2 weeks Ago By Peter Bleakney
Article content Human beings like to measure the passage of time in sizeable chunks, and these milestones are generally denoted by a gem or metal. Take a 10-year wedding anniversary for instance — that gets a lowly tin rating. Ouch.
Ah, but this summer adventure in Nova Scotia is about much more precious ores. GMC’s Denali nameplate is celebrating 25 years (silver), and this ritzy 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate I’m driving is taking me to my 50-year (gold) high school reunion in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. To be perfectly honest, I was hoping General Motors might furnish me with a Cadillac , because what’s more cliché than showing up at a high school reunion in a Caddy? No worries.
The black Denali Ultimate pickup carries an as-tested price of $111,304 and pushes the boundaries of what a luxury truck can deliver. It brings a 420-hp 460 lb-ft 6.2L V8, Air Ride Adaptive Suspension, stitched saddle-brown leather cabin, heated and ventilated front seats with massage, fine Bose audio, 13.
4-inch centre touchscreen (Google Maps, wireless Apple Car Play, wireless Android Auto), colour head-up display, carbon fibre cargo bed and the all-important retractable running boards that make gaining access to the cabin a tad more graceful. But before heading to the Annapolis Valley, a visit to the Steele Wheels Motor Museum in Halifax is on the agenda, and lucky me, my tour guide is Garry Sowerby, the celebrated Nova Scotian who holds several Guinness World Book Records for long distance driving. Three of his record holding vehicles are on display here.
The patinaed and be-decaled 1980 Volvo 245 DL station wagon (built in Halifax) garnered Garry’s first record when he and co-driver Ken Langley circumnavigated the world in 74 days. Also on show is Garry’s 1984 GMC Suburban, complete with bullet holes from when they were ambushed in Kenya. What likely saved Garry’s life was the fact that the Suburban was a left-hand drive vehicle, and the shooters expected the driver to be on the right.
Well, that and his armed escorts that retuned fire. The third record holder here is a 1988 GMC Sierra that carried Garry and travel writer Tim Cahill from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The rest of the museum is a pristine and diverse collection of classics, exotics, customs, and oddities like the Ferrari that Justin Bieber heavily modified — a no-no if you want to stay in Ferrari’s good books.
Biebs was summarily blacklisted — no more Ferraris for you! It was a perfect afternoon on the Minas Basin when I rolled up to the reunion host cottage in Avonport — a little community just down the road from Wolfville. With these parts getting the highest tides in the world, it’s pretty dramatic when the tide rolls out — red mud as far as the eye can see. There’s a reason why Wolfville was first called Mud Creek.
Catching up with a bunch of folks you haven’t seen in decades is fun, fascinating and a reminder of how time marches on. It hasn’t slowed this crew down much, as many were game for a bit of a dance party in the bed of the Denali. However, most couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea of a pickup cresting $110k.
Think more jacked-up-limo-with-a-cargo-bed and it starts to come into focus, a bit. I grew up in Wolfville, yet there remained three local “must do” activities that I had never got around to. Bucket list stuff, and one of them was going to happen this weekend.
Sliding down the mud dunes in Wolfville Harbour at low tide? Maybe not. Inner tubing down the Gaspereaux River? I was definitely up for that, but sadly the water level was too low, so the tube rental spots were closed ‘til further notice. That left the 13.
2-kilometre round trip hike to Cape Split, a spear of land that juts out into the Minas Basin. Named Plekteaq by the Mi’kmaq, this spectacular cliff formation has been eroded for eons by the massive tide swings through the Minas Channel. I conscripted school mates Abra Haliburton, Janice Plumstead and Mac Routliffe to join me on this trek, and the following day we all piled into the Denali Ultimate and made our way from Wolfville to Scots Bay where the trail head lies.
The last time I drove these roads with Mac was probably 50 years ago in his oil-burning 1959 Studebaker Lark that we christened “Blue Mist II”, partially as a nod to the famed schooner Blue Nose II, and partially because this was Mac’s second ferrous piece-of-crap car that burned more oil than gas. He paid $60 for the Lark, had his way with it, and then sold it on to Janice’s brother. That was certainly a world away from the comfy confines of this leather lined 420-hp truck that in the local vernacular “makes the tires laugh when you come on to ‘er” (read: it’s fast).
Makes all the proper V8 noises when in Sport mode, too. My passengers were impressed with the Denali’s smooth ride as we coursed through bucolic farms lands that the Acadians had reclaimed from the sea centuries earlier with an extensive dyke system. Our route took us through the town of Canning, and lo and behold I spied the vintage FINA garage that is home to custom car builder Bad Chad Hiltz and his partner/business manager/videographer Jolene MacIntyre.
Bad Chad, Jolene and their wacky mobile creations rose to international fame after the Discovery Channel shot two seasons of a reality show called Bad Chad Customs . On a lark (not the Blue Mist II), I sent them an email enquiring about a possible visit. I got a quick reply and an invite: drop by when you’re finished your hike.
Which we did, and we experienced Maritime hospitality at its finest. Chad immediately offered my passengers a beer, we chatted, took some photos, and then he asked, “Do you want to see some more cars?” Yes Chad. Yes, we do.
I’ve seen so much of this garage on TV and online, it was strangely familiar. Chad and Jolene don’t make vehicles for clients — their business model now is all about social media so every build is for YouTube, Facebook, etc, where they have a huge worldwide following. He’s not really into selling his cars either, hence the gigantic hangar-like structure on the property that houses a veritable wonderland of mobile creations, including all the cars from the TV show.
Unlike most celebrity custom car fabricators who deal with monied clients and commissions costing the sun and the moon, Chad works in a different universe. He runs on the cheap, sourcing local cars, some wrecks, some barn finds, and uses what’s around (and his imagination and ingenuity) to create some truly unique works of rolling art. Chad and Jolene produce a video every day, and for those hands-on fabricators in social media land, it’s a veritable gold mine of information.
Not to mention, great entertainment. You wanna learn how to chop a top? Chad’s your man. The next day I turned the Denali’s blunt snout toward the Halifax airport and said goodbye to the Annapolis Valley.
A perfect time to try out GM’s Super Cruise — a semi-autonomous driving feature that actually reduces stress, not adding to it. Super Cruise (a $2,495 option) uses r eal-time GPS positioning, 360-degree cameras, multiple sensors and proprietary LiDAR map data. As long as the little driver-facing camera saw I was paying attention to the road, it had the Sierra Denali gliding down the highway, keeping a safe distance, and with the auto lane-change feature, passing slower traffic and tucking back in if the conditions so dictated.
It’s a super slick system. A fog had drifted in over Highway 101 that morning, making it a little less difficult for me to turn my back on this beautiful part of Nova Scotia. Nonetheless, I was pretty sure Super Cruise wouldn’t like it.
To my surprise we motored on through, and it was only when the fog got soupy thick did SC hand the reigns back to me. As we might say in the Maritimes, “Pretty foggin’ impressive, wha?” Sign up for our newsletter Blind-Spot Monitor and follow our social channels on X , Tiktok and LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest automotive news, reviews, car culture, and vehicle shopping advice..
