Stance Is Everything.... It's all about how it sits » Event Coverage

Guest Coverage: Fitted Fes 1

DaveT — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:34:08 +0000

Late in 2011 I got a fairly larger order from a Takafumi Ebata, a Stance Is Everything reader from Japan.

The first time I sent out the order I misread it and as a result a few things were missing, so to make amends I resent the entire order along with some freebies from the mystery box.

Fast forward a few weeks and Takafumi showed his appreciation by sending through some photos from Fitted Fes 1 which took place January 22nd in Nagashima Japan.

Other than my friend Josh (and by association Hoda) I don’t really have any real first hand connection to the automotive scene, or culture, in Japan so I really appreciate Takafumi giving me the opportunity to run his photos here.

Furthermore with the internet currently saturated with coverage from the Tokyo Auto Salon it is really cool to see some photos what could be considered a typical meet in Japan.

Vans

I think at this point the people of Japan have modified more vans than North America did in the 1970s.

While I like 70s vans for their nostalgia I think if you take everything into account Japan knows their way around the family hauler.

Rusted panels have made their way over seas... perhaps by sea

This looks like a giant aquarium on wheels slammed to the ground

This is a Toyota Wish, and up until a few days ago I had never heard of it

Euro

One of the first photos that caught my eye in Takafumi’s coverage is the absolutely incredible looking e36 at the end of this group of photos.

For no reason in particular I assumed European cars wouldn’t be as popular in Japan as they are here, obviously I was wrong.

Nice Audi in the foreground and looks like something interesting in the background also

That rear fitment is money, and the USAF stickers are a neat detail

Another very nice e46 also with exceptional fitment. Is it just me or do those rear arches look a little wider than stock?

Clean dumped BMW 1

Japan's take on the MKII Golf, much like what you would see here

Is that a touch of pin striping on the hood?

More on point fitment, nice WRX in the background too

While this e36 is super clean

This e36 really stole the euro content in my eyes, great example of the classic picture perfect e36

Import/Domestics

Of course domestics and Imports in this sense are the exact opposite of domestics here.

Hey look a Vibe

Some sort of Holden?

Cali plates! Maybe some of the sites stickers made their way onto this car?

Fender rawed or wrapped? Not quite sure

More Mazda3 owners need to run the oem lip like this owner

Love this generation Prelude and the NT-03ms look great on it

Of course I had to run a photo of the Datsun seen in the Prelude photo

This Celica has minimal camber compared to those I have seen out of Japan latley

Pea green DC2 Integra with North American front end and Equips

Beautiful xb

Square setup on this G?

Japan has no issue with XXR....maybe this will change a few opinions over here?

If only I saw this on Tuesday!

Japan loves their camber

Close this out with a very nicely done Cressy

Huge thanks to Takafumi for sending these photos in and I hope that this translates to Japanese at least somewhat legibly.

The rest of Takafumi’s coverage can be found here

I also found this quick little video of the event

Lost Coverage: Meeting of the Mazdas 2011

DaveT — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:12:36 +0000

M.O.M is an event that prior to attending I had heard nothing but good things about and with Stance East making the trek from New Brunswick to attend both M.O.M and Importfest I figured 2011 was as good a year as any to attend for the first time.

Besides someone had to show Will around.

M.O.M. was an extremely laid back, quiet, outdoor, event, the complete opposite of Importfest the day before and exactly what those of us who had been at IF needed (in addition to sleep).

The crowd was mostly made up of of Toronto Protege Club and Toronto Mazda3 guys but there were a few 6, Rotary, and Miata owners in attendance as well.

Proteges

As one of the hosts of the event TOP made sure to have a decent showing.

Tasteful Protege sedan

Vadered out

When are light sabres going to become a reality?

Shinzo Media handy work all over this car

Anson, a long time Protege scene vet

Tim showed up just in time to participate in the show and shine

I see a lot of untapped potential in this platform

Mazda 3s

I rolled up with the Mazda 3 guys and on the way I was able to get a rolling shot of my car taken by Rylan Strongman.

Shortly after this shot I doubled back to tell some of the lower cars about the entrance

Said entrance...

This wheel and tire setup is currently for sale quite cheap if anyone is interested

EVO wheels suit this car very nice

Dave's car looking uncharacteristically clean...just kidding Dave.

DGR coils vs Prokits

Will clocked a lot of KM that weekend

Which resulted in shorter mudflaps no doubt

Plaid guts in this Speed3

Shea pimpin his 3rd place IF trophy he's currently looking to go more aggressive next year

Showing along with Shea and Nextmod at IF was Azumi

Rotaries and Roadsters

Spinning doritio center caps, nice touch

RX-7 gone wiiiiiide

Dope lookin' FC

FC rear end

Or FB?

On the way out I was followed by this Miata, driven by a girl scraping all the way out

Gave this car my vote for Miata

Top always down

Epic sticker time

I literally stopped on the way out to take pictures of this RX2 as somehow i missed it all day

Nextmod

Sat on these pictures so long that Peters car has changed quite a bit since these photos were taken.

The lip and wing are now old news but I really liked this look

Boss status

Apologies too the local Mazda community for taking so damn long to get these pictures posted.

My bad.

Guest Coverage: Drift Ops Oct 30 2011

DaveT — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:17:40 +0000

Drift Ops along with Cool Kids and sponsor Sailun Tires just wrapped up a successful season of drift events at local track Shannoville.

In some cruel twist of fate I was busy every Sunday that they had an event this year, but for the season-ender Charles Spivak was able to make it out and he kindly offered up his coverage for the site.

It looks the event had a great turnout and everyone had a good time shredding tires one last time before either converting their cars to winter status or giving them an off season over haul.

Hopefully next year I will be able to make it out to one of these events, though I will probably come home with some serious rear wheel drive envy… but what else is new?

On Track

Kevin putting his s14 to work

Mats has no issue throwing this giant sedan around

Full lock

More of the same

This car looks pissed.

This s14 is super clean, I dig

Now with more angle

Another very clean car

Sh!t?

Amanda is not only good at drifting... she can fiberglass pretty damn good too

240 sending it

Pats car fresh off a Formula Drift season

I hope Pat doesn't change the color of his car this year so I can finally finish that RC rep...

Off Track

Daily wheels make way for drift spares

Jon's bumper finally give up the ghost?

Amanda's car in the afternoon sun

Looks like Santi (Static Motion whats up) changed a few things up front

MK5 lookin sick

Looks like Kevin might have done a little landscaping

Very sick looking Skyline

Looks like Wayne wrapped his IS, awesome choice in color

End it with my favorite shot of the set and I don't even smoke...

Big thanks to Charles for hookin’ up the photos and check is flickr out (flickr.com/cspivakphoto) for this entire set along with other events from 2011.

Event Coverage: Squeaky Clean 2011

DaveT — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:15:10 +0000

After successfully running Tuners Against Street Racing for a few years Matthew M (previous feature s2k owner) decided to switch gears a bit and start a new show series called ‘Squeaky Clean’ aimed towards those with more subtle modifications done to their cars.

The first Squeeky Clean show took place two weeks ago at JRP and even though mother nature didn’t seem to fond about the idea of Matt having a show that day about 35 or so cars ended up coming out to participate in the event.

I arrived in time for it to start drying up but it was still pretty cold so as the judges hustled to wrap things up as quickly as possible I made my rounds with the camera.

Imports

Being an Honda guy Matt got a lot of support from the Import crowd.

I didn't notice the leather guts in this car until looking at the photo again today

I believe this car took home best sticker application or something like that

Guessing dude works at a skate shop, or at least knows someone who does

Facebook alerted me that Dan is looking to go lower next year.. something custom I think

You can't really see it here but this car had a slight pearl in the paint

Damn this is a nice looking DA on what look to be BBS RAs

Never seen aftermarket center caps in e30 baskets before, clever

I've always wondered if people steal these things? Would be weird to come back and find yours missing

The anodized lips set this car off pretty nice

Those Mugen sides do not look speed bump friendly

Squeeky clean

Recognized a few cars from JDMR at the show

Elevated came out to show Matt some support

LMs... I should do another LM appreciation Theme Tues

The Elevated EK and ChopShop EK are too of the hottest looking Civics in town

Alex is looking to go further aggressive out back next year

Dylan's Silvia on Pansport G7s

Matts s2000

Which looks like it's got more camber since the last time I saw it... not surprised he is always changing stuff on his cars

I didn't know this Scion was actually from Miami.. probably wishes he was home now

Love the Personal wheel in this interior

The engine bay was pretty unique

With this stealing the spotlight

Subaru

John’s Subaru is pretty wild I didn’t know just how wild until I read his feature in Performance Auto and Sound that outlined just how much work he has put into this car. It’s certainly one of the more show oriented builds in the area but he drives the heck out of the car and it puts down a serious amount of horse power.

Curious how much power this puts down? Scroll.

Well damn

Orange/blue interior with Cusco cage and a plethora of gauges

John has more sponsors than I have modifications

Euro

I was told minutes before I showed up a whole bunch of VWs rolled out, bummer.

Jetta on AMG triple 5 spokes that I think come on the CLS36?

Dope Jetta on TMBs I also saw later at the ChopShop BBQ

White out treatment

Jujhar recently had some work done to his Golf, love the new front sans bra

So clean.

Hoping to maybe shoot this car some more next season

I beleive Matt plans to have the event earlier next year so expect a bigger turnout for Squeaky Clean 2012

Event Coverage: Oktoberfest 2011

DaveT — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:06:19 +0000

With winter just around the corner ChopShop decided to send the 2011 season off properly with a charity BBQ (proceeds to the Canadian Cancer Society and the Food bank) called Oktoberfest.

The somewhat unseasonably nice weather lead to a great turn out and because this wasn’t a show the atmosphere was super laid back which made it a great way to kill a couple of hours on a fall day.

I spent way more time shooting the breeze with the ChopShop guys at this event than taking photos so forgive me if I missed a car or two, but once mid/old school bmx conversations get rolling they are hard to stop.

Lineup on the left had side of the lot

I parked with the Scraped Crusaders for the day

Two-tone Jetta on Audi fat fives, good look

Hitting a deer is high up there on the list of things I want to never happen

This cars at nearly all of the events I attend, trooper

My friend Dave's Audi on his recently picked up S4 wheels

Whenever I convince myself I don't like a certain color car one comes along that changes all that

Great fitment, great height and overall choice of modifications

JDMR in the house

Mooner's Civic stopped a lot of people in their tracks

Easy to see why

I like this s10 quite a bit...

This speed bump was getting hammered all day

Would not change a single thing

All the talking made me more or less miss this 930, but I think I have some photos of this Jetta coming from another event

JP's car out after a recent motor swap

Shout out to Josh as he was one of the many people putting in work behind the scenes on this event

The Volkswagen communities secret stash of Work Wheels continues to grow

I see this car commuting every now and again very nice

Calvin rocking his Ocean Blitz decal proudly

Nice Cabriolet

This guy cruised by, perhaps on his way to the Canadian Tire up the road that often has meets

Jeff's car which was recently featured on Stance Nation

Totally deserved the feature it got as it is a great build

Jeff is a firm believer of ride low park lower because his ride height and drive height are very close

Bags are awesome.

Perhaps my favorite car of the day

Check the fan page for a link to the build on this, tons of work put in

If you didn’t come out this year be sure to mark the end of October 2012 now so you don’t miss next years.

So long 2011 season, my summers come off tomorrow.

(Event coverage from last weeks Squeaky Clean show will be later this week)

WTF Friday: Fair Game

DaveT — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:50:40 +0000

Last Saturday my girlfriend and I headed out to Dorchester Ontario for some Thanksgiving festivities and while there we attended the annual fair. This year the fairs main attractions were a freestyle motocross demo and a demolition derby.

I am posting the coverage today because a) it doesn’t really fit anywhere else and b) Dorchester residents who had never seen FMX before could be heard uttering WTF when the two riders putting on the demo took to the sky.

This is the first time I have attended a derby that wasn’t at a Monster truck event and I can certainly see the appeal of them from both a spectator and participant stand point.

This Acura was killing the figure 8 race and loud as hell

Until it ended up in a head on collision and the radiator got popped

This triple 7 Civic ended up doing pretty well... vtec must have kicked in

The pro modified class was only three cars which was a little disappointing

Tandem doughnuts

Not sure the green car did so well after this

Next up was the super stock class which in my opinion was the most interesting

This wagon had some camber forced upon it and an interesting name so I rooted for it

Then the drive shaft fell popped out of the diff and that was that

Then to add insult to injury 1919 shoved it into the corner

Talk about crumple zones...

It pains me to admit I am ‘one of those guys’ but I really want to see an FMX flip in person and so far it has not happened, I won’t go as far to be that jackass in the crowd that yells do a back flip but hopefully it happens soon.

Both of these riders were pretty good at what the did so I really wish the announcer just let them ride openly more than tell them what to do.

Apparently to get on the local FMX tour you have to audition and be able to do wheelies

Big ol cliffhanger

Huge KOD

Stretched Cordova

Hart Attack

Super stylish superman

It always amazes me how stable the bikes are by themselves in the air

and not a single f*ck was given this day

Site Updates

Got a new readers ride that I shot last weekend which should be going up Monday (provided I have time to edit the photos), and Sunday, weather permitting (and after my girlfriend runs a half marathon), I am going to swing by the SQUEAKY CLEAN Specialty Meet/Show @JRP.

Flashback Friday

I was reading a Taurus wagon build thread that reminded me of this Bonneville I posted last December which is still the best looking Bonneville I have ever seen.

Still amazed at how nice the e39 headlights fit

The owner and I emailed back and forth a few times so I’ll see if I can get an update on this car.

Guest Coverage: West Coast Nationals 2011

DaveT — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:24:10 +0000

Tucson native Will Watrous has once again graced Stance Is Everything with an awesome set of photos from the West Coast Nationals. It’s been a little bit since I had heard from Will so it was good to see that he’s still riding low and hitting up events in his Ranger.

The WCN coverage he sent over this year looks just as good, if not better than last year, so if I ever do somehow get a travel budget WCN is an event I must attend.

With my love of minitrucks I’m pretty sure I would be right at home.

One of a small number of bagged Mazda 3s

I'd bet this can hop something fierce

This photo stood out to me instantly, the articulation here is pretty damn impressive

Clean two pump setup gives the previous car a leg up

This truck is the definition of custom, parts from everywhere

Looks great and might just be tuckin' lugs

I'm working on a bagged dually/full size Theme Tuesday, look out for it in the next few weeks

Dub-nation's Project MK6

Tucking Fifteen52 tarmac's hard

This truck is crazy, tucking that much of such a huge rim takes as much (if not more) skill as running flush

When tucking this hard things must be relocated

Straight sinister

This cars got the perfect amount of chrome work to compliment the satin paint

Lovin' how nice this truck looks in flat smurf blue

Girls getting in on the fun

Glass etching... lost art?

Sick looking 4 door Blazer

69(?) Suburban that's already a head turner

If this truck look so good now, finished is going to be incredible

Another very impressive looking W.I.P.

Damn check out what made it's way into the engine bay

I have been a fan of this truck since I saw it at SEMA, simple clean build

This truck also looks absolutely flawless

One hell of a lift kit...

Paint and bodywork taken to a whole 'nother level

Paint work continues to the inside

Golf carts, an infinite source of amusement

Check out more West Coast Nationals 2011 coverage here on Will’s flickr account.

Thanks again to Will for hooking up the photos.

Event Coverage: CSCS Finale 2011 Part: Two

DaveT — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:32:56 +0000

The last round of CSCS passing means that a lot of the cars in today’s post will be tucked away for the winter very soon.

A few might make their way to Importfest Montreal but the rest will either be converted back to winter mode, stored, or go under the knife for rebuilds.

With that in mind I made sure to do a few laps of the show and shine Sunday just to make sure I got some photos of some of the more attention grabbing cars.

Stickers and Stuff

Before I jump right into the cars here are a few stickers and random things I spotted including a dog and a Tiburon covered in 15 layers of Plasti Dip which evidently turns it into a giant chalk board.

This modified society crown is pretty cool

This Sittin' pretty sticker was a nice combination of script and sans serif fonts

Adam rocking the Purple and Teal color sticker chosen by Erik

Stoked to see Javed still rocking the black and gold

It's been a long time since I have written with chalk...

This dog decided walking was way over rated

Other cars

Don't often seen Bentleys at show and shine events

This Lotus probably would have been more at home on the road course

One day I'll have to come up to Cayuga for a drag event and see cars like this run

Business end

Domestics

I have not seen something so 'under construction' at a show in a long time

Sic's new tow pig

I bet the side pipes on this spark like crazy

I can't imagine the aftermarket for these is huge so kudos to the owner for sticking with

Erik was around for the earlier part of the show and shine

His turbo setup seems to be treating him well

The CSCS parking lot... not so much

Nissan

So Fresh Auto Maxima

Very aggressive Skyline

Te37 SL's are getting quite popular and look really nice on this GTR

Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi

I think this is an Elantra (or Accent?).... cutting all the cf for the splitter probably wasn't easy

The rear is pretty wild to match what was going on up front

Miata with some eye makeup

Limited myself to one picture of Carsons Evo

Subaru

Ty's STI is still for sale

Lownatics brought a couple cars out

Hot as hell...

Audi, BMW

The body work on this Audi was pretty flawless, molded front bumper is brave

Sam from WP Pro Brakes brought out his e39

Blacked out boosted e46 cab

Not all that much room in e46 engine bays

M - Tricks wide body 2002

While the bronze lips are quite nice I think I preferred the polished lips

Toyota/Scion

C west Supra

Clean bay

"You'll blow yourself to pieces!"

Quite a few Scion's at this round, I paid the most attention to the XBs

The hood and emblem on this one are pretty cool

Last time I saw Adam's Scion was in dim light tired at Importfest, seeing it more alert I noticed how nice it really is

The air ride makes a considerable difference when compared to that yellow one

You may have noticed I am a fan of his trunk setup

Honda

Javed's boosted EL out front of the Street Concepts booth

Level One near the Meguairs Canada Setup

This car was actually competing in a few track events not the show and shine

Matt added 'moar low' since his feature and was parked at the AMF booth

Also at the AMF booth...

Nice Prelude

On the way to CSCS I passed a traffic slowage that turned out to be this car along with a few others pulled over

Dope Spoon equipped EK

Tidy engine bay too

P-Dizzles Civic was up for sale earlier in the year good to see he kept it

Wonder if he will make any changes over the winter....

Congrats to the CSCS team for another season and letting me do some give-aways over the course of the season. Count down to next year begins now…

Event Coverage: CSCS Finale 2011 Part: One

DaveT — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:50:49 +0000

Yesterday marked the conclusion of what might may have been the best CSCS season I have attended. The addition of a new track coupled with very co-operative weather made this ninth year of the Canadian Sport Compact Series one of the most attended and therefore exciting.

Though I woke up a bit under the weather there was no way I was going to let myself sit around all day and miss the season ender where people would be battling to find them selves atop their various classes.

One of the most anticipated battles at this CSCS was between Shasha Anis (SG Motorsports 350z) and Brian Wong (Advance Powerhouse/Nextmod Evo) for the unlimited record.

Brain (who held the title at the beginning of the day) damaged the bumper on his Evo bad enough to keep him out of the competition which left the door open for Shasha to smash the previous record and set a new one at 1:13.945.

Unfortunately I showed up to the track minutes after all of that happened so I attempted to get over my brain fart by snapping some photos of the rest of the time attackers.

Before drift started I managed to catch Pete out on the track

Also saw Spenser out putting his WRX hood scoop to use

Go-pros were all over cayuga

When not competing Anna from Sweetie Girl Racing was giving rides in a Scion TC

RSX rippin

This s2000 looked pretty quick out on the track I don't have official numbers or anything

Similar to all of the other CSCS events I showed up in time for the top 16 drift action and I was surprised to see a couple new faces in the top 16 (more because it was the last event of the year). A couple guys really held their own with the regulars too.

Jon

Contributed some stickers to Chris' newest sticker bomb

Anthony's weekend warrior

The lead car in this Tandem is one I don't recall seeing before

Teammates Ryan Stock and Anthony battling it out

I hear some tracks charge for sod, good thing Cayuga is cool

Anthony chasing Lucas Johnson

Stock during the exhibition

Jon Fiddy getting loose in the demo

Good smoke

Bad smoke.

Wayne throwing his is300 around

Lucas during the demo

Wish I got a bit more angle with this shot

Fiddy's car is such a monster

Anthony sliding through one handed

Tire for high res offer still stands Sailun

I might go back and give this photo a re-edit sometime down the road

Here’s a video of Shasha setting the new time attack record.

Show and shine CSCS coverage will be up by Wednesday.

Event Coverage: Roadmates Corn Roast ’11

DaveT — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:01:42 +0000

Roadmates is a Toronto/Mississauga club that’s has been all about kick ass hot rods and customs since 1956. My friend Keith has had nothing but good things to say about these guys for awhile so when he gave me the heads up on their annual corn roast I decided to roll through.

Next year I’ll have to show up a little earlier so I can catch a few more of the cars but I managed to see quite a few awesome rods and customs and eat a killer hot dog and great corn in the process.

No doubt a lot of the local classics I love came from that work space

A familar badass Nova

Smooth lookin Ford Coupe

High truck is high

Incredible truck is incredible

Anyone looking for a toy?

*insert wiz khalifa black and yellow*

49 Ford Bonus

Another dialed Ford

Simply outstanding

The owner of this car actually lives on the same street I do

He also used to own this

Couple smooth customs

I could see the wheels on this making it to other platforms

Classically styled Bel Air Convertible

I've always particularily liked this Chev

This truck was pretty unique I am pretty sure I have seen it at a few other events

Never seen a bed cover like this before

Parked beside my friend Keith was the white Framed Ford from a few weeks ago, still putting me to shame being clean

Also near Keith's car was this awesome motorcycle

With this kick ass shifter

This was actually the first time I had seen Keith's car complete, he did a hell of a job

Olds rocket...

With no roof or hood to speak of he was a little worried about the weather

I could take pictures of this car all day, maybe one day I will...

Hopefully I can hit up a few more Roadmates events in the future and get some more detailed pictures and info of the cars the build but if you are supper eager for more info on the Roadmates check out this article.

Event Coverage: Nextmod BBQ 2011

DaveT — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:26:24 +0000

Nextmod decided to be patient this year and hold their BBQ a little later than they had previous years.

This patience was rewarded with a stellar turnout (as always) with the quality and quantity of cars coming out rivalling a lot of the local parking lot shows in the area.

Everyone knows these BBQs are a good time because what can really go wrong when you’ve got great weather, great cars and free food?

Whether you stay all day or only for a few hours you won’t get bored or hungry on the date there is an NM BBQ.

The BBQ line may have been long but it was certainly worth the wait

Drifters

The drift cars at the BBQ were pretty easily identifiable, one because I know a couple of them and two because of their copious use of zip ties.

I got pictures of most of the drifters who came out other than Anthony who I guess I am subliminally upset with for bending a Falken Hanabi.

Chris was one of the first cars I saw when I drove by but I couldn't find him for awhile

Then I looked to see who was spinning records and there he was

Jon's car looking a little more angry than usual

Cool Kids Gang signs

I'm not used to seeing Jon's car without a huge amount of smoke coming out the back

Scraped Crusaders

I came expecting to see two new things from the Scraped Crusaders crew and they didn’t disappoint.

The first was Gillbert's car on his BBS wheels

Front shot of Gil's new toxic green/yellow BBS wheels

The second is this e30 which I think people were sleeping on because the stance is one thing...

but this swap is something else entirely, Steve put in work

Kia / Hyundai

Lot’s of Kia Souls and Hyundai Gens at the BBQ, I still have not seen someone slam a Soul more than a little over an inch… yet.

Who ever did this airbrushing has quite a bit of talent

I saw a few Gens cruising around but Alvin's is the only one I caught in one place

Officially a production color now

Subaru

So I had to ask the owner about this finish, it was paint, 2 coats of matte black with 2 coats of matte clear

This car is for sale if you are interested...

Nissan and Lexus

I think this car is damn near perfect

This is the only shot I have ever taken that captures the gold flake in Sam's paint

This Silvia was parked next to me, made me look bad but made it impossible to miss

Nearly had to put glasses on not to be blinded by these VS-XX wheels

Not sure how Jon managed to keep this a secret for so long

One of my favourite local r32s

I didn't see Peter once all Sunday, too busy taking care of customers

First time I have seen the new JDM ego cover in person, I might have to trade up

This is the guy who chose the Red/Black color scheme you all enjoyed so much

Hondas

The owner of the car in the foreground and I discussed forced induction for awhile, let me know how that goes Marwan

This teg has been around for awhile and it's always clean

I don't recall the flip flop painted valve cover before, compliments the Jackson SC well

Very nice CRZ

Talked with the owner of this hatch for awhile about all things wheel refinishing

APH/NM s2000

I've always though this car resembled a fish (or shark) so the koi graphics are fitting

Dope fith gen Prelude on RPF-1s

Very nice

Nice clean fitment on this Acrua, colors are reminiscent of Subaru

Spencer found a new way to keep under hood temps down on the track

My goal was to go back and get another shot of this supercharged NSX but then I went to get food...

Euro

Richie picked up a shirt a few days ago, and we should be linking up soon to take some new photos

Bagged Golf on benzo Alphards

The hate because I care sticker is a new one for me

This the A3 that's for sale that pops up in my facebook feed constantly

Asking price is 20 grand if you would like to help out...

Mazda and Mitsubishi

Miata offering mustache rides

Ash has always had one of my favorite Speed3s it's simple but always catches my eye

Couple rides from Toronto Mazda 3

One of two cars rocking this awesome wheel color

I took a picture of my car but I liked Hitesh's shot better so I am running it instead

Angry lookin' Evo

Carson cruising through, have I mentioned this car puts down 431hp?

Many thanks to Peter and the Nextmod crew for putting this BBQ on year after year.

Also thanks to all of the other shop owners in the area for letting us take your spots all day.

See you next year.

Event Coverage: S&P – United We Stance

DaveT — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:55:25 +0000

Summer sure flew by pretty damn fast, the first Stretch and Poke meet of the year doesn’t even seem like it was all that long ago and now the last one for this season has come and gone.

Though I was only at this season-ender event briefly I was there long enough to see that the community is appreciative of all of Dave (and the Stretch & Poke team)’s efforts and showed that by the great turn out.

It was also great to see a few cars out that I had never seen before, something not typical of a meet held later in the year. Must have had something to do with the awesome weather.

I pretty much ran through this event so sorry if I missed your ride, come out to the Nextmod BBQ this weekend and I’ll do my best to correct that

The Fiat

Weird, didn’t I start yesterday off the exact same way?

I think this one is Abarth 695, perhaps a 695 ss either way it sounded pretty damn nice and was incredibly well kept. People should bring unique rides like this to meets more often helps keep things interesting.

I would take this over the new 500 any day

That wiper piece is cool as hell

brb gone too Google Fiats

Ford Flex

It’s pretty cool that perhaps the only non shop or celebrity owned bag over coil Ford Flex is from right here in Toronto. The owner has a lot of plans for the car and now that I am used to the camber out back being on a truck I can see the potential in it.

With Brett helping him this project should turn out pretty straight.

The trucks only been on air a couple weeks so don't worry it will get lower

A look at the air management

Euro

Couple dubs rolling with the Scraped Crusaders

Quick wheel swap for a familiar super low Golf

But it looks as though he may be switching again

SC B6

This car ping ponged between BGP and DVP just like me... just a few minutes after

White on white looks dope on this MK4, also a fan of the boser hood

Straight G

This e30 looks nearly identical to one a Trevor at tdott.me used to drive

Parked beside the above e30 was this e36 which I think is from Modified Society

Imports

Never seen this particular Supra before

345s...

Remember when people put Supra tails on everything? Thank god that is over

My friend Stephan recently picked up a new set of wheels made a big difference

Gillberts got some changes coming to his ride I can't wait to see

I recognize this car from the Stretch and Poke Forums

This car is certainly pushing on e famous status

GTR on TESL's looks amazing

This Skyline on SSR Mesh (?) is equally appealing, also both shirts in the background are rad

I can hardly keep up with Carson's foot wear changes, thes AME's look great

Nice IS250 on TES

Aidan out of course

Two of the dopest Infinitis in the GTA

Nice looking Accord

I dig the wheels but I am a little impartial obviously

I think I posted a rear three quarter of this car yesterday

Dan prior to winning best stance at Battleground

Ants eye view of Dan's ground clearance... or lack there of

Importfest 370 which you can see in Montreal Oct 1

I don't see any reason why people will not take to these like the 350z

Still a few more events to round out the season yet…

Event Coverage: Battleground Show & Shine

DaveT — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:23:56 +0000

I mentioned last week that Sunday September 11th was a busy day to be a car enthusiast here in Toronto.

Conveniently the two events were close enough (about thirty minutes apart) that you didn’t really have to make a choice between the two if you were only a spectator like myself.

The first event I attended (and returned to) was the Battleground Show N’ Shine put on by Battleground Performance and Division R.

Previously Division R had most of their events in Mississauga but this year they decided to switch things and as a new event, at a new venue, the show drew out a good amount of cars so I am sure the organizers were pretty happy.

The Fiat

This was actually one of two crazy Fiat’s I saw last Saturday which on it’s own is pretty weird because I don’t normally come across Fiats outside of classic car shows. What made this particular one different (other than the fact it is an X1/9 something I have never seen before) is that it was powered by a turbocharged h22 Honda motor.

A quick google search revealed that this might not be the only one

Fuelcell up front along with what look to be 8" subs

In addition to the motor swap the car has obviously undergone a lot of cosmetic changes

See the guy in the background looking at it like wtf? There was a lot of that

Domestics

Once I made it past the Fiat I headed over to where some domestics were parked to say hello to a few friends

One of my favorite local sleepers

James and I (mostly James) are looking to put together something for the underexposed mini truck community in Ont should be cool once we do it

In addition to being quite nice this girl loves trucks

One More

James came out with two friends, one who drove a bagged Camaro and another who drives a currently un-restored mini from the early 90s

In typical Lowkey fashion no sign of the air management in this Camaro

Cobalts are becoming a bit more commonplace at shows

Hyundai, Nissan, and Infiniti

The dudes in the car beside this Gen seem to be watching my closely...

Part of the Division R lineup

Alvin's Kenwood trunk setup (thanks for rockin' the new sticker)

This G35 on 20x10 /20x11 Raderwerks should be familiar to you by now

Well fitted

As part of Division R he couldn't be judged but I am sure he would have done well if he could

Apparently this car was at Importfest and I just missed it... tunnel vision brought on by the Impala beside it at the time I suppose

The Sic Ryde lineup changes so often though you can't really blame me for missing new additions occasionally

Mazdas

Don't think I have ever thrown up a side shot of Tim's Protege

RX-7 with a body kit I have never seen before...

I have to stop messing around and actually get an engine bay shot of this car for you guys

Dat ass

Acura/Honda

Really liked the wheels on this car... never seen them before

Close up of the kicks Venette Vega wheels

Very nice DC2

I'm curious how many NSX's are in the area as I keep coming across ones that are new to me

I also seem to have under estimated the amount of first gen Civics

Unlike the RX-7 above I got pics of this cars motor and nothing else... it runs 10s

Couple Hondas parked in the far side of the lot

Always nice to see a well kept CRX

Engine bay of the above rex

I think a girl might have driven this one

This one I know was lady driven

Emilio from Two Litre Media made the trek out from Kingston

Spotted him at the end of the day shooting for the raffle winner

Worked 905 reppin'

The engine bay is pretty cool certainly not many, if any, like it

Level One rolling in after Stretch and Poke

Their rear diffuser game is serious

Dan ended up taking home best stance

Level One S2k lineup

This V6 civic showed up while I at Stretch and Poke

Brian's Ek still never ceases to impress me

The entire build is on point

Little jealous of those wheels...

Putting on a show is a heck of a lot of work so congrats to Battleground and Division R for pulling of their first one.

Tomorrow I will have photos from the last Stretch and Poke meet of the season.

Event Coverage: Street Classics Pre ’55 2011

DaveT — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:04:22 +0000

On August 14th Street Classics hosted their annual ‘pre-1955′ classic car show and shine.

Much like Vagkraft (which the same day) I had not attended this annual event since 2009, so I decided I might as well check out this show immediately after snapping some pictures at Vagkraft.

Going directly from the biggest local VW meet of the year to a classic car event may seem weird to some but “I appreciate a fine body no matter the make”.

Unfortunately the somewhat unpredictable weather that day put a slight damper on overall attendance, but I did get a chance to meet Rob from Performance Improvements (and twitter) along with some of his family at the show which gave us a chance to talk cars and future endeavors.

Post 1955

Caught a couple guys with later model vehicles hanging about.

I feel for Ranger owners your suspension set-up certainly makes getting low a challenge

I beam suspension = near oni levels of front camber

I thought this was some sort of Rare white GNX but thanks to Phil I know it is a Regal

Trucks

Couple trucks came out, not too many being a pre 1955 but a few…

Pea green GMC

I love these older Fords, great lines for an older truck

Full fendered

Now rolling fenders is pretty common place but prior to this depending on your car you could either choose to keep them or rip em off.

Nice lookin' Sunday cruiser

Very well done traditional flames

This vehicle belongs to the Performance Improvements family and they have put lots of miles on it

This one had a beautiful paint job and picture perfect bodywork

If convertibles are more your speed here is a traditionally styled example

I've always liked the way the fenders of this car hug the wheels

Interesting choice of fenders here, hi-boy/low-boy hybrid?

Fenderless

This is the perfect example of a classic that is not babied

Notice anything on the rear quarter panel?

Probably some left overs from a period correct drag event, or a typical Sunday drive

Don't think I have ever seen a white frame before, works well here

This little roadster was one of my favorites of the show, I got caught up in the details

Engine bay is certainly a thing of beauty, as was the pin striping

This car also did a good job of capturing me with details

Unrelated to this car but I think I had that flaming eyeball on a pog.... what you had pogs too.

Uber clean brake and suspension setup too

Simple elegance

This car has nothing but the essentials underhood

Can't go to one of these shows without taking a shot like this no matter how hard I try..

Dumped, chopped, and sitting by its lonesome

This picture perfectly represents the variety of cars that came to the event and is the perfect closer

Hopefully I have a chance to make it out to next years event and appreciate more cars from an era gone by.

Event Coverage: Importfest 2011 Pt: 2

DaveT — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:40:03 +0000

Here’s the second part of the 2011 Importfest coverage (well third if you include the women). Compared to last year the first thing I noticed when I showed up at Importfest this year was how incredibly busy it was.

While this is obviously awesome it made getting clear photos a little harder than usual, but with some patience I was able to put in work. I tried my best not to re shoot too many of the same cars from the previous coverage so that those who didn’t make the show could get an idea of the variety of cars IF brings out.

I considered breaking this one up into two parts but most people have connections that can handle 50 photos at a time so it seemed unnecessary. However this might not be the best day to browse the site on your phone without ‘borrowing’ some wifi.

Because show car

The opposite of because race car?

Can you tell what this started as?

Closer look at the Acura bot, the airbrushing on the side is pretty well done

Vortech supercharger shares space under the hood with screen and speakers

I'm a pretty big Transformers fan so seeing this nod to the original movie (1984) in the hatch was pretty cool

Snapped this shot of it closed up with the wheels on as I was leaving

Under hood and ICE

Couple motor shots I got and trunk shots of vehicles that I didn’t get full shots of.

If I recall this is the motor setup on the Lancer in the Toyo lineup

Supercharged G35 I saw at CSCS a few weeks back

This is a JVC demo CRZ , you may have seen me pushing it around on the facebook page

Team TDS Scion Trunk, pretty dope

The interior was also pretty stylish

Euros

This VW from Team Refugee took home a few awards in it's class

Toyo golf once again

Sic watching over the rydes

One of many cars Sic drove into the show

One of two Importfest BMWs

Girl in the background making funny faces

Bimmersports' euro e36 M3

and their drop top 1 series

This Audi from STD standard on Forgiatos was pretty wild

First fully tagged car I have seen locally

Pretty interesting looking final result

Toyota/Scion/Subaru/Nissan

It was weird to see this F20 ae86 but not the black and white one

Adam hollered at me on facebook so I was able to track him down in person

Clean build and he got more vinyl for the rack

Took me until today to realize that this car was is the blue Trial Widebody wrapped in black

These Maximas go pretty well stock can't imagine how this goes... I reckon bat out of hell

Bit of a Ferrari vibe going on with the wheels on this 300zx

KDM

This is a friend of a friend's car nice to meet you Alvin

Not your typical Kia

Boosted, wire tucked, Kia with a Ducati coil plug conversion 12" Wilwoods all around too

Infiniti

Nice e36 and Infiniti from 905 rides, the Infiniti owner had a silver one before this I liked a lot too

Wrapped Infiniti in the Road Magnet booth

I waited a long time to get this shot on show day, should have done it the night before in hindsight

Division R must have a decent tire sponsor because most of them have tons of camber

Mazda

Almost missed this RX-7 that is putting down some serious power to the wheels

This widebody Veliside RX-7 was recent in Pasmag and won the Meguairs challenge that was going on not too long ago

Honda

Game Over in the Stretch and Poke line up

Dan took off his hood for showtime, clean, he also brought home third in aggressive fitment

Managed to get a shot of this Accord coupe with no one around

Elevated Acura

Brian bringing some Cali style to Toronto

Great looking build, really came together well

TL from Nextmod

Importfest is a long day so people begin to go a little nutty...

Finally got to meet Javed the owner of this Acura, very nice guy and rocked the vinyl for the show

Domestic

Just one, but it’s sick!

This Impala is one of the best rides Sic has ever brought to a show

Hardlines setup with some audio mixed in

Now that we are at the end of the coverage I am sure some of you are wondering where the heck all of the Liberty VIP cars are, well half are still being edited and half are with another media outlet in the hopes that they will run some of the coverage both to give exposure to Liberty VIP and second to Stance Is Everything.

However as part of that deal I had to agree to run them after they post so I’m playing a bit of a waiting game, while I wait I might re edit a couple of my favorite shots from the event in higher resolutions so don’t be surprised if you see a ‘re-up’ post in the not so distant future.

Once again thanks to Basit at Imporfest for having me out again this year, and thanks to everyone at the show who rocked Stance Is Everything stickers at the show and those who came and introduced themselves.

Special mention goes to the out of towners Will from Mod For Life and J Kirby Pablo from intuned online.

This year was a blast and maybe next year I will actually put my car in the show, or maybe even try and secure a few spots for some cars. Time will tell.