With the conclusion to Sunday School having come and gone by this point there was no escaping the fact that the end of the 2022 season was getting ever closer, but there was time yet to have fun. With a number of weeks still ahead before we had to consider winter storage, the calendar still contained many things to look forward to and the weekend after ill.motion had one I was particularly eager to check out. The Bowness Auto Parts Show & Shine (this year’s being the 18th iteration) was an event I had always heard about and had always seen photos from, but had never been able to check out myself. As it is often mentioned on the site for context, with our relatively short seasons there ends up being quite a number of events sharing their dates and times since there are only so many weekends available during the warmer months. The Bowness show therefore was one I had never been able to see for myself due to always being at another event somewhere else in town – this year I decided it was time for a long-overdue visit!
The morning of I hopped into the S15 to head on over, and met up with my mother and other members of our Thunderbird club who were busily setting up their cars. I decided to go with the Silvia as I expected it’d stand out a bit in the field and sure enough, it did; unless I missed something in my multiple walks up and down the road, it was the only RHD present that day! Anyway, after the birds (and Jon’s favourite primered Grand Am) had all been cleaned and had their respective displays set up, all of us from the club grabbed brunch at a restaurant down the street before then heading out in various directions to see what was on display that day.
This was a truly spectacular show, spanning multiple blocks in Bowness. It gave off all of the small-town vibes that draw us to those shows without having to actually leave the city’s limits. Naturally it was more heavily-weighted towards the vintage American metal but there were some modern classics dotted around and lots for us 80s/90s kids as well with some OBS trucks and a handful of Fieros, among others. Incidentally, the “Lambo” you’ll see in the photos below was indeed one of the Fieros!
We’ll have to wait and see what next year’s final schedule is but at the risk of calling it too early, whatever happens to fall on the same day as this show may just be out of luck – this is one I want to see again as soon as possible!
-Bill