Random Dope

Here's the second part of the 2011 Importfest coverage (well third if you include the women). Compared to last year the first thing I noticed when I showed up at Importfest this year was how incredibly busy it was. While this is obviously awesome it made getting clear photos a little harder than usual, but with some patience I was able to put in work. I tried my best not to re shoot too many of the same cars from the previous coverage so that those who didn't make the show could get an idea of the variety of cars IF brings out.

I must admit I am pretty jealous of Solomon over at Go with Solo because traveling around to Good Guys events gives him the opportunity to see tons of crazy cars, trucks, and vans like this 1985 Chevy Astro that has been converted into a tube chassis drag strip monster that the owner describes a street legal pro-mod all steel motor home. I've seen a quite a few modified Chevy Astros in my day but never one that has been dropped, chopped, tubbed, and given a blow fuel injected big block Chevy heart.

I've been sitting on a couple submissions and local random nonsense for awhile now and it's time that I throw up some weirdness from right here in the GTA. While the Toronto area has a lot of nice cars (many of which I post up here) we are not immune to some of the more ...unique... cars you see elsewhere. If you are ever out cruising and you see something that's local to you and quite different for whatever reason don't hesitate to send it in to [email protected].

Cars like this are exactly the reason I couldn't be like you guys. This 75 5 series has everything a purist would lust after, it's mechanically sound, extremely clean and lacks the large North American safety mandated bumpers. However had it stayed exactly like as the BMW factory intended chances are pretty good that I wouldn't be dedicating an entire post to it. The builder and I obviously think along the same lines...

I've been reading Stephen Knoops blog (simply titled Knoops Blog ) for awhile now and watching his s14 progress has been a real treat. He made a bunch of performance focused changes since his last season which included new springs and dampers, a new bumper bar, and less camber out back. Once the mechanical amendments were more or less all squared away paint was sprayed and photos were taken. The end result is awesome on wheels.

I have been a member of the Maxbimmer forums since 2002 (god damn) and still check it fairly consistently so I like to think I have a good idea of the cars and builds on that forum and more so those I like and those that I don't. Recently the influx new cars of new cars slowed down considerably so I was quite surprised when seemingly out of nowhere the owner this 87 Carrera put up a few photos stating: I know its not eveyone's taste but to each their own.

Of all the oem wheel catalogs out there I think BMW probably has (or maybe had?) the best selection. A good number of their wheels look great and come in sizing that makes them versatile enough to make there way from one model BMW to another as well as cars outside of the BMW umbrella. To this day M Parallels are one of my favorite wheels and style 5's are legendary but I've obviously been sleeping on style 19s because this e36 I found on v2lab looks simply stunning.

Going to let this one go a little early this week given the circumstances (Cuba internet is unreliable): Swing up doors are a bit of a touchy subject nowadays. They were quite popular for awhile but of late have dropped off to the point where most people rocking them currently just can't be bothered to swap them back.

I can honestly say this isn't a swap I ever expected to come across. While I've seen a handful of Japanese power plants in American cars (and vice versa) I never expected to see one in a traditionally styled high boy roadster. However Solo from Go with Solo changed that with his blog post yesterday. He spotted this bright yellow American/Japanese union at the recent Nashville nationals and while incredibly unorthodox the motor actually seems right at home.

Quite some time ago (May) I facebook/tweeted a picture of a very interesting looking CRX I spotted one early morning in Toronto while dropping Lyndsey off for a run. The feedback on the car was pretty mixed but in person it was clean if nothing else, especially for it's vintage. Fast forward a couple months and reader/fan Artin found this CRX up for sale locally on Kijiji, pictures and a quick description from the seller is below:

Most of you have probably seen this car already as it's been around for awhile and I posted it's previous look back in 2009. A couple months ago when the BBS CH wheels were switched out for BBS LMs I was ready to do another post on the car but got caught sleeping and a few other blogs ran the photos so I didn't then I kind of forgot about the car briefly. However the owner recently posted some photos that jolted my memory.