Another great British Car Day held at Bronte Creek Provincial Park. British Car Day is hosted annually by the Toronto Triumph Club, on the third Sunday of September. Since its inaugural event in 1984, it has grown in leaps and bounds, and now draws over 1,000 British cars, many flea market vendors, and 8,000 spectators, with room to grow even bigger. British Car Day is open to vintage, classic and current British manufactured vehicles, including motorcycles. The event is the largest, one-day, all-British car event in North America, with visitors from Ontario, the northeast United States, the Maritime provinces, Quebec, and Manitoba, representing membership in 100 British car clubs.
The organizers did a great job putting together this magnificent assembly of British cars. As you can imagine, moving in and registering well over 1000 cars, with most arriving within a two hour time frame, is no easy task. The only weakness in the day was the amount of space allotted to Sunbeams, which is not the fault of the organizers, as I assume they base the space on average historical attendance. Well, we surprised them with a row of 18 Sunbeams! That doesn’t include the Hillman and Humber that had to park with a sedan display. It was great to see owners chatting who had not seen each other in years, and many new introductions were made.
The quality of the cars is incredibly high and seeing some cars for the first time was a thrill. A highlight of the day was the treat of Tom Clare’s supercharged exhaust sound as he left. No Tiger sounds like this one!!
Sunbeam Class Winners
Congratulations to the three Sunbeam Class award winners:
1st Place Gord Foss, 1954 Alpine
2nd Place Terry Lineker, 1968 Tiger Mk2
3rd Place Ron Stein, 1967 Tiger Mk1a
Event Photos
(click on photo for a larger view)
Some panoramic shots to try to show the expanse of people and cars:
The Sunbeam area of the show:
The Rootes Group cars: