The 23rd annual Downtown Orillia Classic Car Show motored into town Saturday.
About 350 classic vehicles are set to draw an estimated 25,000 people downtown, according to organizers. It’s one of the city’s main events of the summer.
Maybe the most popular car at the show is the 1912 Tudhope 436, owned by Peter Voisey, of Orillia. The car was discovered in 1951 in an Owen Sound garage. It was then purchased by local car collector Gordon Smith. Voisey bought it from Tim Spencer, the great-grandson of J.B. Tudhope, a few years ago.
Voisey, a member of the Orillia Heritage Centre board of directors, has been taking care of and driving Tudhope cars for eight years.
“I became a small expert on the car,” he said. “I never thought this one would come for sale, but it did, and I purchased it.”
The Tudhope Carriage Company was the largest carriage manufacturer in the British Empire in the 1890s and early 1900s. The company decided to go into the car business in 1911 but over-invested and folded in 1913.
“They made somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 of these cars,” Voisey explained. “We aren’t exactly sure how many, but there are four that we know of that still exist today.”
Voisey’s Tudhope is the only privately owned version of the car. The others are now in museums.
“It was made here and it’s a part of Orillia’s past,” he said. “It’s a part of Canadian automobile heritage as it’s one of the most Canadian-made cars ever made.”
The Tudhope was created, built and assembled all in Orillia.
“Most Canadian car companies at that time and today still don’t do that,” he said. “It’s a very Canadian car.”
Voisey calls his Tudhope a “survivor car.” It’s never been restored and was repainted only once, in 1951.
“Apart from having repairs done, it’s all original,” he said. “For a car that’s 111 years old now, that’s very uncommon.”
Another popular car that caught the eye of many on Saturday was the 1977 Toyota Celica GT Liftback, owned by Neil Reid, of Orillia.
“I bought this in 2007,” he explained. “I originally had a ’73 when I was young, and then I had a ’77. I went a long time without one, and then when I was getting close to retirement, I decided to grab another one and fix it up.”
While Reid takes his hot rod to shows across Ontario, he says the Orillia event is his favourite.
“Most car shows, it’s a bunch of gearheads standing around and criticizing everyone else's car,” he said. “At this show, people just walk by and enjoy seeing cars they haven’t seen in years.”
At the Orillia show, Reid enjoys hearing stories from people who once owned the same model of his rare car.
“People tell me they had this car in university, and so did I,” he said. “It’s the miles and the memories that make a car cool.”
Both Voisey and Reid will be in downtown Orillia until the show rolls out at 5 p.m.
