Canadian antique car tour arrives on P.E.I. Sunday

Among a slew of antique cars visiting P.E.I. this weekend, Rudy Croken's 1991 Cadillac is almost a spring chicken.

"The cars have to be 25 years old, so it just meets the standards," the president of the P.E.I. Antique Car Club told Island Morning's Matt Rainnie ahead of this weekend's visit by the Canadian Coasters Antique car club.

The club has been travelling across Canada since the end of June on the 2017 Canadian Coast to Coast tour to celebrate 50 years since the first tour in 1967.

Croken has travelled part of the way with the tour in his Cadillac, joking that although the car is the "length of a bungalow," it's comfortable — and guaranteed to turn heads.

"It's an eye-catching car," he said. "We get a lot of looks and stares along the way." 

​Lots of stops

Croken said the tour began in Victoria with 109 vehicles and will end in St. John's in early September. Participants use a tour book to show them places to visit on each stop. 

The tour now has about 90 vehicles that are finishing in the Atlantic provinces. 

Croken said there are vehicles from each decade taking part, from the 1920s and up. 

"Many of these cars are only driven maybe three or four hundred miles a year so then to put them on the road and think you're going to drive eight or ten thousand miles and not have any difficulty, that's not reasonable." 

But Croken said anyone who did break down received lots of help from locals. 

"A lot of people have a fascination with the old cars." 

Croken said people on the Island will have lots of opportunity to see the antique cars as they make their way across P.E.I. on the weekend. 

"We travel roads less travelled." 

There will be a car show Aug. 13 at the Marco Polo campground in Cavendish, P.E.I., from 4 to 7 p.m. 

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