If you are of the mindset that stance is all about wide wheels, stretched rubber, camber, and static suspension hopefully this ’66 Cadillac Coupe De Ville will change your tune.
Hammered to the floor via air ride and sitting on simple hub caps with white walls this car has got stance for miles, which is just about how long it is.
Some cars all you need is low and this a perfect example.
There still isn’t really any snow in the GTA (damn cold though) but Sunday and Monday I was in snowboarding in Barrie and Monday morning we woke up to an incredible amount of fresh show which made conditions awesome.
Driving wasn’t so great but Lyndsey’s Kia Soul fared pretty well (considering it is on all seasons).
All of this means that Winter Wednesday is a go for this week even though I see bare pavement outside my window.
No clue at all where I found this Miata sitting in some light snow but damn if it doesn’t look great.
Of course I wouldn’t want to drive it too far like this in a considerable snowstorm.
It’s been awhile since Mazda 3s have been the subject of a Theme Tuesday. The last one for the naturally aspirated 3s was in September 2009 and the boosted Speed3s last got their time in the spotlight July of 2010.
Since then a lot has changed in the land of Mazda 3s.
A whole new generation was released with a lot of people jumping ship to the happier generation and those who have stayed with the first gens are pushing the limits in regards to ride height and aggressive fitments.
If only they didn’t rust…
Note: I didn’t include JDR’s because I featured it, and I didn’t include Sum Thai Guys because he got his own post here and I don’t think he is really messing with it anymore.
Really there are a lot of cars I left off but there is always room for part 3.
Today I’ll continue running down the list of events I attended in 2011. Hopefully you enjoyed the look back at the first twelve, there will be thirteen more today to cover all 25 from 2011.
I enjoyed all of the events I attended this year but I am always up to check out new ones so if there is a local event that you think I should attend feel free to let me know via the comments or an email.
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I’m glad Puro reached out via the fanpage and let me know about this event because with Scrape By The Lake missing for 2011 I am not sure how I would have got my fix of hydraulics, candy paint, and daytons otherwise.
Initially the turnout for this show wasn’t huge but the parking lot began to really fill up as the day went on.
I also had the privilege of attending this show with my friends young nephew and it was really cool to see his reaction to cars he liked.
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Vagkfrat was the second event I attended at the Powerade Centre in 2011 and the first time I had attended Vagkraft since 2010.
The event brought out tons of VAG enthusiasts from all over Ontario and some as far as Montreal.
Additionally the autocross and dyno runs were a great addition to the normal show and shine.
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After hanging around at Vagkraft for a few hours Steve and myself made our way over to Canadian Tire Etobicoke to check out the Street Classics Pre 1955 show, while there we also met up with Rob and the Performance Improvements crew.
This show was much smaller than the last pre-55 show I attended but that may have had something to do with the time we showed up.
Euro and classic in the same day, good day.
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The third round of CSCS 2011 was back in Cayuga and also returning for this event was the grey weather that plagued most of the previous years events.
Eventually things cleared up though and it was business as usual.
The Nextmod/Advance Power House Evo driven by Brian Wong set a new track record at this event opening the doors up for a new record to be set at the season finale.
This event was also the first time I came across those crazy British guys and their awesome Jaguar.
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For this years Importfest Basit contacted me early regarding how Stance Is Everything could be involved in the show and I really appreciate him for keeping me in the loop.
Having the opportunity to attend the show on set-up day really put into perspective how much work everyone puts in from organizers/exhibitors to competitors.
The real highlight of this event for me was the amount of positive feedback I got from locals who read the site, it is really encouraging.
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Even though I posted the coverage of this event quite recently it happened the day right after Importfest.
The Toronto Mazda 3 / Toronto Protege tug of war never ended up happening so we will have to get that settled next year.
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Taking place the same day as yet another Stretch & Poke! event the Battleground Performance show and shine had an impressive turnout with a few people doing the back and forth like myself.
I helped judge ‘Best Stance’ at this show as well and like Droptec, and Importfest before it judging for that class wasn’t easy here either.
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United We Stance was the last Stretch & Poke! event of the year and it was a nice exclamation point to the end of their meet season.
Surprisingly a few cars made it out to this event that I had not see at any other in the year which was a nice surprise considering it was an event at the tail end of the season.
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Peter, Rachel, and the rest of the Nextmod staff held their cards pretty close to their chests in regards to the date for the Nextmod BBQ this year.
Waiting until nearly the end of the season to host the event worked out well for them though as the turnout was massive since they didn’t have to compete with any other events.
And as always free food and drink.
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If there is one event I regret showing up late to this year it is the Roadmates Cornroast. Keith (the owner of the car above) mentioned that a lot of cars had left by the time I showed up due to the weather and shortly after I arrived it did start to pour.
Bummer, but I did manage to snap a few photos before the skies opened up.
I will make up for my tardiness next year.
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CSCS went out on a high note this year with Shasha Anis setting a new track record with his 350z taking it back from Brian Wong who broke his previous record at the last CSCS event.
If you have not already check out the in car video of that record setting run.
Matt (who owns this s2000) decided late in the year to create another show/meet that caters to the ‘stance movement’ in the GTA.
How this show series will pan out in comparison to his previously successful Tuners Against Street Racing show remains to be seen but he did manage to get a few clean cars out to attend the kick off show even though it was pretty darn cold.
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As I said in the original Oktoberfest post this event was the perfect send off for 2011.
Just a bunch of friends hanging out in some decent fall weather shooting the breeze and raising a little bit for those who were less fortunate.
My first Chop Shop! event but not my last.
That wraps up the event coverage recap for 2011.
Thanks everyone for following along and contributing in 2011 and Happy New Year.
Only three months until the active season starts to kick back into gear…
What a year 2011 was event wise in Ontario. It seemed like there was something going on at least every other weekend, if not every weekend, often with two events occurring at the same time.
While I did my best to make it to most of the major local events (as well as some of the underexposed ones) it was pretty much impossible for me to attend them all, luckily a few people helped me out with great Guest Coverage again this year.
This post will be a chronological run through of the first twelve events I attended in 2011.
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God bless the people who take the time to get their car ready for Performance World every year and further bless those who actually drive to and from the show in the terrible weather.
Performance World 2011 was actually the last year the event would be called Performance World with the show being re-branded as the ‘MegaSpeed Custom Car & Truck Show‘ for 2012.
I have approached the shows new organizers about some class sponsorship so I will keep you guys up to date with what is going on there.
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April sounds like spring right? Wrong.
This event was cold as hell but luckily Droptec has very loyal following of people willing to brave the cold for their annual show & shine.
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The first Stretch & Poke! event of the year was highly anticipated with a lot of people (including myself) using it as a place to debut new setups.
The aggressive fitment crowd in Toronto really stepped their game up this year and S&P helped embrace that by holding an astounding 5 separate events.
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This event which took place the same day as the meet mentioned above and was held by a good friend of mine. The proceeds went to a chairty close to my heart (Sick Kids Foundation) so it was a must attend.
Chris received a lot of support from his own team (Team JH Society) for this show along with the Krown Lakeshore team.
Props to Chris for successfully wearing the show organizer hat in 2011 and all the best for the 2012 show.
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While at Performance World Lyndsey picked up a flyer this show which took place close to her home town of Dorchester Ontario. From the looks of the flyer I figured the show would be ‘pretty big’ but I had no idea it would be the largest show I would attend in 2011.
Steve Plunkett’s personal collection of Cadillacs alone rivals that of a small car show.
Eventually I threw in the towel and put the camera way to just enjoy the show… and some kettle corn.
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Most people will remember this event for the now (in)famous Subaru roll over but that unfortunate incident aside it was a great season kick off for CSCS.
The warm rain free forecast lead to a packed road course and drag strip as well as record setting attendance numbers.
Liam of Dorimoto had a great day drifitng and just so happens to be building a new drift car right now.
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Stretch & Poke! continuing to embark down the ambitious goal of hosting five events in one season managed to rival the attendance of their first meet with this second showing.
They were also cross promoting Import Expo at this show as if I recall it was the weekend after.
Sic Ryde stole the show in my eyes for randomly showing up with trunk full of Popeyes chicken!
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A big shout out to Nine O Five Rides for allowing me to be a part of their first show in 2011. At this event I had a chance to catch up with Erik and Ty at this event as well as members of Southern Ontario’s minitruck community.
I also got a chance to hang out with Steve Wharton of e11even11 photography which is hard to do during the summer months due to his hectic shooting schedule.
Hopefully this event is back for 2012 and we can have a few more ‘lowest’ classes.
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The Powerade Centre held host to a number of events this year the first being the Too Fast Custom Car Show put on by SLC Productions.
I had never been to an SLC show before so I didn’t really know what to expect but the Too Fast show turned out to have a decent line up of both cars and trucks.
Aidan, Sic, James, and Sam all had their vehicles entered in the show and if I recall all took home some hardware.
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If your a motorsport fan in the GTA chances are you have at least checked out one Honda Indy Toronto event.
While I didn’t attend on race day nor did I have a media pass I still made the most of the 25th Anniversary festivities. In addition to checking out the IZOD Indy light cars, Canadian Sport Compact Series cars, and the Ferrari Challenge cars I also got to see a few friends of mine put on a BMX demo for Jagger.
Thanks to Steve for hooking up the passes.
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Not sure if the Indy being in town had anything to do with it but the turn out for the July 19th 2011 Street Classics event was amazing.
Classics, Drag cars, Supercharged Ford GTs, and a General Lee replica were just some of the cars that rounded out the attendance.
If you live near the Queensway Canadian Tire and still have not attended one of these events during the hot months do yourself a favor and swing by.
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CSCS made its way to Mosport in Bomanville this year and the great weather and loyal fans went along with it.
The venue switch brought out a few people north of the city who don’t make it out to Cayuga as well as those who would much rather rip the Mosport track a new one over the Cayuga track.
The drifters also competed on the same challenging downhill course that DMCC drivers competed on in 2010 which made things pretty interesting…
Going to end this one here as it is already pretty long but part two will arrive before the year is out!
The year coming to a close means that one of my favourite threads (most hacked/ugly shit ever seen)Â on s10forum is also coming to a close.
Yesterday while giving the thread one last read through the following incident randomly jumped from the recesses of my mind.
Since it happened in 2009 I forget the exact chain of events I read at the time but the pictures do a great job of filling in the blanks.
The following is what happens when you acknowledge you have a gas leak but then proceed to do nothing about it and continue to drive around aired out.
Was anyone reading at Spring Fling that year? Is the story really as cut and dry as the photos make it out to be?
More photos on Drop Jaw Mag.
Some of you may have noticed that I tweeted the following picture a couple days ago.
Yes, I am working on giving the site a refresh, finally.
There is still quite a few things left for me to do before I throw the switch but things are going quite well so far.
No official launch date yet but it shouldn’t be too far off.
Level One in 2010 shot by Gawa. After a successful 2011 I wonder what these guys have in store for 2012?
The first part of two posts looking back at the events of 2011 is coming later today!
I was pretty surprised yesterday when I went to leave Joyride and was greeted with a snow covered car, with Christmas being so green I just sort of assumed we were not getting snow for awhile.
With snow comes a lot of things that suck: extended travel times, frozen doors, reduced visibility and worst of all salt.
However snow also brings with it some good like drifting (or e brake sliding), snowboarding, and most importantly the return of Winter Wednesdays here on SIE.
For those of you who were not reading last year Winter Wednesday is when I post low cars in snowy conditions every Wednesday there is a snowfall (or remnants of a recent snowfall) here in the GTA.
Today’s photos are not exactly new but don’t worry, winter is just getting started.
If anyone knows the original photo credit of these shots holler as I spotted them on gawa.
Also if you have not done so already take a look at the shot of Alex’s daily driven show car at Blue Mountain I uploaded to the fanpage today.
I had another theme ready to go today until I realized that this was the last Tuesday of the year and I should do something ‘special’ for the occasion.
Going to events and shooting features for a year adds up to a large number of photos and since I have never really brought together my personal favourites before I figured that was enough of a theme to go with for today.
These shots are in no particular order.
No matter how often I see it and shoot hop contests I will always be a sucker for a shot like this.
There is always so much worth capturing in the moment; the focus in the eyes of the judge, the detailed under carriage, and the captivated crowd.
Event Coverage: Parking Lot Pimpin’ 3
I had to wait for the sea of people to part around this car at the ‘Stakes Is High’ Stretch and Poke meet because I wanted to try and capture a photo similar to this one.
I wish I shot this photo in raw so I could have lightened up the diffuser and muffler area a little more, oh well.
Event Coverage: S&P June 19th 2011: Part 2
On set-up night of Importfest 2011 Liberty VIP rolled in a little late and once they got into the lobby Brett wasted no time getting his car ready.
Since he was ready before everyone else I decided to take some photos of his car knowing I wouldn’t be able to replicate this shot the day after.
I think I spotted it as his signature on Stance Works too which is cool.
Event Coverage: Importfest 2011 Part:1
The Scraped Crusaders live up to their name, and this photo is actually the second time I captured this fact with my camera.
Luckily I happened to be heading back to my car when they were moving their cars from the parking lot to a more visible area kicking up dust and pushing rocks the entire way.
Event Coverage: CSCS 2011 Round II: Part 1
Two miracles in this shot; the first is the remarkable fact that a CSCS Drag racing was running perfect all day with no rain delays, and the second is that I managed to get an in focus pan shot of this car which was really moving down the strip.
Next year I need to remember to bring my tripod along for panning shots.
Event Coverage: CSCS Opener 2011: Pt 1
The only thing better than capturing a Skyline about to go on the track is capturing on on the track.
Even though I failed to get this one on the track I still like this photo.
There is always next year to see it run anyway.
Event Coverage CSCS 2011: Round III Pt 2
I didn’t attend as many Street Classics events as I did previously but the ones I did show up to all had great turnouts.
To me this photo really captures all of the great parts of a Street Classics Cruise in.
Including a sea of vehicles built before auto makers started catering more towards ‘appliance’ cars.
The only thing this photo doesn’t have is 50s music.
Event Coverage: Street Classics July 9th 2011
Anthony had a pretty good 2011 season picking up a new sponsor and driving fairly consistently at all of the events I saw him compete in.
This shot was taken during the demo where he was showing off a little bit (hence the arm out the window) and I like it mostly for the same reasons I like the Mustang panning shot from up above, things that should be in focus are more or less in focus.
Event Coverage: CSCS Finale 2011 Part: One
Dan has one of the most recognizable s2000s in the GTA and this year his car has rightfully received a ton of love online.
This ants eye view angle really captures how low the car really is.
I’ve never seen his lip look anything but pristine either.
Event Coverage: S&P – United We Stance
It is always cool to see people rocking stickers for the site on their cars especially stickers as big as the Importfest exclusive ones.
Thanks to everyone for the support in 2011 and Adam here for putting his in such a high profile spot.
Event Coverage: CSCS Finale 2011 Part: Two
Prior to shooting Matt’s car I had never done any of the feature photography on the site.
My girlfriend (who is still a far, far, better photographer than I am) convinced me to get out and start doing some of the features myself  and helped me out with Matt’s shoot.
When I got home I was pretty happy with most of the shots.
Featured Ride: Matt’s 2001 S2000
There are actually two buildings in this location and of the two this is not the one I had planned on using. However the shots in front of the other building were just not working out as much as I’d hoped.
So I shot in front of this building instead and was able to get a few photos that worked better including this one.
There was a bum sleeping inside of the other building anyway.
Featured Ride: Richie’s SLK 350
Mina’s car is pretty photogenic so it wasn’t really hard to get a lot of good shots of it. The hardest part came later when I was editing the photos because J’s Racing Teal turned out to be a hard colour to capture accurately.
I scouted this location before hand and this was one of the photos I had in my mental shot list, very happy with how it turned out.
Featured Ride: Mina’s Golf GTI
That is pretty much it for my favourite photos of 2011, next week I will return to the normal Theme Tuesday format and I should have an event coverage retrospective going up Thursday.
In about twenty or so minutes my house is going to be full of people and food for round 2 of Christmas feasts so I don’t really have a heck of a lot of time.
However there isn’t really much that needs to be said about this incredibly awesome custom (looks like Ford based) hot rod that Team Penguin spotted in September.
According to the post the owner built what he wanted and doesn’t seem to care if people love it or hate it.
I think it is obvious which side of the fence I am on.
If anyone knows more about this car and can link me to a build or more photos I would appreciate it. Further photos from this set can be found on: Team Penguins Blog
I better jet before the doorbell rings and I’m here typing away, hope everyone is enjoying their Holidays thus far.
Amazed, and confused. Both of those words describe my initial reaction to seeing a rear wheel drive, supercharged v8 powered, Chrylser Intrepid.
I guess its not all together ridiculous.Intrepids can’t be worth all that much these days and they do happen to have very large engine bays.
I’ve also came to learn that the exhaust tunnel can double for a drive shaft tunnel provided you route the exhaust elsewhere.
I suppose like most of the swaps I post on Fridays the question isn’t why, it is why not? I can’t really think of a good reason not to put the motor in there if you have both kicking around.
The yellow accenting though… I wouldn’t have put that on there and I may have perhaps forgone the blower for more of a sleeper look like this one (yes there is more than one).
Photo Credit: Dave7
There is a build on the black one in the video linked above here, nothing on this one though. Unless of course this is the same one as that just later along.
Hoping to get an event coverage year and review post up next week, not sure when I will work on it but it would be the next ‘big’ thing coming for 2011 with more features resuming 2012.
I also found out a feature I wrote made print so I have to see if I can get a hold of that as well.
Don’t normally flash back to past WTF Fridays but this Skynoma is awesome and I am going to see if I can find more of it (if I do it will make the fan page)
Happy Holidays!
Not too late to late to get your favorite Canadian auto blogger and Audi A3.
