Clarke Pringle will be among 900 other street rod and custom car owners heading to Victoria’s Northwest Deuce Days, which start next Friday.

The three-day event, the biggest ever held in the capital’s downtown, celebrates the 1932 Ford — affectionately known as the Deuce. It is the most copied car in history and is best known as being the basis for the high-powered jalopies of the 1940s and 1950s, which have been refined into today’s low-slung customized street rods.

For Pringle, a retired heavy equipment mechanic from Candler, North Carolina, the trip north will be his third. In 2007, he and wife Cher drove a hotrod 1927 Ford with no top through monsoon-like downpours and 40-degree temperatures on a 10,000-kilometre adventure focusing on putting their car on display on the streets and lawns of Victoria’s Inner Harbour area.

Pringle has spent the past seven years building a new street rod — a fibreglass-bodied 1932 Ford roadster with a reliable 350-cubic-inch Chevrolet motor. It has a removable hardtop and more creature comforts.

Clarke Pringle and his new ride are making the trip with up to 100 other street rod enthusiasts coming from New York State, Ontario and the Prairie provinces.

“There is no other show like Deuce Days,” he enthuses. “Victoria is just beautiful and having the cars parked around the harbour is just magic.”

Speed equipment manufacturer and hot rod legend Vic Edelbrock Jr. and his family will be sending their 110-foot yacht to anchor in Victoria’s inner harbour as they drive three cars up from California’s Bay area.

Edelbrock will be piloting a Ford flathead-powered 1932 Ford roadster, which is a replica of the car his father drove on California’s dry lakes to set speed records 70 years ago.

Vic Edelbrock Sr. was a hot rod pioneer who founded his Edelbrock Performance business by creating bolt-on engine equipment that dramatically increased horsepower.

“My father would drive his car to work all week and then go racing on the weekends after taking the fenders and windshield off to lighten the car,” Edelbrock says. The street rod-ding hobby that has exploded worldwide can be traced to these early days.

A convoy of more than 100 street rods and custom cars will be coming from California picking up others as they proceed up the coast to Victoria. Bay-area resident Pam Brocco has organized the tour, which starts at the shop of well known street rod builder Roy Brizio who is also making his third trip to Victoria.

“Sixty of the cars that will be coming up on the tour from California are customers of ours who have become friends,” Brizio says. “We have either built their cars or worked on them. This is a very special trip for us and it’s a great destination.”

Northwest Deuce Days organizer Al Clark, also an internationally-recognized street rod builder, says he had to cap the event at 900 vehicles. Many more owners wanted to register but there just isn’t any more room for the cars to be displayed. More than half the cars coming to Victoria are 1932 Fords.

Al Clark will be driving his own 1932 Ford coach with modern Chevrolet V8 power. The car was delivered new in Victoria and Clark has driven it more than 100,000 kilometres since completing the restoration and rebuild 14 years ago.

“We have registrations from Sweden, England and all over North America,” the former shipyard steel fabricator says. “Many of those coming from overseas leave their cars in California.”

Spectators are coming from as far away as Australia and New Zealand. Approximately 50,000 people attended the last show in 2007 to see the cars parked all around Victoria’s Inner Harbour, the provincial, legislature grounds, the famous Empress Hotel and Ship’s Point. The show generates millions of dollars for the local economy. Every hotel room around the harbour is fully booked.

Clark and his team of volunteers have been planning this event for the last three years with the last year being the busiest. “The people you meet at these events means a lot to me,” he says. “You can’t beat car nuts. I have met so many over the years. I have always said the cars are great, but it is the people that make it special.”

Al Clark is already looking ahead three years planning for the next Northwest Deuce Days event. “I am starting a 1932 Ford roadster for myself which will be at the next Deuce Days,” the street rod builder says.

He is spending the days leading up to the show putting the finishing touches on several street rods he is rushing to complete for customers. One area of the show will be reserved for a dozen cars that Al Clark has built.

For more information: www.northwestdeuceday.com

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com