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WTF Friday: What is this? I don’t even?

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It’s been awhile (a long while actually) since there’s been a WTF Friday ‘name that car’ challenge so when I recently stumbled upon these gems I knew the time was right.

The first person to correctly identify all of these artistic interpretations of standard auto mobiles will win a prize pack of items from The Stance Is Everything Store.

Best of luck, and remember you’ve got to be able to prove it!

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This is perhaps the wildest of the bunch, it’s also the most recognizable
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Someone couldn’t seriously be asking $1,8750 for this…could they?
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Nah…
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I have a feeling this is a European market only car.
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Not quite sure what’s going on with the panel gap(s) here
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A face only a mother could love
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Bonus if you can name where those tail lights came from

Please note if you don’t see your comment right away don’t panic!

It’s probably held up in moderation, they are all time stamped so the first person will win.

Site Updates

More car updates than anything else this week. My Dominant Engineering toe links arrived on Monday which will help me prolong the life of my yet to be purchased new tires, and I sent my Work Equip bolts to Stripping Technologies for ceramic clear coating this week.

They had a nasty habit of rusting in heavy rain and I’m not looking to deal with that again for another season.

Flashback Friday

Stretch & Poke! just announced the venue for their first meet of 2013. After three years they are moving on from the Downsview Park Venue.

I thought it would be cool to take it back to before the meet was even at Downsview.

Event Coverage: Stretch & Poke 2010 Part 1
Event Coverage Stretch & Poke 2010 Part 2

Things have come a long way!

Event Coverage: Vegas Drift 2013 – Round 2

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Mike McConnell is a bit of a travelling man and his latest voyage took him to the City of Sin for the second round of the 2013 Vegas Drift Series. Vegas Drift is a yearly grass roots Pro Am series that draws drifters from all around who are looking for some tire shredding fun.

The second round of the 2013 series took place over Easter weekend and it looks like conditions couldn’t have been better.

Paddock

Mike took a cruise around the paddock area while people were getting ready to get a closer look at the some of the competition field and a few of the spectators vehicles.

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Not sure why but this photo seemed like a great place to start
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People are loving the huge wings on RX-7s lately
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Eleven’s Paint and Fiber! Their blog has been quiet recently, guess they have been out drifting
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Another look at the maple leaf clad RX-7
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This Subaru also reppin’ for Eleven’s
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Can someone confirm if this car actually has a 2.7L eta motor in it still? If so that’s amazing
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Tanner Baer’s Miata
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War Machine
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It’s been awhile since I’ve seen this car
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…I actually wasn’t quite sure it was the same car I was thinking of…
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…until I saw the tell tale quarter panel
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Very nice looking G, nice to see reasonable camber on the back of one of these
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I wish we had places to shoot like this in Ontario
Just beautiful
Just beautiful

The Action

Obviously cars sitting still at a drift event are not the main focus and Mike took a number of great shots of drivers out on track getting loose.

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Christopher Soehren got second place in his Elite Automotive Finishes car
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Fellow Elite Autobody sponsored ride
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Kasey King out front of a tandem
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Zip tie mounting system put to the test
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That maybe eta getting way sideways
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This looks like one hell of an entry
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This car looks virtually flawless…

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There appears to be some of bear hide swinging from the roof of this car…

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Great shot of Tanner Baer

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I love seeing domestics out sliding with the imports

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I bet the owner gets a lot of flack about sliding a Subie

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Forrest Wang’s S14 just looks angry…

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…I guess with that in mind the green paint is fitting

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Be sure to check out Mike’s full set of Vegas Drift photos here on his flickr account.

Thanks as always Mike!

Theme Tuesday: New Wheel Companies Part – 2

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About three quarters of the way through writing last weeks Theme Tuesday I realized that there was no way to fit all of the companies I wanted into a post of reasonable length so I decided to cut it into two parts.

What I didn’t know was how many of you would be into that post. I may have to do future instalments of this series further down the road.

Here a few more new(er) wheel companies worth keeping an eye on.

Spinfab Design

Like Rotiform and M Technia Spinfab Design has a lot of experience in wheel refinishing, rebuilding, and customization.

Using what they have learned from creating wheels people want from existing (and custom) components Spin Fab has decided to venture into the custom wheel field.

The wheel below is their first prototype.

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This is a 16×9 example of the concept 012/012a

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This RS spare is the reason spin fab got added into my rss reader

3SDM

3SDM is the only company in this series of posts that actually sends me an email nearly every time they release a new design.

Forge Motorsports has picked up distribution in North American US distributor so I imagine they will start popping up more around these parts.

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One of the first images 3DSM sent over to the site way back when
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This wheel is actually somewhat similar to the Tarmac
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Somehow I managed to miss this TT all last season
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They also have a directional wheel which personally I have not seen a lot of, apparently they all spin the correct way

Fifteen52

Most people know of Fifteen52 via the Tarmac wheel that Ken Block thrashes on his Ford Fiesta.

However Fifteen52 is far from a one trick pony and has an entire additional line up of great looking wheels including 3 piece Tarmacs and CCW like Formula TRs.

New Beetle on 3PC Tarmacs from SEMA 2012
The “Super Beetle” on Fifteen52 Formula TRs
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The Fifteen52 Snowflakes on a bagged Mazda 2 that was posted last year
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Like Watercooled IND, and 3SDM, Fifteen52 also has a directional wheel
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As seen here on this Passat Wagon

D2 Forged

I’ve only seen one set of D2 Forged wheels in person but they were quite stunning. Being a luxury sport line-up they are very much out of my price (and fitment) range but a guy can dream.

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They look great on this 997 lowred on H&R coils
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Vantage on D2 FMS01 wheels
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GTR on D2’s
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This was the set I saw in person on ‘Fat Mike’s’ old Benz

Nessen Forged

Another big in luxury sport forged wheel manufacturer on the market, Nessen has made quite a name for themselves the past few years with their involvements in projects like the ones below.

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350 on Nessen forged wheels, I think these photos are from an S:N feature
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This 370 was on nearly every Facebook fan page not too long ago
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Nessen on Accuair’s Audi project from SEMA 2012
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Mad Mike using Nessen’s on his BadBul

Barramundi Design

Joey over at The Chronicles… has been posting about this multi piece Forged wheel company out of Japan for about a year now and personally I can’t wait to see some of there wheels in person.

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I really like everything about this EF

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Dare I say perfect?

Blonixx Wheels

Every single time I post a photo of Jake’s Genesis someone asks ‘what wheels are those?’ Well they are Blonixx Snowflake wheels made by ISS Forged.

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M/8 B-spec on an 86
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F/10 B-spec on a G
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F-5 B/Spec on a Fox cause it’s been a long time since I have posted a box body
Winner of the Felgenoutlet Best tire/rim combo at SEMA

A Visit To: Air Lift Company

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For years air suspension has had a reputation for being a sub par alternative to coil overs when it comes to building a vehicle where form shouldn’t hamper function.

This is of course an archaic mindset because like all other suspension systems on the market today air ride has evolved immensely since it’s inception making nearly every negative “well my friend had air and…” statement a moot point.

One of the companies consistently leading the charge when it comes to air suspension systems capable of running neck and neck, or sometimes seconds quicker, than their static counterparts is Air Lift Company.

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With 64 years of accumulated real world experience behind their product Air Lift components are some of the most robust, comfortable, capable, and reliable on the market.

Stance Is Everything is proud to announce a partnership with Air Lift Companies performance division (Air Lift Performance) for 2013 and recently a perk of that partnership was the opportunity to check out the Air Lift factory not once, but twice.

On my second visit to the facility in Lansing Michigan (about two hours from the Canadian border) I brought my trusty T2i while eastern regional sales manager Tom Mahar showed me around.

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The backbone of the Air Lift Company is the Air Lift 1000 which is still a best seller that’s been leveling loads since manufacturing started in 1949
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Air Lift Company’s helper springs are probably used in vehicles that pass you on the highway every day

After peeling my eyes away from the various flavours of bagged vehicles in the parking lot I turned my attention to the Air Lift facility which was, much, much, larger than I expected.

Air Lift prides themselves on producing 80% of their suspension products in house and this level of production necessitates a large facility.

When assembly –100% of which is done on site – and shipping/receiving are factored in it’s easy to see why after just two years the 50,000 square foot facility needed a 20,000 square foot addition built onto the back of it to keep up with demands.

The sheer size of the facility wasn’t it’s only impressive attribute, it was also incredibly clean and organized.

I’ve been to (and worked in) a few factories in my day but Air Lift’s was easily the cleanest I’ve set foot in to date.

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As much of the facility that I could fit into a single shot

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Tom explained that a growing part of the companies overall business is fleet work –that is providing compact air systems for buses, ambulances, and the like– and servicing industries such as these requires Air Lift to meet a bevy of standards other air suspension manufacturers don’t necessarily have to.

This includes stringent regulations when  it comes to facility cleanliness and safety.

This unit is similar to what you see raising and lowering buses for the elderly
This compact unit is similar to what you see raising and lowering buses for the elderly and disabled all day, everyday without fail

Despite the very formal approach the company must take in regards to safety and organization the factory floor is far from a dull assembly line filled with blue coverall clad employees repetitively pulling levers, waiting for the air horn to free them from another work day.

The employees personalities shine through on the factory floor where they have forgone generic work station designations like “sector 7-G” in favour of more fitting ones like Hockey Town and Wolverine Country .

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Throughout the factory tour we got a chance to interact with a number of employees who while incredibly focused on their job, seemed to be enjoying every minute of it.

(Of course one could argue that when your job entails making components that put vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and forms on the ground how couldn’t you like what you do?)

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An Air Lift employee illustrating a portion of his day to day job
The half finished product, an  end cap pressed onto one end of a sleeve bag
The half finished product, an end cap pressed onto one end of a sleeve bag
This raw aluminum is machined into thousands of end caps
Raw aluminium such as this is machined into thousands of end caps on site
However to the employees at Air Lift it is incredible usefull for machining air management components
An example of the level of  machine work done one site at the Air Lift Facility
Another example of the in house machine work
It’s really incredible the level of precision that goes into all of the various pieces

In addition to manufacturing and  final assembly, testing and product development is also handled at the Lansing Michigan facility.

Each and every Air Lift Product that leaves through the shipping door does so only after it has been tested on various durability rigs that simulate a minimum of 100, 000 miles.

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A group of BRZ air struts nearly fully assembled. Each air strut has all of the similar adjustment capabilities as coil overs, including camber and dampening

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Tom explaining the ‘nutsert’ on the one end of the bag that negates the need for mounting plates on applications such as the BMW e36

Components are not just fair weather tested either, they are both hot and cold cycled to ensure that they will survive everything mother nature has in store for them along with a certain degree of user error.

Once bench testing is complete the performance products are then put through their paces at the Gingerman Raceway (the local race track) where they are scrutinized against the latest and greatest coil over offerings to see how they stack up and where they can be improved.

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Even Air Lift’s test rigs are bagged! The desktop on top of this rig houses components that go through rigorous testing
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In house shock dynos ensure that all the Air Lift Performance kits are matched with appropriately valved  shocks per application
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Though one might assume this is just another employees car this is actually one of Air Lift Performance’s most capable test rigs. At any given time it is running several prototypes.

The goal of the performance division (which is made up of extremely capable and qualified suspension engineers) isn’t to just create a system that can get low and handle day to day driving.

The end game is to create an all in one system capable of clearing speed bumps one day, bending corners on the track the next, and sitting as low as possible on the show floor the day following that.

Air Lift Performance is currently on a manic schedule of producing two new kits every month, in addition to constantly improving their management systems, so don’t be surprised if a kit is released for your application in the very near future.

I seem to constantly be meeting up with this car, Vegas, Toronto, Michigan..
I seem to constantly be meeting up with this car, Vegas, Toronto, Michigan..
A Mazda 3 prototype trailing arm on Ian's desk
A Mazda 3 prototype trailing arm on Ian’s (engineer) desk

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Getting the chance to take a walk around the factory was awesome and Stance Is Everything is really looking forward to working with Air Lift Performance for 2013.

Stay tuned for more posts about my recent switch to “the dark side” thanks to Air Lift Performance.

WTF Friday: Zingers

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Awhile ago I came across a fairly small picture of a few oddly proportioned, about go kart sized, vehicles sitting on an oval track waiting for a scantily clad woman to drop the flag and thought what the heck are those?

Then I forgot about the picture almost entirely.

A few weeks later I found a photo of a similar car (with yet another woman in it) and thought I ought to get to the bottom of what I was seeing.

Did the run? Were they go-karts? Power Wheels? These were the questions I needed answered so I turned to Google and found out that they were in fact called Zingers.

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The first ‘Zinger’ photo I came across
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and the second photo where scale is a bit easier to interpet

Built originally in much smaller scale by MPC the idea behind Zingers was to stuff hilariously out of scale motors and wheels under regularly proportioned bodies.

Denny Johnson birthed the idea and in the early 70’s six “full” size ones were built using 1:1 motors and wheels.

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The original model Zingers
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What appears to be a scan of the original line up

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The next few photos I am assuming are from a more recent shoot of the surviving Zingers

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Sadly none of them were actually capable of moving under their own power which kind of just makes them elaborate engine stands.

After looking at the photos a few times the semi truck one started to look mighty familiar so I did a little digging in the crates and it turns out I actually saw it at Performance World in 2010.

Whether or not it’s the exact same one I can’t be sure but it certainly looks as though it is.

More info on these things can be found here and here.

Someone should make one that runs, the dune buggy looks the most feasible to do so. Perhaps the van…

Flashback Friday

Posted this car in this weeks Theme Tuesday, hard to say which wheels I like more these or the Sempeks.

Here’s a little video of the car as well.

Event Coverage: Mega Speed 2013 – Part 3

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Sorry for the delay between parts two and part three of the 2013 Mega Speed Coverage it wasn’t really intentional, I just got busy getting a few ducks in a row (more on said ducks next week).

Today’s wrap up coverage has a little bit of everything that you couldn’t find in the previous posts.

Vans

Have to respect ‘vanners’ for doing whatever they want and not giving a damn what other people think. I probably spend more time than I should looking at vans to be honest.

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65 Ford Econline line affectionetly known as The Grasshopper
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No missing that intake setup
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This van was fairly morbidly decked out
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The George Barris SuperVan in it’s freshly restored glory
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Underneath all that custom body work, sparkle paint, and red shag is a 66 Dodge Tradesmen
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I’m almost positive growing up one of the (old) phones in our house was the one on the back wall of this van
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You couldn’t pay me to get in a van with shag carpeting but some of the Mega Speed Models did for the sunshine girl shoot

Car Stars

I wonder if in say, fifteen years or so, people will start to make replicas of cars from the Fast & The Furious series? I suppose for that to work they would have to stick around from movie to move.

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Oddly enough this car had Ironman playing on a screen in the trunk. I guess the owner wasn’t a fan of the Seth Rogan’s Green Hornet either
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There’s no doubt in my mind that I have seen each of these at Street Classics Cruise In before

Lowriders

There were a few lowriders at the show but they were parked in high foot traffic area that didn’t lend itself to great shots. I’ll see them again as the season progresses for sure though.

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This Impala has such a classic Cali style
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Majestics Toronto and Switches N Thangs holding it down in Hall 1
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It was great to see this car completed for the show, I wasn’t expecting to see it until the summer
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All the chrome and mirrors actually made this car somewhat difficult to shoot
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I should be taking some more photos of this sooner rather than later…

Classics and Customs

It took me awhile to see the vehicles in halls one and two but like years previous they didn’t disappoint in the least.

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This is one of a handful of cars I really regret not taking more photos of
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Probably be awhile before I see something like it again…
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The owner of this Buick turbo six powered Camaro drove this car through the snow to the show as it sits.
Long time readers might recall when this car was blue
Long time readers might recall when this car was blue
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Boothill Automotive Reseruction’s other show stopper, Rick Nash’s Camaro
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Trans Am Rocking Forgelines
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The wheel choice on this GTO was interesting, can’t say I see mesh wheels on GTO’s too often
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Class winning, big blower, Camaro
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One of the more fitting uses of the “Remove before flight” tag I’ve seen
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This Lincoln was one of those cars that was so well done it looks like it could have come that way from the factory
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It’s hard to describe the amount of work in this without showing you the owners build log
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This Buick Sedanette was pretty wild, and bright
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These Fords are really growing on me
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This actually reminds me quite a bit of Chuck’s 56
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In addition to being gorgeous this truck made me want creamsicles
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The paint was beautiful…
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I kind of want to take before and mount it to my nitro RC.
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Classic flames here
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Performance Improvements is building this Factory Five for their 50th Anniversary. I’m hoping to pop by and check in on this car as it progresses
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Lots of gold leaf on this build, which as the plate implies was all steel
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Hitman Hotrods T bucket
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The purple lights shining on ‘The Booch’ always make shooting it a bit of a challenge
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This 36 Ford known as the time bomb is absolutely perfect in my eyes
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Nice touch with the wheels matching the interior on this
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’32 Ford on a Multimatic frame featuring their very unique ‘in wheel’ suspension
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The damper is actually the gold and blue unit you see bolted to the firewall, apparently it’s a significant handling improvement compared to other options on the market
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The  finish on this car was impeccable, which makes sense considering where it is parked
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Love the way the white walls pop on this car. Wish there was a way to have the roof a darker black

That’s pretty well it from Mega Speed 2013 but a few more cars might make their way up to the fanpage over the next few weeks.

Theme Tuesday: New Wheel Companies Part – 1

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Sometime last year I got into a conversation about “real” wheel companies with a local enthusiast. Normally I try and avoid conversations like this all together but, this time I took the bait and asked the person to list off a few companies he considered real.

The standard prerequisites (BBS, Volk, Work, and so forth) were fired off but I was a little shocked that he failed to mention any of the numerous new (or perhaps maturing) wheel companies that have been putting out original designs within the past 5 years or so.

Sure there have been a lot of questionably named replica companies that have emerged since the latest “rise of stance” but there are also several creative brands making their individual marks on the industry as well.

So many in fact that I’ve decided to break this Theme Tuesday into two parts.

Watercooled IND

I’ve been following this company out of Michigan on facebook for about a year now and as the name suggests they generally cater to the VW crowd.

While I’m sure there wheels would look good on a variety of other cars there is no denying they look stunning on Volkswagens.

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Watercooled IND CC10s
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I posted this on the fanpage way back, love the satin black on the graphite BL8s
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What would a wheel company be without a classic 5 spoke?

Vossen Wheels

Vossen has gained a lot of popularity over the past few years by producing large diameter wheels at affordable price points.

Their alignment with Importfest has given me a chance to see a lot of their lineup in person and have always been impressed with their styles and finishes.

Sadly too big for my car.

Harvin’s 370z on Vossen CV2 wheels
CV-5s on a local G35
This car my look familiar from this video

Sempek Wheels

This is perhaps the newest company on the list but at the same time the one I’ve been watching the closest. Putting a set of their wheels under Knoop’s car is a great way to kick down the door and make a name for yourself.

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Sempek’s Trophy wheel suits this e39 quite well
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Knoop on Sempek Knoops
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Put to the test

Memoryfab / M Technica

Memoryfab is one of two wheel companies on this list with deep roots in importing, selling, and refinishing wheels. Memoryfab’s M Technica line consists mostly of wheels inspired by classic Motorsport designs that work great on older vehicles.

They’ve also got a few more contemporary models that look nice on modern cars like the FR-S as well.

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M technia Turbos on a Miata
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M technia Aero 18s test fit on a MkIV
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M technica Aero’s on an FR-S
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M Technica Directionals
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Memory Fab also made these, and these are awesome

VIP Modular

VIP Modular wheels first stood out to me on the ‘grape jelly’ TL pictured below as they were bold and in your face without being overly gaudy.

Since then I’ve  had no issue picturing their big faced, deep dish wheels, on basically every luxury sedan ever built.

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Love this combo
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VIP modular loves the big Acuras…
VIP  modular wheels also work surprisingly well on this FR-S from the Tokyo Auto Salon

Luxury Abstract

A familiar name on Stance Is Everything Luxury Abstract has amassed an impressive following over the past few years due to the hard work put in by the entire staff.

They recently picked up to two Canadian distributors (one of which being local PFAFF Tuning) so I am really looking forward to finally seeing a set in the flesh in the near future.

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7 on Madors, I really like the Mador Mini as well
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This car was featured on Grassor-Cs was featured on Stance Nation recently
Unique wheels for a unique car, Max’s Acura looking stunning on Madors

ADV.1

When the owner of ADV.1 first started pushing the brand he was met with a lot of resistance due to the in your face marketing campaign (fuckyourwheels.com) and his previous endevours with now extinct wheel company 360 forged.

Despite criticisms and nay-sayers ADV.1 has prevailed and continues to put out high quality, understated, designs that work well on a variety of vehicles.

Peter’s car on his previous ADV.1 set-up
Grinder TV Audi sittin’ low on ADV.1 8TS wheels (I think)
Perfect fit really
Insane.
Insane.

Rotiform

Easily one of the most successful and recognizable names on this list everyone at this point has heard of and seen a Rotiform wheel on-line and in person.

I’m not sure anyone could have predicted a few years ago just how popular this company would become.

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3PC TMBs are perhaps my favorite of the entire lineup
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Caddy on BLQS
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Rotiform Dia wheels, obviously Lamborghini inspired but sick none the less

Stay tuned for the rest next week, and feel free to submit a few favorites of your own.

WTF Friday: Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery?

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One of the main reasons people choose modify their car is so that it’s different than any other on the road, this is especially true when the platform you are working with is fairly common.

During the time Stance Is Everything has been active Level One member Dan has built two unique, very low, and fairly well known Honda s2000s.

His most recent being the now sold yellow rendition that’s been posted here multiple times and featured on Illmotion, Stretch & Poke, and twice on Stance Nation.

This car obviously has fans world wide, one of whom loves the car so much they decided to replicate it nearly identically, all the way down to a not-quite-right Level One sticker.

Dan’s car early last season on the new wheels with the factory bumper
With the ASM front bumper
The imitation
The imitation, note the Level One sticker and similar ‘School of Hard Parked‘ Stretch & Poke sticker
Dan’s car at Importfest in 2012
The facsimilie
The facsimile as of  March 24th 2013

If the imitation stopped at the most recent version of Dan’s car that would be one thing but the owner has obviously been following Dan’s car from afar for awhile, check out the photos below.

Dan with the white TE37s
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and the imitation…

Considering all the time and effort put into copying Dan’s car it’s weird the owner couldn’t have thought of a few personal touches or at the very least drawn inspiration from a few sources.

I guess it is a compliment to Dan’s tastes.

Site Updates

Hope to round out the Mega Speed coverage between now and Monday and then start to work on some of the Air Lift Performance content I’ve got lying in wait.

Flashback Friday

If your curious about all most of the revisions Dan’s car went through take a look back at the post titled ‘Shoe Fetish‘ from 2012.

Event Coverage: Mega Speed 2013 – Part 2

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Today’s portion of coverage from Mega Speed 2013 focuses almost exclusively on the tuner hall which this year was fairly self contained from the rest of the show.

Apparently this was done based on feedback from last year but personally I would have liked to have been a little bit closer to the rest of the action.

Nevertheless the tuner hall did have a lot of cars and it was great to see a lot of people again after a long winter that refused to leave.

Shining Monkey

The Shining Monkey booth was pretty well packed all the entire weekend with people who wanted to hang out with professional drifter Chris Forseberg and check out Ken Blocks car.

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Chris Forsberg’s competition car
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Ken Block sadly never made it (partying in Budapest) but his Ford Fiesta did
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Just ain’t care

Taylor’d Customs / Airlift/ John

This year was my first year showing at Mega Speed and it was actually John and Blair who managed to convince me to do so.

Blair and I showed side by side while John was a few cars down in his own showcase section putting us to shame winning multiple awards.

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Big thanks to Blair for the carpet and stanchions
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Blair’s wheels didn’t arrive in time for the show but thanks to Air Lift Performance we both got low
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Can’t wait to run these wheels all the time again, putting my winters on again after the show sucked
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This was the first event I felt I could get some decent shots of John’s car from all angles
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He ended up taking home the award for best Import Other, and best wheels
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Big thanks to John for rocking that very large, and hard to appy, SIE sticker!
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There’s actually a lot of flake and depth in John’s paint… it’s just nearly impossible to capture

Acura/Honda

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The owner of this first generation Civic sent in some progress photos awhile back and I completely forgot about it until I saw it at Mega Speed
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Javed’s EL looking clean as always
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I’ve seen this RSX a few times but it looked especially good at Mega Speed 2013, I think it was the lack of stickers
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Brian says this is the last time his Civic will be seen like this, very curious what he has in store
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Turbo K20 Civic with an interesting front bumper
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Another big turbo drag Civic

BMW

Nice to see some of the old maxbimmer.com glory day guys out at Mega Speed.

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Randy’s e46 looking great on his new SSR wheels
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It’s been quite some time since I have seen Fab’s e46. Still looks good
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Rounding out the maxbimmer alumni was Gary with his wide body e46
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Nice looking e39 wagon, don’t see a lot of these at shows

Euro

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Manny’s GLI
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This Golf bagged Golf had a very aggressive Rotiform setup
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Love the vinyl on the tank.
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Nice touch here matching the inter cooler piping to the wheels and the strut bar
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Perdo still has one of my favourite local A3s
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Very clean MKII Golf on re lipped RMs
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Downtown Porsche sponsored 911

Nissan

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Peter Chrisikopoulos’ drift car was in the Street Concepts booth
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Quite the difference between now and the first time I saw it last year
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Battle worn from last years season
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Paul’s GTR, stunning as always
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Peter got some new wheels for his Skyline. I’m not quite sure if I like these more or his old ADV.1 wheels

Mazda

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Dippedinc.ca had their plastidipped speed 3 out
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Flying Miata LS converted Miata. The motor looks surprisingly at home in there
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This wide body MX-3 reminds me of a mini version of John’s Mazda car

Ford, Fiat, Hyundai and Toyota

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I met a lot of people for the first time at Mega Speed, one of them being the owner of this Mustang Mike (aka Mcnarly)
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Who would have thought Rockstar wheels would fit under a Fiat 500?
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Sam’s Genesis on Alex’s wheels
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Not sure whether or not Sam will be rocking these all year
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The Too Fast Motors 350z looks to have received some plasti dip, or vinly wrap over the winter as well as some Phat Fux Wheels (worst wheel name ever)
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Tom’s Celica also went through some changes this winter, receiving a repainted engine bay…
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and new hatch setup

Minis

These two cars were actually in the hall that part 1 of the coverage was focused on but I felt it more appropriate to include them as a close out to today’s post.

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According to the cards both of these cars were owned by the same lucky man
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Turbo charged Honda heart
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Very classy and tastefully modified, basically perfect
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Hats off the owner for two beautifully put together cars

The final part of the coverage devoted to the classics will be up soon, should be roughly as large as this post.

Megaspeed Grand Champion: The Boot Hill Automotive Resurrection Hauler

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Before I get back into another round of Mega Speed coverage (read: finish editing the photos) I thought I would put up some snaps of the 2013 Mega Speed Grand Champion, the ’56 Hauler.

Mega Speed was actually my second time seeing this truck in person. The first time I saw it was at the Detroit Autorama (where it took home 1st place, Radical Truck, Best Truck, and Outstanding Display).

The reason you didn’t see any photos of it in the Detroit Autorama coverage is because every time I tried to get a photo it was surrounded by a wall of people.

Here in Toronto the truck was still mostly surrounded at any given time but thanks to (yet another) riding friend who works for the company commissioned to build the truck —Boothill Automotive located in Erin Ontario— I was lucky enough to get a chance to step inside the display and snap a few photos of this immaculate ford.

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The list of body modifications done to this truck is very extensive and yet none of it is in your face
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One modification that caught my eye instantly was the incredibly cool manually operated, gas shock assisted, cable latching, hinged front end
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Underneath the hinged hood sits this Roush 588 EFI motor
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The box of the truck is scratch built with custom fenders that are 2 ¼” wider than stock and 1 ½” longer in the front
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The interior like the rest of the truck was beautifully resto modded with carbon fibre, steel, and leather 
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½” thick carbon fibre/honeycomb bed boards line the floor
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This photo is a little weird as it was shot in a mirror but shows the Ride Tech suspension, 3″ mandrel bent exhaust, modified rear end
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Great looking trophy, well deserved, trophy for the folks at Boothill

Much more info about the final product and the build can be found at 56hauler.com

This reminds me that I’ve got some shots from the 2012 Boothill BBQ still to post up….