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Liberty For All

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There is a lot you can tell about a car club by reading about them online. The size of the club, the cars that make up the club, and how many awards they have won all things translate easily through text.

Things that don’t translate quite as easily are the presence the vehicles they drive have, the reactions they cause, and the personalities of the individual members.

These are things that to really get an understanding of you have to experience in person.

Prior to meeting some of the Liberty VIP members at Importfest I thought I had an good idea of what to expect in both regards (people and cars) but upon meeting them I realized everything I had read had fell short of accurately describing the group, and that shooting through a mods list simply wouldn’t do these cars justice.

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I mean I could take a minute to talk about how perfect Brett’s Wald kitted LS400 looks on Auto Couture’s,  how Aidan’s IS300 car simply never looked cleaner, the fact that Yudi’s Junction Produce M45 went through nearly a complete makeover prior to the show, how subtle yet significant the widened rear fenders on Mikes CL500 are, and just how crazy Jermaine’s Y33 looks in person but going any further just talking about the pages worth of modifications done to these cars would just be doing them a half service.

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The best way to describe these cars would be by telling you that every time I passed by these cars in the lobby of Importfest they were surrounded by people who simply couldn’t get enough of them. There are now hundreds of people in Toronto and abroad with photos of these cars on their cameras and phones most of which who had no doubt never seen VIP cars of this caliber before.

But of course that was more or less expected because shows draw enthusiasts and as as car enthusiasts we appreciate top notch work.

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What wasn’t expected was what happened the night before when the cars were parked out in front of the Metro Toronto Convention Center. Once they all pulled up and parked people who had previously looked determined to get wherever they were going suddenly slowed to take a look at what was going on. A few trying to figure out who these cars belong to, and why they were there.

The sight of these luxury cars sitting out on the street unannounced was so unique that it even lured one of Toronto’s less fortunate away from their belongings and across the street to and put together the words to describe how ‘magnificent’ these cars were.

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And all the while the owners remained as humble as ever.

One of the most important things I took away from Liberty that weekend was that no matter how deserving their cars might be of awards, and no matter how much of a crowd they draw, none of them ever really seemed the slightest bit concerned with taking home an award or receiving any sort of special treatment.

In fact after being introduced to Mike and Jermaine, along with their co pilots Tom and Dave (Aidan, Yudi, and Brett I had met previously) it became apparent to me that the show was just a good reason for all of them to get together in a place they had never been and anything else was just a bonus and at the end of the day it’s this mentality that makes a great club.

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Thanks to all of the guys at Liberty VIP for coming to Toronto and giving a lot of people a first hand experience of a dedicated VIP car club, and congratulations once again for all of the awards you took home.

If you are in the New Jersey area and want to check out the Liberty Team in person be sure to head out to BLACK 2 which is an event put on by the club exclusively for VIP cars.

Event Coverage: Street Classics Pre ’55 2011

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On August 14th Street Classics hosted their annual ‘pre-1955’ classic car show and shine.

Much like Vagkraft (which the same day) I had not attended this annual event since 2009, so I decided I might as well check out this show immediately after snapping some pictures at Vagkraft.

Going directly from the biggest local VW meet of the year to a classic car event may seem weird to some but “I appreciate a fine body no matter the make”.

Unfortunately the somewhat unpredictable weather that day put a slight damper on overall attendance, but I did get a chance to meet Rob from Performance Improvements (and twitter) along with some of his family at the show which gave us a chance to talk cars and future endeavors.

Post 1955

Caught a couple guys with later model vehicles hanging about.

I feel for Ranger owners your suspension set-up certainly makes getting low a challenge
I beam suspension = near oni levels of front camber
I thought this was some sort of Rare white GNX but thanks to Phil I know it is a Regal

Trucks

Couple trucks came out, not too many being a pre 1955 but a few…

Pea green GMC
I love these older Fords, great lines for an older truck

Full fendered

Now rolling fenders is pretty common place but prior to this depending on your car you could either choose to keep them or rip em off.

Nice lookin' Sunday cruiser
Very well done traditional flames
This vehicle belongs to the Performance Improvements family and they have put lots of miles on it
This one had a beautiful paint job and picture perfect bodywork
If convertibles are more your speed here is a traditionally styled example
I've always liked the way the fenders of this car hug the wheels
Interesting choice of fenders here, hi-boy/low-boy hybrid?

Fenderless

This is the perfect example of a classic that is not babied
Notice anything on the rear quarter panel?
Probably some left overs from a period correct drag event, or a typical Sunday drive
Don't think I have ever seen a white frame before, works well here
This little roadster was one of my favorites of the show, I got caught up in the details
Engine bay is certainly a thing of beauty, as was the pin striping
This car also did a good job of capturing me with details
Unrelated to this car but I think I had that flaming eyeball on a pog.... what you had pogs too.
Uber clean brake and suspension setup too
Simple elegance
This car has nothing but the essentials underhood
Can't go to one of these shows without taking a shot like this no matter how hard I try..
Dumped, chopped, and sitting by its lonesome
This picture perfectly represents the variety of cars that came to the event and is the perfect closer

Hopefully I have a chance to make it out to next years event and appreciate more cars from an era gone by.

Ocean Blitz

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Jesse from Air Society and I have been shooting emails back and forth about the lay (low?) of the land here in Ontario and Montreal and while most of those emails are just us talking nonsense he did happen to give me a little information on an event they are putting together called Ocean Blitz.

Simply put Ocean Blitz is a huge rally to H20i put on by Air Society in conjunction with: Canibeat, Klutch, and Redbull.

The Toronto idub chapter is helping out organization of things here in the GTA and since I can’t be a part of it this year I am just here to help spread the good word.

If you want more information head over to OceanBlitz.com and if you want a teaser video just scroll down.

Canadians doing work, I love it.

If anyone wants to send over a few pictures of H20i in my absences I would be stoked.

Theme Tuesdays: Pictures With Attitude 6

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Last night after sitting down at the computer post a relaxing long weekend I realized that I was at the now familiar point where I have a few Theme Tuesday ideas started (around 6-8 photos) but not too many at, or near enough to, the point of completion.

Thankfully I’ve had this one waiting in my draft status for a bit and six plus months since the last ‘Pictures With Attitude’ (aka awesome photos) it was time for this draft to grow up and become a real post. Enjoy the latest edition of awesome from all over the web.

This is a Superbird that drifts, your argument is invalid.
Another shot if it because it is awesome
I thought about including this photo in a few other themes but something about it made me post it here
I've gotta check out a rally in person sometime
Explanation unnecessary
See above caption
Clown shoe getting sideways
This photo is many things and awesome is one of them
This looks like a very intense course
Incredible capture, driver behind probably doesn't appreciate it though
Wonder if he saved it...
Smell the rubber
This is another photo I could have posted another Tuesday but chose to post here
No I don't have high res 🙁
I'm pretty sure this is the second photo like this I have seen
If there was any argument as to whether or not lowrider guys know stance this should dead it

sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!!! (Sept 11th 2011)

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This morning at about 7am I walked to the corner store and could ever so slightly see my breath, which means only one thing around here: our days are numbered and soon old man winter will begin to grab the GTA with his cold bony hands to squeeze the life out of the 2011 season.

However with events going on basically every weekend of September 2011 isn’t going out without a fight.

This coming Sunday there are two events to look forward to: the Battle Ground Performance Show & Shine, and the final Stretch and Poke meet of the year both of which I will be attending.

The Battle Ground show is being put on with the help of Division R Performance and will run from 10am – 5pm at the Battleground store which is located at 80 Carlauren Road Woodbridge Ontario (Weston/7).

There are tons of classes including specialty awards for: Best of show, Largest Car Club, Best Stance, Best Wheels, Best Engine Swap, Lowest Ride and Best Female ride.

Check out the flier below for more additional details:

Click to head to the official Facebook event page

The final Stretch and Poke event will be at the usual location (Downsview Park) with all the usual suspects (Cool Kids, StreetClass, The Scraped Crusaders, Stance Is Everything, and ProperSpecs) and this event starts at 1pm and goes until the final car rolls out.

Click for the Stretch & Poke event page

If the weather is good you have no reason to be sitting around at home this Sunday. My personal plan of attack is BGP show from 10-12isn, Stretch and Poke from 1-3 then back to BGP in time for awards and wrap up.

Also if you ever want to know whats going on in the GTA (with more than my typical one week lead time) my friend Trevor started an event calendar site for the GTA over at tdott.me – Toronto’s Auto Blog

Featured Ride: Josh’s MKV Jetta

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It’s funny, non enthusiasts would view a car theft as a reason to drive a stock car forever more but those of us who are truly passionate about modifying automobiles refuse to let the actions of one low life ever take away the hobby we love.

Josh, who is  a web developer and graphic designer by trade, is now an avid VW enthusiast thanks to a local car thief who took it upon himself to steal his Civic SI from a local movie theater parking lot.


Once the red mist of rage that follows a car theft passed Josh picked up his first Volkswagen (a MK3 GTI VR) and the rest as they say was history because ever since he has only wanted to drive dubs.

Of course it also didn’t hurt that in addition to having an incredibly supportive wife since becoming a dubnut Josh has also aligned with one of the top euro centric customizing shops in the area, CHOPSHOP.

Anything that has ever left the CHOPSHOP garage has been a head turner and his platinum grey Jetta is no exception.



This car is actually Josh’s second MKV Jetta because while he instantly fell in love with the body style (and colour) of his first he felt he could accomplish more with the gas motor so he picked up a 2.0t to replace the TDI he had previously.

Once he acquired the new car he wasted no time taking advantage of the new power plant and quickly installed a barrage of parts from the Eurojet catalog including an S3 front mount inter-cooler, aluminum valve cover, and catch can.

APR then came through with more performance goods by contributing a 3″ turbo back exhaust and stage 2+ tuning software while Nuespeed provided the car with a better way to breathe via a p-flow cold air intake.


Exterior wise the Votex lip and side skirt are now familiar with the ground thanks to an Airlift suspension set-up managed by an Autopilot Digital Management system.

This  system is also responsible for tucking the 18×8 and 18×9 Work VS MS wheels as far up inside those fenders as possible giving the car a very clean final stance.

While it might seem a little silly to thank a car thief for anything it’s not hard to see why Josh does every time he drives this Jetta, it’s simply beautiful.

Of course Josh would also like to thanks all of the people who helped him with this build inclduing CHOPSHOP and Euroline Performance.

Modification List

Performance

  • APR Stage 2+ full program software
  • APR 3” turboback exhaust
  • Eurojet S3 FMIC
  • Eurojet aluminum valve cover
  • Eurojet VTA catch can
  • Nuespeed P-Flow CAI
  • Forge DV

Cosmetic

  • Custom painted FK badgless grill
  • InPro smoked mirror lights
  • Votex front lip
  • Votex side skirts
  • Smoothed GLI rear skirt
  • Shaved headlight washers and sidemarkerts
  • Painted mirror covers
  • Painted battery box, fuse box, washer, and coolant lids

Suspension and wheels

  • Notched frame
  • Custom finsished Work VS MS – 18×8 / 18×9 wheels
  • Nankang AS-1 – 205/40 & 215/40 with custom finish
  • 5mm spacers
  • Airlift XL slam series bags
  • Digital autopilot management
  • Custom 5 port aluminum tank
  • Dual viair 400c compressors

Photo Credits: Mark Mark Luciani and Josh Horvath – faduchigroup.com and Matthew Berenz (Deathlens).

WTF Friday: Braaap?

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I’ve mentioned my interest in wheelies in urban developments before on twitter (and perhaps facebook) but I don’t think I have dedicated a WTF Friday to the topic.

My on again off again obsession with this phenomenon started when I first saw the Ruff Ryders Anthem video (near the end) back in the day.

Since then I have always been a bit mystified by the fact that people riding dirt bikes in urban areas happen to be so damn good and hardly ever caught.

Easy right?

Growing up in a suburban area of Mississauga (sup Streetsville), where riding a dirt bike (or atv, pocketbike, or goped) on the street is a good way to get hassled by the police, I was more than a little surprised to learn that this is a somewhat common occurrence in parts of New York and Baltimore.

I guess really you only need the throttle

What further stupefies me is that not only do people seem to ride dirt bikes in urban areas with no care for what the local law enforcement thinks they are also incredibly good at doing wheelies.

Legality questions about riding a dirt bike on public roads aside what I would like to know is how the heck did these dudes get so good? 

I’ve messed around on a couple 80cc dirt bikes and even with my BMX skills backing me up I can’t really wheelie one to save my life and and from what my motocross friends tell me the skills displayed in the videos below are pretty impressive as far as wheelies go, even more so given the lack of regard for personal safety, near vertical angle, and frequency of one handed maneuvering.

No doubt in my mind if I tried this I would end up in bandages

Wild Out WHeelie Boys Part 1

More riders in NY

Can someone explain this to me or is it one of life’s many mysteries?

Site Updates

This weekend is pretty tame compared to last. I’ve got one show that I am going to tomorrow (traditional hot rod) then after that no more car related activities are on the horizon.

However that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything coming up on the site. I’m still about 3 events/photo shoots backlogged and have three features upcoming including the Liberty one I keep talking about, and hopefully I can find time to throw up that little sticker give away contest that fell through the cracks this week.

Flash back Friday

I’ve got coverage from this years pre 1955 show still to edit so I might as well use 2009s coverage as inspiration.

Gotta have the classics

So long summer…

Event Coverage: Importfest 2011 Pt: 2

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Here’s the second part of the 2011 Importfest coverage (well third if you include the women). Compared to last year the first thing I noticed when I showed up at Importfest this year was how incredibly busy it was.

While this is obviously awesome it made getting clear photos a little harder than usual, but with some patience I was able to put in work. I tried my best not to re shoot too many of the same cars from the previous coverage so that those who didn’t make the show could get an idea of the variety of cars IF brings out.

I considered breaking this one up into two parts but most people have connections that can handle 50 photos at a time so it seemed unnecessary. However this might not be the best day to browse the site on your phone without ‘borrowing’ some wifi.

Because show car

The opposite of because race car?

Can you tell what this started as?
Closer look at the Acura bot, the airbrushing on the side is pretty well done
Vortech supercharger shares space under the hood with screen and speakers
I'm a pretty big Transformers fan so seeing this nod to the original movie (1984) in the hatch was pretty cool
Snapped this shot of it closed up with the wheels on as I was leaving

Under hood and ICE

Couple motor shots I got and trunk shots of vehicles that I didn’t get full shots of.

If I recall this is the motor setup on the Lancer in the Toyo lineup
Supercharged G35 I saw at CSCS a few weeks back
This is a JVC demo CRZ , you may have seen me pushing it around on the facebook page
Team TDS Scion Trunk, pretty dope
The interior was also pretty stylish

Euros

This VW from Team Refugee took home a few awards in it's class
Toyo golf once again
Sic watching over the rydes
One of many cars Sic drove into the show
One of two Importfest BMWs
Girl in the background making funny faces
Bimmersports' euro e36 M3
and their drop top 1 series
This Audi from STD standard on Forgiatos was pretty wild
First fully tagged car I have seen locally
Pretty interesting looking final result

Toyota/Scion/Subaru/Nissan

It was weird to see this F20 ae86 but not the black and white one
Adam hollered at me on facebook so I was able to track him down in person
Clean build and he got more vinyl for the rack
Took me until today to realize that this car was is the blue Trial Widebody wrapped in black
These Maximas go pretty well stock can't imagine how this goes... I reckon bat out of hell
Bit of a Ferrari vibe going on with the wheels on this 300zx

KDM

This is a friend of a friend's car nice to meet you Alvin
Not your typical Kia
Boosted, wire tucked, Kia with a Ducati coil plug conversion 12" Wilwoods all around too

Infiniti

Nice e36 and Infiniti from 905 rides, the Infiniti owner had a silver one before this I liked a lot too
Wrapped Infiniti in the Road Magnet booth
I waited a long time to get this shot on show day, should have done it the night before in hindsight
Division R must have a decent tire sponsor because most of them have tons of camber

Mazda

Almost missed this RX-7 that is putting down some serious power to the wheels
This widebody Veliside RX-7 was recent in Pasmag and won the Meguairs challenge that was going on not too long ago

Honda

Game Over in the Stretch and Poke line up
Dan took off his hood for showtime, clean, he also brought home third in aggressive fitment
Managed to get a shot of this Accord coupe with no one around
Elevated Acura
Brian bringing some Cali style to Toronto
Great looking build, really came together well
TL from Nextmod
Importfest is a long day so people begin to go a little nutty...
Finally got to meet Javed the owner of this Acura, very nice guy and rocked the vinyl for the show

Domestic

Just one, but it’s sick!

This Impala is one of the best rides Sic has ever brought to a show
Hardlines setup with some audio mixed in

Now that we are at the end of the coverage I am sure some of you are wondering where the heck all of the Liberty VIP cars are, well half are still being edited and half are with another media outlet in the hopes that they will run some of the coverage both to give exposure to Liberty VIP and second to Stance Is Everything.

However as part of that deal I had to agree to run them after they post so I’m playing a bit of a waiting game, while I wait I might re edit a couple of my favorite shots from the event in higher resolutions so don’t be surprised if you see a ‘re-up’ post in the not so distant future.

Once again thanks to Basit at Imporfest for having me out again this year, and thanks to everyone at the show who rocked Stance Is Everything stickers at the show and those who came and introduced themselves.

Special mention goes to the out of towners Will from Mod For Life and J Kirby Pablo from intuned online.

This year was a blast and maybe next year I will actually put my car in the show, or maybe even try and secure a few spots for some cars. Time will tell.

Japan Still Needs Our Help

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While the devastation in Japan from a few months ago may not still be fresh in all of our minds, the residents of Japan still need as much aid as possible.

So with that in mind, David Yee of Richmond Hill has taken it upon himself to assemble custom engraved flip keys (made from existing parts) to sell in order to help aid Japan.

Recently he sent a set over some prototypes of the keys he is selling as fundraisers for me to check out, along with photos of some he made for a local car club.

The ones I received are fittingly engraved with ‘STANCE IS EVERYTHING’ and ‘I LIKE ‘EM DROPPED’ and are semi pre-production versions that were made before he started countersinking the bolts (which is how they will be sold).

The badges will be available in several colors.


The flip keys, which arrive with a dummy key blank, can be fitted for almost any vehicle that uses ‘regular’ car keys.

If the car does not use an immobilizer chip, it will be as simple as getting a key copy and having it cut and shaped to fit the holder, people with chip keys will only be able to use these as emergency door keys and not ones that will start the vehicle.

David has a sponsor for this project in the west end of Toronto who has volunteered to help him by getting key copies made at no extra cost to buyers.

Two versions will be available – one without a working key ($30) and one with a working key ($50). This is to allow people who simply want a small souvenir and contribute to be able to do so at a lower cost.

To keep costs down and fund raising dollars high David assembles all of these in house as a labor of love. If you want to help David in his quest to raise as much money for Japan as possible contact him at: [email protected]

Anything we can do as people and enthusiasts is a big help so hats off to David for doing this.

Theme Tuesdays: Women of Importfest 2011

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A locally based ‘women of’ Theme Tuesday was long over due considering the last one was all about the women of The BKK auto show.

On paper Importfest this year seemed like the perfect place to get lots of model pictures as there were two lingerie contents and a go go dance competition taking place of Saturday.

However I quickly learned that to get anywhere near a decent photo of either of those events I would have needed a zoom lens and a ladder.

So instead I just asked a few of the models around the show if they would like to strike a pose, of course I also capitalized on others asking the models the same thing.

In addition to cars the Sic Ryde area had lots of women
Alex told me he was involved in some sort of contest but I think he just wanted an excuse for women to touch his ass
The model was nice though and struck this pose after
Yokohama model who almost looks annoyed at me though I asked
I ride BMX with this models significant other, small world
I wish the lighting in this area was better
Too many people out in front of these girls so I had to shoot from the side
Got this new filter for my camera, it blurs distracting males out of the shot
Seems to work alright
For awhile the whole Nextmod area was crawling with women
I missed the second round of models that came by right before the awards though
This girl went from fully clothed to posing in front of Jermain'es y33 in a flash
I suppose that is the power of owning a nice car
One more for the road
Seeing Amy Fay in person... I can see why she is so popular
Again a zoom lens would have been awesome...

That’s the end of the creeper shots, back to cars tomorrow.