BMW

For the past four years Dave and the ever growing Stretch & Poke! operating team have been providing Toronto's aggressive fitment community with quality events for enthusiasts, by enthusiasts. Last years season opening event clocked in record attendance and, not a group to rest on their laurels, the Stretch & Poke team strived to top their previous success with an even bigger 2013 event at an all new venue.

With Driven in the books the 2013 show season is now "officially" underway in Calgary. Eager to get old man winter out the door this years driven took place a little earlier than last year which meant a few people had to scramble to get their cars ready for the show. However 250+ cars ended up making it to the Calgary Oval even with the accelerated timeline and Mike once again did a great job of capturing the show in the artistic way only he can.

Today is the day I make good on last Friday's promise of some more favourable front end swaps to balance out the more horrendous. Front (and rear for that matter) swaps are always going to be somewhat controversial, and a matter of personal preference, so I have no doubt some of you are not going to agree with a few of these picks. As always feel free to express your opinions, or share ones I may have missed, in the comments below.

The weather was exceptionally great last weekend and my car was freshly ready for summer (thanks to Simply Tire and Automatrix) so I swung by Tiremag on Sunday for a BBQ they had organized along the people behind Ertefa. I must admit I was pretty surprised at the turnout since it's still somewhat early in the season and I know a few cars that are still in several pieces.

Early last week Buni sent in a few photos of his m3 converted e91 Touring and Iended up posting one of them on the Facebook fan page.  Buni's touring was incredibly well received and is proof that of the nearly universal appeal of a OEM+ styled wagon.

Sometime last year I got into a conversation about "real" wheel companies with a local enthusiast. Normally I try and avoid conversations like this all together but, this time I took the bait and asked the person to list off a few companies he considered real. The standard prerequisites (BBS, Volk, Work, and so forth) were fired off but I was a little shocked that he failed to mention any of the numerous new (or perhaps maturing) wheel companies that have been putting out original designs within the past 5 years or so.

Today's portion of coverage from Mega Speed 2013 focuses almost exclusively on the tuner hall which this year was fairly self contained from the rest of the show.  Apparently this was done based on feedback from last year but personally I would have liked to have been a little bit closer to the rest of the action.

I like to believe there are at least two universal truths among car enthusiasts. The first is that everyone loves the e30 m3, and the second is that everybody likes a good burnout. Personally I love a good burnout and while I agree they have their time and place (leaving a meet is neither the time nor the place), I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more tires evaporate into clouds of smoke this year.

Back with the second (and final) batch of photos from the 2013 Canadian International Autoshow media day. In my two years of experience attending the show for media day I have found striking an even balance between getting uncluttered photos and attending big reveals a little difficult. Last year I missed pretty well everything but this year I fared a bit better managing to catch three or four. Sadly I was distracted during Chevrolet's uncloaking of the Sting Ray which I'm still kicking myself over.

Yesterday I got on the subway in Mississauga (with no snow in sight) only to arrive to Toronto in the middle of a snowstorm. That's a complete weather change in about 30 minutes. The snow combined with the bitter cold (double digit negatvies with wind chill) served as a reminder that old man winter has kicked off his shoes and put his stanky old feet on the coffee table with intentions of over staying his welcome.

A few weeks after SEMA, while searching for something I can't remember, I stumbled across a blog called Just A Car Guy. As the name states the gentlemen who runs it is just a car guy that finds anything with wheels cool. The blog is perhaps the most eclectic collection of everything automotive I have seen in  awhile and where I originally found today's gem of a WTF Friday specimen.