Toyota

I've heard people grumbling on message boards that car shows going the way of the dodo due to people showing up to parking lot meets in record numbers but anyone who was at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Saturday knows that is simply not true. Meets will always have their place but shows like Importfest are not going anywhere. Proof of this was that at any given time there was a huge line of people waiting to get inside to check out the show.

Sadly no 'women of Importfest' Theme Tuesday this year (model photos will just be rolled into later coverage) but what I do have today is another collection of awesome photos I've found collected here and there. They really don't have anything in common aside from being awesome, but that's ok.

Last Saturday some of the local minitruck community got together for a cruise in at Gulliver's Lake Park hear in Ontario. I wasn't a show but Facebook altered me that there were a bunch of cool handmade awards for things like furthest travelled, lowest roof (limbo), best van, longest daily driver on the road etc.

KJohn Car Innovations has been cranking out pretty low and loud cars from the Brampton area for a few years now -most notably their Accord Wagon and SRT-4- and this Saturday they had their first show the 'Wickedest Slam 1.0'. Since Brampton isn't all that far from me I decided to swing by after Candy and Chrome and check it out.

PT Cruisers never really looked good, I mean they don't look as bad as the Aztec and are not quite as impractical as the SSR, but all in all looking back at them I don't think there are many who would say they are a great looking vehicle. Good on Chrysler for making eventually making a turbo version to at least try and give them a little more of an appeal.

After posting the Trial Widebody 2010 vs 2012 picture on the fan page I realized that with the amount of back content the site has I could do the same for a number of local vehicles, so for this Tuesday I've done just that. To prevent things from getting too out of hand I have limited it to cars that have seen multiple revisions over the years rather than a one year change but I am not opposed to doing another one of these at the end of the year to include 2011 year end to 2012 year end differences.

Moving right along to the finals from this past weekends Canada Day DMCC Drift celebration at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. For the finals I was lucky enough to score a media pass from my friend Trevor at tdott.me which allowed me to take photos from the infield.

To me a great drift event shares a lot of similarities with a great BMX event. Parts get destroyed, knuckles get bruised as frantic repairs are made, women get heckled (and men get heckled right back), there's a guy with dreads (sometimes named Grant) rapping in the corner, more than 70% of the crowd is cheering for the hometown hero and you get a chance to catch up with friends you may only see once a year All of the above combined with incredible driving are what make DMCC events at Mosport so damn enjoyable and truly make me wish there were more stops out this way.

Back with the second and final part of the Coverage from CSCS Beach Burnout at Grand Bend, which is exclusively track activity. You'll probably notice straight off that bat that there are no drag shots in today's post, that's because most of the vehicles I saw on the strip were pretty well stock and didn't make for the most exciting photos.

My girlfriend grew up in a small town near London called Dorchester and would spend many a weekend at the Grand Bend Motorplex, her fond memories of the venue had me looking forward to going for the first time at last Sundays 'Beach Burnout' event hosted by CSCS. While like all CSCS events (when it doesn't rain) it was a good time I think the turnout was definitely hindered by the fact that Grand Bend is quite a ways from the city, which is a shame because Grand Bend is a great race facility with reportedly one of the fasted quarter miles around and has food far superior to Cayuga.

Two Saturdays ago Scarborough Scion (aka the dealership trusting enough to let me test drive an FR-S at Stretch & Poke) had a launch party for the 'Toybaru" inviting Toyota/Scion owners and their friends to come out for good times and good (free) food. The show & shine turnout wasn't crazy but the amount of people who wanted to drive the new Scion was, the cars were out being test driven the entire night by those eager to see what all the hype was about.