'32 Ford top dog at Cruise Nationals

DAVID COOPER/THE TORONTO STAR

Susan Gilbey of Oakville (with daughter Megan taking a picture) has restored this 1958 Corvette, on display at the Toronto auto show.

Jil McIntosh

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

"Infotainment" is the name of the game at the Canadian International AutoShow: cars that play and store music, run movies for the rear-seat passengers, and obey spoken commands.

But one car at the show has as much or even more than that — and it's a 1932 Ford.

It took the top prize among 10 cars in the Cruise Nationals, a competition for antique cars, trucks and hot rods that takes place throughout the summer and then culminates in February at the Toronto auto show.

Selected by online voting and a panel of celebrity judges, the winner was built by its owner, Doug O'Brien of Brampton, who then outfitted it with such high-tech features as navigation, satellite radio, Bluetooth, voice-activated controls and a trunk-mounted 17-inch plasma TV that hooks up to a portable satellite dish, so he can watch shows when the car's parked.

"I started it in 2006 and finished it in 2008, right on the floor at Performance World (Custom Car Show)," says the 63-year-old O'Brien.

"It was mostly just fooling around with it after work in the garage here at home, but when I was trying to get it ready for that show, it was real close, and we pulled a few all-nighters and put the last few things together once we got to the show."

O'Brien's car was selected over a second-place 1949 Ford F-47 pickup truck and third-ranking 1951 Mercury, along with a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, 1958 and 1963 Chevrolet Corvettes, 1955 Oldsmobile 98 Holiday, 1947 Cadillac, 1971 Chevrolet Nova SS, and 1965 Pontiac GTO.

All are on exhibit for the duration of the show, on the 800 Level of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre opposite the Chrysler display.

O'Brien, a semi-retired heavy truck salesman, says he's been fascinated with cars since boyhood, and now builds hot rods as a hobby with a friend. His 1932 model isn't actually 78 years old: it's a new fiberglass body on a chassis O'Brien built himself and is powered by a 300-horsepower Corvette engine.

"Originally, I was going to do a highboy," he says, referring to a classic hot rod style that doesn't include fenders on the body. "But then I wanted a `full-fender.' Then we realized we needed to change a few things to do that, and it was easier to start with a new chassis, so we redid it. That was a slowdown. I hired an artist to do a rendering of what was in my head and I tacked it up on the garage wall and away we went."

The Cruise Nationals event gets its name from cruise nights, which are informal, weekly old-car get-togethers held in the evenings in parking lots.

Last summer, 10 of these gatherings in the GTA were asked to select vehicles to represent them, with 120 cars and trucks meeting for a final event at the CNE in August.

There, the 10 finalist vehicles were selected by event supervisor Jon Rosenthall. The cars aren't judged on the "correctness" of their restoration, but strictly on their appeal. Many are restored or built by their owners and driven regularly — O'Brien has put more than 9,600 km on his since 2008.

Each of the 10 vehicle owners received $1,000 to cover the expense of getting to the auto show and the top three won trophies and jackets.

O'Brien has no formal training as a car builder, save for "the school of hard knocks, making a whole bunch of mistakes and trying not to do them again," he says.

Except for the paint and upholstery, he did everything on the car, including its elaborate technology systems.

"It's one of those projects that got carried away," he says. "Let's do this, let's do that, and next it had satellite television and an entertainment system, and it's all voice-activated so you can talk to it and it does things. I think it's got 100 miles of wire in it.

"There's probably $90,000 in parts in the car, and then whatever my labour's worth."

O'Brien says reaction is mixed: some think the technology is cool, while others say it's a bit much.

"But my wife said it: `No matter where you go, the car makes people smile.' It doesn't matter where we go, they smile and wave.

"It's just one of those cars."

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