Day one of the 2015 Hagerty Spring Thaw saw quite the weather changes. As some groups mentioned, we got all four seasons plus two or three you probably didn’t know about. Fortunately the entrants seem to be a hardy bunch, and it was nothing but smiles and laughter everywhere we stopped. Check out Andrew Snucins‘ photographs below.
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This past week Dave was in Colorado scouting roads for our new Hagerty Silver Summit event. Exploring over 1100 miles of roads, Dave thinks he’s found the perfect route for our first-year Colorado event. We’re aiming to take you off the beaten path, and ensure that locals aren’t going to know each of the roads in the route book. If you’re thinking of joining us for this year’s Hagerty Silver Summit you’ll experience a mix of super tight and twisty mountain passes, amazing ‘destination’ roads with great views, and a great collection of what we think of as ‘cruising roads’ where you’re definitely going to have to keep an eye on the speedometer! Take a look at our sneak preview, in the gallery below:
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The Hagerty Maple Mille entries are now open! The Maple Mille is our Ontario Canada based event. Our 2015 running of the event will start just North of Toronto, and will explore roughly 1100km of twisty backroads and highways over the course of three days. Event information page, supplementary regulations and entry forms are all posted. Entry spaces are limited, so be sure to sign up early to guarantee yourself a spot!
2015 Hagerty Maple Mille Event Information Page
Ball drops, champaign and a list of resolutions…who cares!?! The best part of every New Year is the opening of entries for the Hagerty Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure! We might be a little bit biased, but the crowd of folks who drive up to our office each year suggests we aren’t the only ones thinking the same thing.
Before we release you to the entry forms, you might be interested to hear we’ve been hard at work all Fall planning the Hagerty Spring Thaw. This year’s version will combine many of your favourite things, along with a few new changes which are sure to excite you. “Changes,” you say, “you can’t change it!?!” Well, lets not panic too early! We’re not tossing out the carburetors for fuel-injection, or opening the entry list to 1990 Cavaliers. But we are, for starters, changing our sweep team. Our regular guests on the Hagerty Spring Thaw are all familiar with Nigel and Yoki, who have for years followed our event ensuring each and everyone of our guests has made it to hotel in the evening. Nigel is one of the most passionate classic car enthusiasts we know of, but he’s only ever experienced the Hagerty Spring Thaw from the very back of the pack. Wouldn’t it be great to have him running ‘in the pack’ with the rest of us?
Fortunately some great friends have also wanted to give Nigel and Yoki a chance to experience more of the Spring Thaw for themselves. Robert and Jacyln, from RWM & Co. had so much fun joining us as sweep at the Fall Freeze, they asked if they could do the same for the Hagerty Spring Thaw. We couldn’t be more delighted! Robert has done more than a few road-side repairs for guests in previous Spring Thaws, and having a classic car restoration specialist at the back of the event is never a bad thing! Hagerty Collector Car Insurance will continue to offer the roadside assistance package should a breakdown be terminal, but RWM & Co. will be offering their assistance to help you repair your car and avoid the dreaded flat-deck. If you’re at all concerned about the need for our sweep protection, it might be wise to book your car in with RWM & Co. for a pre-Thaw inspection? For more info about the shop, and photos of current projects, visit their facebook page here.
Hopefully you’ll agree with us that our “big changes” for 2015 are a great idea, and will only change the event for the better. We’ve been very careful to stick to our recipe of Great Roads, Great Cars and Great People. Speaking of which, we should mention Dave Koszegi and Mid-Island Realty. Dave Koszegi (Dave K) is always the first person to approach us about supporting the Spring Thaw each year. As we sit writing this, it seems to us that it was at registration for the 2014 event that Dave K smiled his traditional huge smile and confirmed “we’re doing this again next year, right?!” Mid-Island Realty loads up our prize table each year like it’s a Christmas Tree for the whole event, helps to fill your schwag bag with items you really want to keep and use, and (most importantly) reminds us often how excited everyone is for another year of adventures. Whether you’re looking for a home on the island, or elsewhere, it would be wise to call up Dave Koszegi. Mention you’re a participant of the Hagerty Spring Thaw and he’ll make sure you’re well taken care of.
But wait! We’re not done yet. We have one more change we think you’re going to like, especially if you live in Seattle or Portland.
For the past few years it’s been quite popular for Vancouver-area entrants to drive their entry form up to the Classic Car Adventures office in Squamish. So popular, in fact, that we’ve had to implement a new rule where you are only allowed to drop off your personal entry, and one other. This rule was put in place to allow our friends south of the border time for their couriered entries to arrive. New for 2015 we’re also going to have a drop-off option in Seattle, and one in Portland! The time frame for each drop off is a little truncated, but if you’re able to meet-up with Warwick at either location it will save the stress of tracking your entry form via Fed-Ex! Warwick will be waiting for you at the following times and locations:
Friday, Jan 2nd
3:00pm to 4:00pm
Starbucks Coffee, Capitol Hill
1600 East Olive Way
Seattle, WA
98102
Saturday, Jan 3rd
12:00 noon to 1:00pm
Trackside Motorsports
8131 N Interstate Ave
Portland, OR
97217
…and finally, HERE are the 2015 Hagerty Spring Thaw Entry Forms!
Have you made plans to attend the NASKARZ (Never Again Steal Karz) fundraising event this week? If you haven’t, perhaps we can encourage you! Late last week Classic Car Adventures agreed to donate an entry for the 2015 Hagerty Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure to the evening’s silent auction. This is a chance to have your 2015 Spring Thaw participation guaranteed, before anyone else!
NASKARZ (Never Again Steal KarZ) is a dynamic program for high-risk youth in Vancouver’s Inner City. Created by the community to deal with the high impact of auto-theft, the program works with youth to provide positive peer support, social activities and the skills needed to work in the auto mechanics field. Youth who have been involved in auto theft and joyriding work alongside car enthusiasts, kids interested in car culture, police and youth workers to learn the fundamentals of vehicle repair.
NASKARZ is finishing off another great year with a fundraiser at the beautiful Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver. Our Kids, Cars and Cops: What could go wrong? event on October 28th, 2014, organized in partnership with Vancouver Police Foundation, hopes to raise $60,000 for the 2015 NASKARZ season. We invite you to join us on this date, celebrate the past successes and support our young people in the future.
Join us for a meet and greet with participants from 4:00 to 6:00pm (all ages); from 6:00pm onwards we are hosting an (adults only) with wine, refreshments, speakers anda Silent Auction!
Tickets for Tuesday’s event are still available, by following this link here. If you’re unable to attend, but wish to make a donation, you do so at the same link. Charitable Tax Receipts available for donations over $20 from Ray-Cam Community Association #10787 4299 RR0001
We look forward to hosting the lucky winner of our Silent Auction donation!
As the presenting sponsor, Hagerty Classic Car Insurance has secured the No. 2 entry spot for our 2014 event. Starting today, your opportunity to win this spot has opened up! For further details, and to enter the free contest, simply visit this link for all the details: http://www.hagerty.ca/Articles-Videos/Articles/2014/02/20/Spring-Thaw-Rally
Lets be honest, you can’t really complain about the warm sunny winter we’ve been having here in Vancouver. But for many of us, the Classic Cars are tucked away in storage, insurance policies dropped to Storage-Only, and we’re feeling the withdrawl from our Classic Car Adventures. While hosting all our friends who brought their Spring Thaw entry forms up to Squamish, we couldn’t help but think of how much fun it would be to get a group together. With in minutes we had an offer to use RWM&Co’s shop, and it was a perfect opportunity to launch the Valdy 911 Project.
Over the course of four hours we had between 175 and 200 of our closest car-nut friends drop by for a visit. In addition to the incredible cars being worked on inside the shop, the road and parking area outside was better then a televised Vehicle Auction. There were Triumphs, Porsches, Rovers, Volkswagens, Ferraris, Aston Martins and more. At times I think the crowd checking out the cars outside was bigger then the group inside. But most incredible was the diversity amongst the group. We saw lots of old friends, and made plenty of new ones.
Also in attendance was Brendon McAleer from the Vancouver Sun & Province. He’s written a great article on the event, which you can find on the Drive.ca website. The beginning of the article may make it seem like our events are races, but CCA events are not a competition and there are systems in place to deter over exuberant participants. Ask any past participant about our yellow card system!
Center stage for the event was Dave Koszegi’s ‘new’ Porsche 912. Originally purchased for it’s motor, upon picking it up Dave discovered it has a history unique to B.C. We originally teased the idea of a Classic Car Adventures Restoration during the Fall Freeze, guests on the event were the first to see the car up close. Over the next two years Dave is going to have the 912 restored to its original glory, using shops and experts he’s met on CCA events like The Spring Thaw. You’ll be able to follow the whole process right here on the CCA website.
