The Garage Blog

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Lightning McQueen coming to the Canadian Automotive Museum for Christmas

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Many years ago, Disney’s Pixar group made a big splash in the GTA when the stars of the hit movie Cars arrived at Vaughan Mills to spend a day showing off for the fans. The 2017 Christmas season is going to be even more exciting, as Lightning McQueen is spending the whole month of December at the Canadian Automotive Museum in Oshawa!

The museum has undergone a gradual rejuvenation in recent years, with a big focus on creating activities that are fun and interactive. The arrival of the star of the Cars movie franchise is the latest in a series of fun events aimed at kids.

More details in the CAM press release

Oshawa, ON – The Canadian Automotive Museum (CAM) is excited to announce the arrival of a full scale model of Lightning McQueen from Disney Pixar’s Cars 3, now available on Blu-Ray™.

The iconic main character from Pixar’s Cars animated film franchise, Lightning McQueen is part athlete, part stock car. McQueen is voiced in the films by actor Owen Wilson and was named after the late Pixar animator Glen McQueen, who passed away in 2002. According to Cars director John Lasseter, McQueen’s shape was influenced by sports cars like the Corvette C6 and Ford GT40, as well as sports stars Muhammad Ali, Charles Barkley and Joe Namath.

Lightning McQueen will be on display in the main gallery of the Canadian Automotive Museum through December 2018. Exciting kids programming is being scheduled throughout the year in conjunction with the display, including fun Family Day, March Break, and summer vacation activities.

“We are thrilled to have Lightning McQueen on display as a starting point to connect younger visitors with automotive history” said the museum’s Executive Director, Alex Gates.

A free public reception for Lightning McQueen will be held as part of the Canadian Automotive Museum’s annual Holiday Open House on Friday, December 1 from 4pm to 7pm. The CAM opened in 1963 and maintains the world’s most significant collection of Canadian cars. Located in downtown Oshawa, the museum building is housed in a former 1920s auto dealership building. The museum is open year-round, Monday-Friday 10am to 4:30pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm. For more information visit www.CanadianAutomotiveMuseum.com or call 905-576-1222

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The Buick Regal

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Sometimes I wonder why it is every time I pick up a test car from a manufacturer it’s always a SEDATE four-door sedan! Where the hell are the Corvettes, the Vipers, the Porsche 911s, the David
Saville-Peck Lotus or the M28 McLaren. I know…it’s the senior citizen thing! Do they think that I don’t have a right foot anymore? As I was escorted by Gary Grant…damn that sounds like I need to be cared for, to the General Motors press lot where there sat a nice bright yellow Camaro convertible and a silver Cadillac that looked like it needed some silver-haired-old-buzzard to thrash it around a bit. Right next to them was a rather SEDATE candy-apple-BROWN-four-door Buick Regal. The very nice lady who handles all the press vehicles and the ‘press’ people who want to put the cars through their paces said the Camaro had a minor adjustment needed and would be a several hour wait and the Cadillac was assigned to some other senior citizen reporter that I am sure was about to retire. It was probably Norris MacDonald of the Star. The lucky guy! I didn’t know Cadillac comes with training wheels so Norris can keep it on the road! She said the Buick was ready to go and so was I. The Buick Regal, another SEDATE four-door-sedan…NOT!
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Camaro owners descend on Oshawa plant

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Our busy Camaro Homecoming week began with a blast through Ontario cottage country in a pair of 2011 Camaro Verts, and then went full speed yesterday with the first day of the actual homecoming at the GM Canada plant where the Camaro is built.

The last number I heard yesterday afternoon was close to 600 Camaros on site from as far away as New Orleans and they were expecting another 150 or so more cars! Our day began with a tour of the incredible plant and then we wandered the lot, checking out some of the incredible machinery.
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First drive: 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible

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Yesterday’s dawn was grey and wet here in the Durham Region, which was a bit disappointing as I headed down the road towards General Motors of Canada’s headquarters. Our mini road trip in the 2011 Camaro Convertible had already been rescheduled once due to rain. Fortunately the sun burned off the clouds by the time breakfast was finished and it was looking like a top down day! A great way to start Camaro Homecoming week.

My drive partner for the day was good friend of The Garage Blog, Lesley Wimbush. Our adventure would take us north from Oshawa, where the Camaro is built, to the town of Bobcaygeon and back. Along the way, it really did become an adventure as we discovered Lesley’s childhood home and the rural schoolhouse she once attended. We even met a gent who had owned several Camaros over the years and was delighted to get some photos of his young son in the beastly looking black and orange SS.

The the ride out in the morning, we had chosen this wicked, black SS with a manual transmission, just as the pony car gods require. We had a quick toot around Oshawa, past the plant where our steed had been born, reveling in the burble and pop soundtrack from the dual exhaust. Heading onto the highway, I opened up the 6.2 liter V8 and we discovered that high speeds with the top down are best attained with the windows up. Coffee cups, hats, jackets and hair all went flying as we both flailed about trying to retrieve them. Windows up! Chevy offers an optional wind screen which would prevent this sort of mayhem. That is not to say that the interior is a crazy place, with the windows up, conversation is easy even at highway speeds. Speaking of the interior, our ride boasted a sexy looking black and orange leather interior that perfectly complemented the exterior. I would assume the car has a stereo, but with an exhaust note that exciting, no self respecting gearhead would turn it on.
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Extreme Testing Verifies Top Quality for Camaro Convertible

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Chevrolet Canada press release

OSHAWA – When the Oshawa built Chevrolet Camaro Convertible sets the pace for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 this Sunday, it will showcase a top built to last a lifetime, operate worry-free and maintain the appearance of its Coupe sibling.

To assure long-term durability, the convertible top underwent extensive testing during development, being opened and closed more than 22,500 times – three times more than would be expected in a typical 10 years of use. Some of those cycles were performed in extreme conditions; temperatures ranging from minus 30° C to 77° C and humidity of up to 95 per cent.

“This past winter we even had our engineers driving 80 of these convertibles back and forth to work every day here in Michigan and Ontario,” said Al Oppenheiser, Camaro chief engineer. “They had to open and close the top five times each day no matter what the weather was like.”
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Autofest 2010 in pictures

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While all the trackside photography I’ve been doing lately is beyond cool, the down side is that I can only in one place at a time. Back at the end of the summer, while I was at Mosport shooting the ALMS race, downtown Oshawa was full of cool cars for one of Canada’s largest cruise events. Autofest quite literally takes over the city for three days. It is a great event and I hate like crazy to miss it but the past few years it has been scheduled the same weekend as Mosport’s big event. Next year, the ALMS weekend has been moved up in the month.

Fortunately, we’ve got readers like Marshall Davidson who are willing to share their pictures. Marshall is a local photographer and he grabbed more than 1,000 shots when he visited Autofest this year. To check them out, visit him here.

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Whiners whine about Oshawa Mayor’s Home Town Ride

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Today’s Toronto Star has a story that just makes my blood boil: some misguided constituents are upset with the mayor of Oshawa’s new ride. That’s him, John Gray, up above with his brand spanking new 2010 Chevy Camaro SS.

Some holier than thou “political watchdog” has taken it upon himself for stirring the pot because he doesn’t feel that the Mayor’s pay package should provide for a sports car. He feels he is superior because he drives a $200 Saturn, while the mayor drives a $38,000 Camaro, which is unfriendly to the environment.

Hello McFly….care to put your $200 beater on a dyno next to the Camaro? I’ll bet you your $200 that the 425 ponies in the Camaro emit half the pollutants that your rat spews out.

Somewhere along the way, as this whole auto industry collapse fiasco has grown, the Fun Suckers (as Pat Bedard calls them) seem to have decided that any auto that increases the pulse is a bad thing. For some time here in Ontario, media could road test any GM they wanted just so long as it was a hybrid. Chrysler began pushing their 6 cylinder, 5 speed auto Challenger for it’s fuel efficiency. Anything that is fun is taboo.

I’m sorry folks, but I dread the day that we can’t walk into a showroom and buy a fun car. Of course fun can still be efficient rather than wasteful, but we have to have some fun!

Back to Mayor John Gray: This man has done nothing but be loyal to his home town industry and stick up for his constituents. The Camaro is built in GM’s finest facility and that facility happens to be right here in Oshawa, Ontario. Good for you John! May your neighbours follow suit and buy one too!

To get all the gory details, read the Star article and be sure to check out the now closed comments section for an entertaining read.

Photo by Rick Madonick for the Toronto Star

Jil McIntosh shares her viewpoint on the topic too.

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