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Look Back At It: Riverside By Low Level

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Quebec! It’s been far too long since I’ve shown any love to the incredible scene you’ve got. Many apologies, I’m old and I don’t get out too much anymore… but seriously, I’ve never been disappointed by any sort of automotive event in Quebec.

Eurokracy, Formula D, Indy. Everything I’ve been to, with camera or without, has been incredibly on point.

Euro, import, domestic… it doesn’t matter Quebec manages to nail basically every genre. One of the groups out in Quebec that has been consistently operating at a high caliber is Low Level.

After popping up at Fitted a few years ago I’ve been keeping my eye on the group and have always been impressed. For 2019 they decided to give back to the community with Riverside.

Riverside was an event held to raise money for GEST (Groupe d’entraide Sorel-Tracy) an organization that helps equip kids with the supplies they need to be successful in school.

Along with hosting a seriously nice collection of cars Riverside raised $7800 worth of donations for the organization.

I wasn’t at the show personally but FCVDO‘s Kevin Chapdelaine was and he’s graciously provided his coverage for SIE. He submitted the coverage a few weeks ago but –blame the writer– I am just now getting it posted up on the site.

Better late than never as they say.

It’s pretty cool to see that the work of Chopshop stands out wherever it goes. Kevin has been steadily honing his air install skills over the past few years and he’s managed to crank out some outstanding installs and remarkable vehicles.

I love seeing people who are committed to producing quality, gimmick free, work succeed.

Everyone loves a good sleeper, and with the hood closed I imagine this IS300 would be just that. Sure it’s lowered a bit, but nothing outrageous and those large rear tires probably go unnoticed at first glance.

The stock body hides a bit as well but I imagine above 3000 RPM the Borgwarner fed fully built 2J is a hard motor to keep under wraps.

Not to be outdone however, Kevin himself popped the hood on his supercharged LS powered bagged s10. Again Kevin’s truck isn’t exactly a sleeper, per say, but if you were to assume this car only had a 4.3 during a highway encounter things might not go your way.

One detail I’ve always loved on this truck are the upsized Iroc wheels. S10s and Irocs I’ve always been a sucker for.

Speaking of love what is not to love about a Datsun 510 sitting on Wats with white lettered Toyo Proxes?
This Datsun is significantly up on power from stock thanks to a very cleanly executed SR20 swap. But that’s actually not the most unique thing done to this car.

It wears a Carbon Signal Hakobird kit which makes the front end of the humble 510 motor closely resemble that of the revered Hakosuka (the first Nissan GTR). From what I understand it’s the only one of it’s kind currently in Canada. Pretty slick piece of kit if you ask me.

I might have to bug Kevin and the FCVDO guys for a few more photos from events out in Quebec this summer. It looks like they’re hiding plenty of cool cars over there.

Take a look at a few more photos from the show below.

Motivational Speaker

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Since I can’t ride my bike this summer (I’m recovering from an Achilles tendon rupture) I’ve been putting as much of my spare time as possible into Project Why Wait.

Given that I’m trying hard to keep myself busy I didn’t really need an additional kick in the pants. However one came anyway during the June Cars and Coffee Toronto event..

This actually isn’t the first time I’ve seen this truck, but it is the first time I have seen it since 2017. It was at Motorama where I took a strikingly similar picture to the one above.

At that point the truck looked like a complete unit, but was pretty far from the road. Since it’s initial reveal the owner took the truck to Hitman Hot Rods who gave it a proper once over.

Visually not much has changed on the truck, which is good because I liked it as is. Mechanically though Hitman buttoned up all the loose ends.

If memory serves the truck is sitting on an s10 chassis and there’s a million and one different ways to do that swap.

I spent a lot of time looking this truck over considering a few ideas and seeing how one or two things were done on this build to see if I could re-purpose some ideas from the pros.

Hopefully mine looks half as good when it is complete. Bet I’d better get back to work if I want that to be anytime soon…

Be Like Mike

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Mike Catell, at Oshawa’s GT Custom Exhaust is a talented chap. His work behind a welding mask can be found on a countless number of absolutely bad-ass vehicles’ in Ontario.

From full out race cars, to street driven cruisers Mike’s down to wrench on it all. Recently he’s helped out both the guys at  Speed Academy, and the lads down at Performance Auto and Sound Magazine.

Mike also did the headers on the Taylor’d Dodge and will likely be doing the complete exhaust work on Project Why Wait.

His shop is not all that far from my house so I pop by now and again. Usually I only plan to stay for a quick how do you do, but I inevitably end up staying longer because there’s always something worth poking around up on the hoist or in the bay.

The past two weeks my focus has been his 1JZ e46 Laguna Seca Blue M3 for an upcoming bit of freelance work. Trust me when I say this car is an absolute riot.

However if, for whatever reason, you’re not inclined to trust me take a look at the video below where he breaks the car down.

Fitted Is Coming

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Sheesh! It’s been awhile. Sorry everyone my intent isn’t to leave the ‘.com’ side of things so barren for so long in 2019. However like as I touched on in the Cars and Coffee coverage, spring ’19 has thrown me a bit of a curve ball with my Achilles rupture.

That said I have still been making it out to events as best I can and I’ve got a lot of coverage forth coming. I’ve also got a bit of a surprise I’ve been working on during the nights I can’t sleep as well.

In the meantime, here’s a bit of coverage from Fitted Lifestyle’s 10th anniversary event. I say a bit, because there’s more to come, after a similar post over on Speedhunters.

Don’t worry that will be soon…

If you’re not already be sure to follow SIE on Instagram (@stanceiseverythingcom) I update that pretty regularly between the longer posts I’ll be doing here.

Dodge V10 Swapped Nissan s15 Silvia

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An ambitious project, this Dodge Viper V10 powered Nissan s15 Silvia has yet to see much progress since it’s debut at Importfest in 2011.

But, ever the optimisit I’m holding hopeful that the car just might come back one day completed.

Wishful thinking? Probably.

Chevrolet LS1 Swapped GMC Syclone

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A General Motors classic sports truck fit with LS1 V8 power. Tyler Stevens likes S trucks –Sy/Tys specifically– and LS motors so he combined the two.

While he was at it, he upgraded the suspension, and heavily detailed everything else.

Oh and yes he retained the all wheel drive.

Honda H22 Swapped Fiat X/19

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The Honda H22 motor was original found in either Preludes or Accords. For quite some time, before the K motor became the big boss, it was swapped into all sorts of cars.

But, I think there’s a fairly short list of Fiat’s sporting this motor. In Ontario I’d hazard a guess that this was the only one. If it wasn’t it was still probably the only one with a turbo slug off it.


Unfortunately, I spotted this car once, ten years ago, and never again.

Chevrolet Twin Turbo Big Block Swapped Buick Grand National

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Taking it way back to Scrape By the Lake with this Chevrolet big block powered Grand National. Unfortunately, being over a decade ago, information on this car is rather scarce.

But heck, big block, twin turbos, in an awesome G body? I couldn’t not repost it.

Toyota 1JZ Swapped Nissan Cefiro

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Local legend Liam Kirby completed this 1988 Nissan Cefiro back in 2013. Cefiro’s are not common cars in North America and from jump Liam had no intentions of keeping his stock.

Using his S chassis roots Liam used most of the suspension from the car he parted to buy this one. But, before putting all that in he made sure to clean it all up.

The Toyota 1JZGTE was treated to a Driftmotion 57 trim buro kit, GReddy timing belt, a Blitz blow off valve and various new houses and fittings to make it all work.

The body got wheel tubs and aero and the wheels were gorgous SSR Gartmaiers. Sadly the car was parted and sold, but Liam is still out slaying tracks today in his Skyline.

Nissan KA24 Swapped Mazda RX-7

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Rotary fans, avert your eyes. John of Akii Tire put cost effectiveness above brand loyalty when building his KA24 powered FC Mazda RX-7.

The car’s exterior is fairly traditional street drift styling. GP sports style bumpers, Shine Auto over fenders and fitting, yet unidentified rear over fenders cover Weds Kranze Bazreia wheels.

While I’ve mostly seen the car at shows, don’t worry, it’s built to perform as the Instagram videos below show.