Honda

While s-chassis and AE86s have proven themselves tim,e and time, again as capable drift cars I'm positive I am not alone in wishing that there was a little more vehicle variety in the drifting world. Sure it might not be the most cost efficient way to go about things but there is something to be said for those who do things the hard way.

A few weeks ago Importfest hosted a 'Mega Meet' --aka a show and shine-- at Sherway Nissan is Mississauga. The event was open to all make and model of vehicles with speciality awards reserved for Nissan entrants. Dealership shindigs are often hit or miss but this one was pretty solid offering up a variety of cars from classics all the way to big money exotics. In addition to cars there were a few food vendors, the Grey Cup, a handful of cheerleaders, and a couple Toronto Argonaut players.

It's no secret that people here in North America are becoming increasingly obsessed with the enthusiast culture in Japan. Print publications like Super Street periodically run features on shops and gatherings in the land of the rising sun, while on-line media houses like SpeedHunters have hired Japanese correspondents to provide an in depth, on-going look into their scene. On the flip side Japanese enthusiasts have begun to take great interest in what we are doing and one of the magazines providing those in Japan a close look at the North American Enthusiast culture is USDMFREAX.

While writing the feature on Gerrot's awesome turbo LS1 powered s2000 I began to wonder what kind of applications his old F20 could be used for. I'm well aware that the f20 has become pretty commonplace in the ae86 chassis --there are at least four in Toronto alone-- but a bit of Google searching revealed that it's usefulness extends well past the Hachi-Roku. Here are a few examples I've found so far but I know there are more out there so feel free to share a few I may have missed!

Considered one of the most well rounded and affordable sports cars ever built there are many who regard the Honda s2000 as near perfect straight from the factory. More often know as purists these individuals look down on any sort of modification done to the AP1 chassis as tarnishing a master piece. To a purist removing the factory power plant in favor of an LS1 would be considered a cardinal sin but thankfully for us Gerrot is not a purist by any definition of the word.

Vagkraft and round four of the Canadain Sport Compact Series unfortunately always seem to fall on the same day which means I have to make the difficult choice between to great events. As I'm sure you already know for 2013 my choice was Vagkraft however I like to run coverage from all the CSCS events so I asked around to see who would be making the voyage to Cayuga.

While I was at Torque Modified, a little closer to home in Mississauga Tires 23 was holding a charity BBQ/show and shine as a show of thanks for the years of support they've received from the community. In addition to free food, the event had speciality trophies, giveaways, raffles, and live music and at the end of the day Tires 23 raised $1,022 for Credit Valley Hospital.

With Importfest coverage just barley out the door we can move things right along with the third round of CSCS coverage for 2013. Round three took place at Mosport and while that's a venue I particularly like shooting I opted to sit things out this round because I was a little run down from a week of preparation for Importfest. Luckily I was able to find a few photographers willing to pick up my slack and judging from the photos contributed by Kevin Tam and Kenny Barnes, CSCS Mosport was a blast just like years previous.

Time to jump right back into the second of three Importfest show day coverage photos. Despite the "can't beleive I missed that car" feeling I get after every event I am pretty happy with the coverage this year compared to years previous. I'm finally on my way to figuring out the tricky Metro Toronto Convention Centre lighting. Part 1 ended off with a lot of the cars Nextmod brought out and today's coverage hops from crew to crew before ending off with a few vehicles from Street Outlawz including their insane v10 Nissan s14 project.

Now in it's thirteenth year Importfest is a firmly established staple of the Toronto scene and for the second year in a row Stance Is Everything was there via both media coverage and a physical booth. Like last year 201 coverage will be split into three parts with the third dedicated to the awesome group of guys who were part of the Stance Is Everything display at Importfest 2013.

Visiting Montreal for Eurokracy 2013 opened up several opportunities to share a meal, drink, or both, with people I had previously only had the pleasure of interacting with on-line and today's feature comes by way of one of those chance encounters. Gabe, and Kevin, --who I met over dinner after Eurokracy-- are part of the production team at French Canadian VDO; a Quebec based media outlet that has been making an impact on the minitrucking world for the past few years.

Going to finish up the 2013 CSCS Beach Burnout coverage before moving on to what will be an onslaught of coverage from Eurokracy 2013. Today's coverage is made up of the photos I took while not on the track or hiding in the shade from the heat.