When I did the first ‘Cars With Mouths’ Theme Tuesday in 2011 I never imagined it would be so well received, nor did I think that it would lead to a part two, but a year later here we are.
Plenty of military (Warthog/Tigershark) inspired examples in this post as well as a few more creative examples.
Wonder if I’ll be able to squeeze a third round out of this theme…
Stock height and with their bumpers un-tucked early model e30s look dated and mundane. But push the bumpers in, add some low, along with a decent set of wheels and the look of the car is transformed from North American regulatory tragedy to timeless classic.
This e30 I spotted over on the Stance Works forums is a great example of a well kept diving board equipped coupe.
It’s simple, the M Technica wheels are a nice touch, and there’s enough tire underneath that it could still be driven fairly spirited.
I’d love to see the hood painted though.
At the last round of the 2012 CSCS series I spotted a vehicle sitting amongst the show and shine cars that I was more accustom to seeing running the quarter mile.
This isn’t entirely uncommon as people often park in the show and shine for a bit between runs but what made this a little different was the fact that previously I had never been able to identify this car.
Thankfully this time around the owner, John, was close enough that I could ask him the question he’s probably more than used to by now; “It’s cool…What is It?”
John refers to his creation as the Ratso Italianio and originally it was an Alfa Romeo Spyder but by the time it landed John’s hands the Southern Ontario climate had reduced the only metal worth keeping to what was holding up the wind shield.
After propping the Alfa remains up on an industrial wire spool and positioning the wheels where he thought they’d ought to go John took a few steps back, nodded in approval, and began building a tube frame from scratch around a Ford 5.0 motor and T-5 transmission.
Once he finished the frame, and figured out the suspension, he fabricated the the body panels out of sheet metal –learning as he went– until the car was a cross between what it started as and what he wanted it to be.
Of course since then it has gone through a number of revisions which has included one entirely new roof.
All said and “done” the car now has a 90″ wheel base, is about 41″ tall and weight in at 2400lbs. With 350hp under the hood it goes pretty well and currently it’s quickest 1/4 mile time is 12.32 @112.5.
When I asked him how long the build took John said about seven years, but he’s been running it down the quarter mile ever since it was drive able and it was only sidelined that fateful Sunday because a rod decided it wanted to see the outside world by way of the oil pan.
All isn’t lost though because John plans to rebuild the motor to put out a bit more HP and he took home the ‘Judges Favourite’ award at the finale.
Here’s a video of the build along with a few quarter mile passes.
I’ve got some family stuff to take care of this weekend so I won’t be at any events but Aidan is heading down to Black 3 and will be taking some photos for the site.
Can’t wait to see what he comes back with.
Speaking of Liberty, remember this car?
Such a good look, he sold that car awhile back and is now onto bigger and better things:
I’ve heard good things about Rockstar Motorsports through Brett, Kiwee, and Neil but up until Saturday I had never actually been to the shop myself so after helping (standing around) Lyndsey with a photo shoot we rolled the new support vehicle over to the Rockstar facility in Oakville to see what was up.
The turnout was better than I expected which was great to see because it was a charity event aimed at helping a family that recently lost someone to cancer.
I ended up running into a lot of familiar faces (both automotive and BMX) and having a good time even though I was only there for about and hour or so.
Definitely looking forward to checking out the next show Rockstar has.
Surprisingly good truck turnout at this show that I wasn’t really expecting, got to see a few builds I’ve been wanting to all year.
This was actually the first of two shows I did fly-bys at on Saturday so look out for the Squeaky Clean coverage next week.
I’d like to think I have a fairly broad knowledge of vehicle makes and models but every week I seem to be introduced to something new, or stumble upon a generation of a current (or past in this case) model I never knew existed.
Case in point this first generation Prelude.
When I read a thread titled ‘Old School Prelude‘ my mind goes to something like this, not this:
I am not sure about you but I’ve never seen one of these before period. Not on line, not in person, not ever and I’m completely flabbergasted that one of these exists alive and well in Ottawa.
I could see some cool things being done to this car and based on the wheel choice it looks as though the owner is already headed in the right direction.
Photo Credit: b.photography
Obligatory low car content: I think the Civic below belongs to the photographer.
I didn’t go to H20i again this year, no excuse really, I just plain couldn’t afford it due to recent purchases and trip to Vegas (read: SEMA) at the end of this month.
So similar to last year I did a quick perusal of photo threads and compiled a short list of cars I liked.
Oddly enough most of which don’t appear to be at the show itself just in and around Ocean City.
Photo Credit: Mr. Barker
Photo Credit: carreraboy911 on vwvortex.com
Photo Credit: GeniusGZA on vwvortex.com
Photo Credit: Goapr.com
Photo Credit: Mattew M on VW Vortex
Photo Credit: p1nk50ck on audizine.com
Photo Credit: truthcanbeboughtphotography
Photo Credit: Vag Motorsport
Photo Credit: livinzlyfe
Look for more favourites on the fanpage as the week goes on and more coverage pops up.
Hopefully I have credited all of the photographers correctly.
As I mentioned in part one CSCS finale events are always some of the most exciting to attend and heading into this rounds CSCS I had visions of shooting the track coverage from different locations than I had at previous events.
Sadly, a bum (fractured) foot, and a disturbingly cool breeze, put a bit of a damper on those plans and I spent most of my time camped at familiar corners. I’m still pretty happy with most of these shots though and shooting from on the track as a whole.
I’ve come to the realization that in cover drag effectively I am going to have to arrive to the track a little bit earlier so that each event gets it’s fair shake, but my lack of coverage aside the drag strip was busy all day.
Arguably the time attack battle of the day was the one between Speedstar Racing team-mates Sasha Anis and Kimi Quin but the classes were exciting all around as people looked to lock away year end championships and break or set records.
All of the drivers that made it into the finals were very consistent which made for tight competition and an enjoyable demo once everything was all said and done. Thanks to all of the drivers for not running me over this year, I appreciate it.
Congrats to the CSCS team for another successful season, and a huge thanks for keeping the site involved every stop as well as the mic shout outs and love on the website.
I had a great time at each event this year and I’m looking forward to 2013!
Last week Saturday a crazy looking GX71 Chaser from Team ZLAY appeared in my Facebook news feed several times over and I couldn’t help but draw parallels between it and a car I saw earlier in the week on the Amazo Effect.
Maybe it’s just me that is crazy –and I am sure someone will tell me if it is– but even though these two cars are worlds apart scene wise I don’t think they are not all that different from one another.
Both have crazy paint, altered stance, wide wheels, obnoxious exhaust, elaborate bodywork, and crazy things moulded onto/into their backsides, and both have have no doubt sparked arguments about whether or not they are unique or just plain ugly.
I don’t have any info on Team ZLAY creation other than the fact that it’s obviously from Japan and sits on 14×12 wheels with 225/40 tires (wow).
But I did learn that the Celestial was built in the late 70s and took twelve months of hard work to create, with seven of those months spent on body modifications alone.
Under all that sheet metal, fibreglass, bondo, and rainbow colouring, the Celestial is a 73 Trans Am –despite what it’s front end suggests– that’s got a v8 punched out to 8.2L under the hood and a wild interior that houses a computer that seems to be there almost solely for the blinking lights.
After parading around the show circuit for a little bit the Celestial was carted of to a museum where it sat for 20 years before making it’s way back to the streets once more completely unaltered.
Put the two cars beside each other and it would be hard to say which is more ridiculous and I bet if the builders got to talking they would see eye to eye on a lot of things.
Will the Celestial live to see another 20 years? Will Team ZLAY’s? One can only hope.
Two events on Saturday, the first is a Charity Show and Shine at 1201 Speers Rd in Oakville from 8-4 and and the Second is a Squeaky Clean event at JRP from 4 – 9.
Not sure if I will be able to swing by either but stranger things have happened.
Remember this thing?
A few weeks before he was shredding tires in an effort to amuse a hot dog eating jagermeister aficionado Mike Smeraldo drove his Jetta out to Calgary to meet up with Mike McConnell.
Put two Mike’s with a passion for Volkswagens in one place, add a camera, and you end up with these photos.
The full set of photos can be found here on Mike’s flickr.
Mike # 1 is already back in town (actually he could be on his way to Ocean City now) and Mike #2 just might be back here (briefly) in the near future.
The CSCS season finale is always an exciting event to attend because while some are gunning to set records on the track others are looking to secure year end awards in the show and shine.
For myself, and several others, the excitement began on the way to the track with a surprise emissions and safety spot check from the Ministry of Transportation positioned right off the highway exclusively for modified cars.
Getting pulled over on the way to an event sucks, and it’s a pretty low thing for the police department to do, but I actually ended up passing through the whole ordeal in about ten minutes sans ticket so I feel blessed.
When I did arrive at Toronto Motorsports Park I was happy to see that the MTO didn’t put a damper on the festivities and plenty of people made it past the roadblock to send off the season.
Due to popular demand the finale coverage will start with the pits and show and shine with track action saved for last.
As usual I wandered around the pit area just a little bit and grabbed a few photos of a few of track cars sitting still, managed to grab an interesting one that I will post up on Friday.
The finale show and shine was quite busy and I was pleasently surprised to see a couple cars out that I had a chance to see out throughout the year.
Alex finally got his SC together and out to an event after a rough year of waiting for parts to arrive and everything to fall together. He’s got most of the kinks worked out now if you don’t count his sun roof which decided open is the only way it wants to live life.
I’ve been looking at photos of Gary’s truck online for awhile now and I finally got to see it in person for the first time at the finale. He was willing to drag it for me to take some photos as well but the clean bit of concrete we wanted to use (the track) was still being used.
Next time.
Track photos will be up later this week, hopefully tomorrow, but latest Friday.
…still can’t believe I didn’t get pulled for being too low!
