Makes

Got the opportunity to check out the Street Classics 2013 season opener on Saturday. I ended up leaving the house a little bit late which meant that sadly I missed some of the people who ducked out early to go onto other long weekend festivities. The smaller amount of cars didn't bother me too much however because last year I didn't make it to nearly enough of these events so I was just happy to be out.

I've always found the relationship between Japan's automotive scene and the one in North America is pretty interesting. We copy them, they copy us, they copy us copying them, we copy them copying us copying them. It's like a never ending feedback loop that more often than not leads to a lot of cool cars.

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.

Things have been heating up since the last post about The Meguiar's Car Crazy Canada's Best contest and Meguiar's Canada recently posted the ten finalists from Winnipeg World Of Wheels. These ten finalists are now in the running to win a VIP trip for two to the 2013 SEMA Show, and the chance to appear on Car Crazy TV alongside Barry Meguiar.

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.

300C's get a bad rap because bad rappers often throw large, narrow, chrome wheels under them at stock height and call it a day. Put in the right hands however the 300C can be a very fine looking luxury sedan. Amrit recently sent in a few photo of his bagged 300 sitting on 21x11 and 21x12.5 Avant Garde f440 wheels and I've got to say there isn't much I would have done different if it were mine.

Earlier in the week Jalopnik posted a link to a Mercedes clipped Expedition that triggered memories of a post here on SIE from three years ago showcasing a collection of rather questionable front end swaps. At the time I had intentions of making rather alarming front end swaps a semi reoccurring WTF Friday theme but since I am just revisiting it now it's safe to say it slipped my mind.

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.

Not long ago I waded my way into a thread about "Surf Wagons" on the H.A.M.B in an attempt to find more information on the Suburban included in today's post. After clicking through a few pages I noticed that there's a bit of a debate in regards to what makes a real surf wagon but, loosely defined it's a vehicle that could potentially be used to shuttle surfers to and fro.

As fall 2012 came to a close, Brad Dale began prepping his car for winter in Toronto. As the months got colder, a thought began to snowball in his head. After scraping around all summer static on HSD coil overs he decided to take the plunge into air ride.

In the Volkswagen world the watercooled-to-aircooled conversion isn't exactly new. I've seen it a few times over at this point this just so happens to be one of the more refined examples I've come across. It is also the first time I have seen it done to a Porsche, taking advantage of the fact that very few people are going to be up in arms over anything done to a standard 924.

I've posted plenty of Datsun 510s on the site over the years but I'm pretty sure is the first 610. Truthfully I'm actually not certain I have ever actually seen one in person and if I have it certainly wasn't as nice as this particular one I spotted on Joy Rides Art Company.