In 1979 several friends, all members of the local Vintage Car Club of Victoria, were discussing the Early Ford V8 Club of America which had recently started up in the United States. The result was that those friends, Bob Mortimer, Al Clark, Ken Clark, Ken Ballard and Bob Miller, were instrumental in initiating a Regional Group for Vancouver Island. Officially, the Club is called “The Early Ford V8 Club, Vancouver Island Regional Group #109” as there are over 160 regional groups around the world.
The initial meeting was held in January 1980 at the Ingraham Hotel on Douglas St, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, with a handful of new members, all enthusiastic about the restoration and preservation of Flathead V8 powered Ford vehicles produced by Henry Ford between 1932 and 1953 (but continued in Canada until 1954).
Club membership grew quickly and they wasted no time creating their first car event, then known as The First Canadian All-Ford Picnic. Approximately forty Ford cars attended the first meet which was held on the parade square at Hatley Castle, on the grounds of the prestigious Royal Roads Military College, now known as Royal Roads University. The event was covered by Don Stevens of the Antique Autos Newspaper of Ontario. Memorabilia in the form of Hatley Castle T-shirts were sold but the price was too low and the fellow “lost his shirt”, as Bob Mortimer wryly recounted with a grin.
Subsequent picnics, held annually since that first successful meet, became known as The Fords and Friends Picnic and were held at different locations over the years. There was the University of Victoria (1981-1983); the British Columbia Forest Museum (1984-1996); and, the Saanich Fairgrounds (1997-2004) where progressively more cars, trucks and specialty vehicles of all makes and models were invited by the Early Ford V8 Club and encouraged to attend the ever-popular picnic. Since 2005, the Picnic has been proudly held at the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society, locally known as Heritage Acres where the old vehicles fit naturally into the industrial and agricultural displays of the past. For all of these years, the event has been promoted by a colourful poster which sported original automotive artwork and most recently, pictures of the most popular cars from the previous year – a source of pride for many car owners. The Fords and Friends Picnic continues to this day, ever-popular, never having missed a single year, but now called The Fords and Friends Show n’ Shine to appeal to even more car owners and spectators alike. Our 2012 show which sported the live band, Cruz Control, attracted 185 vehicles and over a thousand spectators. It promises to be even better for 2013 – the 33rd continuous year.
Between 1983 and 1999, the Club organized a weekend tour which was known as “The Laid-Back Tour”. A dozen or so old cars and trucks (and owners) would set out for various interesting tours on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the British Columbia mainland to visit intriguing old vehicles and other sites for the wives!
On two occasions our membership produced the EFV8 Club event known as the Western National Meet. This is an annual event, and there is an Eastern and a Central National Meet too. Regional Groups have to apply to host the event. The Vancouver Island Regional Group #109 hosted the Western National Meet in 1986. We named our event Fords and Flowers 1986 with a logo featuring a 1936 Ford Coupe parked beside a traditional blue Victoria lamp post, fitted with colourful flower baskets. Dozens of our members worked very hard under Al Clark’s expert organizational guidance for close to two years to produce one of the most memorable Western National Meets in a very long time. It was planned with utmost precision and we reflected that during the event with our club uniforms of white trousers, blue polo club shirt and white baseball caps with the Fords and Friends logo.The Club Magazine,The V8 Times had articles and letters referring to our fabulous Fords and Flowers 1986 for years after the event. It became the standard for subsequent Western National Meets. There were approximately 460 Ford product cars and trucks parked all around the Victoria harbour, causeway and Legislative Assembly grounds, but it rained for the event. A picture was taken of the display area from a crane parked on a high point on Wharf Street.The reception, held at the University of Victoria, displayed several old cars, which were driven on stage. We had large, flamboyant bouquets of flowers, echoing the Meet logo, to decorate the assembly at the awards banquet. Everything was done to the “nines”, and the Club was appropriately proud of its efforts.
In 1996, our members decided to repeat our 1986 event with an even better performance which we called Fords and Flowers 1996. Obviously the memories of all the hard work in’86 had sufficiently faded! Our logo this time around was, not surprisingly, a 1946 Ford convertible, again with a Victoria lamppost and flower baskets. We had set the bar high and now we had to meet or beat it…and we did. The venue for the car display was at Clover Point, a small peninsula on Dallas Road, with the ocean surrounding the vehicles and the Olympic Mountains to the south as a backdrop. It was truly beautiful and inspirational. Again, we had a bird’s eye panoramic picture taken from a bucket on a crane and we transferred that to a poster to commemorate our event. That poster adorns many garages to this date. To ease the burden of vehicle and members’ registration, we created a computer program which also greatly facilitated the awards tally at the end of the meet. Approximately 480 cars attended from all over North America. The awards banquet was held at the Empress Hotel where we again had some old cars present to set the old car scene among huge bouquets of local flowers.The executive members at the head table wore tuxedos and ugly 70s-style shoes, but no one was looking at the shoes. The head table was elevated on a temporary platform but it was too narrow so when one of the head table officials slid his chair back to stand up, he tumbled backwards, unhurt, onto the floor below into a dark purple curtain and disappeared for a couple of mysterious minutes. Again, the kudos and the accolades flooded phones, our club mailbox and the V8 Times. We had outdone ourselves!
Since then, our membership has kept up a steady level 45-50 keen V8ers. Some members have been in the club for 33 years, all have a collective, incredible breadth and depth of knowledge and experience with our old Ford cars and trucks and love to share that wealth with others who will listen. We have always tried to uphold the national aim of the Early Ford V8 Club to restore and preserve Henry Ford’s Flathead V8 engine and to that end, in 2012, we initiated a bursary for the Automotive Program at the local Camosun College. It is our hope that this will help promote interest in the automotive industry and hobby and might even produce one or two more members for our club.
We welcome anyone interested in old Ford vehicles, no matter what aspect they admire, whether it be the mechanical facet, or just their classic design and looks. Join us in celebrating Henry’s best at our meetings held at 7:30 pm on the second Tuesday of every month (except August and December).
Happy V8’ing.
Written by: Tony Cond, Pres.
Historical Input by: Bob Mortimer
Dated: 28 May 2013 – Updated May 2017