Car: 1969 Beaumont Custom
Sorry, for not sending my application earlier. However it comes by mail and I hope the 50 dollars in the letter, sent to you today, will due for membership for a while. Please, tell me when my membership starts to expire. A photo of the car is enclosed with the letter.
Anyhow, I also wanted to tell the very story about how I in a small village in South East of Sweden in the north of Europe became an owner of a Canadian Beaumont. As a matter of fact I bought it here in my home village still with Canadian license plates.
I am 40 years old and I have never before had any car produced outside Europe. Some years ago I was driving motorcycles and considered by then that everything on two wheels was worth more than anything on four. This is the person who suddenly became the owner to a car which most probably is the only one of its brand in Sweden.
The Story of my Beaumont started on May 22nd 1969. This is the day it was sold by Mr Bill Pratt at Regal Pontiac Buick Ltd on Mackenzie Street, Fort S:t John, to a Mrs Mary E. Bremner in Fort S:t John and registered. His business card and her name on the service book shows this. As the tale is told to me she had the car for more than 20 years when she gave it for free to the local junior ice hockey team in Fort S:t John. They repaired the car, apparently mainly sheet metal work, lacquered and sold the Beaumont to Mr Edgar Iten, a Swiss guy living in British Columbia. When he went to Switzerland for a visit, he brought the car with him. Unfortunately it appeared to be impossible to register in Switzerland due to exhaust regulations and he was driving it on a temporarily registration when he and his Canadian wife came on a visit to Sweden. His wife is a next cousin/second cousin (?) to my fiancée. When they told us about the car and its story we became curious. Their visit in Sweden ended at the nearest railway station where I drove them after buying the car. That´s how the Beaumont came to Sweden.
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Options / Description
A02 Tinted Windshield
B84 Body Side Mouldings
B90 Door Frame Mouldings
C50 Rear Window Defogger
M38 Turbo 350 3 Speed Automatic Transmission
N40 Power Steering
P01 Full Wheel Covers
U63 AM Push Button Radio
Z49 Mandatory Base Canadian Equipment Modifications
Now the work with importing to Sweden started. The car still had its Canadian license plates and a Swiss traffic insurance confirmation on a fading fax paper (!). The customs declaration was only a formality with an amused officer. After paying necessary taxes and fees the real challenge was approaching. I had to pass the motor vehicle inspection for permission to drive the car. It took ”only” one re-inspection before I had the desirable papers in my hand. On April 10th 1997 after more than two months and some hours spent on the car - my Beaumont was Swedish.
My next question now was whether I have any Beaumont colleagues in Sweden or not ? Here nobody seemed to now anything about a ”Beaumont”. I found nothing at the libraries, nothing at the American car dealers in Sweden and nothing at the authorities. Since the car was preliminary registered as a Pontiac Beaumont a guy selling Pontiac spare parts from Umeå, 1500 km away, in the very north of Sweden contacted me (many odd things have happened). He knew that something called Acadian and Beaumont was produced together with Chevrolet in the sixties but he wasn’t quite sure.
So how to find relevant information about the car? I was looking many times on Internet and got a lot of information and hints but mainly for the town of Beaumont and a kind of hospital called Beaumont. Then suddenly late one evening I got the adress to CCCB (Canadian Classic Chevelles & Beaumonts). I think it came through a link from another car-club, I don´t remember which.
From Dave Weir I recevied appropriate information about the Beaumont. I could change the registered name to ”Beaumont Custom Sedan” which is most correct depending on the size of the description field of cars in Sweden. It is also really good to have a reliable source of information and I will now tell you why:
Being a Beaumont owner in Sweden. When I park in a parking lot in a populated area it happens that people ask me questions about the car and it feels very embarrassing not being able to answer them. There is a permanent interest for American cars in Sweden but nobody has heard about Canadian cars. I also often come into discussion about fuel consumption and thirsty V8's. This car has a 307” and it only takes 11 litres/100km on highway and approx 14 litres/100km in town. This is slightly more than some Volvo models which is an every day car here in Sweden. However the most funny experience is the ”Right now I´m driving a Volvo-freaks”. I name them like this in Sweden. They are very interested in American cars. They stop for a while and dream a bit as soon as they see one. Although they will most probably never buy one, they are very keen on discussing everything with American car owners. They are well-informed and some of them seem to know even the ordering numbers for certain spare parts. They sometimes seem to use their knowledge as if they want to achieve some kind of dominance over the owner (cf. male dogs leaving their scent on another male dogs territory).
I also met some of these guys when I was driving motorcycles and since my bike was performed (customize) they saw immediately something changed and became curious. As you maybe understand these guys are not my favorites. To come to the point they amuse me today. Since the Beaumont looks similar to some other usual models but is impossible to classify, these freaks become uncertain. They can walk from one side to another looking from 10-20 meters distance but they never come up to me and ask. I don´t know whether they are afraid of being ”confronted”, if they just have bad self-confidence or something else.
The car. My intention is to keep it in good original condition but not customized or for exhibitions. I will mainly use it as a hobby car for weekend trips with my family and visits to motor shows and American Car meetings in Sweden during summer. Wintertime I´ll have it in a garage (barn).
I´m sorry to say that I don´t have a detailed description which people usually have when they describe their cars in North America. I can say that it is completely original except from the shade of the lacq. It was painted by the hockey team in a brighter green dye than original. Anyway it needs a lot of sheet metal work and afterwards the new lacq will be the original shade. The interior front with an original AM-radio will be kept original and the new car stereo is to be placed in the glove box or under the seat. Also the cloth interior especially the front bench seat needs restoration. I am right now looking for cloth similar to the original fabric.
Editor's Note: Hakan's car is but one of many Canadian built cars we have heard about in Sweden. To date Canadian Classic Chevelles & Beaumonts has five members in Sweden. All of whom own Canadian built cars. Two Beaumonts and three Malibu's. Three of those five cars were exported from Canada to Sweden to be sold new.