Event Coverage: Import Expo 2012

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Oct 18, 2012

Import Expo is now in it’s third year of operation (and I believe fourth event) and while previous shows took place in the middle of summer this years served as the unofficial show season close out event.

Having never attended an Import Expo event before I went in with an open mind knowing that this one wouldn’t be quite on the same level as their summer shows I had heard great things about.

Still the show managed to bring out 100+ cars which is nothing to scoff at this late in the year and many of those cars I had never seen before, most notably those from Dynamotorsports, and TrackWerks.

Lighting conditions were a little tricky however so my apologies for the varying degree of photo quality in the photos below.

nsx — Import Expo’s flagship NSX which has been spotted from here to WekEast

tek_rsx_2 — Clean RSX on what look to be 527s

street_power_2 — FD on Miesters with cops scoping out were probably models in the background

street_power — Sean at Streetpowers 648hp Rx-7

sam — Sam ended up taking home best Import other with his Genesis

sam_close — Cranked his BC’s as far down as they would go

oskar_1 — In my opinion this Jetta was one of the cleanest cars at the show

lyl_2 — ‘Lick Your Lips’ ice sculpture for the show, kinda of random

civic_bike — Clean civic, barring the Chicago bar’d brake pad-less bike on the roof…

javed_1 — One day I’ve got to take some photos of this car outside to do it’s paint some justice

honda_slammed_city — ‘Slammed City’ Civic

gawa — Probably one of my favourite Fits ever, which is admittedly a short list, but every time Galen changes this car it is for the better

wide_body_rx7 — Met Matt (owner of this RX-7) for the first time at Import Expo, nice guy, nice build

wide_body_rx72 — He took home a well deserved first place Mazda if I am not mistaken

curbed — Have not seen Mike from Curbed in a long time… wonder if this replaced his XB

boosted_civic — Boosted Civic parked with AMF

boosted_civic_2 — Tuned by Dynamotorsports whom brought out a couple more boosted rides found further down

nsx_2 — Quite a few NSX’s at Import Expo

Teknotik

As a presenting sponsor of the event Teknotik brought out a couple of their builds, I somehow managed completely miss taking photos of their recently completed NSX though.

tek_integra — This is perhaps the first photo I have taken James Houghton’s Cayuga lap record holding Type R sitting still

tek_rsx_1 — Fairly certain this car took home first place RSX

Battle Ground Performance

As usual Battle Ground came out in and were easily identifiable by the “Run Your Car Not Your Mouth” hoodies seen in the photos below.

bgp_1 — Personally I preferred the wheels this car was on at Importfest but these Konig’s are not bad.

mooner_1 — Mooner holding it down for Chop Shop and BGP

bgp_brian — Brian won first place in the aggressive stance category in addition to his Civic Category

bgp_brian_2 — Photo of Brian’s bay number 423

Nine O Five Rides

NOFR brought out a lot of cars which meant they were so tightly packed it was actually hard to get any good photos of them..

905_tom — Tom has had a pretty successful show season this year but I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes more changes to the car during the upcoming off season

905_scep — Big fan of this FD, great addition to Nine O Five

Got a chance to talk to Ty for awhile about his other project, fingers crossed it will be on the road next year

waldo — This was actually pretty amusing, never found Waldo though…

905_alex — Alex took home second place aggressive fitment with his super deep Garsons

Boost Theory

Since their grand opening Boost Theory has been making a name for themselves locally which is good to see because they are awfully close to me if I ever one day decide to boost my car…

boost_t_paul — Paul’s beast was a featured car at Import Expo

boost_t_matt — Since getting a Skyline I don’t see Matt’s 300 quite as often

boost_t_challenger — Pro Charged Challenger from Boost Theory

boost_t_challenger_2 — Runs 10 second quarter miles at 129mph

Dynamotorsports

Known perhaps best for their insane Camry Dynamotorsports is behind a lot of the more serious boosted builds in the city.

audi_pedro — Pedro parked with Dyna Motorsports Pedro switched up his car a little bit since I saw it last year. Gone are the LM reps replaced with NUEs and there have been some changes under hood.

tony_camry_2 — I’ve heard about this 700 horse Camry for years so it was great to finally see it in person

tony_camry_1 — For those that don’t believe the number written above check the video or post on Jalopnik

TrackWerkz

Hailing from Ottawa I don’t often get a chance to see Trackwerks cars in the flesh so this was a nice surprise at Import Expo.

track_werks_3 — All of the TrackWerks builds were pretty solid

track_werks_5 — As a 3 owner I spent a lot of time looking over this speed3 and regretting the fact I didn’t start with one

track_werks_4 — I think it put down around 320 to the wheels if I recall correctly

track_werks_1 — Probably my favourite of the vehicles they brought out was this v8 FD race car

New Jersey

Two heavy hitting show cars made the trek from New Jersey to Toronto to compete. Both were the complete ‘show’ package but also had a lot of go under the hood.

nj_mazda_1 — This Mazda owned by John Perez took home second place Mazda

nj_mazda_rx_7 — From what I’ve read this rotary spins out 850whp

nj_kenny_1 — Some of you might remember this car from my 2010 SEMA trip

nj_kenny_3 — It looks to have changed some since then

nj_kenny_2 — A boosted K that puts down 780whp and 515 tq resides in the fuchsia bay which is from a previous look

nj_kenny_4 — Obviously a bit over the top for some but there’s no denying that there is a ton of work in this car

That’s it for the Import Expo coverage, hopefully next year they do another summer show and I can check one of those out.

Theme Tuesdays: FC RX-7s

By

DaveT

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Oct 16, 2012

3

Got news the other day on instagram that Steve (who owns the SR-20 Powered e30 currently in PBMW) recently picked up an FC RX-7.

When asked what his plans for the car were he replied “thinking wide as fuck wheels, obnoxious body kit, white or bass boat paint…”

That sounded promising so I took a look look around at a few other examples to get a better idea. Not all of the cars in this post fit his description but would make a great addition to the Scraped Crusaders none the less.

mazda_fc_14_ssr_forumla — Start things off with a factory bodied FC on SSR Mesh wheels

mazda_fc_5 — JDM Chicago always has awesome photos

mazda_fc_6 — One without all the flare… great looking car

mazda_fc_20 — Concave looks good on this chassis as well

mazda_fc_9 — This one is pretty interesting with the after market mirrors and shaved doors

mazda_fc_12 — Love this car from Nuisance

nus — Though I think I might like it more like this… something about the bigger tires and lettering

mazda_fc_23 — Doesn’t take a whole hell of a lot to make these look good

mazda_fc_4 — Nice solution to plate laws here

mazda_fc_13 — I think this car was on both SN and SW actually…

mazda_fc_8 — For whatever reason this shot reminds me of a video game even though outrun used a Ferrari Testarossa.

mazda_fc_1 — I bet I could follow this car all night and not get a shot like this…

mazda_fc_19 — Could see this with different wheels, but not bad

mazda_fc_10 — Love the classic vintage lines…

mazda_fc_11 — Wide ass fuck wheels? Check. Obnoxious body kit? Check.

mazda_fc_21 — I’ve been following Eleven’s Paint and Fiber for awhile now this car is a big reason why

mazda_fc_22 — End it with Shawn of Drift Union

Man, Damn.

By

DaveT

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Oct 14, 2012

4

I had visions of starting the week off with some event coverage and not a message board find but I pushed all of that aside the second I saw this truck.

In my opinion this build perfect from bumper to tailgate; the wheel selection is on point, body work is straight, the interior is fantastic, the raised dark stained wooden bed floor looks great, and it sits on the floor where it should.

The fact it’s got a 556 horsepower 5.3 under the hood is really just the icing on the cake.

Hale’s Speed Shop built the truck and you can find more pictures of it here on their facebook page, myself I spotted it on the Stance Works Forums.

None of this bodes well for me staying static and not getting a truck again.

Need me a damn money tree…

WTF Friday: Stefan

By

DaveT

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Oct 12, 2012

2

Contrary to the number of times I’ve mentioned it (I think this is at least the third) I wasn’t a huge fan of the show Family Matters, in my opinion Urkel was annoying and Carl was much more likeable in Die Hard.

Nevertheless it was on TV so I watched it and it served as my first introduction to the BMW Isetta.

Of course then I didn’t know it was an Isetta and until I joined maxbimmer it was known as the ‘Urkel Mobile’.

Stock Isettas were powered by a re-purposed motorcycle engine that put down a dismal 13hp that was probably fine for moving a couple about but nothing to write home about.

Enter Jim Anderson and his 57.

Jim was drag racer who throughout high school had a whole pile of cool cars like a 58 vette, a 58 Nomad, a Chevy 150 police car, and a finally a 56 Chevy with 450 horse.

An Isetta seems like an unlikely choice for a gentleman acusstom to much faster vehicles but like many enthusiasts Jim is a trader who one day ended up with an Isetta and 15 years after acquiring it he pulled it out of the shed and started tinkering with it.

Tinker in his eyes means make faster and at first he tried to put a Kawasaki motor into the car but that didn’t fit so he instead ‘settled’ on a 1200cc FJ1200 Yamaha motorcycle engine from an 89 donor bike.

Of course the Isetta put up a bit of a fight so he stretched it at all four corners while installing the custom reclined cantilever front suspension and four link rear suspension with adjustable coils.

Stopping this thing (and perhaps making it do endos) are Will Wood calipers and an electric motor wound backwards actually provides the reverse motion for when he needs to back out.

Needless to say if Urkel’s Isetta would have turned into this instead of him becoming Stefan I would have enjoyed the show a little more.

This car isn’t new but more info on it can be found here on The Amazo Effect as well as European car.

Site Updates

Feeling a bit under the weather currently but tomorrow I am hoping to trek over to Import Expo for a few hours tomorrow.

Probably the last big event of the season, and the following day Re-Style It is having an end of season BBQ.

Flashback Friday

I am currently watching Back to The Future so I might as well ask, anyone seen this car lately?

Still hoping to one day find it…

Event Coverage: Black 3 – Presented By Liberty VIP & Luxury Abstract

By

DaveT

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Oct 11, 2012

3

Since we’ve met Aidan has been slowly introducing me to more and more of the VIP culture so it’s only fitting that he’s the one to bring coverage from one of the largest VIP specific shows in North America, Black 3, to Stance Is Everything.

Black which is held in New Jersey and presented by Luxury Abastract in association with the Liberty VIP car club is aimed at bringing the best VIP builds on the East Coast and abroad to the fore front.

This year was Aidan’s first time attending and he didn’t shy away from capturing as much as possible, I highly doubt he will miss another Black event from here on out.

Hometown Heroes

The Toronto area locals who made it out to Black this year were Aidan, Steve, and Chris along with their co pilots Enrickk, Sheldon, Herman, Aruhn and Chris’ girlfriend. They all convoyed up together while Sharad of SK Performance made the trek solo.

During the excursion three out of the four vehicles managed to pick up some battle scars between here and New Jersey, sucks to roll hard.

toronto_subaru — Chris was the only one to make it to and from New Jersey unscathed

toronto_sk — Sharad –with help from the NY roads– made a complete mess of his passenger front wheel on his way home

toronto_aidan_steve — Aidan managed to kill a wheel bearing and pick up a small crack in his bumper

acura_steve_front — and Steve almost managed to make it back home before popping a bead about 20km from the border

Non VIP

Though Black is a VIP the non VIP cars in attendance this year were also pretty appealing.

subaru — One of several creative plates from New York

audi — B4 on LM20s, a slightly lesser seen CCW wheel

bmw_e46_widebody — Wide body e46 that I swear I have seen elsewhere…

Non traditional VIP platforms

As the VIP style starts to work its way around the globe people are applying traditional VIP styling cues and mindset to more platforms than ever before.

Like all of the more traditional platforms all of these were built with an extreme attention to detail.

benz_mike_1 — Mike of Liberty’s newest ride, a CLK 63 AMG Black Series

lexus_is300s — Aidan alongside a female IS300 owner

lineup_rear — Tire companies must love VIP cars

acuras — Steve tucking hard beside an static TL

toronto_steve_trunk — A better shot of Steve’s trunk set-up versus the one I took at the Rockstar event

acura_front — Don’t see too many of these CL’s modified

acura_rear — Like the way this shot turned out

honda_accord_1 — Crazy tuck out back of this Accord

nissan_350z_mike_1 — This 350 has been taking the net by storm lately thanks to those huge (19×10/12) uniquely finished Grassors-C’s

mazda_969 — Who knew the 929 would take so well to VIP treatment? Obviously this owner

lexus_sc430 — One of two very wild SC430s

scion — Based on pictures this is one of my favourite vehicles of the event, on the ground, clean, and great fitment

scion_interior_front — Nicely executed interior as well

scion_interior — Great install too, love the upholstery around the tank

Traditional Platforms

Moving onto more traditional platforms.

lineup_1 — M sedan standing out among to pair of Lexsus’

acura_lineup — Looks like a trifecta of Luxury Abstract wheels

infiniti_vip_modular — Infiniti on very aggressive VIP Modular wheels, beautiful paint colour on this

infiniti_m45_front — M45, very tastefully done

infiniti_m45 — The Luxury Abstract plate frame is a nice touch here

infiniti_teal — One more Infiniti on VIP Modular wheels, like the colour combination

lexus_fak — Whoever does the fender work in NY has got their game down pat

lexus_ride_slow — Ride slow or Rides Low?

lexus_rob_2 — Luxury Abstract Chaos wheels on ‘The Philly GS’

lexus_gs — So much tasteful aggressive fitment at Black

lexus_a_class_trunk — Love the Junction Produce curtains over the amps

lexus_a_class_interior — Classier than my dinning room…

lexus_ny — Every picture of this car had a significant crowd around it

Ty’s GS400

I’ve decided to break off a few of the cars I ‘know’ via the Liberty VIP blog into their own sections, first up Ty’s crazy GS400 which is easily recognizable by it’s Liberty VIP pinstripe and red guts.

lexus_liberty_1 — Peep the rebuild of this car here

lexus_interior — This interior was done…. then he did it again

Max’s RL

This car was first posted on the Liberty blog a couple years ago and looked quite a bit different then but it was still pretty wild for an RL. The latest additions –which include new wheels, and fender work– just compliment the Mode Parfume kit and Air Runner suspension it had before.

It was also finished the day before the show.

acura_max_front — Dreamakers did a great job with the work on this car

acura_RL — The work required to get the rear wheels to fit as they do was pretty extensive

Will’s SC430

I will end the Black 3 coverage with this SC430 that has changed significantly since last year when it was white. I never really saw much potential in this car but my opinion now has certainly changed.

lexus_will_sc430 — Bazreia’s wedged under those beautifully formed fenders

lexus_will_sc430_rear_wheel — Equally crazy fitment out back

lexus_will_sc430_rear — Proper trunk and air install

lexus_will_sc430_front_three — This car is the complete package really

Once again big thanks to Aidan for contributing the coverage to the site and making the trek to Black.

aidan_steve_burns — Parting shot, Aidan and Steve swung by the Springfield Nuclear plant on the way home.

Dat Purp

By

DaveT

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Oct 10, 2012

1

Still finding cars from H20 that I like and this one somehow managed to slip through the cracks when I was doing the H20 International Favourites Theme Tuesday.

I spotted it last night while lurking the Wrong Fitment CrewForum and it looks particularly minty thanks to a recent respray and superbly fit Work VS-XX wheels.

Previously the car looked like this and it’s a tough toss up between which colour I like more, both are pretty dope.

On the topic of WFC stole one of their flags at Subiefest. Keep an eye out for it.

Theme Tuesdays: Cars with Mouths – 2

By

DaveT

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Oct 9, 2012

0

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.

mouths1 — This B4 showed up on a couple different wheels but the mouth has retained constant

mouths17 — A6 from Estonia more of teeth than a mouth I guess..

mouths8 — It’s weird to see something so wild on car where the rest is so subdued

mouths2 — Found this on a random Japan based blog

mouths3 — E46 rocking a painters tape smile

mouths4 — These cars look so angry anyway the mouth is kind of fitting

mouths5 — May in fact be the Del Sol from the first one…

mouths6 — This car took the military theme a tad farther than just the war hawk teeth

mouths11 — This has popped up in a bunch of H20 coverage

mouths13 — ChopShop’s Dark Shark from a few years ago with the black on black teeth

mouths14 — Saw this at the Toronto Subaru Club Hypermeeting

mouths16 — You can read more on this car at amdrift.com

Wonder if I’ll be able to squeeze a third round out of this theme…

rusty_art — Just so I don’t get told I forgot Rusty… Theme Tuesday just for this car here

M Technica

By

DaveT

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Oct 8, 2012

2

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.

More photos here.

WTF Friday: All That Was Left Was The Windshield

By

DaveT

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Oct 5, 2012

12

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?”

I had simply called it a dragster back in 2011

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.

ratso_italiano_2 — This is the previous roof shape

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.

ratso_3 — The new roof flows much nicer than the previous

ratso_4 — It’s an incredibly light tilt front end on the car

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.

ratso_1 — That will end a day right quick

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.

Site Updates

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.

Flashback Friday

Speaking of Liberty, remember this car?

Such a good look, he sold that car awhile back and is now onto bigger and better things:

Event Coverage: Rockstar Motorsports Charity Show And Shine

By

DaveT

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Oct 4, 2012

1

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.