Stance Is Everything…. It's all about how it sits

This Saturday I went to the Toronto International Auto show,  which I used to go to all the time with my dad as a young buck but this is only my second year going as an ‘adult’.

Going the Saturday before the show closed was perhaps a mistake as the show got busier as the day went on making it harder and harder to take photos.

You could say I went to the 2010 Toronto International Auto Show and all I got  were these crowded photos, however the show was a perfect way to add some event coverage, and therefore original content, to an otherwise event less winter season.

Big Bird

Oddly enough this truck was in the parking lot I parked at. Being pretty high this truck juxtaposed next to my car was pretty amusing to me. I couldn’t actually park beside it though as someone did the spot beside it an injustice by throwing up in it meaning that for me to get out I would have had to walk through vomit, gross.

The Transformers Camaro

GM I have a bone to pick with you… how dare you show a Camaro SS Autobot edition with a automatic transmission. As a Transformers fan and a car enthusiast I do not condone such a travesty.

Regardless here is a pic of the emblem and offending transmission.

Factory performance accessories.

It’s always nice to see what sort of performance accessories manufactures offer for their own vehicles. Things like these are espically nice for people who want to keep their factory warrenty in tact.

Here are some examples from Toyota/Lexus/Scion camp.

Concept Cars

It’s always cool to see concept cars at auto shows like these. It shows what the automotive designers really had in mind for their creation before it got watered down to meet the needs of the general public. Could you imagine where our cars would be today if more automobiles stayed in tact from concept to production?

New Models/Introductory Models/ Current Models

I didn’t take pictures of all the new cars at this years show because stock cars, as a rule, are fairly boring and have copious amounts of fender gap (do we really need fist size fender gaps on sedans?).

However I did take pictures on some of the more interesting models.

Classic Motor sports and other memorable cars

There was a pretty awesome classic Motor sports exhibit at the show. In all honesty my knowledge of racing is pretty sparse but I know when a car is worth stopping to snap a photo.

In addition to these there were also a few classic sports/muscle/rods strewn about the show which were there, I would like to think, just to please me.

Shelby Exhibit

Carrol Shelby is a boss. What this man has done for automotive enthusiasts everywhere is incredible. The Toronto International Auto show had a very well put together tribute to his accomplishments over the years. The aforementioned Jag was my favorite car of the show but this was my favorite part of the show.

If you want to see some more photos from the autoshow check out Ste’s shots from media day over at Shutter.Lit.Blogspot.com and at flickr.com/photos/ste823.

Perhaps next year I can try and weasel a press pass? Doubt it but here’s hoping!

When Mike Latter bought his 2001 Subaru Forrester he had no intentions of modifying it, however shortly after joining the Toronto Subaru Club he was bit with what we enthusiasts like to call the mod bug. After plenty of online research hours, wrench turning and visa bills later, Mike’s car is on it’s third revision and currently awaiting its fourth.

Like most Mike’s first round of modifications started off fairly conservative, he installed a set of RaceGear coil-overs and OZ Superturismo wheels and called it a day. Since modified Forrester’s are such a rarity in the GTA Mike’s Forrester quickly stood out and turned a lot of heads in the Summer of 2007.

With the mod bugs venom seeping into his veins via the compliments he was getting on his rides new look Mike began to modify his Forrester over the 2007/2008 winter months.

Once summer of 2008 rolled around Mike further improved upon his Subuaru’s suspension setup by adding a trio of Perrin suspension parts including: a 22mm rear sway bar, sway bar mounts and sway bar end links. Mike also got out his chop saw and welder to fabricate a set of heavy duty front and rear strut bars.

While the suspension was apart he improved braking performance by installing power slot rotors on all four corners.

Under the newly fitted WRX hood, Borla headers were mated to a custom vibrant exhaust system, while inside a GroupA Short shifter was added, along with a set of nex carbon bucket seats for summer use, and 2001 WRX seats for winter. He also took some time at this point to shave a few pounds of sound deadening weight.

When the summer of 2009 came around Mike was at it again installing a set of 19×8 OZ Ultra leggra wheels along with a set of cusco coil overs that allowed him to drop his car lower than his previous, RaceGear, setup would allow.

Near the end of the 09 season, after having some time to take in his cars new look, Mike decided that his wheel fitment left a little to be desired. Aiming to fill his wheel wells a little better Mike ordered a set of custom spacers, which required longer ARP studs, and open ended lug nuts.

Mike knew that a set of Work Lug nuts would be the perfect way to set off his new fitment so he placed his order. Unfortunately for Mike these lug nuts were back-ordered and as month, after month, went by Mike soon found himself in the middle of a snowstorm on summer tires.

This is when tragedy struck, one snowy November night in Burlington Ontario, in the form of a very stubborn pole. With a significantly damaged front end Mike was put in a position that none of us as car enthusiasts want to be in.

With time, love, dedication, and money invested into this vehicle it was heart breaking for Mike to see his Forrester now almost fit for the scrap yard. After much debate on what to do with his bent ride mike eventually pushed his emotions aside Mike and decided to rebuilt his prized possession.

After spending two days locked in his garage Mike was able to get his car back on the road with a new rat/hoodride inspired look.

Mike’s Forrester now wears it’s battle wounds with pride and while one day Mike plans to transfer his parts over to a clean chassis he currently loves his car now just as much as he did before the accident

Mike’s plan, once he gets a new chassis, is to continue to modify his car in a way that makes it unique and eye catching.

Personally I can’t wait to see what comes next, and with the dedication and passion Mike has shown so far the sky is the limit.

Here are a few more photos of Mike’s ride in its current winter and battle ready condition:

Today’s blast from the past doesn’t really go all that far back, just to a time when GTA e30s were low with wheels were sunk into fenders.

Though now sold this alpine white e30 will be remembered as one of the first e30s in the GTA do go down and out.

While I don’t quite remember the first time Leonard popped up on maxbimmer.com I do remember the reaction he got when he posted pictures of his 325is. Jaws dropped and people gawked. No one could deny that hate it or love it this car was pushing the boundaries of GTA e30 tuning at the time.

Slammed on KW Variant 2’s Leonard’s car sat on 16×9.5 and 16×10.5 BBS Rs wheels with an et of 0 and -3 respectively. These now rare wheels (production stopped in about 91 or so) were originally seven inches wide and shipped in all the way from Germany to the USA before Leonard picked them up.

To get these wheels to fit the rear fenders had to be rolled, flared, and cut, in addition to running serious amounts of camber.

I still remember my girlfriend asking me what was wrong with his wheels the first time we drove behind him on a max cruise, funny to think about that now since she’s pretty up on slams now though she won’t admit it.

It wasn’t just the wheels, height, and m-tech add-ons that set this car apart from the crowd like Randy was one of the first people to run HIDs in smoked ellipsoids on an e30. This was a big deal since at this time HID kits were still pretty costly.

Leonard also had one of the most immaculate e30 I.C.E. trunk setups I have ever seen. He did it all himself and it looked very good in person.

Having thought my setup was pretty clean this one made me down right jealous, not to mention it was done to match his equally gorgeous interior.

Once Leonard’s original m20 motor gave up the ghost (thanks to a pooched head gasket) Leonard went to RMP Motors and had an s50 power plant and 5sp manual transmission swapped in.

This swap made this car a complete package and helped quiet the people who were grumbling about the car being all show and no go.

I’m not sure where this car ended up after he sold it but thankfully Leonard is a gifted photographer and images of his e30 threads all over the internet (most notably vwvortex).

Enjoy the collection of photos I was able to scrounge up of this car.

I also happened to find this video of Leonard in winter mode (all year round!) on youtube.

UPDATE:

Leonard was nice enough to send me a photo of the car the last he saw it. Seems that the MTECH wheels have been removed as well as the BBS RS wheels. While still very nice looking I much preferred how it looked before.

I am going to guess these wheels are either Type A’s or B-1s.

All photo credit goes to Leonard Adam:
leonardadam.com
flickr.com/photos/qimis/
LEONARD ADAM Photography on facebook

Volkswagen drivers are serious when it comes to stance. They have been doing it for a long time, and arguably do it the best. Therefore, anytime a pack of proper VW’s scrape down the street together, it’s a rolling lesson in stance 101. I hope that Northern Jersey and area residents have their pens and paper at the ready, because when Star Status is in town they put on a clinic wherever they go.

MKIII GTI – Ramon

The MKIII GTI is a popular platform among the VW crowd, and no VW crew would truly be complete without one. That’s why Star Status has this beautiful example in their fold. Ramon’s MKIII is heavily modified, but never looks over done which is proof of a keen eye to detail.

The body is set off by a JOM badge-less grill, vr6 chin spoiler, fk long turn signals, clear red hella tails, french headlights and chrome mirror caps.

Motor wise, the perpetually loved vr6 has been hopped up with a MarkIV headgasket, Autotech 262 cams, Schrick VGI intake manifold, Giac cam file chip, Secondary Air delete, and a Suitcase muffler delete. To help put all this new found power to the ground, a stage 1 clutch has also been installed.

Inside this dub, and behind a leather wrapped dash, sit a pair of r32 seats, which are complimented by matching leather wrapped door panels with Bentley diamond stitched inserts. The leather continues to flow over the A-pillars, glove box and center console. Finishing off the interior, a suede Bentley diamond stitched headliner was installed alongside a Weichers polished 4 point cage, should this car ever have the misfortune of ending up upside down.

The chances of this car rolling are, thankfully, pretty slim since it squats down in the weeds on a bagyard “bomber” air setup that tucks the 17×7.5 and 17×8 MAE crown jewels perfectly into the wheel wells

Download high res – 371kb

Black MKIII Cabrio – Danny (Mouth)

The second Star Status car is Danny’s MKIII Cabrio, and it’s a serious bit of machinery. The boser hood hints that this car has a little bit of attitude, but I think few would expect that come spring time, underneath that hood and behind the badge-less grill an all black super charged 2.9L vr6 with a Shrick manifold, will sit in the red, shaved bay (which matches the red diamond stitched interior) for anyone ready for a little fun.

Additionally little birdie informed me that by the time spring rolls around Danny’s current 3 piece OZ Pegasus 16×7.5″ wide wheels will be history in favor of a deeper and wider set of wheels. The new set of wheels should be the icing on the cake for this mean little Cabrio.

Download high res – 302kb

UG MKV GTI – Sal

If Danny’s Cabrio wasn’t an indication that Star Status doesn’t believe that riding low always means riding slow, this GTI should be.

Sal’s GTI has been boosted up and beyond factory specs with a GT3071R turbo upgrade while the ride height’s been adjusted with a set of FK silverline plus coil overs.

With such a potent motor and suspension setup this car needed a pair of wheels to pull everything together and the HRE 449r 18×8’s do exactly that.

Download high res – 359kb

The Star Status Black Rabbits

Star Status likes to double their fun, and does so by having two sets of identical body, identical color cars in their flock.

The first Star Status pair is a duo of black MKV GTI’s that drive home the point that often nothing looks cleaner, or meaner than a slammed, clean, black, car.

Furby

Furby’s rabbit keeps the mod list short but very sweet, this car has; B&G coils, Radinox lipped Th-line rims (17×8 and 17×8.5), blacked out headlights, and amber turn signals.

Each of Furby’s modifications compliment the one before it, and create an extremely clean enviable ride.

Download high res – 361kb

Matt

Matt is from the same school of thought as Furby, and as such, his rabbit also has a tight list of well thought out modifications which play off one another to create a portrait of stance perfection.

This black beauty is hammered down onto polished Benz six slots with an air ride setup and has an cutout free oem votex rear, a badge-less grill, and projector headlights.

Download high res – 438kb

Download high res – 504kb

The Star Status Yellow GTI’s

Yellow is a hard color to pull off correctly. It takes a certain type of finesse to modify a yellow car knowing that one misstep can cause an endless amount of big bird references to take flight.

With two yellow cars in their collective, it’s safe to say that Star Status knows how to keep things tasteful when it comes to dealing with yellow rides.

Before Star Status, I would have been hard pressed to post two modified yellow cars in one post, but the decision is basically made for me when the yellow cars look as clean and proper as these. If all yellow cars looked as clean as thisStance Is Everything would be 90% yellow cars.

Paige

The first Star Status GTI was featured in the Girls with hot rides Theme Tuesday and upon seeing it again I remembered just why I liked this car so much.

The female touch behind this build knew that the factory body needed a little bit of help, so a badge-less grill was installed, half of the door cups were shaved, and the hatch was smoothed out entirely.

Once the body was all squared away, a set of RH wheels were installed and an air ride kit brought the body down to ground level.

A lot of guys in the game could take lessons from Paige on what it takes to build a clean, slammed, ride.

Download high res – 382kb

Ahmet

Ahmet’s GTI starts out with the same Imola Yellow paint as Paige’s, and truly upholds the clean look that Star Status is known for. This GTI has an oem votex body kit (Super rare!) and smoked golf tails. Ahmet installed these taillights as something for slower cars to watch fade into the distance as his APR stage 3 plus turbo kit propels his car into the night.

Not about to leave the under hood area untouched, this car has received a flawless Star Status quality shaved engine bay as well. Inside a set of cloth r seats were installed.

Finally Ahmet’s car achieves it’s immaculate stance and fitment by sitting super low on Brown AC Schnitzer Type 1s at 17×8 upfront and 17×9s out back.

Download high res – 382kb

MKIV – DTek

Another Star Status black beauty DTeks MKIV is a head turner. The paint on this car is so deep that it’s easy to overlook the shaved hood notch, bumper notch, side markers and hatch. But what’s not hard to miss is the crushed red velvet that covers the headliner and pillars. This deep red provides a perfect contrast to that flawless black paint.

Under hood the motor breathes better thanks to an intake, turbo inlet pipe, down pipe and exhaust. While an aftermarket chip has been added to remove the restrictive factory ECU settings for a final power push.

The UV airbags on H&R struts bring this Golfs fenders down closer to the polished lips of the 18×8 and 18×9.5 J line 5SL2 rims and if anyone says that black face chrome lip rims are played out the need to look at this car again. When done right this look is tough to beat.

Download high res – 240kb

MKV GTI – Dan

Last but not least in Star Status is Dan’s flawless red GTI. The body of this car has been fitted with euro R32 tails, and a no-cutout euro R32 rear bumper. Inside the engine bay, it packs an extra punch with a stage 2+ tune and bolt ons.

Inside this vw, the front and rear seats have been wrapped in black leather and alcantara to keep the occupants in place during high speed maneuvers, and since Star Status believes in the complete package, the door cards were also done to match.

Star Status is clearly a fan of air ride set ups, and this car is more of the same since it sports a bag over coil setup that allows the lips of these 17×8 and 17×9 polished faced RS rims to sit flush with the fenders when fully aired out.

With these wheels sitting so perfectly in the wells, you just know that a lot of time and measurements went into this final stance.

Download high res – 317kb

I’m no fortune teller but I can see Star Status making waves in the euro tuning scene for years to come. The nine cars you see above are just a few of the cars in the crew.

I’m very happy to have been able to showcase some of their amazing lineup of cars here on Stance Is Everything, and look forward to posting more.

Thanks to Daniel Berenson for being the liaison between myself and Star Status and for splitting photo duty with his friends Ahmet Baran and D Tek.

If you would like to see more of their work photo work their flickr accounts are:
flickr.com/photos/ahmetthejerk
flickr.com/photos/dbson
flickr.com/photos/dtek

Lately photographers to feature have been few and far between, winter has a big part to do with this as motivation to shoot cars often goes out the window when the weather outside is consistently -15 degrees below zero and all the cars are covered in salt. Luckily while browsing the Union Auto Club Blog I stumbled across a talented photographer named Santiago Gomez.

Santiago got into photography in 2007 when he was 17 and combined his new found passion for photography with his existing passion for anything automotive. Originally starting with a Nikon D40 Santiago quickly learned that the person who holds the camera, and not the camera make great photos so he did something uncommon of a lot of budding photographers, once he had a firm grasp of the basics of camera set up such as exposure and aperture, he sold his Digital SLR and dropped back down to a point and shoot Canon G10.

Santiago shot a great deal of his favorite photos with this point and shoot and was so pleased with what he was able to accomplish with this camera that when it was time to get back into the DSLR game in 2009 he stuck with Canon and picked up a Canon Rebel T1i.

So far he has been shooting with kit equipment but he is using winter downtime to research which lenses to pick up this spring to further increase the already high quality of his work.

Having already made a lot of connections in the GTA automotive community Santiago’s future as an automotive photographer looks bright and I feel very privileged to showcase his work so far here on Stance Is Everything.

Static Santiago Gomez Automotive Photography

Dynamic Santiago Gomez Automotive Photography

Santiago Gomez Photography

Big thanks to Santiago for allowing me to post his work and if you want to see more of his work be sure to check out The Official Santi Photo Blog as well as his flickr photostream.

Santiago is looking at picking up a project drift car of his own and considering the crowd he rolls with don’t be surprised to see his car on this blog once it’s finished.

Del Sols have always stuck out as interesting little cars, they tease with the look of a mid engine sports coupe while their underpinnings are actually hinged on the ever popular Civic chassis. As a successor to the much loved and ever popular Honda CRX Del Sols never seemed to catch on quite the same, however for every 10 people who look over the Del Sol there is one individual who is willing to put some time and money into this light and nimble chassis, Erich Hachey is one of those individuals.

I first spotted Eric’s car at Scrape By The Lake 2009, I am pretty sure it was the only Del Sol at the show and it looked pretty nice sitting in the grass in front of the hotel. The second time I saw Eric’s car was at Importfest and even though there were 7 other Del Sols at the show Eric’s is the only one I noticed.

While it was fairly obvious that Eric’s Del Sol had some work done to it, it was  not until I joined Pas Nation and Eric contacted my directly that I got to know just how much work he has put into his car.

Eric, a Hamilton native, has been into the turner scene for about eight years shortly after getting his liscense and first car (an 89 Civic) at age 17.  Like many car enthusiasts he has owned quite a few cars since his first and they have all received a few modifications. His current daily, a 2005 turbo Jetta, for example has about 10 grand worth of money into it just to get from point a to point b.

Off all the cars he has had Eric decided to turn his Del Sol into his show piece and while he didn’t have any pictures of the car in progress to make this a full feature he did have a few pictures and a lot of info to share about the final product.

Right out of the gate Eric was not happy with the factory performance of the Del Sol and therefore swapped the factory motor in favor of a 99 Integra GSR motor with a plethora of bolt on modifications including an AEM intake, AEM fuel rail, AEM cam gears, and venom throttle body, a Fluidyne race rad keeps everything cool while a clutch master stage 2 clutch helps put the power to the ground. Finally a DC sports Header and 2.5″ exhaust was then installed to let everyone know when Eric feels like getting well acquainted with the speed limits here in Ontario.

To balance out show and go Eric spent a great deal of time and care shaving the emblems, wing, antenna, rear license plate and third brake light off of the body. He also sourced out and modified a Buddy Club Body kit and mixed 1950 Ford green with HOK flake to create the unique mint green color his Honda now wears.

Eric knew that the stock stereo wouldn’t cut it on the show scene so he replaced the stock deck 7″ pioneer head unit, the stock speakers with Zapco components, and added some thump in the trunk with 2 OZ audio subs and installed some 2 Kenwood amps and a capacitor to power it all. As a final I.C.E. touch and a throw back to his 80s roots a 15″ tv was added with a classic Nintendo Entertainment system.

While the interior of the car was out for the I.C.E. install the door panels were replaced with custom fiber glass versions and the seats were wrapped in black leather and alligator skin. For the icing on the cake interior wise Eric replaced the factory shift knob with a Coors light beer tap.

Last but not least around here the stance was brought down via Nuespeed springs and Koni shocks while the rolling stock is 17 MSR wheels painted black.

While the Del Sol might not be a popular platform among the stance crowd I think that Eric’s unique sense of style and tasteful modifications help remind us that this platform does have a lot of potential and in the right hands (and not these hands) can become something worth taking a second look at.

Thanks to Eric for contacting me regarding the mini feature and being the first featured ride of 09.

I’ve been meaning to compile a list of some of my favorite automotive blogs for awhile now and sadly this idea for the ‘12 Auto Blogs of Christmas’ hit me after I could have done it for the twelve days leading up to Christmas. But I decided to not let a little thing like time stop me and went ahead and compiled a list of the 12 auto blogs I visit regularly in no particular order.

EK Hatch’s Blog

I’m not really sure how I originally came across Noah’s blog but chances are pretty good that it was via the blog roll of one of the the other eleven blogs posted today. Noah has a diverse hatch fetish that causes him to post cars that I have heard of or seen before in addition to cars I thought no one else liked.

Noah is also a really down to earth person with a big heart who is using his blog as a way to raise money for someone in neeed. Check out the  Melissa Project and lend a hand if you can it’s a great cause.

Noteworthy posts:
Got You Some Book Learnin’
Split Personality : Scirocco
There’s Honda Clean

Full-Lock

It’s always cool when worlds collide (unless your last name is Costanza) and that’s what happened when I found Full-Lock. Logan and I both ride BMX and love cars, the difference is that unlike me Logan is just as crazy behind the wheel of his car as he is on his bike.

When he’s not sliding his car or blasting airs on his bike you can find Logan writing about awesome cars of all sorts on: Full-Lock.

Noteworthy Posts
Performance VW Mag
Aspen White
D-Day 3

Slamburglars

Slamburglars is a crazy crew out of Santa Barbara who like their cars low and live by the handbook. A few rules from the handbook should give you an idea of what these guys are about:
1. Shock travel is for bitches.
14. We like our girls how we like our cars, HAMMERED.
29. The home of bad taste and poor geometry.

While not for everyone I dig this crew and their blog.

Noteworthy Posts
Miater
Slamburglars hot girl of the day!
Preview: The Making Of Rolling Shots

Up-shift.net

Up-Shift.net is written by the working class car nut for the working class car nut. Written by a group of authors with years of industry experience Up-Shift is the place to visit for industry news, product reviews, and car recommendations.

In 2010 Up-shift is going to launch on a new platform to match their new content (which can currently be found here), personally I am looking forward to the ask an officer column, who else has that?

Noteworthy Posts
Porsche Panamera Part 1 – North American Debut in Monterey
Auto Americana – Why The American Auto Culture No Longer Inspires Buyers
Ford and Fiat – The Automotive Saviors?

Chris Hoare – Auto Exposure

Ever known a photographer who’s work you can’t seem to get away from? They are just so good that their photos are posted on every local forum you visit? That’s Chris.

Chris is an amazing GTA based automotive photographer who uses his connections in the scene to shoot a unique collection of cars and events. Being  winter here in the GTA updates have slowed a little but expect big things this spring.

Noteworthy Posts
Rally of the Tall Pines 2009
Socal Subie style crosses the 49th parallel
Forumala Drift @ Irwindale

Cars X Girl

Meg is a die hard car girl who happens to be married to a car guy, between the two of they they have three cars two of which belong to her and are big followers of the function follows form school of thought.  This doesn’t mean that their cars look bad though, it means is that the cars in their family are equal performers and lookers.

Meg is currently in the middle of a SR20DET swap in her 240 and has promised that when it’s done stance and flush is next on the agenda in the mean time she writes in depth thoughtful posts from her perspective as a female tuner.

Noteworthy Posts
Most girls just don’t get cars
Wrenches and Fashion, can they mix?
Last official autocross of the year

The Chronicles

The Chronicles is a big, big, reason why I started my blog. I was jealous of the fun it seems like Joe is having with his. Joe noticed something missing in the automotive blog sphere (a Honda/Acura focused blog) and capitalized on it and I am trying to do the same with a stance/gta based blog.

Being a freelance writer for a few Honda publications also allows Joe to do things like go to SEMA, shoot cover cars, and have a large audience diverse audience willing to listen to him talk about Saved By The bell, lucky.

Noteworthy Posts
Long Beach Represent
Do you understand the consequences of your actions
Super Autotoyz Philipenes diaster relief wash and meet

MotorMavens

MotorMavens is similar to Up-Shift in that it’s written by a collection of car mavens (connoisseurs). The MotorMavens crew sure do get around since their event coverage and featured cars are at a level that which can only I hope to one day achieve.

They also do an excellent job of combing the internet for unique rides to post in their “webmining” category while I check this blog daily I have yet to see any Canadian content, a bit of a bummer, but hey that’s where I come in.

Noteworthy Posts
Car Spotting Sick Stanced STI
Antonio + Bugatti Veyron= Ticket
COVERAGE El Mirage and Land Speed Racing

Phils Car Blog

I don’t really know much about Phil as his blog contains no about page. But from what I can tell from reading his blog and the fact that he named every car in a WTF Friday post without batting an eye is that Phil really knows his cars. His short to the point posts are always a pleasure to read.

Noteworthy Posts
R31
Satin Blue
Dirt Trackin’

Buildthreads

Before I found Buildthreads I used to spend a lot of time hopping from board to board looking for long in depth build threads wishing I had the time and money to do one myself. Now that I have found Build Threads I spend less time looking and more living vicariously through others.

I can relate to Anth in the fact that he’s a guy that just wanted to blog about something he enjoys and the fruits of his labor have paid off since he recently got featured in Performance VW , awesome.

Noteworthy Posts
Project 510 puts in work
Good Samaritans still exist
Slammed Mini Clubman on air

HellaFlush

Next to The Chronicles HellaFlush was probably the second biggest influence I had to create this blog, it’s just a really awesome, well designed, well done, and well run blog that posts flushed (and occasionally slammed) cars from all over the internet. Getting mentioned on this blog means a lot to me and I’m proud to say that I have not done it once but twice.

Noteworthy Posts
E30 with some dish
It’s All about making it in the GTA
A reminder

Speed Hunters

It’s been a long time since I have played any version of Need For Speed but that doesn’t stop me from liking speed hunters. Another combined effort Speed Hunters is similar to Motor Mavens in that it covers “the car culture at large” everything from Rally to Lead Sleds can be found here and if you respect and enjoy the car hobby you will easily lose hours of your day at Speed Hunters. I am hoping to one day be able to contribute to this blog somehow… fingers crossed.

Noteworthy Posts
The Sacrilegious 350z
That 240z
Slamburglars steal the sparks

Well that’s it for the 12 blogs of Christmas but that’s hardly it for my favorite Automotive Blogs, I look for new blogs almost daily since each new blog I find helps make S.I.E. better as each inspires and motivates me differently. So expect another post or two like this in the future as I find new blogs everyday.

Have a safe and happy Holidays and if you have a chance drop by tomorrow, it will be worth it

Adrian and Will are two friends (and S.I.E. fans) from Tucson, AZ, Adrian whips a slammed Accord while Will pushes the dropped bug on phone dials I posted in one of the first readers rides. The two of them got together to do a photo shoot sent the snaps my way via twitter. When I asked who’s lower it seemed the topic was up for debate between the two but a little friendly rivalry never hurt anyone.

In addition to sick cars both of these guys also have pretty rad flickr accounts (Will: flickr.com/photos/eseph/, Adrian: flickr.com/photos/fundillo/) that are worth a gander.

I noticed via some twitter creeping and it was Will’s Birthday yesterday so happy belated dude.

Thanks for sending in the pics guys, keep me updated on the rides.

Being Canada’s largest bmw community maxbimmer.com is known for having a few nice rides, however it’s been minute since someone on Max built up a simple, clean, low, e36. Doogee has been a max member for awhile now and every time he started a new thread with photos of his car I saved them for a future e36 Theme Tuesday. When he got a new set of wheels and spun his coil overs down I knew that this car deserved a post all to itself.

Doogee’s 328is has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last year or so. After being rear ended by a preoccupied young driver he took his car to one of the best shops in the city and got it repaired to essentially factory, if not better, condition.  At this point the car already had a few appearance and performance related modifications however the car really caught my attention when he pulled out his H&R sports and installed Bilstein PSS9s.

With an M bumpers, a new stance, Kosei K-1s, and a bunch of performance mods including: an M50 manifold, AA intake, Remus Exhaust, X brace, sway bars, and a reinforced sub frame it seemed like Doogee was just about done with this e36 modification wise and ready to make the jump to an m3 (some argue he might not actually notice a difference at this point).

That was until he found a set of oem style 5’s and lowered his car a bit more. His new look proves once again that not only are style 5’s one of the best oem BMW rims ever made (M parallels are another), but that you don’t need much more than subtle mods, clean paint, dope wheels and a perfect stance to look dope.

While I should have posted this car multiple times before judging by Doogee’s sense of style, taste in mods, and photography skills this is not the last time you will see this car posted on stanceiseverything.com e36 owners take notes, this is how it’s done.

Addiction is a funny thing, it drains wallets, consumes time, and changes lives immensely. While most addictions are negative this is not always the case, some addictions are nothing put positive. Chris Savard is an addict, but his vice of choice isn’t snorted, injected, or swallowed, no, the only way his addiction can be quenched is via long nights, hard work, and dedication. Chris Savard is addicted to the build.

Originally from Peterborough Ontario, but currently living in Australia attaining his masters, Chris has been building cars since he got his first fox body Mustang at the age young age of 15. Since then he has owned and worked on over 30 foxes.

Having owned 30 of the same car in such a short period of time is impressive alone, but when you factor in the fact that he has also bought, built, and sold 10 e36s BMWs and 3  Ford SVT Lightnings in that same time period one begins to wonder if Chris ever sleeps and if his projects are fueled by profit gained from other peoples addictions. Chris used this mystery to his advantage and took on the ‘Infamous’ nick name that was eventually bestowed to him. Chris is now getting ready to show the car world just what a true car nut can achieve with his own two hands.

Chris’ currently daily driver of three years (a near record for him) is a Silver 2000 Ford SVT Lighting which he purchased in Chicago after the owner moved there from Arizona. This clean southern platform came with a JDM (this JDM not Japanese Domestic Market) stage 1 performance package already installed.

While the stage 1 package consists of a 4lb lower pulley, upgrade valve body, CAI, and a 90mm maf Chris knew right away that more modifications were in order.

Chris originally dropped the truck down four inches in the front with two inch drop tubular control arms and matching two inch drop springs, and four inches in the rear via a DJM flip kit and C notch.

However after taking a step back and looking at his freshly dropped ride he realized that he could, and needed to, go lower. He had a set of custom three inch drop springs made and added a two inch drop shackle to the rear to give the truck its final 5/7 drop.

To help make the new ride height livable Chris installed drop shocks on all four corners.

To set off the new drop Chris added custom painted 23″ 3 piece OZ vela rims with 295/30/23 Nitto tires. With such a drastic drop and large wheels some would say that Chris took a perfectly functional truck and made it impractical, however this Lightning is still capable of helping you move and towing water crafts to the lake.

With the suspension and wheel set up squared away Chris decided that the already fast truck needed some more ‘umph‘ when the loud pedal was smashed. This lead to the stock exhaust being ditched in favor of a MAC catback system, and the silencer holes in the blower being filled. Once that was all done the truck received a Royal Purple blood transfusion.

With the wheels, suspension, exterior (via billet grill, tails and 2pc headlights), and motor all being addressed Chris set forth to add his ‘Infamous’ touch to the interior.

Chris made his own suede black head liner in addition to dyeing the rest of interior black. He also swapped out the factory passenger bench seat in exchange for a bucket seat, finally the center console from a Ford Expedition was added along with a triple gauge pod and full stereo system.

Future plans for the truck include a Cervinis tailgate wing, smooth side steps and eventually a whipple blower once the current motor pops.

These future plans may have to wait at least three months as Chris is about to dive head first into The Infamous Project which will see him build a 1992 BMW AC Schnitzer and a 1989 Mustang GT Convertible for this years Performance World Car Show in Toronto.

The Infamous project will set a new standard for internet builds since not only will it be largely privately funded it will also be one of the only builds, to my knowledge, that will contain a live video feed of garage while Chris works on both cars.

If this double build is anything like his past builds it will be interesting, detailed, and clean, just what we all need to help us get through another long Canadian winter.

Thanks to Chris for sending his ride in for the feature and good luck goes out to him for both of his builds. I’m eager to see how the turn out.