket list for quite some time. But.... we learned from Stewart yesterday that due to construction of a new visitor center at the top the road was open only part way up and you had to take a shuttle from that point on. So with that in mind and considering that the car wasn't running that well we decided not to go and came up with a new plan. 

First things first... we went for breakfast at a great little place called C&C Coffee Kitchen not too far from our overnight spot. The place was clean, the staff cheery and helpful and the food was very good; highly recommended!

Our breakfast provider..

Breakfast done, we refuelled the vehicles and headed north to Denver. Our destination, Hammond's Candies. Hammond's started as a small family business about 100 years ago  with a loyal local following, it has now grown into an iconic brand with international distribution. We arrived about ten minutes before one of their scheduled tours which we joined. Learned about the history of the company, watched candy being made, watched it being packaged, then received a sample as we exited the tour into the gift shop! 
 

At Hammond's Candies.

Some of Hammond's Candies....

We continued northward on I-25 stopping in Loveland CO to pick up groceries and gas. Andrew had to slow his pace in the RV a bit because this stretch of highway was very windy.
Our stop at the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Centre just south of Cheyenne WY was a welcome stretch of legs and quick check on e-mail etc. 

Phyllis braving the wind at the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center

We turned off the interstate just north of Cheyenne WY to make our way to the Fort Laramie National Historic Site. The same weather system that brought the cooler temperatures had dumped quite a bit of snow here a few days earlier. It was a bit of surprise to still see some of that snow on the side of the road! 

Snow!

Fort Laramie was originally established as a private fur trading fort in 1834, which evolved into the largest and best known military post on the Northern Plains. It was abandoned in 1890 and nearly succumbed to the ravages of time. In 1938 it became part of the National Park Service and restoration projects have been going on since.

At Fort Laramie

Sharon, Andrew and Phyllis enjoying a windy lunch.

After a picnic lunch we took a walk around the buildings, some of which have been restored, others left mere shells of their original. One building that really portrayed the life of the soldiers that were stationed here was the Cavalry Barracks. Rows of single beds lined the outside walls of the upper floor either side of the central stairwell. There was no privacy and very little space for personal items, just a simple box at the foot of each bed and a couple of hooks to hang coats and guns!

Upper floor of the Cavalry Barracks... not much in the way of privacy.

Cavalry Barracks at Fort Laramie.

We headed west to rejoin the interstate then headed north to our next overnight at the KOA in Buffalo WY. It was still fairly windy so that held Andrew up a bit. The Festiva continues to have a miss but we are still maintaining highway speeds.

Heading north

We arrived at the campground just after dark, made our supper then went over our plans for the next day, which was going to be a long one!

Approximate route for today's drive.

Thanks for following along! Please let us know your favorite things about Wyoming in the comments section below.

If you plan they will come... day seventeen

Sunday October 13th


Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone
Everything that I've got, is just what I've got on...

Started humming that one yesterday and it's still in my head! Another sunny day and we're looking forward to what the day has in store for us. If ten Cadillac's partially buried nose down in the middle of a field sounds odd you'd be correct. But Cadillac Ranch  as it's call is an iconic Route 66 landmark, only twenty minutes from our overnight spot and on our route. It's just a short walk off the highway across a field... if it's been raining prepare to get muddy or wear some good boots! What makes this even odder is that you are allowed to spray paint the cars to your hearts content so that even if you go regularly it will never be the same twice.

Cadillac Ranch from the road side.

If you plan it they will come... day sixteen

Saturday October 12th

Woke up to another chilly morning, at least by San Antonio standards, as the effects of the cold front that came through yesterday are still being felt. Had our breakfast, met up with Andrew and Phyllis, stopped to fuel up both vehicles and hit the road... this time heading northward toward Amarillo TX.

Really cool VW bus spotted on the way out of San Antonio

If you plan it they will come... day fifteen

Friday October 11th

What a contrast!!! It was about 30ºC/86ºF when we went to bed last night but when we woke up this morning it was only 11ºC/52ºF and breezy. A cold front had rolled in from the north overnight!

After breakfast we all piled into the Festiva and headed into central San Antonio and the Alamo. With it being cold and breezy we just picked a parking lot close to the Alamo to reduce our walking times... paid about $25.00 for the day. 
 

First view....

If you plan it they will come... day fourteen

Thursday October 10th

Rather than make our own breakfast we decided to try out the ubiquitous Waffle House. The nearest one was about 30 minutes west of our starting point so we didn't have to wait too long.

On the way to Waffle House... renovation debris in front of a lot of houses!

The drive was uneventful but we did notice that in one stretch of the highway there were piles of what appeared to be garbage stacked in front of a lot of houses, some of which looked like remnants of renovation projects. Got us wondering if there was some kind of incentive to do renovations at this time of year or if there had been some kind of garbage strike. We learned that there this was the aftermath of a severe storm causing widespread flooding that had passed through the area a couple of weeks prior to our visit.

If you plan it they will come... day thirteen

Wednesday October 9th

One of the things we were concerned about for our visit to New Orleans was parking. We had decided to purchase tickets for the City Sightseeing Hop-on Hop-off tour bus and discovered that there was a parking lot right next to the Basin Street Station on the edge of the French Quarter. We took advantage of the discounted tickets available at the campground, plugged the address into our Garmins and headed into the city.

Our spot at the New Orleans KOA

The twenty five minute drive in took us past the Mercedes Benz Superdome, home of the NFL's New Orleans Saints. Once parked, we checked the payment booth and discovered there were three rates posted: cars, 12 hours, $5.00; cars 24 hours, $10.00; and RVs 24 hours $35. Seeing as we were parking less than twelve hours we picked the $5.00 option for both the car and the RV.