Bert Laakmann came to Canada from Germany, as a journeyman ma-chinist in 1955 at the tender age of eighteen. It didn’t take Bert long to get into the automotive business and on his 21^st birthday he had a Texaco service station at 41^st and Carnarvon in Vancouver. After two years, Texaco decided that they wanted their stations to focus on selling gasoline not doing heavy mechanical work. Bert felt otherwise and before long the first loca-tion of Bert’s Automotive Transmissions Ltd. came into being not far from its current main location on Kingsway. The main service offered was service and repair of manual trans-missions (standard, as they were called then, of course automatics are standard today), differentials were added, and now they do automatics as well. The original Kingsway location was expan-ded and expanded again. Other loca-tions sprang up over the years, New Westminster, Surrey, Langley, and Port Coquitlam. Bert is also a partner in two Volkswagen dealerships.

Through all of this, Bert was a

BERT’S AUTOMOTIVE - Inducted 2003

Supporter

Bert Laakmann at Westwood, 1968 (SCCBC Archives)

Bert Laakmann

By Tom Johnston, 2004

racer. He tells the story of having to go to Germany during the 1960s to get the S model of the Porsche 911 that he wan-ted to race. His long time pal and fellow German immigrant Charly Godecke wanted one too and when Bert returned home they flipped a coin to see who

would get the 911S. Bert lost so he had to get on the plane, and go immediately back to Germany to get another one. Bert and Charly successfully raced throughout Western Canada and the US Pacific West Coast for years.

While Bert was known mostly as a sports car guy for his racing, Bert’s Automotive is a faithful supporter of all kinds of motorsport. Bert’s has had exposure at Digney Speedway, both the original and current Mission drag strips, Langley Speedway, Westwood and now the Mission road racing circuit. Bert’s have sponsored cars, drivers and events. A real supporter of the sport

On top of all this Bert Laakmann is a real nice guy; his management style has mixed racing and business and created long term loyalties with his var-ious staff and partners. He told me that he recently had to miss his regular beer with the boys night be-cause he had to work late the help rebuild the trans-mission on a 1927 Riley that was pas-sing through town, and he really enjoy-ed doing it too! 

Famous Bert’s Decal