Sidney’s Sunday crowds strolled down memory lane – usually referred to as Beacon Avenue – for the Torque Masters Sidney Summer Car Show.
The annual car show ran from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday (Aug. 7) and featured about 400 vehicles, some built a century ago.
This was Robin Hine’s first year in the show, but the car he brought along goes a long way back. His grandfather bought the 1926 three-litre Bentley in England in 1936 and brought the car to Victoria after he met his wife and moved to the Island in the 1950s. Hine learned to drive in the car in the parking lot of the Hillside shopping centre.
“So it was me and my three brothers, we’d all hide in the back here on a family day out. We’d often go up to Sooke or up past there for a walk on the beaches and that was fun. So it brings back lots of good memories.”
The car then went on another cross-Atlantic voyage back to England before Hines brought it back with him to Canada approximately eight years ago. It landed in Halifax where Hines started his journey across the country in the old car. The trip was a holiday so Hines set a slow pace, dipping the wheels in the Pacific three weeks after he’d started them in the Atlantic. The car held up well, although there were some minor faults.
“That’s part of the enjoyment, of owning one of these, is I do the maintenance myself as well as I can. Back in the day, of course, they were very basic so you could see everything. Everything was there, the ignition, the carburetors, it’s all quite simple and straightforward.”
READ MORE: Car show set to sizzle on the streets of downtown Sidney
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