This time, it wasn’t the racing vehicles that were popular, but rather the Ford Mustangs which entered the venue by the hundreds, just in time for the sixtieth anniversary of this popular model.
No less than 2,300 Mustangs were expected in Trois-Rivières to break a world record in this area.
The first vehicles arrived around 1:30 a.m. during the night. (Sylvain Mayer/Le Nouvelliste)
“I’m really surprised and I almost feel like apologizing because it’s too much,” Sylvie Provencher, the instigator of the project, admitted with emotion in the early morning.
The latter had indeed thought big by organizing this meeting which aimed to form a procession of nearly 2,300 cars of this model, all generations combined, in order to parade between Trois-Rivières and Quebec with the ultimate goal of beating the last record world in this area.
Sylvie Provencher, the instigator of the project, was very moved on Sunday morning as she was cheered from all sides. (Sylvain Mayer/Le Nouvelliste)
Seeing the vehicles entering the Exhibition grounds in single file at sunrise, everything suggests that the last record of 1,326 cars in Belgium will be easily beaten – the final count being made once they arrive at their destination.
Already around 5:30 a.m., traffic was heavy in the area, as fans of vehicles with oversized engines converged on the starting site.
“We are breaking several records, that’s official. We beat it in the quantity of vehicles, in the mileage we will drive and we also beat it on a road circuit because in Belgium, there was a quantity, but it was on a closed circuit. It was really easier for them,” proudly admits Ms. Provencher who continued to receive congratulations from the many owners on Sunday morning.
An event of international scope
When she had the idea of breaking the Ford Mustang world record, Sylvie Provencher targeted Trois-Rivières since it is a central city in Quebec. However, she had no idea that her event would attract fans from Ontario, the United States and even France.
Xavier Vrigny, president of the Mustang Club of France, and Laurent Goujon would not have missed this gathering for anything, regardless of where they had to travel to participate.
Xavier Vrigny, president of the Mustang Club de France, and Laurent Goujon were there on Sunday. (Sylvain Mayer/Le Nouvelliste)
“We just celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Mustang 15 days ago at Futuroscope [en France] and there were 1400 Mustangs. […] We’re happy to be here, we love Canada, but I’m really surprised. It’s the first time I’ve seen so many even though we’re used to seeing a lot of them,” said Mr. Vrigny, who six months ago took the trouble to rent two Mustangs in Montreal in order to be part of the group.
“To see a majority of Cabriolets in a country where there are six months of winter is impressive.”
— Laurent Goujon
Present at three world records
Normand Arsenault, one of the co-organizers of the event, participated in the event on Sunday not for the first or second time, but for a third time.
“I participated in a world record in 2007 and the following year in Victoriaville. There were around 860 of us. It was fun, I’ve never forgotten it.”
Normand Arsenault participated for a third time in a world record. (Sylvain Mayer/Le Nouvelliste)
The fact remains, for the man from Saint-Henri, that the gathering held this weekend is once again exceptional.
“I am surprised. At registration, we had 2,100, but there are a lot of people arriving this morning who were not registered. We take them anyway.”
— Norman Arsenault
From Corvette to Mustang!
A few years ago, Mario Pelletier would not have thought he would take part in such a Mustang gathering.
“I had a Corvette before and sold it two years ago. But I was bored of not having anything in my garage, so I bought a Mustang recently, a 2012 GT 500.”
Mario Pelletier from Lévis purchased his first Mustang very recently. (Sylvain Mayer/Le Nouvelliste)
On Sunday, he was on the starting line with his very first Mustang.
“I’m not a member of a club, but being part of a record is no small thing and it will allow me to meet people and talk about the vehicle, I find that fun, it’s really unifying as an event.”
While the first vehicles set off around 7 a.m. Sunday, the last to leave the Exhibition center took the road around 8:30 a.m. towards the Videotron Center in Quebec. The procession was to occupy only the right lane of Highway 40 and planned to reach a cruising speed of 85 km/h.
