The inspiration for this event came as Durham Region was about to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
A meeting was held with the Motor City Car Club, and our involvement was committed.
After many meetings with Durham Region representatives, and much pleading with General Motors of Canada to allow the use of their CHQ facilities for this special occasion, plans were put on place to go ahead.
With the initial support of many companies including Mackies Moving and Storage, TTR Transport, and General Tire, the event attracted over 400 specialty interest pre-1974 cars and trucks. For a one-time event, we thought this was very successful.
With this success, Motor City Car Club decided to hold a second event the following year and GM obliged by allowing the use of their parking lot.
Participation grew by almost 50% to about 600, as car owners heard of all the positive things about the show. Sponsorship grew, and a special area was set aside for sponsor/commercial vendor exhibits. Needless to say, what started out as a one time show had all the markings of an annual event. To add interest for the show, a free Friday night event was added that took place at Memorial Park in downtown Oshawa and started off with about 40 cars parked on the grass and along the adjoining side street.
With growing participation, the General Motors CHQ grounds were insufficient to handle the show cars and spectator parking, and arrangements were made to use the GM car plant parking lot for spectator parking (about 5 kilometers away), and shuttle the spectators to the show by bus. 15 buses ran continuously all day long.
With help from some Durham Region staff members who offered their personal time, the show continued to grow year after year until we reached a facilities-bursting 1500 + cars in 2001.
At this point, the City of Oshawa saw the benefits of holding this event. For the first time, the downtown core of the city was closed on Friday for the exclusive use of a car-show preview that included live entertainment. That venue has now grown into completely filling all of the main and side streets with over 300 cars, and has become a focal point for the more than 5000 Oshawa residents that preview the car show.
In 2001, the event expanded into featuring a soap-box derby race on the Saturday before the show itself. This addition initially brought out about 40 children with their soap-boxes, and they raced all day long down Bond Street. A number of businesses agreed to stay closed on the day to allow the street to be closed and this to event go forward. This was held as part of Autofest until 2017 when Motor City Car Club relinquished control to the North Oshawa Lions Club.
Several potential sponsors, including Sunoco, attended this 2001 show. To our surprise we learned that Sunoco had been very impressed with what they saw and wanted to become a major supporter. After several meetings, an agreement was reached to have Sunoco become the title sponsor, and use their promotional motor-home to assist in the promotion of Autofest. The following year, the Motor City Car Club purchased the Sunoco motor-home and we began doing our own high-profile promotion.
Show participation remained fairly constant for the next few years, with very little room left for the show to grow. The only way to expand would be to expand to a two day event.
In 2007, an agreement was reached with the City of Oshawa for the use of Lakeview Park and a new venue had been set. For the first time, Autofest Oshawa would be a two day event. As with almost anything that is new and has old followers, most participants did not understand that it was A TWO DAY EVENT, and while they were made aware in every way possible, Saturday was very poorly attended. Sunday, on the other hand, brought nothing but praise over the change in location by the 1300+ participants.
2008 marked the 15th anniversary of the event ad saw a reawakening of the participants, as both days saw the park inundated with show-cars.
2009 marked the Motor City Car Club’s 50 the anniversary, and a special anniversary party was held on the Saturday night of Autofest at Lakeview Park About 400 Roast Beef dinners were served to participants who helped us celebrate this milestone.
Over the years, participants have driven their vehicles from as far away as Victoria, B.C. and Halifax, Nova Scotia, many U.S states including Texas, and all points in between.
This has not been just an event to have car owners swell their egos as other people admire their cars. Some of the proceeds from these shows have been used by the Motor City Car Club to further local causes.
Until 2001, the Children’s Ward of the Oshawa General Hospital was the recipient of numerous donations of needed equipment including a number of wheelchairs. One year, the children’s ward waiting area was completely refurbished by Motor City Car Club with proceeds from Autofest.
Since 2002, the charity of choice has been the Grandview Children’s Centre, Oshawa.
Autofest activities have contributed close to $250,000 dollars to assist Grandview in their work with handicapped children.
These efforts helped the Motor City Car Club earn the coveted Civic Pride Award from the City of Oshawa and the Oshawa Chamber of Commerce in 2004.
All of this could not be accomplished without the help of many people – sponsors and supporters in our case.
The Oshawa Chamber of Commerce has supported this event with media launches combined with free lunches to Chamber of Commerce members. Sponsors, including our newest title sponsor – Prestone, our previous title sponsor for many years Sunoco, Bridgestone, Marigold Ford, Dom’s Auto Recycling, General Motors of Canada Ltd., Mobil Oil, General Tire, Mackies Moving and Storage, The Minacs Group, Performance Improvements, Karbelt, TTR Transport, Coburn Transportation, and a true host of smaller companies have all been instrumental to the show’s success.
In order to help make this a family event, over the years we have had special interest attractions such as the ‘Batmobile’ (on two separate occasions), monster trucks ‘The Grave Digger’ (twice), and Monster Mutt. Sunoco was very generous in providing game competitions for the children, and Zoo to You has been extremely popular.
This year we are expanding the children’s area to include an obstacle course and Autofest Dragon inflatables along with face-painting and airbrush tattooing. Two firsts happening this year is the attendance of the Ring Brothers, custom car builders from Wisconsin, who built the Javelin that is on the cover of this year’s application form and poster, and the participation of the AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) in holding their first ever judging of antique cars in Canada.
Overall, we have tried to make this a family event, and judging by the participation year after year, we think we are succeeding.
