I'm amazed at the number of incredible Beaumont's that have survived after all these years. Before Canadian Poncho it was rare for me to spot a nice one. It's refreshing to know that there are quite a few surviving examples receiving excellent care. One such Beaumont is Kevin Cheyne's fantastic 67 SD396. Kevin's Beaumont looks sharp in silver/grey with a well preserved red interior. Kevin tells us more about his great Canadian Poncho:

"The car bug really hit me in the summer of 2001, the year I turned 40! Feeling the need to recapture my youth I had my eye open for something in the GM stable of cars, but I just couldn’t decide what that was.

That all changed that August when I called about a 1967 Beaumont Sport Deluxe, after finding a “newspaper ad” in the Regina Leader post. Talking to the owner, he described the car, it sounded really well kept and maintained. I hesitated on going to see it, thinking it wouldn’t be as nice as it sounded. Over a week later (I know now how crazy to wait that long!) I was going thru Regina and decided to call him back and lucky for me, the car was still there! Excited to see it, I arrived and after a brief conversation we went out to see the car. The car was under a cover in his garage. He walked over took the cover off and bang! There it was! The car I always wanted and I was really, really pleased to see the appearance of this Beaumont SD.

Opening the drivers door I was very happy to see the red interior was in premium condition, no rips, cracks or tears. I couldn’t wait to get under the hood, popped it to see a big 427 starring back at me! Engine bay was super clean and I started to realize I had possibly found something really special. Doing my due diligence and looked in the trunk and checked out the body, frame under the car, and it all looked great.

After asking a few more questions to satisfy my curiosity of the overall condition of the car, I was satisfied it was in real decent condition. I took down the vin # and told the owner that I needed a day to think it over, if he was willing to give that to me. He agreed and I made some phone calls to check with a CCCB member who confirmed it was a original big block car. Boy was I happy! Called him back and we agreed on a price and the car was mine.

The Beaumont has a production date of March 6, 1967 and two days later was shipped to Trapp Motors Ltd in New Westminster, BC. The car was originally painted Provincial white and as I came to learn a few months ago, was painted again in 1985 by a Canadian Poncho member that owned it then.

I was reading in the members car forum 2 months ago and seen a post by “Trucker” saying he once owned a silver/grey SD with a red interior. After a follow up call to Trucker we talked at length about his old Beaumont. It was great to get some more history on the car and Trucker gave me the name of the guy who did the paint and body work on the car back in 1985. Had a great conversation with Mike and was very appreciative of his efforts back in the mid 80s. Sent him some pictures of the car and he was very pleased in the appearance of the car today. He told me that it was a very clean car with only a bit of surface rust back in 1985, that was really nice to hear!

The only real changes made to the car over time was the addition of the black SD stripe, and I put in a U16 option tach out of a 1964 GTO. Also installed a set of Dynamax Super Turbo muffler which gives it a great sound. What I would love to find is a set of proper black center caps. If anyone reading this knows of a set they would consider parting with it would make the appearance just that much more desirable and give it the original look I would like.

Had the engine freshened up last summer as well as the under the hood conditioning giving it more of an original look. Also changed the fuel tank to a new Spectra ensuring a clean fuel supply for the 427.

Next step for me will probably be a disk brake conversion and possibly some upgrades to the suspension. As long as the paint and body continue to hold up after 30 years I wont be in any hurry to do it. One other thing I would like to do is go with a set of red lines tires as they were originally on the car from the factory.

It is a car that I am very proud to own, and consider myself fortunate to have found a Canadian classic such as this. I am also very happy to be a member of Canadian Poncho and truly appreciate the knowledge of the people on this site."

Kevin Cheyne