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Show and Shine brings out some rare metal

The Rolling Thunder Cruisers Show and Shine is an opportunity for people in Yorkton and area with unique and notable cars to show their metal and meet other people with a similar passion.
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ROLLING THUNDER CRUISERS - The Rolling Thunder Cruisers' annual Show and Shine brought out a wide variety of unique and notable cars, ranging in size from a small Crosley wagon (top) to a big Plymouth Fury (bottom).

The Rolling Thunder Cruisers Show and Shine is an opportunity for people in Yorkton and area with unique and notable cars to show their metal and meet other people with a similar passion. The show, hosted at Royal Honda, brought out a variety of cars, new and old.

The most Canadian car at the event was Larry Kopan's 1967 Beaumont. The car was a Canadian exclusive in the '60s, built in Canada, taking a Chevelle and giving it a unique grille and a dashboard. It's that slightly different style that attracted Kopan to the model.

"I've always had a passion for the Beaumont because of the dash and the grille, they're unique," Kopan says.

While only under 3,500 were made overall, Kopan owns two, the grey model brought to the show itself as well as a white and red one. He says the second car is perfect for any patriotic event, since it's a Canadian car in a Canadian color scheme.

It's a car that inspires passion in its owners, and Kopan says he's part of a club with about 1,200 members that surrounds the model. The club also is a way for owners to keep their cars in good shape, as the unique trim pieces are often hard to find, given how rare it has become. Kopan notes that B.C. seems to be the province where the majority of Beaumonts were sold.

"You can't buy new parts for these cars. They didn't reproduce parts, because there weren't many being made and not very many being restored," Kopan says.

The car was last restored in 2005, and Kopan says it's a car for special occasions.

One model that one might not regularly see in the Yorkton area is Dale McGillivray's 1974 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. McGillivray says that owning a Rolls Royce was always a dream of his, and he bought this one "sight unseen" in the United States in order to have one of his own.

"I've wanted one of these since I was 20 years old, and I bought it a year and a half ago, so I finally got my dream car," McGillivray says.

Driving a Rolls Royce is different from driving most other cars, McGillivray says. It's heavier than some trucks, but it's a smooth ride. It's also a car with presence, and McGillivray says even a short drive can attract a crowd.

"You're always going to get people taking pictures, it's kind of a rush just owning one... This is probably the only one around, so it gets noticed," McGillivray says.

While it was expensive to buy new, at over $33,000 in 1974 - near $151,000 in today's money - McGillivray says an older Rolls Royce is actually less expensive than you might think. He says that you can get a good one for $20-25,000, and it's easy to find parts online.

There are some challenges with running a Rolls Royce in Saskatchewan, McGillivray admits. Since there aren't any around, and it does have unique systems like completely hydraulic suspension in brakes, McGillivray expects that he'll have to learn how to work on it if anything goes wrong. He also admits that parts can sometimes come with a sticker shock of their own. A new hubcap, for example, goes for about $1,100, though used parts are available for much less online. McGillivray admits that it's the internet that made his dream of owning a Rolls Royce possible, since it's the only way to find many of the harder to source components.

The challenges are worth it, because McGillivray is in love with the car and the brand, collecting memorabilia and information as well as owning the car itself.

"Any time I find any information on a Rolls I buy it," McGillivray says.