Bushplane Museum and brewery 'tickled pink' to host this event next week

Sault and area motor enthusiasts are invited to check out more than 60 vintage cars, trucks and hot rods scheduled to stay overnight in the city Wednesday, July 13 as the 2016 Canadian Hot Road Tour rolls through town.

The Tour vehicles will start out from Vaughan, Ontario Tuesday July 12 and be available for viewing at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre/Northern Superior Brewing Company parking lot during the evening of July 13, said Tour organizer Frank Colgoni, speaking to SooToday in a telephone interview from his home in Markham, Ontario Wednesday.

Admission to the viewing event is free, Colgoni said.

"I reached out to those guys (Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre and Northern Superior Brewing Company management), and they're car guys, so they were just tickled pink, it was like 'are you kidding, yes let's do something!' Colgoni said.  

"And the drivers will love to have the public come down and have a peek at their cars, just come and hang out."

The Tour will then resume after an overnight stay in the Sault (after a previous overnight stop in Sudbury) before heading out to B.C., with stops along the way in Thunder Bay and Kenora in Northern Ontario, Brandon, Manitoba, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Lethbridge and Calgary, Alberta, then Kamloops and Victoria, B.C. before heading back to the Greater Toronto Area through the U.S.  

2016 marks the 10th annual Canadian Hot Road Tour, presented by Canadian Rodder.

Cars are clearly a passion for Colgoni, who tours in his 1932 Ford with his wife Judy.

"I have a design company, but when I'm not doing that I'm either building cars or organizing the Canadian Hot Rod Tour," Colgoni said.

"I've been a car guy my entire life, and secondly, I love not just owning a classic car but I love driving it and the reason I started this event and proliferated it over 10 consecutive years is that it has attracted like-minded car people."

"My wife Judy and I just really love the personal side of doing this, we've met hundreds, if not thousands of people…the people who come out to these events are always awesome people, and we love hanging with these people," Colgoni said.  

As the Tour progresses on its route from southern Ontario and makes stops throughout the West, additional drivers will join the original 60 vehicles and their drivers, for a total of 115 vehicles and drivers registered.

The overall lineup of vehicles includes everything from a 1929 Model A Ford to a 2015 Mustang convertible.

All participants were required to register for the Tour.

"We have people from the GTA and all over Ontario (none from the Sault however, but local hot rod drivers are more than welcome to register for next year), as well as people from Michigan and the American East Coast, and we've even got two guys coming from Australia," Colgoni said.

The inaugural Canadian Hot Rod Tour event was held in July 2007 as an Ontario to British Columbia 9,000 kilometre round trip journey through five provinces and six states. 

In total, over 1,000 participants have traveled approximately 22,000 kilometres (13,670 miles) throughout the Tour's history.

This will mark the second time the Sault will serve as a stop for the Tour, the first time having been during the inaugural event in 2007, in which participating hot rodders showed off their vehicles in Station Mall parking lot, Colgoni said.

The Tour will travel from Algoma's Water Tower Inn & Suites, down Great Northern Road to Bruce Street and along Bay Street to stop at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre parking lot at approximately 6 p.m. next Wednesday, Colgoni said.

For more information, including links to a website where you can take a sneak peek at some of the Tour's vehicles, as well as a link to the Tour's Facebook page, click here