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.
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.
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.
I love the simplicity of thisSome people say R32’s should not be lowered, I am not one of those peopleRotiform uploaded a photo of the wheels on this car about a week ago, it is certainly a different look
One of the sexiest looking TI’s I have ever seen (though if it were me I’d forgo the roof wrap)Really this whole post could have just different angles of this car
Speaking of SC…Cars like this really make me want to grab an old 5… maybe if I win big in Vegas or somethingBeautiful choice of colours, and interesting headlight tintDamn that’s a lot of polishVery classy
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.
Drag Racing
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.
Got to witness this EF run it is indeed as fast as Lesley stated from the last roundThis RX-7 has a V8 in it I’ve heard it rumbling around a few meets but have not seen under the hood yet…I didn’t get a chance to see much Ameircan Metal run through the strip but I did catch thisBoth of these cars were quick and I think the civic ended up being too quick (for what he dialled in at) and losing to the IntegraDrag bikes are insanely fast, which means I would love to try one. I would probably not live to tell the tale
Time Attack
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.
Richard Nadeau in the Touge Tuning carTeknotik’s Type R was running fast as usual and won unlimited FWDKensai Racing RSXOne person in this photo appears to not enjoy their limbs…Kensai Racing CivicI’m sure some people would argue this car is too low to perform but it seems to do damn fine as it got 5th in super street rear wheel driveLooks like the Lownatics are less focused on hard parking and more hard driving these daysI believe this is Brian Wong in his street Evo as the one he drove last year is still in the shop Ivan Wu from Alpha MotorsportsJRP/HSD RX-7 driven by James Kutschke took second place unlimited rear wheel driveSuch a great looking, sounding, and performing carAs I mentioned on facebook it’s always rare to see a Talon of any generation these days, more so out on the trackThis one was driven by Paul Loeffelholz and took home third place unlimited all wheel driveDov put down a time of 1:15.019 which landed him second place in unlimited all wheel driveSasha ended up beating his previous track record of 1.13.9 with a lap time of 1.13.5 which was pretty damn impressive considering he had to swap transmissions earlier in dayKimi Qin took home first place unlimited all wheel drive and set a track record with a time of 1.13.1
Drift
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.
Other than the lack of front bumper this car looks extraordinarily clean for a drift carPat mentioned that this AE86 was basically stock powered, if that’s the case the owner does a great job of putting the car through it’s pacesPat also had no shame admitting his biased love for this car… can’t imagine whyRyan Stock seems to always be one of those drivers I have no issue getting decent photos ofAll of his runs are basically identical which makes them easy to shootRyan and Mr. Hoodz and Chrome had the closest tandems of the dayPart of me wishes they ran this battle a few more times to see just how close the two of them could getDuring the demo this car got a little loose and almost took out a couple photographers a few feet ahead of meStoked to see Riley’s truck running well for the finale because it is just cool as hell to see a truck out slidingHe was the lone Cool Kids Club driver of the day with Anthony’s car out for the season and Chris waiting on a tow thanks to the MTODylan is never one to hold back during the demoYou can’t see it here but his ‘headlights’ were actually speakers at this eventBrad Paauw  took home third place for this roundWhich was well deserved as he put down solid runs all dayHe also put on a good show in the demoMarin would up on top of the podium with Francsico (chase car) getting the two spotMarin chasing down Francsico on his way to number 1Riley looking for some help from a short scientologistAfter setting the track record Kimi took his Scuderia out for some celebratory doughnuts to close out the day
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.
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.
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 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.
Pits/Paddock
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.
Shot this from the food line, my telephoto lens proved to be handy this dayMark’s car caught fire early in the day, sad end of the season for himKimi Qin’s ultimate all wheel drive GTR ready to take to the trackI love the JRP FD, this is not new newsThe street prepped one that was parked beside it later that day wasn’t too bad eitherS2000 cooling down after a long day
Show & Shine
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.
Very nice AudiWould have loved to see the  BMW wheels all aroundThis sticker would be a whole lot funnier on a lip not made of garden edging….but still amusingI often take photos of this car and never get around to editing them, but this one turned out okGary’s e46 comes out of retirement more than Jordan did back in the dayIt looks as though this car has lost it’s N/A bumpers… thank god!370 on ‘Stance’ wheels which are promoted in the states by the model know as Titila McBoob by Joey over at The ChroniclesTony Ho chillinTom with his hood down,a picture I don’t often get a chance to takeTy’s Legacy… which reminds me I ought to check up on his other build..Shayan and ErikDid such a good job with the wrapIf I am not mistaken this car has had a few different wheels this season, these ones work well thoughAdam recently (as in days before the show) supercharged XBHe also added a few screens to his hatchNextmod / Maruychi Auto R35 with it’s worth more than my car bodykitUp until meeting of the Mazdas I don’t recall seeing this car, now I see it at almost every eventNextmod s2000 that managed to slip away from the main lineupNM’s lineup as the day comes to a close… speaking of coming to a close the season is about to end and no NextMod BBQ?The man behind Cyrious Productions drives this LexusSam’s GenesisAggressive rearLukasz and Paul made the trek out for the Stretch & Poke Fitted ShowcaseJust so you know, the new So Fresh Automotive Mascot is a miniature goat.So Fresh may also be sponsored by PBRMatt and James out front of the Meguair’s Canada boothFinally got to see this e30 up close, a little battle worn but I can dig itEarly arches >So this is where Blain’s CCWs ended up…Speaking of Blain, he has done it again with his latest choice of wheelsMany liked his Bazreia’s but there is no denying these Equips fit damn well
Alex’s SC400
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.
He’s running 18×10.5 and 18×12 on his SC now255/35s back thereThe lips are custom which is part of the reason it took so long to pull everything together
Gary’s Ranger
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.
Very clean looking build and it sits really nice, but he says next year it’s going to tuck bigger wheelsSuper clean bed setup, which may also get a makeoverBadge winMy personal favourite shot of the entire show and shine
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!
Since the ‘Drifting Gif’ Theme Tuesday I’ve had a absurdly large amount of various automotive gifs floating around on my hard drive and today I am going to post those that are not racing related.
You will probably have to be a little patient and let this one load a minute, I’m sure posting a page of only gifs is not exactly on the list of things to do to decrease page load times.
Morning startR35 doing a Dylan impressionMore flamesOne day I will have to find a car that does this and mess around with my cameraOne of my favourite films, the first is good to, we don’t discuss the third.Old School Red Bull Event?Little bit of speed wobbleThis is still one of my favourite automotive signatures ever madeSometimes you gotta slow down and appreciate the finer things in lifeI Lol’dPerfectPerfect x2Need to look up the youtube for thisFairly well known LS-400Air ride gifs forth coming…Silverado rollin’ deepI think there were more of this car some placeNot helping me resist the temptation to bag my carAir making things functionalSame car sans ATV…and this could be the same one as well?And something I wish I came across last weekDitto for this one
I’ll be getting back to the manufacturer, car, chassis specific Theme Tuesdays soon enough just doing a little house keeping before I acquire more goods during the ‘slow’ season.
If you want more gifs and want to burn more time there is a huge thread over on Vortex or you can just wait until I do a ‘racing gif’ Themed post.
At the end of Mike’s Drift West Round 3 coverage I hinted at a video he was working on and a possible SIE premier and now said video is now done, live, and a real treat for the eyes.
It’s more the certainly worth a few minutes of your time, I’ve already watched it more than once.
MDM Visuals has stepped into the world of moving pictures, this can only mean great things.
Well that scenario is slightly less hilarious when one of the cars used in the makeshift monster truck rally happens to belong to your better half.
When Lyndsey called and told me that her car was run over by a Chrysler Sebring while she was at the gym my initial response was “Come again?”
And even now days after it happened –and having heard the story several times over– I still can’t quite wrap my head around how a Chrysler managed to climb all the way up  a Kia Soul and back down again and still be drivable enough for the owner to attempt a getaway.
Looking at this photo you, like myself, probably assumed Lyndsey parked somewhere off screen leftBut actually she was parked where the arrow is, meaning she was both pushed and  spun around by the SebringWhat you’re looking at here is $18000+ worth of damageThe car was justifiably deemed a total lossThe Sebring however lives to Rampage another day
Thanks to people who saw the accident the owner of the Sebring didn’t get very far in his attempts to escape and once the Police arrived he offered up a simple explanation: “I thought I just bumped a wall”.
On the plus side we are shopping for a new Stance Is Everything support vehicle this weekend, but don’t be surprised if Lyndsey picks out another Soul.
Site Updates
The CSCS Season Finale and the Stretch & Poke Season Finale take place this Sunday at Toronto Motorsports Park Cayuga. The weather is getting pretty cool pretty quick so this may just be the last big outdoor event of the season.
Flashback Friday
Here’s a look back some of my favourite shots/vehicles from the CSCS Season so far.
CSCS 2012 Round One – Toronto Motorsports Park Cayuga
I just posted this on the fanpage but I figured I should also post it here for those of you who might have facebook blocked at work or just don’t bother with it.
I’m sure we can all relate to the message behind this video. It’s really never too late to get back to doing what you love.
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