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

Last week my friend Chris, from Toronto Mazda 3 gave me a shout asking if I wanted to take part in a little photo shoot/meet on the May 24 holiday Monday.

Having nothing better to do I cleaned my car, grabbed my girlfriend and headed out, here are some of the resulting photos my girlfriend took of the day.

TM3 guys if you want high res versions of this shoot just send me an email.

I saw this car in the Mazda3Forums aggressive fitment thread and immediately realized that this is the look that I am after for my car, a reasonable daily drivable amount of flush mixed with a nice stance.

I have quite a few of these same mods already so I just need to get my fitment a bit more on point and I should be looking pretty legit…

The vitals on this set up are:
Wheels: Enkei RPF1 17×9 ET45 (+5mm spacers in the rear)
Tires: Federal 595 SS 215/45-17
Suspension: Bilstein B8 shocks, Eibach Sportline springs (1 ring cut F & and 1.25 ring cut R)
Bodywork: Rolled fenders

For me this means that my 7 inch wheels are way too narrow and my next set (which I have been passively looking for) needs to be wider or have a lower offset (my current will be ET38 Monday which is an improvement but still.)

I could also probably get by with 45 profile tires as oppose to 40s with my next set as well. Finally though I am on the same springs as this 3 owner I have not and will not cut my springs as I would rather, eventually, put on some coil overs and really dial in my setup from both a performance and aesthetic perspective (I am on Sportlines and Yellows now for those keeping track).

Either way it was great to see this.

On Thursday April 15th the Toronto Mazda 3 Club kicked off their weekly ‘AA Thursdays’ meets at Next Mod in Markham.

The last time I had been to Next Mod was the grand opening and I figured that the turnout to that event couldn’t be rivaled by this one but boy was I wrong.

Not only did members from the Toronto Mazda 3 club come out in large numbers but so did people from the 6 club, and jdmrides.ca. It’s a good thing Next Mod has lots of parking.

Store shots

Since it was a little cold the store was packed most of the time but I did manage to get a shot of Next Mods new signage and a shipment of Rays wheels.

Non Mazda 3′s

Even though this meet was most heavily advertised on the Mazda 3 forums, whenever there is a car meet in our area it’s expected and welcomed that other people come crash it.

Mazda 5′s and 6′s

There were quite a few of these guys out but since I forgot my tripod and where they were parked was kind of dark I wasn’t able to get too many shots of these guys, sorry dudes.

The Ladies of Toronto Mazda3

Unlike most other car clubs I have been a part of the Mazda 3 women are just as active on the boards and at the meets

Mazda3 Sedans

Hatches

I’m not a really big self hype kind of guy I would rather toss over the accolades to someone else and let my work continue to be the platform to showcase the work of others. So that being said here is a collection of exceptional photos of my girlfriends first foray into automotive photography using my ride as the test mule.

Lyndsey did an excellent job of choosing great locations for all of these photos all I had to do was wash my car, show up, and park.

For those of you viewing from out of town (or even out of country) all of these shots were taken at Exhibition Place in Toronto with the backdrops spied out by Lyndsey’s creative eye.

If you want to head out and use this venue for photos of your own security is really light on days when there are no events.

Her photography site at ellemariephotograpy.com is not fully up yet but her email is up and running at ellemariephotography@gmail.com