Almost 20 years ago in a Saanich, B.C. parking lot, Garry Foster happened upon an impromptu gathering of hot rods and cool cars. He was immediately inspired to write a story about the event. With an undergraduate degree in literature, Foster was no stranger to words, so he sent a query letter to the editor of the local paper.
“They told me to tone down the poetry, but go ahead with a feature story,” Foster recalls.
And so he took his own photos and submitted an article. After it ran, Foster says people began suggesting vehicle owners in the Victoria area who might share their car stories. “It went from there,” Foster says.
Just one of the stories in Garry Foster’s book Chrome and Colour features Jim Sloan’s remarkable 1960 Corvette. Photo by Gary Foster
The ‘it’ in question was Foster’s documentation of Vancouver Island car culture and the people who work skillfully and passionately on old vehicles. Every one of them has a story to tell, and Foster took photographs and wrote articles for national and international magazines and newspapers.
“In 2018, someone suggested I should compile all of these stories into a book,” Foster explains. “I was familiar with design, layout and printing, and although I thought it might be a lot of work, the articles were all written and the photographs were all taken. So, I went through and picked the best of the best for the book.”
The result is Foster’s self-published 198 page hardcover book, Chrome and Colour, featuring a foreword by Tom Cotter, renowned author of the In the Barn book series. Illustrated with more than 300 colour images and several black and white archival photographs, Foster first printed Chrome and Colour in the spring of 2021.
“I put the book together to honour the men and women and their cars,” Foster says, “and really only expected to sell 50 or 60 copies.”
Author Garry Foster in the passenger seat of Gary Cullen’s remarkable Tatra T87, a car that’s featured in Foster’s book Chrome and Colour. Photo by Submitted
It was far too modest a print run, and even a subsequent reprint quickly sold out. Foster has another run coming, and these should be available before the end of April.
Foster’s automotive enthusiasm was, quite honestly, fostered by his father.
“My father was a machinist by trade,” Foster says. “He was very talented and had all of the tools and I’d work alongside him. He taught me and was very patient.”
Raised in Ottawa, Foster was 14 when a neighbour gave him a 1953 Ford Consul with a seized engine. Working with his father, the pair removed and rebuilt the powerplant and 3-speed transmission. When it was back together, the Consul started and ran – and this was Foster’s first car of many.
“I wanted to be an architect,” Foster recalls, “but I got a job at an auto parts store as a counterman and went on to become involved in the auto parts industry on the wholesale side. Eventually, I did go back to school and got a degree in the humanities.”
Chrome and Colour author Garry Foster with Jay Leno at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Photo by Submitted
Cars were momentarily left in the rear view mirror until 2003 when Foster moved to Victoria. And that’s when he spotted the informal gathering of cars at the Royal Oak Shopping Centre that reignited his passion.
“I’m not a professional photographer,” Foster says of his camera skills, “but I have a real interest in light and design and think I have an eye for a car and its surroundings.”
Chrome and Colour features more than 20 unique stories about cars and trucks that range in age from the 1920s to the late 1970s. For example, there’s a heartwarming story about a hot rod 1926 Essex that a mother completed after her son died from cancer in order to preserve the car for her grandson. At the other end of the spectrum, there’s an inspirational tale about a 1979 Pontiac LeMans drag race car used by the Saanich Police Department as they encourage young drivers to keep racing off the streets.
There are also chapters detailing Victoria’s Deuce Days event and two others about touring Vancouver Island in vintage vehicles.
What of Foster’s own automotive interests? Does he routinely skin his knuckles pulling wrenches on a car of his own? Not anymore, he concedes, although in 2021 he imported a 2007 Porsche Boxster from San Francisco and he details some of the ins and outs of that process in the final chapter.
Foster’s book is $69.95, with proceeds going to support veterans via the David Lynch Foundation in the U.S.A. and the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative in Canada. Learn more by visiting Foster’s website at encomm.ca/chromeandcolour.html.
Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or [email protected]
Keyword: Chrome and Colour a labour of love