Photo supplied.
Jason Wigmore of Fraserville Auto with Arlene Baiilie and her 1946 Ford Coupe the shop recently restored to celebrate Arlene’s 50th national show.
Arlene Baillie is a pioneer in the automotive sports field.
Last month at a car show in Toronto she was acknowledged for attending every U.S. National Street-Rodder show in the last fifty years. She is the only Canadian to have done so, and one of the rare female participants in this male-dominated sport. Long before women were welcome and even celebrated in the automotive field, Arlene was pushing boundaries for women in this sport.
Arlene found her love of cars early in life, working during the summer months at an Esso garage near her family cottage in Innisfil. She tried to enroll in the high school automotive program at Danforth Technical School in Toronto, but was refused because girls were not allowed. She switched gears and attended Riverdale Collegiate, then Toronto Teacher’s College and became a school teacher. Sharing an apartment in Toronto with a girlfriend was expensive even in the 1960’s, so she supplemented her $200 a month teacher’s salary with employment at a local Shell station during the week and a bowling alley on the weekend. At the garage, she was allowed to take cars apart, but not reassemble them. She would lay the parts out in order on a sheet, identify their name and role, receiving instruction along the way.
In 1969, she discovered the world of street-rodding, which did not overtly prohibit women. For the first three years she rode shot-gun in a friend’s car, then decided to get her own vehicle. She found an affordable stripped down 1936 Ford Coupe, and set about transforming it into a street rod she called “Baby Blue” after a childhood doll. This car attended the first Canadian National show in London in 1972 and Arlene joined the U.S. National Street Rod Association as a charter member. Over the years, she has served the Canadian association in many capacities, even penning a women’s column for their magazine she called “Petticoat Junction”.
Over the years, Baby Blue has undergone several rebuilds to keep it road- and show-worthy. The most recent transformation was at the hands of the Jason and Dave Wigmore of Fraserville Mechanical. An avid antique car buff, Dave Wigmore restores antique cars for customers and for his own use, and is an active participant in car shows across the Canada and the U.S. He and Arlene established a friendship over the years sharing an understanding and appreciation for antique cars as participants in shows across Canada and the U.S. Arlene was eager to have her vehicle show-ready for the big show this summer: the 50th Annual Street Rod National show that takes place in August in Kentucky, and entrusted it’s rebuild to the Wigmores.
Baby Blue may be a show car, but it is a street-worthy vehicle, and Arlene drives it to shows across the continent. It is mechanically modern, fitted with back-up cameras, GPS and a modern, automatic 350 Chevy engine. Last year on her way to a show, Arlene was pulled over by a state trooper whose sky camera clocked her doing 86 miles per hour, an accusation she still refutes. Sometimes she is pulled over to satisfy curiosity, to allow a closer look at her unique vehicle.
Baby Blue gets out on the road when the weather breaks on weekly cruises in Thornhill with the local car club. At the Motorama Custom Car Show in Toronto last month, Arlene took home two significant trophies: Best in Class in Street Rod Coupe, and a Special Award for having attended every national street-rod over the past 50 years. She looks forward to the main event this summer in Kentucky where she will reunite with friends in the sport and share stories and memories created in this family-friendly sport where neither age nor gender are barriers to enjoyment. KG
