The mantra of the devout non purist enthusiast is that the right motor for the job is the one that is the most reliable, cost effective, and powerful one available regardless of the make.  More often than not GM’s LSX ends up being the motor that fits those requirements, and as such the go to power plant for the non purist.
It doesn’t hurt that they came in a variety of different vehicles making them readily available, and have robust after market support.
LS IN EVERYTHING!
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.
Word of last years success must have spread far and wide because people came out in droves from all over Canada.
With so many cars coming in and out, and several people to talk to, there was absolutely no chance I was going to be able to capture everything in sight but I did my best to get as much as I could.
Today’s coverage includes a few shots of the roll in along with a few of the cars outside.
This years Fitted Lifestyle had the longest roll in of any local event I’ve ever been too. As the event staff worked hard to get people into their respective parking spaces I snapped a few photos.
Going to continue the outdoor coverage tomorrow but here’s a couple of the cars that were posted up.
Going to end today’s coverage with a crew from Montreal known as the Hard Sparkers who drove in pushing pebbles and drove out with some hardware.
Lots more coverage to come as soon as I get through the editing!
It’s been said anything worth doing is worth doing in style and clearly that was the approach used when this Rolls Royce Silver Shadow was conceived and built.
After finishing it’s first (and only) Baja race in 1984 the RR sat for 17 years before retried (and reported late) stunt man Chuck Strange scooped it up.
Now two paint jobs, and no doubt a bit of maintenance, later it’s a well used as a Baja support vehicle and occasional grocery runner.
The body is genuine article Rolls Royce while the chassis is made up of two pick ups. Under the hood is a built 509 Caddy v8 that stomps out 600lbs of torque and slightly less HP.
I didn’t find much info about the suspension on line but Barcodebilly (who took the photos above) says there looks to be a Dana 60 up front and a “crazy” 10 pack leaf suspension.
Funny enough this Rolls Royce Silver Shadow isn’t the first modified Grey Poupon carriage I’ve posted for WTF Friday. This drag spec one went up in 2010.
A little bit more on the Think Strange Silver Shadow can be found here on UGO.com
I recently got an awesome set of photos back from a shoot I did with Equals: 22 a few weeks ago for an upcoming feature on my car written by reader Phil Law. It’s pretty cool that the feature will be brought to you by two people I would not have known without the blog. Hope to put that up mid next week.
Currently I am still dragging my feet on the event calendar but as I am sure most of you know Stretch & Poke‘s fourth annual Fitted Lifestyle event is this weekend at the Brampton Fairgrounds.
Here are the details if you need them.
Here’s a look back at last years Stretch & Poke Coverage:
See you tomorrow.
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.
Street Classics coverage has been a bit of a staple around here since the sites inception and I have no intentions of changing that.
I plan to head back in a few weeks when things are in full swing.
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.
Their influence on our import scene, and as such our influence on theirs in the form of ‘USDM’ styling is often covered extensively on other blogs but what I find even more interesting than Japan’s take on contemporary Japanese vehicles is their take on American and European builds.
They do such a great job that often –license plate aside– I have a hard time convincing myself it’s actually photos of Japanese builds I’m seeing.
My favourite place to catch up on American and Euro builds from Japan is Local-Hereo.jp, I can’t read much of anything (Google translate makes a mess of things) but love the content.
Today’s Theme Tuesday includes some of my favourites from that site.
Be sure to check out Local-Hero.jp for more and if anyone reading this is from Japan and could cover an event where these cars are present shoot me an email!
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.
Mike’s complete coverage of the 2013 Driven show can be found here on his Flickr account.
If there’s any one car I’ve got just a hint of a purist mindset about it’s the General Lee. Most of the ones I’ve seen modified in anyway that differs from the original on screen look simply don’t do a thing for me.
The one I’m posting today seems to be an odd exception to my ‘rule’ as it combines my love for wheel standers with my adoration of the classic General aesthetic.
Reportedly built by the late Rich Sephton, –shop foreman on the original series– this General is capable of going down the strip with it’s front wheels in the air and, unlike most of the cars jumped on the show, it can actually drive away after the stunt.
Well.. theoretically I can’t seem to find any video of this car in action, or any photos other than the postage stamp sized ones below that are obviously from earlier testing of the cars abilities.
Further reading alludes to the car being involved in some sort of reposition controversy and having not really been seen much since around 2005 or so. A real bummer because the build looks rather sorted and it would have been cool to see this Charger fly down the strip wheels in the air.
A little bit more info can be found here and here.
Photo Credit: tvmoviecars.com.
Yeah, about that event calendar… still working on it. It ended up being a bit more work that I had anticipated getting all the relevant info together but I still hope to have it up before month end.
Going to take things back to the July of 2009 Street Classics event when I encountered the General Lee below for the first time.
The son of the owner loved to talk about the car and was generally a pretty awesome kid all around.
The replica was on point too.
Street Classics show and shines start up again this Saturday at Canadian Tire 17.
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.
The selections from Winnipeg include a lot of your more straight forward (yet top quality) muscle fair but also two pretty unique vehicles that I think have a chance of doing pretty well.
I know it’s a little early in the running to be picking favourites but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway, of the 10 from Winnipeg these are the two I wouldn’t mind seeing a lot more of.
In the very competitive field of ten the both stood out for being unique.
I swear it’s just a coincidence that both of my picks happen to be blue ovals…
If you see a car you like be sure to cast your vote at canadasbest.ca!
The Winnipeg Press Release is also here should you be looking for additional info.
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.
May end up continuing this one at a later date…
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 21×11 and 21×12.5 Avant Garde f440 wheels and I’ve got to say there isn’t much I would have done different if it were mine.
It’s tasteful and clean and the wheels really suit this American big body.
Thanks for the submission Amrit and those who have instagram can follow him at @grocery_bags.
