Why is that something worth talking about? It weighs almost 4000 pounds and has the aerodynamics of a flying shoe box.

Sure today throwing a ton of horsepower at something big, heavy, and square isn’t anything out of the ordinary but in ’63 when this truck was built and run it was a pretty big deal.

Built as an exhibition car this Dodge had all its factory running gear yanked from under the hood and replaced with a 413 cubic inch Ramcharger backed by a fittingly heavy duty TorqueFlite transmission.

That huge motor tossed this trucks weight distribution right out the window and even with the entire front end being replaced with fiberglass panels, and a lead tailgate, distribution was still a 70/30 split.

To help with the weight transfer this truck received the gasser treatment, high up front, lower out back.

As expected this truck chewed up and spit out parts until all the kinks were worked out and was a bit of a handful to pilot (quickly) due to their being pretty much no weight over the rear wheels.

Since it was such a handful you would think some famous quarter mile racer at the time would point this metal brick but it was actually driven by a DJ named Dick Boyton, wild.

Like all interesting racers it appears as though it vanished for awhile and then was rebuilt (or at least replicated), information about how it ended up looking like below was oddly a little scarce but as they say, legends never die.

More Info can be found in this article titled ‘The Flying Barn Door‘ and of course on The H.A.M.B where all cool things automotive seem to be documented.

Also there is a video in that classic old timey voice.

Site (Car) Updates

Some of you may have noticed this picture on the fanpage revealing that yes I finally put my car back to summer mode with a little help from the guys at Automatrix Auto Service. The new pillow ball mounts from BC are a huge improvement over the old and the new front springs really put me at a ride height I am much happier with.

Once I actually detail it I will take some new pictures but here is one from my phone.

Flashback Friday

Street Classics kicks of Saturday and I’m going to swing by with the better half and my old man. If you see me holler.

Love those shows man.

Chances are pretty good I may have posted this EF sedan sometime before but even if I did it’s not like it isn’t worth seeing again.

Locally these cars usually have hazy bondo filled rear quarters so the condition of this alone is mind blowing. Never mind the stance.

Draggin' mud flap all day

If I recall correctly there was a set of these for sale locally in the winter, wonder where they ended up

Small detail but I have always liked when people gracefully bend their plates to match the bumper instead of moving them or leaving them straight

This car popped up on my radar(somewhat recently) thanks to JDM euro.

Though most of the Mustang crowd hates the cars posted on this site those that are into the low life sure know how to put together an eye pleasing car.

The fox body will always be a favorite of many not just for it’s looks but also for its performance, distinctive exhaust note, and huge aftermarket catalog.

This 87 notch spotted on Stance| Works is one of the better looking notches I have seen online lately.

Eibach Prokits up front with H&R springs in the back with a coil removed all around

I much prefer the smoked headlights to the GTs covers often found on these

A keen observer noted that the exhaust now goes under the axle on this fox

Perfect ride height for this car if you ask me

Dayum.

Specs are 18×10 + 25 XXR wheels with 255/35 tires, it’s also got a Cobra 03/04 (thanks Phil) IRS suspension out back.

I should look for some Camaros to even things out..

I’m not going to attempt to summarize his 89 years of life and impact on the automotive culture in this post but rather post some of the many cars he had a hand in creating, influencing, or building.

The fact that he even took the time to mess with this chassis is a testament to how much he loved cars

And then of course there were these which some report were faster round the track than the '66 Mustang GT350

The gt500 CR by Classic Recreations

and who could forget the GT500?

Very tastefully done fifth gen GT500 from the SpeedHunters 2012 Shelby Reunion coverage

The GR-1 concept based on the Shelby Cobra Concept with inspiration from the Daytona Coupe

I always preferred the GTS Coupe to the viper before it, and Shelby had his hands in both cars

There is of course no omitting the Daytona Cobra Coupe which was built to put down Horses

Posted this beautiful shot on the fanpage Sunday

Superformance Daytona Coupe with Exotic Auto Restoration wide body conversion

From The Shelby exhibit at the 2010 Toronto International Auto Show

Several Million dollars worth of racing history made its way to Toronto

Ollie sent this through, the first production Cobra

No Shelby tribute would be complete without plenty of Cobras

Growing up my neighbor had two Micro Machines I really wanted, the SL 300, and the Cobra you see in the bottom corner

I think this was at the show in Kirkfield I attended

I need to go to a heritage racing event and see some of these in action first hand

The most replicated cars of all time?

If you want to read more about Caroll the NY times put out a pretty good article as did USA Today and of course there is always the Google monster.

If you want to read a completely insane story about the 4 million dollar Daytona Cobra coupe pictured below click the photo or here.

RIP Carroll Shelby.

There is no doubt in my mind that they also faced the same criticisms about ‘ruining’ cars that modern day stance enthusiasts do today.

Coming across Gassers in Ontario is not at all common so when a few of you let me know via Facebook that this car is parked minutes from my house more often than not I made sure to swing by with my DSLR yesterday while running a few errands.

Besides the obvious fact this 49(?) Mercury is awesome and occasionally shows up at Street Classics events I know very little about it.

Lack of knowledge has never stopped me from taking pictures of something before however.

The classic Gasser lifted nose

Look where the trunk of that Corolla lines up

Interestingly enough the rear of this car was almost as high as the front

Love...

The exhaust setup was interesting, I wonder if it was blocked of here to be street legal?

Windows were down or just plain not there

Billetproof is another event I want to attend some day...

Evidently the owner of this car also owns the tattoo shop on the corner where I spotted it so next time I am in the area I might stop buy, I’ve been thinking about a half sleeve anyway…

I ended up reading most of it while traveling but as I was removing it from my back pack to I noticed I skipped over an article featuring a Harley Davidson powered fiberglass 32 Ford.

I’ve seen GSXR and Hybusa motors used in small cars (smart cars), and go karts, but this was the first time I had seen a Harley Motor used in a four wheel configuration.

The car featured was built by Kick Ass Rod Shop in Hickory, North Carolina and exterior wise it’s got typical street rod modifications including being sectioned, shortened, and channeled,in addition to having a raked stance and billet wheels.

Pretty par for the course but what is behind the rad is the most interesting bit:

The motor comes from a Harley Davidson Sportster

The motor is basically stock (other than intake and headers) and uses a transfer case out of a Legends car which all said and done yields 6 forward gears and 6 reverse gears.

What you do with 6 reverse gears I have no idea.

Clean Rod otherwise

This car peaked my interest and before I let watching Die Hard for the hundredth time dominate my evening I started looking around for another Harley powered Hot Rod and found this T bucket.

Also Sporster powered this one uses the original transmission and has an electric reverse.

Sporster in a T

The story goes owner of this one drove the Sportster home and then tore it apart to put the motor and rear suspension into the Ford.

I really wish I could find more details of the rear suspension as it sounds interesting.

I wonder if it ended up getting a coat of paint

Sure you could probably try and tell the owners that there are other more powerful motors that could have been swapped in with less effort but I doubt they can hear you over that Harley lope.

More info on the one found in Hot Rod Magazine can be found on their site and more info on the second is at kneeslider.com which actually has an entire section devoted to four wheel vehicles with Harley Motors including this surprisngly street legal dragster looking Rod.

Can't imagine the turning radius

No rules to Hot Rodding.

Site Updates

Not hitting up any events this weekend and focusing on getting my car in proper shape for the season.

Cleaning the wheels, lowering it some more, and giving it a sorely needed detail, anyone want to clay bar it for me?

Flashback Friday

Now that the Juke R is somewhat of a reality can also make this real?

 Maybe do something about the headlights on the hood while you are at it.

The idea of having a few pages in a printed publication to do whatever I want with was very appealing and opportunity to reach a new audience was something I couldn’t turn down, so I said yes.

The article below is my first, and since the feedback on this one was so positive I am currently working on my second.

If you are having trouble reading the .jpgs above an online version of the entire magazine is available here.

If you are looking for events in the Greater Toronto area and the Event Calendar on the Stance Is Everything fanpage isn’t up to date you can check out The Toronto Car Meet Event Calendar on facebook that is updated fairly frequently.

I am always looking for new topics to write about so if you have an idea feel free to let me know.

Beautiful at every angle there is literally nothing that should be changed on this car.

Nothing.

NASIOC thread from 2011

I manged to pull together this post nearly entirely from other half started Theme Tuesday posts so that should give you an idea of what’s in-store eventually.

E30.

As if I could leave out an Impala

Gas prices be damned I would love to roll this

RWB's Spearmint Rhino

E46 with just the right amount of everything, tire, lip, drop

Old picture, dope cab.

Probably the most unique looking car in today's post

Common e36 wheel and that is not at all a bad thing

I have always loved this colour

Does anyone know what happened to this car after the new owner got it home?

Dope shot of Dan rolling from his tuned life feature

Heat via The Chronicles...

Phil's car if you forgot

Mustang drop from SEMA Tijin edition I do beleive

Speaking of SEMA...

Posted this stang awhile back on the fanpage

I'm sure some people are very mad about this but hey.. it happens

Top always down

Feel free to remind me of other ones I have yet to do…

The first Squeaky Clean event had a bit of a luke warm reception (not helped in the least the weather) so for 2012 Matt started with an event focused on the cars and the people instead of awards.

Held at Neo Motorsport in Richmond Hill ‘Coffee’ was a great excuse for GTA enthusiasts to get together on a warm spring day.

I had some running around to do in the morning so I missed a few cars but there was still quite a bit more people at the event than in these photos.

Nice to see this Healy out, a little diversity never hurt anyone

Car sounded great too

These two were selling cans of Plasti Dip and were clearly fans of the product

The owner of this car was telling me he plans to go lower and wider soon, should be interesting

Missed most of the Scrape Crusaders at this event

If these front wheels came out a bit more (nothing crazy) this Lexus would look even cleaner

It's very subtle but this Subaru has a bit of gold flake in the paint

Fitted G Sedan

One of Neo Motorsports sponsored track cars

My friend Steve recently put on these RPF-1s, he also got a custom version of the script sticker through the affiliate store on SecheMedia.ca

Big fan of this Miata

Under the hood was more reason to like it

About midway through the event this Ford pulled up with a water filled tarp in the bed and two girls sitting inside.

I honestly had no idea people actually did this and I didn’t get too close to the whole set-up because I was convinced it was part of some hidden Just For Laughs gag.

The Optimus Reim decal just made this whole thing even more random

Wobbly pops perhaps?

No clue how far they travelled like this

Anyway keeping it moving aside from the S13 at the end of this post some of the most impressive cars at this meet were Hondas.

Mixed in with the regulars were a few cars I had never seen before.

When Matt is not driving his s2000 he drives this Civic and I guess when that runs out of gas he takes his bike

Local JDMrides guys

Clean pair of sedas sittin low

Great wheel choice here works well with the paint color

Surprising colour combination that I think works well

This Black on Robins egg blue also looked pretty nice

Nicely put together EK hatch

For a car that gets tracked consisently Spenser's car always looks great

His engine bay trumps lots of show cars too

Yellow s2000s really conflict with previous statements I have made about not liking yellow cars

Nice to see a wheel I'm not familar with

Another s2000 on wheels I later learned were 5zigen-Heidfelds

Got carbon?

Elevated always comes out to support Matt's events

Brian in his usual hoodless fashion, like Spenser's car this car also keeps getting better and better

NSX I've never seen out before

As I mentioned before this was the stand out car of the meet for me, looked great, sounded amazing, and can no doubt tear up a track.

Look forward to seeing it sliding at some events this year.

As many of you mentioned on facebook, that is indeed one expensive hood prop

Next time I'll focus on the SR20....

Looking at so much negative camber the rear almost looks positive

That is a lot of tire

I'll see if I can take a similar pic of this corner as the season progresses

2012 season already off to a great start…

Oddly enough two companies released very similar Camaro kits, one by a company called KAR and another by a company called Glass Vac and from what I have read both were based around a Beetle chassis.

Nothing like a project that is a bit of a basket case

The proportions are oddly right on these things

A look at the power plant

A finished model... perhaps the same one?

The paint on it reminds me of the fiberglass coin op cars you see outside of supermarkets

I guess the VW Vin would make it eligible for historic plates

Both kits are pretty rare now but like all things show up to online auctions every now and again, they look like they could be a very interesting project to play with if you could get your hands on one.

I’m sure with enough power these could do wheelies just like toy.

Heck they would probably look good slammed too.

Thanks Ollie for the tip, more info can be found here.

Site Updates

This Sunday I should be at the first Squeaky Clean event of the year.

I’ve also got my wheel back from repair now so my car should be back together soon once I find sometime to give everything a very good cleaning (read not this weekend).

Flashback Friday

Just because I had this open today for a few discussions on the fanpage I am going to flashback (again) to a Theme Tuesday I did on unique local motorswaps.

Both Northstar swaps I posted on the fan page along with a few other things are in there.

Finally RIP MCA.

Truth is, though way before my time, 70 vans have always intrigued me. They are an interesting niche of car culture and from what I’ve been told ‘vanners’ are often far more interesting than the vans themselves.

This 71 Dodge Tradesman built by Ron Cambra was actually at SEMA in 2010 and had a feature in Truckin’ magazine.

The van has a ride tech system underneath it inclduing a 4 link rear

Paint work was done by Steve Vandemon using House of Kolors paint

True spoke wheels wrapped in Cooper Cobras.. I have not seen Cobras in awhile

I wonder how those side pipes sound?

The Octopus's Garden At Sema, my only gripe would be the headlight covers but I suppose it is period correct?

Initially spotted this on The Low Down then truespoke.net and a few other places.

This just gives me more respect for those with Mustangs willing to go against the herd.

This 2007 is on 20×10.5 et30 wheels with 255/35 tires, low is provided by Megan coils which have brought it down 3 inches in the back and almost 4 up front.

Cleaned of all badging this is one sexy front end

Glad to see the slightly raked stance carried over, evening out a Mustang might look a little weird

Plenty of clearance back there to still romp on the loud pedal

"You can't tame these horses"

Thread with more photos is on S|W

For the record I’ve never seen The Outsiders only read the book, and yes that is another Atmosphere reference in the last caption.

The fact that only certain cars take really well to this treatment makes them even harder to find.

Huge respect to the people still building these cars today, it shouldn’t have taken me so long to do this and I plan on making this one more than one part.

Local ride that sports a Lead Kings dragger plate

A shot from a later event, hubcaps changed a bit

Super clean...

Or rocking patina... take your pick

Must find this one again...

Lead Kings

A re post from the no shine Theme Tues

Love the very subtle use of pin striping on the raw metal

Smooth as hell Merc

Restrained palette, sick results

49ish Olds, I wouldn't like this car stock I don't think

That distinctive fool your eye reverse rake sled profile

I love this, the roof sets it off without looking gaudy.. looks like it just rained almost

More incredible pin stripping on the trunk of this car

Want to see more bad ass photos? Check out Brett Sloan's tumblr

This Caddy... the grill might not be for everyone but damn

Talk about breaking necks..

Can a drop be a sled? Guess so?

Retina popping color choices working quite well

One from Japan... I'm deep in the Japanese American car culture rabbit hole these days

This is one of the longest and lowest cars I have ever seen... dually length status

I’d love to shoot a sled if anyone out there reading this in the GTA has one…

Also what is the difference between a Sled and a ‘Kustom’?  I couldn’t really find a definitive answer.

Despite several people telling me that trying to get the city to pay for it would be a wasted effort I went through with it and on April 9th 2012, I was compensated in full for the damages.

Because first hand information on exactly how to get compensated in Toronto is a little scarce I have assembled my experience in a step by step format in the hopes that one day it might help one of you out.

The first thing I did…

After the initial impact I swore, a lot. I cursed myself for not seeing it, cursed the traffic around me for not letting me avoid it, and of course cursed the city for leaving it there.

Once I finished all of that I checked  my car for any leaking fluid, bent wheels, etc I came to the conclusion that the only visible damage done was a flat spot in one of my Equips.

The second thing I did…

After calming down I went home to get my camera and tripod and once back at the scene I took plenty of photos of the piece of road and lack of signage warning motorists of it’s prescience.

To get paid you have to prove that the city (or contractor) was negligent so take as many photos as possible in the event they repair it soon after your claim in the hopes of sweeping the issue under the rug.

In my case while taking pictures the owner of the house the hole was in front of  came out and informed me he had been contacting the city for weeks to finish the job because he could hear people hit it inside his house. I noted his name, address, and phone number, along with the person he was had been in contact with at the city.

You might not be able to do this but it can’t hurt to try and knock on a few doors (if possible) to see how long the road has been in disrepair.

The photos I submitted are below:

I also took the photos below in case they needed further proof that the hole was indeed capable of causing damage to a vehicle, I didn’t end up having to use these.

The Third Thing I did…

Once home I went to the City of Toronto Claims Page which said I had to email claims@toronto.ca to get the ball rolling.

This was the email I sent with a few changes made for this post.

To whom it may concern,

At 7:30pm on Monday October 17th 2011 I was traveling westbound on Burnhamthorpe Road when I struck a pothole located in front of house 1234567. This pothole was not caused by road shifts or degradation due to weather but by a negligent construction crew who had yet to return and finish the job.

The hole was NOT marked in any way shape or form.

Once I realized my vehicle was damaged I returned to take the attached pictures of the hole that did the damage.

It was at this time that I met Mr. & Mrs. Smith residents of 124567 Burhnamthorpe Road who informed me that the city has been made aware of this hole multiple times and has failed to do anything about it.

At 9:30pm Monday October 17th I left a message with Dan Polen of Transportation services (416-394-8579), with whom the Smiths had been in contact with, informing him of my situation.

As there were no construction signs in the area marking the road work I believe the city should be held responsible for this damage.

I hope to receive a prompt reply to this email regarding my situation.

Thank you for your time.

The most important things to put in your email is the date, location of the incident, and which direction you were traveling.

Again the more detail the better.

Next…

My car began to make some very unfavorable noises the next morning so I took it over to Advance Power House for a suspension inspection.

They concluded that my pillow ball mounts took the brunt of the damage and had to be replaced.

After learning that I got them to put the estimate on paper knowing that to be compensated I would need a paper trail, later I got Nextmod to provide me with an estimate for repairing my bent wheel.

In this photo the bend does look minor but it got to the point where I would see it instantly.

Rotated it is more noticeable

The sum of my damages was as follows:

• Wheel Repair – $252.25
• Pillowball mounts – $293.80

Finally I waited…a lot.

The city claims department emailed me back on October 20th 2011 (three days after my initial email) and a few days later their insurance company asked for photos of the damage along with written estimates. Once they had this they looked for the contractor responsible for the work.

I should mention at this point once the city has identified the contractor it is up to you to stay on the contractor to pay, the city doesn’t care because they have contracts set up to protect themselves.

This first contractor let me know that they didn’t do the work in question and that their site was much further west and had documentation to prove it. So I went back to the claims department and I waited again  for them to find the correct contractor.

On January 27th 2012 I was put in touch with the correct contractor and after already waiting four months I was pretty tired of the entire ordeal so I started calling once a week until the situation was resolved.

When dealing with situations like this (as frustrating as they are) I have found that the key is to be polite but stern, otherwise they don’t take you serious.

After about a month of calling twice a week and not getting anywhere I again contacted the city’s claims department to apply a little more pressure on the contractor (which they did my mailing a letter… city isn’t up on email evidently) and I let the contractor know I was looking into small claims options.

Two weeks later on March 23rd 2012 I was told I would be receiving compensation for my damages and finally on April 9th 2012 the money arrived.

After about six months, 60 emails, and at least 25 phone calls the ordeal was over and I finally got my money.

The compensation system is designed to wear you down, no doubt about it, but it is completely possible to receive money is most cases.

If you have any questions, or are in a similar situation post up in the comments and I would be glad to lend a hand.