Sign up
Subscribe to our Blind-Spot Monitor newsletters to catch up on all the top automotive stories of the week Subscribe to our Blind-Spot Monitor newsletters to catch up on all the top automotive stories of the week Sign up now>

New book is full of motoring memories

Hot Rod Memories chronicles the golden age of hot rodding and custom cars in Vancouver

Alyn Edwards
Nov 27, 2019  •  April 21, 2021  •  4 minute read  •  Join the conversation
Author Bernie Loughran attending a hot rod show in 1958 with his Model T hot rod.
Author Bernie Loughran attending a hot rod show in 1958 with his Model T hot rod.

Bernie Loughran was 10 years old when he saw his first hot rod. He was riding with his parents late at night when two pair of lights was coming toward them. His mother gasped as his father quickly pulled to the side of Vancouver’s Fraser Street as two low-slung coupes roared by side by side.

Story continues below

This was the lad’s first taste of the hot rod racing that had taken over Vancouver streets beginning in the late-Forties. Bernie was hooked.

Growing up in Vancouver’s east end, young Bernie would see the cut-down coupes and roadsters with chromed up modified engines parked at the Aristocratic Drive-in restaurant at Fraser and Kingsway or Kings Burgers further up Kingsway where hamburgers cost 19 cents. In 1952, he and his buddy would ride their bicycles to the see the lineup of hot rods at the first meetings of the British Columbia Custom Car Association held at the Horticultural Hall on 20th Avenue at Clark Drive. Vancouver’s teenagers were deep into the hot rod and custom car culture that spread north from southern California. Bernie had to have a hot rod.

Story continues below

More On This Topic

  1. Is the classic car value bubble about to burst?

    Is the classic car value bubble about to burst?

  2. Owning and restoring classic cars is good for your mental health

    Owning and restoring classic cars is good for your mental health

Move ahead over half-a-decade to today and Loughran has relived many of those motoring memories in a self-published book that chronicles the street scene in Vancouver beginning in 1948 that captivated the city’s youth and horrified many of its citizens. The retired auto body shop owner, graphic artist and lifelong hot rod enthusiast has compiled hundreds of photos and descriptions to relive the golden age of hot rodding, rock-and-roll, drive-in movies and teen dances.

After the war, Vancouver’s yards and alleys were a treasure trove of discarded Model T Fords, Model A roadsters and coupes from the early 1930’s. Teenagers wanted to build their own cars and hot rod and custom car magazines from California showed them how. The opening of Digney Speedway off Kingsway in Burnaby was a place for some to race their cars. But street racing and ‘catch-me-if-you can’ cop baiting became the sport of choice with the lightweight high powered hot rods easily outrunning Vancouver police issue six-cylinder Plymouth coupes.

Story continues below

Loughran’s book details the infamous hot rod race of January 1949 when a 1932 Ford roadster hot rod driven by teenaged Larry McBride locked front wheels with a 1933 Ford sedan being driven down Fraser Street at high speed by Len Biskey. McBride’s roadster went out of control, slid up a hydro guide wire shearing off the pole leaving part of the car hanging 40 feet in the air and severely injured its occupants. Newspaper headlines screamed, “Hot rod crash injures two and Hot rod drivers lose licenses for 3 years.” This brought community concern to near hysteria.

Loughran writes that Vancouver police traffic officers Alan Rossiter and Bernie Smith helped turn the unused wartime Abbotsford Airport into a drag strip to be run by the B.C. Custom Car Association as a move to get racing off Vancouver’s streets. When drag racing got underway in 1954, Bernie Loughran begged his mother to drive him and two friends to Abbotsford to see hot rods face off on the strip.

  1. Hot Rod Memories author Bernie Loughran wearing his BC Custom Car Association jacket from 1957 in front of his Ford Model T hot rod.
    Hot Rod Memories author Bernie Loughran wearing his BC Custom Car Association jacket from 1957 in front of his Ford Model T hot rod. Photo by Alyn Edwards
  2. A youthful Bernie Loughran built his hot rod named the Yellow Peril in 1957.
    A youthful Bernie Loughran built his hot rod named the Yellow Peril in 1957.
  3. Bernie Loughran with his 1926 Ford Model T hot rod attending a show in the Fraser Valley.
    Bernie Loughran with his 1926 Ford Model T hot rod attending a show in the Fraser Valley. Photo by Alyn Edwards
  4. Pete Reimer building his Ford Model A pickup hot rod in the 1950’s.
    Pete Reimer building his Ford Model A pickup hot rod in the 1950’s.
  5. Bernie Loughran strikes a pose in the Yellow Peril.
    Bernie Loughran strikes a pose in the Yellow Peril.
  6. Bernie Loughran’s 1926 Ford Model T roadster pickup hot rod in 1957.
    Bernie Loughran’s 1926 Ford Model T roadster pickup hot rod in 1957.
  7. Jim Greenlees’ parents don’t seem to approve of the 1933 Ford Victoria they bought new being turned into a hot rod in the mid 1950’s.
    Jim Greenlees’ parents don’t seem to approve of the 1933 Ford Victoria they bought new being turned into a hot rod in the mid 1950’s.
  8. Vancouver’s Fred Merkly building his 1928 Ford Model A hot rod in 1954.
    Vancouver’s Fred Merkly building his 1928 Ford Model A hot rod in 1954.
  9. Jim McGowan’s 1932 Ford roadster photographed in the early 1950’s is one of Vancouver’s all-time favourite hot rods.
    Jim McGowan’s 1932 Ford roadster photographed in the early 1950’s is one of Vancouver’s all-time favourite hot rods.
  10. Bob George and friends in the early 1950’s about to head to school in a Model T Ford.
    Bob George and friends in the early 1950’s about to head to school in a Model T Ford.

1 of 10

Story continues below

Photos of all the cars built in Vancouver through the Fabulous Fifties and the young people who created them illustrate how the city was ahead of any other in the country for fostering the strong hot rod and custom car culture that continues today.

The author says the hot rod builders were largely east of Main Street and the custom car guys were mainly on the west side of the city. It seemed almost every young person was modifying his or her car.

In September 1953, Bernie Loughran and friends took the bus to attend Canada’s first hot rod show with 35 of the city’s best rides displayed on the skating rink floor of the new Kerrisdale Arena. It would be the first of what would be annual Pacific International Motorama shows held into the 1970’s at the Pacific International Exhibition. Photos of the 1953 show feature Jim McGowan’s 1932 Ford roadster called the Apache, the 1932 Ford Victoria hot rod built by Jim Greenlees from the car his parents bought new and the radically-customized Oldsmobile-powered 1950 Ford convertible built by Gord McDougall.

  1. This photo of a wrecked hot rod outside the Vancouver Police station captioned The Menace is indicative of public concern over street racing in the early 1950’s.
    This photo of a wrecked hot rod outside the Vancouver Police station captioned The Menace is indicative of public concern over street racing in the early 1950’s.
  2. Vancouver newspaper reports on a court case relating to a hot rod accident in January 1949.
    Vancouver newspaper reports on a court case relating to a hot rod accident in January 1949.
  3. Larry’s McBride’s hot rod after a street racing accident in 1949 tore it apart.
    Larry’s McBride’s hot rod after a street racing accident in 1949 tore it apart.
  4. In 1952, meetings of the newly-formed BC Custom Car Association were held at Vancouver’s Horticultural Hall.
    In 1952, meetings of the newly-formed BC Custom Car Association were held at Vancouver’s Horticultural Hall.
  5. Don Bliss with his customized 1950 Ford convertible at the 1958 reopening of Brown Bros Ford in 1958.
    Don Bliss with his customized 1950 Ford convertible at the 1958 reopening of Brown Bros Ford in 1958.
  6. Canada’s first hot rod and custom show held at Vancouver’s newly-opened Kerrisdale Arena in September 1953.
    Canada’s first hot rod and custom show held at Vancouver’s newly-opened Kerrisdale Arena in September 1953.
  7. Gord McDougall’s radically customized 1950 Ford convertible with chromed up Oldsmobile power displayed at 1953 Pacific International Motorama.
    Gord McDougall’s radically customized 1950 Ford convertible with chromed up Oldsmobile power displayed at 1953 Pacific International Motorama.

1 of 7

Story continues below

Loughran writes about his first hot rod built at the age of 16 before his high school graduation in 1957 – the peak of the hot rod rage in Vancouver. He bought a 1926 Ford Model T roadster pickup body and mounted it on the chassis of a 1932 Ford sedan with a V8 motor purchased for $50. He was thrilled when he won a case of oil at his first hot rod show at the newly opened Simpson-Sears shopping centre in Burnaby in 1958.

His book compiles photos and information collected over 10 years with information based on being part of Vancouver’s hot rod scene for nearly 70 years.

Bernie Loughran and wife Caroline have two hot rods garaged at their south Vancouver home: a 1926 Ford Model T touring car–commonly known as a bathtub–and a rare 1915 Ford Model T ‘centre door’ sedan.

The cover of the book features a youthful Bob George in 1954 building a hot rod in the lane behind his parents’ False Creek area home. The photo captures what many consider to be the best of times in Vancouver when young people used their energy and creativity to build engineering and design marvels in the form of hot rods.

Hot Rod Memories can be purchased by contacting author Bernie Loughran at berniebathtub@gmail.com

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Story continues below

Trending