‘It’s a labour of love’ as antique cars motor through the Kingston area

For the second time in less then three weeks, Kingston is playing host to dozens of vintage cars.

This time, nearly 40 vehicles with the Antique Automobile Club of America have been touring around the area. On Friday, Fort Henry National Historic Site was the backdrop for the historic cars.

It’s one of their final stops before scattering to all parts of North America to continue their respective summers. Don Barlup is a national director and past president of the Antique Automobile Club of America.

“The Antique Automobile Club of America was founded in 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” Barlup explains, “and one of its primary missions at the time was the enjoyment of vintage automobiles.”

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And thanks to the club, the vehicles are still around and available to be seen. The Kingston stop is a part of their national “vintage tour” — one of 15 tours or meets a year that the club is involved in.

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Barlup says the “hobby” is whatever you make of it.

“There’s no question it’s a labour of love and there’s no question there’s a financial commitment involved with it as well,” he said.

“But the nice thing about it is we have the opportunity to share with the public the excitement of the tour and the excitement of seeing these early automobiles because if we don’t do it, and if you don’t go to a museum, you don’t know that they exist.”

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Barlup says the vintage vehicles try to keep off the main highways for obvious reasons, and adds that taking the back roads is just fine.

“Doing 25 or 30 miles an hour on those back roads, that’s the fun of it,” he says, “not the 75 mile an hour to get to our destination — acceptable speeds back in the day when a lot of the vintage vehicles were made.”