1908, Chalmsford, Essex, England. That was the date and the spot where Fred Leverington was born, but he didn't stay in England long, for his family moved to Victoria, BC when Fred was only ten months old. Shortly after that they moved again to New Westminster where he obtained his early schooling. His secondary schooling included four years technical training with principal emphasis on radio. Shortly after leaving school, he had his own Ham station.

Fred’s first employment was with Trapp Motors in New Westminster, but he left the automotive field not too long after to assist his father in the contracting business. Somewhere along the way he got entangled with the current Ford "bugs", those with Rajo heads (AKA Model T Speedsters). Other autos came under his hand until he turned to flying in 1929. The depression ended this venture, and he returned to the automotive game which had entered his life quite vividly again the previous year, which he had spent in England where he discovered the thrill of Brooklands.

FRED LEVERINGTON - Inducted 2002

Pioneer - Sports Car and Road Racing

by Jim Lee, 1958 – edited by Tom Johnston, 2004

Fred Leverington, 1958  (SCCBC Archives)

 

Various jobs kept him occupied until 1937 when he started work (at the Boeing plant near Stanley Park) building Blackburn Shark aircraft bodies and sections of Ansons. As the war neared, he was sent to San Diego for six months for experience in the construction of PBY amphibians at the Consolidated Vultee plant in that city, returning to help in the setting up of the Boeing assembly line in their new Vancouver Sea Island plant. 500 of these planes were built and, Fred had a hand in the engine assembly of the first few, but graduated to head the #1 crew in pre-flight operations. His final position with this firm was maintenance of all fly-away aircraft where he came in contact with ferry crews from all over the world. He spent a few weeks in the B-29 plant in Seattle, but cessation of the war brought his return to Vancouver where he found employment with Simplex Engineering. It was while with Boeing that he met his future business partner, Roy Shadbolt, and entered the automobile repair business with him in 1946, a partnership which lasted until 1954 when Roy decided to strike out for himself in the

cam-grinding venture (Shadbolt Cams) which still operates to this day. Fred continued the repair business and latter added a Triumph and Standard Vanguard agency, as well as the importation of the Fairthorpe Electrons to give his shop the scope it needed in sales as well as repairs.

His entry into the sports car field began just before the war when he, with a few other enthusiasts, piloted a Series 1 Morris for the BC Hussars. Fred was one of the original founders of the SCCBC, but this came after flings in the midget car and boat racing sports. His years in the SCCBC were spent advising and assisting enthusiasts in the tuning of all forms of English touring and racing autos. His shop on Richards Street was for many years the headquarters of the club and was known up and down the Pacific Coast for the quality of its specialty tuning methods. The building that once housed Leverington Motors is now the Vancouver night club Richard’s on Richards.