To car lovers or Real Housewives of Vancouver fans, Reiko Mackenzie is instantly recognizable. Her stable of cars includes such beauties as a Ferrari 458 Italia, a Lamborghini Murcielago and two custom Ferrari 599 GTOs.
Last year she brought three of her cars to the Luxury & Supercar Weekend, where two of them won second place in their respective categories and she won the Chairmans award for her enthusiasm for cars. This year, she will be a judge in the Modified Supercar category.
My love for cars started in high school when I opted to take mechanics class over home economics for my last two years of high school, Mackenzie says. Ive done all the basics and helped rebuild an engine. Just working with the parts was truly fascinating to me.
Shes come a long way from her first car, a leaky 1979 Honda Civic. Eventually there was nothing we could do with the engine, but I tried! she laughs. I used to see those old convertible 300SEL Mercedes, and I wanted one. I have owned a 500SEL at some point so my dream was fulfilled there.
Something that links all of Mackenzies cars is their power. The Lamborghini Murcielago was my first track car, and some may ask why; its a hard car to drive track, especially manual shift. It was a challenge, but I love a good challenge and I felt strong driving that car.
Mackenzies favourite car is her white Ferrari 458 Italia. It was definitely designed for both city driving and track, she says.
The Luxury & Supercar Weekend is in its fourth year. Its at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens on Sept. 7 and 8 and will be double the size of what it has been in the past.
Among the events taking place will be displays in honour of the 50th anniversary of Lamborghini and Porsche 911 and the 60th anniversary of Corvette.
There will also be a collection of luxury boats, yachts, helicopters and modified luxury cars and supercars, among other displays. Theres also Vancouvers largest outdoors designer fashion stage for Fashion Saturday; John Fluevog has designed an LSW driving shoe, with only 100 pairs for sale.
A lot of work goes into choosing the cars that will appear on the weekend, something that the chairman of automotive selection, Nigel Matthews, is intimately involved with. Im looking forward to the Canadian unveiling and debut of the 2014 Pagani Huayra, Matthews says.
Mackenzie echos that, saying, Last year I was fortunate to take the Bugatti Veyron for a spin out to the UBC highway. Maybe I will have a chance with Pagani this year, fingers crossed!
Among the cars on display this year will be models from Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati, among many others.
Rumour has it that LaFerrari will be present, the new Enzo version, Mackenzie says. That will be a sight to see!
Matthews himself is a long-time car lover. I have oil running through my veins and always will, he says. My daughter has inherited it too!
As a licensed automotive technician who worked on Rolls-Royce and Ferrari cars for more than 20 years, Matthews has always been happy to get under the hood.
I changed my first transmission at the age of nine, he says. I grew up on a large estate in England. My brothers and I played tag in cars. We had a large in-house workshop and full-time mechanic. He took me under his wing because he could see I had a huge interest in machinery.
Matthews first luxury car was a 1962 Alvis TD-21 Drop Head Coupe. This is a very significant hand-built British sportscar and would fall into the same category as an Aston-Martin or Bentley, he says. Queen Elizabeth II used to drive a new one as her personal car. She still owns it and it is in the museum at Sandringham House.
We're giving away passes to Luxury & Supercar Weekend. Enter to win tickets here.
Reiko Mackenzie in a MaxMara dress from Oakridge Centre and Nigel Matthews in a suit fromGiorgios Menswear.
Reiko in a Roland Mouret design from The Room at The Bay. Joshua McVeity photo
