The huge Performance World Custom Car Show was held on March 9, 10, and 11, 2007 at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. This monster of a show covers 350,000 sq.ft. in several massive exhibition halls and packs in over 600 modified vehicles of every kind for all types of hot rod/custom car and truck enthusiasts. The standard for Exhibit Hall #1 is that the rides are ‘First Time Shown'. Across this wild landscape of vehicles, there is lots of competition for prizes that total $50,000 in cash and awards.

The headliners and themes were assigned to the different exhibition halls and included:

• “Where The Cars Are The Stars” in Exhibit Hall #1;
• “American Graffiti Tribute Reunion” with Mackenzie Phillips, Candy Clark, and Bo Hopkins from the movie “American Graffiti”;
• Ron Saboury's 2400 h.p. '63 ‘Vette (street legal);
• “Copper Dust” the Barris designed and built '51 Olds (restored by the famous Lou Calasibetta shop ‘The Old Stillwater Garage') in Stillwater, N.J.;
• “Golden Chariot” the '56 Chevy custom designed and built by the Alexander Brothers;
• “The Merk” the radical '51 Merc built by Pat Keating;
• And, of course, "Deuces Wild" in celebration of the 75th. anniversary of the '32 Ford

Entering the main exhibit hall entrance was spectacular due to the placement of two of the most beautiful '32 3-window coupes anywhere. The ‘twin-peaks', if you like, of supreme design and craftsmanship of Jamie Burns (Newcastle, Ontario) and Peter and Nora Boekhout (Vancouver, B.C.) was a terrific way to enter the ‘Deuces Wild' 75th Anniversary Show for the '32 Deuce. Both exhibitors frequent the ‘canadianrodder.com' website. When Peter mentioned that he needed help setting up for the show, several other members (‘34Ford', ‘Techhead', ‘28Abone') showed up to construct the display (purchase arranged by 34Ford), arrange the lights, cleanup etc. Both these vehicles were impeccably designed and executed with lots of subtleties to tease the eye and challenge the mind and both walked out with trophies.

‘Concepts on Wheels', the show's title sponsor presented a tip of the hat to their restoration specialties and in-house talent with the magnificent restoration of a '63 Lincoln Continental ragtop that was perfect in every respect. Also in the booth was an in-progress restoration of an ultra-rare '54 White truck and the impeccable metalwork involved with the rebuilt front fenders (with handcrafted missing pieces) and completely fabricated running boards. Surrounding these two pieces were videos of other projects (‘Rus T', ‘Hemi-Roid', etc) and a sample of their ‘75% Hot Rod' concept where most of the heavy work is done on a project (frame built with suspension, body shell on) and is ready for the finishing touches by the owner (engine/trans combo, interior and the like).

Matt Labutte (Brightwork Auto Art) and Rollie Guertin (famous ‘Pinhead') both knocked my socks off with their artwork. Labutte has recently issued a vast new series of images featuring hot rods juxtaposed with various automotive items (tools, ads, signs) and a splendid image of the "The Time Machine / Colgoni Bros." Deuce Roadster roaring across the Bonneville Salt Flats. I visited Rollie Guertin's booth in the ‘pinhead' area in order to pickup a beautiful panel painted by Rollie several months ago and bought when I attended one of his ‘Pinstriping School' classes. The ‘Barbed Wire/Bloody Fingerprints' panel as I call it, is an exceptional demonstration of the pinstripers art. The work of both these guys is an example of the great hot rod/custom car-related art that is available at Performance World. Simply exceptional stuff.

Superlatives fail me when I walk around these types of shows. Nearly every vehicle seems better than the last and the rows of hot rods, custom cars/trucks seems endless. Again, the 'Funkmaster Flex' Roadshow seemed to get the juices flowing with the under-30's crowd in all the flash and dash of the ‘nightclub' inspired Exhibition Hall #5. The hall was dark and spooky with videos flashing here and there, pounding music everywhere, dry-ice rolling around the floor, and everything bathed in the reflected glow of under-car neon, ‘Lambo' doors, space-ship interiors and babes in too-tight clothing.

The project of Norm West (Hamilton, Ontario) is one of the most mind-boggling projects anywhere. Norm has an attraction for vintage Divco vans (bread trucks, delivery vans, etc). The latest vehicle is a phantom COE Divco built by hand in the fashion of the vintage ‘Molson Streamliner Tanker'. The cab is constructed using a few distinctive Divco pieces of sheet metal and the balance is all handcrafted, exceptional metal work brilliantly executed by Paul Dennison of Heavy Metal Studios in Hamilton.

Canadian Rodder displayed the almost finished '32 Ford Roadster for the “Deuce Odyssey” project (link to project articles on the Canadian Rodder home page).. Being fabricated at Dream Machines, the finished car will be driven from Ontario to British Columbia in July 2007 as part of the Canadian Hot Rod Tour. Hot rodders from across the country will join the Tour and ‘Drive a little or drive a lot'. Local car clubs and individuals will linkup and ‘escort' the tour which is going to be done in conjunction with the Rick Hansen's “Wheels in Motion”, a program of The Rick Hansen Man In Motion Foundation, to help improve the quality of life for people living with spinal cord injuries. The tour will end in Langley just in time for the 'Northwest Deuce Day' in Victoria, B.C.