Ontario Tourism Blog

Vroom, Vroom…Start your engines!

By admin Monday, June 29, 2015

We love our cars in Ontario and we have the car shows, racetracks, exotic car rental companies & driving schools to prove it.  Classic car lovers should pay a visit to Chatham-Kent, considered to be Canada’s classic car capital, and race fans have many tracks to visit all across the province.

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Car Shows

There are so many car shows in Ontario that it’s impossible to include them all, but here are some summer highlights to get you started.  In Eastern Ontario, visit Wheels on the Bay, July 24-26, 2015, and Merrickville Car Show – July 12, 2015.  In Southwestern Ontario, visit the RM Classic Car Exhibit, WAMBO (Kent) Aug 7-9, 2015, & Brantford Powerfest Car Show & Street Festival, July 18, 2015. In the Niagara region, check out the St Catharine’s Downtown Classic Car Show, July 4, 2015.  The GTA has the Autofest Nationals in Oshawa, Aug 21-23 & Tedfest in Mississauga – a classic BMW gathering June 27, 2015.  There’s also the Gravenhurst Car Show in Central Ont. June 20, 2015.  For more shows, visit the Bramclass Auto directory

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Race Tracks

In most regions around the province, you can find a racetrack to watch thrilling car races.  If you’re adventurous & have some training in racecar driving, you may even be able to try the track yourself.  In the GTA (Bowmanville), Canadian Tire Motorsport Park has thrilling events all summer long or look for the racetrack days when you can drive yourself. (For more information, visit: http://www.casc.on.ca/volunteers.) In Belleville (Eastern Ont.), visit Shannonville Motorsport Park, home to Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve! London (Southwestern Ontario) has Derkzen Motorsports Drag Racing Experience and the Toronto Motorsport Park (in Cayuga). In Ottawa, catch all the action at Capital City Speedway

 

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Do you yearn to put the pedal to the metal and get into the red zone?  You might want to learn to race first!  There are some great driving schools around like the Bridgestone Racing Academy in Bowmanville. Women will love the training geared particularly to them at the Team SGR Advance Driving for Women in the GTA.  If you’re in the Ottawa region, you might want to drive a little further east to Jim Russell’s Racing Driving School near Montreal. Finally, the Shannonville Motorsport Park in Belleville also offers racing training

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Drive a Cool Car for a Day

Once you learn to race (or even if you don’t), you can imagine that you’re James (or Jill) Bond as you cruise in your exotic car. Live out the fantasy by renting a cool car for a day or two.  In the GTA, there are a number of companies that can help you look really cool!  There’s GTA Exotics Car Tours where you can test out a whole fleet of your favourite exotic cars or have a heart pounding race track experience.  At the Toronto Motorsports Park, there’s the Exotic Dream Car Experience where you can drive an exotic car on their track. You can also rent your luxury car of choice with Affinity Car Rental.

Many of the coolest cars get put in storage during the winter to protect them, but now that the weather is warm, they are all coming out to play again!  You can admire them at the car shows, ogle them at the racetrack or even try one yourself.  They’ll go back into hibernation when the weather gets cold again, so don’t delay!

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