Spring Thaw 2010

[csl177]

Well, it's not the Montée de Cassel, but it was a hell of a fun event organized by some grass-roots vintage guys in British Columbia, Canada. The 2010 Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure was more of a gathering of like-minded enthusiasts than a hard-core rally, though that didn't prevent some participants from trying to be first on each stage. 1280 kilometers of great roads, a clear route book, comraderie, low-key and low-budget are the draws of this event. Some amazing machinery, too! This was the second year of the Spring Thaw, with an enlarged field of 60 cars. I wanted to do it last year but had Monterey already scheduled... prepped the 911S for this and it didn't disappoint. Would go through the trouble and planning again tomorrow!

Visit the website for more info, and enjoy the photos... I'm still editing video to post later. :)

Classic Car Adventures|A driving club and online magazine for vintage, historic, and classic car enthusiasts. Home of the annual Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure. (http://www.classiccaradventures.com/)

[csl177]

The variety of machinery and how every participant echewed collector-car pomposity is one of the great things about this group. Though the weather went from cool & drizzly to warm & sunny and finally freezing & wet over three days didn't make a difference to how nearly everyone hammered their old car. :D

[csl177]

A couple of vids from participants, the first from a 911SC, a little bumpy:
YouTube - Spring Thaw 2010 014.AVI

Leaving Sunpeaks... the driver of this 356C caned it nearly everywhere, so this is sedate:
YouTube - 2010 Classic Car Adventure - Spring Thaw Event Clip 1 of 2

[clutch-monkey]

that mini and the 914's are cute, would have been fun on those twisty roads!

[pimento]

Lollens at the 356 Carerra next to the Beatle.. Looks an awesome event, woulda been great fun I'm sure.

[DesmoRob]

Thanks for sharing these Russ. Seeing those familiar roads is very refreshing for me. I've been barreling up and down them myself quite often. Its one of the reasons my scooter has more miles for its age than anyone else's in my town lol. Okanagan is riddled with these sorts of awesome back roads. I've lived here for years and I still discover new ones.

[csl177]

One of the Mini drivers is from Pitt Meadows BC, a rally junky having run the Targa Newfoundland and said he'd never known about some
of the routes we took. The organizers were on their game and had some fun back roads in the mix. A great one near you (Rob) is Green Mountain Road, east of Keremeos. Sadly, our vid camera wasn't switched on... a shame, it's a fantastic run. Another is north towards Kamloops, on the east side of the river through an Indian reservation. Lots of cattle guards, pretty rough tarmac but beautiful scenery
and pretty twisty. These are all photos on Duffy Lake Road, heading west.

[DesmoRob]

damn beautiful pics. I know the road you speak of. These are such a blast to drive I can easily go missing for hours out of a day to go exploring. I can't wait to get my license back :p.

[johnnynumfiv]

Any idea who was driving the Alfa Guillietta Sprint Speciale?
This looks like a fantastic event, great selection of cars and landscape. Hopefully I'll see some of these cars at La Carrera Panamericana later this year.

[csl177]

I won't post his name, but the entry list is on the website. It was beautiful and ran very well; he's owned it just a couple of years IIRC.

[johnnynumfiv]

Ah, its not the car I was thinking of. It's cool to see another one though.

[csl177]

Still struggling with editing/correcting inverted footage from day one of the event, but finally have a sample done from day 3.
This is Canada Hwy 99 on the way to Duffy Lake. Smooth fast sweepers for the next 36 miles. We're chasing a beautiful '58 Carrera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppBLTcfwvDM

[csl177]

Leaving Kamloops, moving to catch the early group on open highway heading for Route 5:

YouTube - Spring Thaw Rally, leaving Kamloops

[henk4]

Leaving Kamloops, moving to catch the early group on open highway heading for Route 5:

that's direction Revelstoke?

[csl177]

that's direction Revelstoke?

Actually close to Kamloops, using Route 5 (and 1) to Route 97, west to Cache Creek and then Clinton before turning west/south on Route 99 to Seton Lake and Duffy Lake. This was a fast bit of highway averaging 90mph. The previous post was later in the day. Amazingly, we never saw any RCMP... would have pushed much harder were it not for the sensibilities of my co-driver.:o

[Kitdy]

It's funny that in certain province's rural areas the region is patrolled by the RCMP.