Our September feature car is Kyle Lysholm's beautiful (and rare) 1967 Beaumont SD396. This factory 4 speed Beaumont looks fantastic in Bolero Red with period Keystone wheels. Read along as Kyle tells us about the car. 

The journey to acquire my Beaumont began in the spring of 2009. My dream car was a bolero red 67SD 396 with a 4 speed.  I was willing to compromise for something very similar, but one evening after an exhaustive search that lasted a couple years. "The stars and moons must have aligned" because the car I had always wanted became available for sale just north of Victoria, BC.
 
Long story short... eight months of hard "negotiations" passed by, and the previous owner of 15 years finally agreed to let her go. He requested we meet up at a parking lot, of a well known questionable "gentleman's club" in Whalley, BC. (to sign over the cars tittle)  Needless to say... he traded up for a much younger model, and "Christine" was now finally mine!

 
The car had never lived off of Vancouver Island for it's entire life. It was originally sold at Empress Motors-Victoria. The previous owner indicated that it had been painted marina blue in the late 80's, and had a history of terrorizing the asphalt mid island at the Port Alberni race track every summer.

 
Christine was built on Oct 24th and shipped out of the Oshawa plant on Halloween 1966.  It's a #736VIN / A51 "Custom Sport" 
Due to it's rarity, my goal has been to restore the car to it's former original glory.  Keeping the factory era correctness, it's pretty close to the original GM build sheet.  I luv bone stock factory cars, but I wanted a car that would "haul-ass" to the golf course, and also be capable of handling all the extra power by adding sport suspension and braking upgrades.

 
The 402 was fully balanced/blueprinted with ported/polished 427 heads and intake (borrowed from a Vette!) haha!  I wanted it to sound like "hell on wheels"... so I installed a fully hydraulic Mutha Thumpa Comp racing cam, with bulletproof titanium valve train. 800CFM Edelbrock carb, ceramic coated Hooker Comp headers mated to dual 40 series FlowMasters (with electric solenoid exhaust cut-outs).  Mission-Accomplished! 

 
The M-20 transmission with Hurst Comp shifter (Muncie handle with Line-Loc) is mated to a 12 bolt Posi rear end with Richmond 3:73 gears. 90% of the suspension is by Hotchkis (stock A-arms), Rideteck shocks on all four corners, and Wilwood discs up front (drum rear).  

 
The cars body is what really "sold me" when I viewed the car for the 1st time. It had never been hit, and had never received a full body-off restoration.  I disassembled the exterior in 2011, and had the original sheet metal massaged and re-sprayed bolero red. The stripe kit was added to compliment the factory vinyl roof. 

 
Fast forward 47 years years since 1967... and similar to the Stephan King movie, I often find myself "possessed" by this car. It's been a hell'va expensive journey, with many late evenings in the garage... but I've thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. It's far from finished, as I have many upgrades planned for those long boring winter evenings.  IF it hadn't been for the helpfulness and extreme wealth of knowledge contributed from the members onboard Canadian-Poncho, "Christine" would never have looked as good as she does today. I sincerely would like to thank everyone for helping make my dream car a reality.
 
Best regards,
 
Kyle Lysholm
Vernon, BC.