Home Blog Page 15

Not Dead Yet: 2018 In Review

3

Here we are at the end of another year, and I’m sat in front of the computer the night before New Year’s Eve wracking my brain in a somewhat vain attempt to recall exactly what happened in the last 365 days.

2018 has been one of the busiest years of my life; both automotive media related and non. My wife opened a photography studio, my son is a fully functioning small human with ideas, interests and ambitions of his own, and I started a new day job.

If that wasn’t enough, I picked up BMX Racing again completing my first provincial series since ’98. To pile on, because at this point why not, I did over 50 freelance pieces for a variety of print and online publications.

The Canadian International Autoshow kicked off the year. CIAS is an event that always manages to sneak up on me despite being the same time every year.

One minute I’m think it’s been awhile since I’ve touched my camera, the next I’m surrounded by my friends at the Metro Toronto Convention Center enjoying complimentary beverages and the latest offerings from the large oems.


Following that freelance work took me out to Detroit for Autorama.

I was really only able to post a few cars outside of the  Pirelli Tires Great 8 here, but, I did a robust series of posts over on Rod Authority.

Two weeks later Autorama was swiftly followed up by Ontario’s Motorama and it’s import counterpart Spring Fever.

I really enjoy Motorama’s methodical approach to growing this multifaceted event. Each year they make slow, incremental changes: none of which boil the ocean but each make the event better overall.

For 2019 they’re adding a room specifically for traditional hot rods that I’m keen to check out.

There was then only a small break between Motorama and Import Expo, then an even smaller break between Import Expo and Driven both of which were swiftly followed by Fitted.

After that two month onslaught, I took a break from shooting and writing about the local Import community to instead focus on hot rods with my friend Kenny Kroeker.

He and I actually cranked out two separate articles on our mutual friend Keith MacIntyre and his shop Binbrook Speed and Custom. One for Canadian Hot Rods Magazine (which dropped mid summer) and the second for Autostrada Forum which just hit shelves recently.

After a half second to get my life together, it was time to start chronicling Ontario’s newest Drift series, Drift Jam.

Head up by personal friends Devo and Jover I put my best effort into getting as many photos as possible in this series’ inaugural year.

I try to support my friends as much, or more, than I’d like them to support me so I was happy to give this series plenty of love.

The close proximity of two of the events, and the constant mid school hip hop sound track, certainly helped this event earn a spot in my aggressive summer schedule.

When time didn’t allow for me to personally attend, I called on local photographers to lend a hand.

Nik Dimitriou helped me out with 2018s third round and the fourth I handed photography duties over to my son Ash.

His solid efforts made posting my own photos from the event really quite unnecessary.

I managed to allocate a few Sunday morning hours to Engineered Automotive‘s Cars and Coffee events. These gatherings remain a constant source of entertainment and inspiration.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll damn well say it again, Ontario has a plethora of amazing cars and owners that need their stories told.

Hopefully I can tell good chunk of them before I hang up my hat.

London’s East London Timing Association rolled out the red carpet for all of Ontario with their first Summer Bash/Big Go Drags held outside of their long-standing London Based Club house.

The move is something that might take people a few years to get over, but a necessary one given the size, scope, and reputation of the ever-growing event.

I had a great time at the Summer Bash and look forward to attending the (now) track side event for several years to come.

2018 also marked a venue change for The Jalopy Jam Up Ontario’s first traditional hot rod event. I’m certainly not going to complain about this event moving closer to the city.

Gray County’s Ghost Town was cool but it was a haul and near absolutely nothing.

The new venue will allow the event to grow and hopefully bring out a few more of the great traditional hot rods from Ontario and beyond.

Making it to the last CSCS  only came together a few days before the event. We’re a long way from the days when I could cover every round, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have love for the series.

Hopefully in 2018 I can switch things up and head to the event opener.

It’s closer to my house and it’s been years since I’ve found myself trackside at Canadian Tire Motorsports park.

SEMA then followed, a show that I attended for Speedhunters. It was great to return to the fabulous Las Vegas after a four-year hiatus.

Shooting the show for an external publication really helped my focus throughout the massive event.

Rather than bounce around the halls overwhelmed I walked with intent and got a lot done.

Though it didn’t feel like it while I was in it, Project Why Wait actually saw its most eventful year, with five updates in 2017.

That’s nearly bi-monthly and the most out of any year since the project’s original kick off.

I’ve been steadily working on it since the last update, and there will be a new post within the first two weeks of January.

The year wasn’t all triumphs however. 2018 marks the first year there’s been no official vehicle feature on the site since its inception.

On the one hand I’m a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to nail down an exclusive feature. But on the other I did my best to make that up with a few mini spotlights but it’s my goal to get at least one exclusive features roped up for next year.

Based on my current backlog of personal and professional projects it’s safe to say slowing down for 2019 isn’t an option.

Opportunity doesn’t knock twice, Carpe diem, whatever quip you want to use I’m going to keep the shutter clicking and keys clacking into the next year.

Photo: Clipping Point Media

Peace out 2018. Hope to catch y’all in 2019.

WTF Friday: Twin Engine MX-3

0

Who remembers the Mazda MX-3? No? How about the Precida in some markets? The four seater coupe had a fairly short run but was a pretty unique little car.

Perhaps its largest claim to fame was the fact that it has one of the smallest V6 motors in a production car. The little 6 cylinder that could was just 1.8L in size. Tiny.

Though the car was quite advanced for the 90s (they had a wild rear suspension set up that mimicked four-wheel steering) they were never extremely popular.

Combine that with that fact that Mazdas rusted really bad through to about 2010 and very few remain today. In the nearly ten years I’ve been doing this, I’ve seen two I can easily recall.

So, given the car’s are about as rare as hen’s teeth you can imagine my surprise when someone tagged me in a photo of the one above.

An Ontario plated MX3 that doesn’t have one foot in the grave is rare enough, but something about this one looked a little eyebrow raising.

A little digging revealed that this MX-3 was unlike any other on the planet. The owner @tyburgrisflyy has installed a turbo KLDE motor mid ship, resulting in a tiny rear wheel drive monster.

An ongoing project the car performs fairly well considering what it is.

In its current form –which isn’t final– it ran a 11.94 at over 100 MPH. Not bad at all for the Mazda that time forgot.

However to quote the late Billy mays “But wait, there’s more”; the owner @suicidemx3 is also planning to put another turbo KLDE in the front of this car. The goal at the end of a winter of thrashing is twin engine all wheel drive car.

Clearly Ty has a passion for the unique.

He’s also got an eye for MX-3s as the white car isn’t his only one. I’m truly impressed he has two on the road, especially one that appears to be winter driven. is far from his only one.

Hopefully I get a chance to check up on this twine engine project next year. After all Guelph isn’t all that far.

Theme Tuesdays: Motorcycles Of SEMA 2018

0

Looping right back around today with more coverage from SEMA 2018.

For this post I’ve picked a theme a  bit out of character; motorcycles. I am not a motorcycle aficionado by any means so the technical info in this post is pretty light.

However given the caliber or these two-wheeled builds I couldn’t just walk by them on the show floor.

This bike was one of the first ones at SEMA to catch my eye
At an event where most of the motorcycles were pretty off the wall, this build stood out for its simplicity. It’s the kind of bike I could see riding
Though perhaps less practical, I enjoyed this bike thoroughly as well
Baggers are not my favorite style of motorcycle but, I really liked the paint on this pair 
The Matrix Automotive finishes booth was packed with wild Motorcycles. Harley Road glide was built by Curlys Inc and painted by Jason Vanderwoude
A bike similar to this one drove by on the strip one night with one of the loudest audio systems I’ve ever heard
This classic 70s style bike was built by a shop called Buck Wild
The paint detail makes me want to spin up another custom paint Theme Tuesday
What can I say, I’m a complete sucker for detailed paint work
Pulled back, this bike looks pretty good overall…
..and at any angle
On the topic of custom paint, putting this Counts Customs built Bel Air in this posts seems fitting

This bike had one of the largest font wheels I’ve ever seen installed on a motorcycle. I’m pretty sure it was bagged as well.. 
…and if that wasn’t enough
Like your bikes with a bit more edge? Then this is probably something you wouldn’t kick out of the garage 
Personally I really liked this bike I caught outside, looks like a nice racing inspired rig

There’s probably at least one more SEMA post to come from 2018 before I call this year done, stay tuned.

Event Coverage: Simply Clean Orlando 2018

1

Just under a month ago Simply Clean brought their event count into double-digit numbers with a respectable tenth overall event.

This noteworthy accomplishment and event was presented by Air Lift Performance, in collaboration with BC Racing, BC Forged Wheels, Adam’s Polishes and Destination Daytona.

I hear venues are a bit of a tricky thing in Florida so I’m glad to see the SC guys were able to leap that hurdle by getting Destination Daytona on board.

I wasn’t able to attend the event but Florida resident (and Stance Is Everything friend) Nathan Powers (of Equipped Photography) was.

With so many great cars in attendance he put his camera to good use. It’s been sometime since Nathan has appeared here so it’s nice to see him return.

As the name implies, Simply Clean is known for clean cars and to uphold that reputation they have a pretty stringent approval process. With venue space a premium they can only afford to have the best cars that apply showcased.

Looking at Nathan’s photos it seems like the approval process is working effectively.

Simply Clean is undeniably an event focused on ride height and wheel fitment, and it’s always interesting to see just how much further things are pushed in the sunnier states.

I never try to create an us versus them scenario with US and Canada, but not having a snowy winter to contend with certainly gives people ample opportunity to get wild.

Vehicle variety at simply clean looked to be fairly well-rounded. American, Euro, and Japanese cars were all well represented. As were all of the wheel brands you’d come to expect from a show of this nature.

It’s pretty cool to see that the F20 powered Ford Model A above is still kicking around. This car has passed through the hands of a few owners not seeing a lot of street use. As far as I know the new owner plans to shake out the bugs and enjoy the car.

One car fresh off the SEMA show floor is Shawn Bassett’s full carbon 240Z. This car is a monster of a build, done completely in his garage.

Rust necessitated quite the rebuild and an inability to stop once started necessitated the rest. Today it’s a tube chassis, LS powered full size go-kart under a carbon shell.

If you want to read more about this build (and you should) check out Shawn’s website attacingtheclock.com.

As for Simply Clean, take a look at a few more of Nathan’s photos below.

Hopefully some day soon I’ll be able to check out the Simply Clean for myself.

Rolling Like A Very Important Person

0

The posts previous to this, and at least a few posts to follow, have been dedicated to the 2018 SEMA show. As you already know I returned this year after a few years away.

My return wouldn’t have been possible if my friend Ken, and his friend Sagar hadn’t twisted my arm. The two of them booked an Air BnB that needed to be filled so the commenced with the arm twisting.

To be perfectly honesty I didn’t need that much persuasion but Ken sweetened the deal by saying he’d pick me up in his Toyota Century.

Ken is no stranger to the site, his Celsior was the subject of a previous feature and I’ve posted one or two photos of his Century as well.

About two weeks before going to Vegas I shot the car, not quite sure where the photos would end up.

 

I ran the set past Paddy at Speedhunters and he immediately wanted to run something. I wound some words around the complete set and the spotlight went live a few hours before I got on the plane.

When I got off the plane Ken picked me up and we rolled in style down the Vegas strip. Funny how the world works.

The photos in this post are alternates that I chose not to use. Looking back I am not sure why I didn’t include them, but, if I did I couldn’t run this post.

Don’t worry more SEMA coverage is coming. I had a bit of computer issues earlier this week that took me away from editing but I should have that all sorted out for the weekend.

Event Coverage: SEMA 2018 Pt. 1

3

SEMA 2018. At this point I’ve been writing about the show almost daily for nearly three weeks straight. Contributing to the coverage over at Speedhunters has kept me busy to say the least.

Working the show, for a publication beside my own, vastly changed my experience in comparison to previous years. Solo, I had no boundaries and tried to cover as much of the show as possible. Dare I say I tried to cover all of it, an impossible task but I tried.

As part of a team, covering the show was much easier on my body (in the moment) but much harder on my brain later (writing) as I had to pump out the vehicles on a fixed timeline. Different is good though and I welcome change.

Of course, being at the show for someone else means that coverage here on Stance Is Everything had to wait until my freelance obligations were met.

But now that they are I’m free to start rolling some coverage out here. I won’t go too long, because the show was three weeks ago already, but I’ll probably follow up with another gallery next week as I look back through my photos.

SEMA 2018, in my humble opinion, was an outstanding year. Through my eyes, as someone who hadn’t attended since 2014, the quality was through the roof.

At every turn there seemed to be a crazy motor swap, chassis swap, or some other variety of insanity to capture my attention.

Obviously one of my favorites in this regard was the Corupptt Mustang. A twin turbo Ferrari powered Mustang is crazy enough, but this one is also bagged, chopped, and can be raised, lowered, and started all through an iPad.

It’s insane in every way, and yet so, so perfect. I’ve been following this build on instagram for quite some time now and I am eagerly looking forward to when he starts taking the car on shake down runs.

View this post on Instagram

Early morning start up. Out at @goodguysrodandcustom

A post shared by Corruptt (@corrupttmustang) on

The builder Tony is pretty upfront about the fact that the cars got a bit of a way to go yet before it’s where he wants it, but that will come in time. Despite many people doubting him the car does in fact run, as evident by the video above.

If relatively subtle is more your style, how about this classic Charger body over a modern Hellcat chassis? Built by Cleveland Power and Performance this green monster sat in the Kooks Headers booth.

Known as project Reverence this build is heavily documented on their website. Totally worth a look if you want to see what makes this car so special.

This LS powered S2000 was one of the more talked about motor swaps of the show. The builders did a great job shoe-horning the Chevy v8 into the tidied up S2000 engine bay.

The overall package, with the flares, diffuser, wing, and stance, might be a little over the top for some but this is SEMA after all. Over the top is often the name of the game.

CATuned sent me right back to e30 fanaticism with their #e30grape project. MTech I, bags, and a supercharged S52. I’m not going to lie after writing a quick spotlight on this I tried to find my old e30 on Kijiji…. for Ash of course.

I unfortunately returned from SEMA with a lower than usual amount of minitruck and lowrider photos. Weird I know, and I’ll try and make it up for it in the near future.

I did however take a number of photos of Joe Ray (Lowrider OG, literally) Cadillac Elderado.

Saying this car was clean is a complete understatement. It was spotless, thanks to Joe nearly constantly giving the car a wipe down.

There’s an insane amount of custom work done to this car, including a conversion to rear wheel drive from factory front wheel drive.

I can’t even being to fathom that man hours that have gone into this one.

In the Sparta brakes booth this banger of an s2000 could be found. A clean car from the outside it’s the motor that stopped everyone in their tracks.

The F20/22 has been ditched in this car for a big single turbo 2JZ. The fabrication work was truly a site to behold.

It also had an interesting pair of carbon fiber seats that weighed just 3lbs each.

While I appreciate an LS FD as much as the next man it was pretty crazy to see a four rotor RX-7 in person.

I suppose the only thing better than seeing it would have been hearing it.

For now the video above will have to do.

Mike Burroughs from Stance Works debuted his latest project, a Coyote powered Model A with a custom chassis designed and fabricated by Mike himself.

This is the first Burroughs built project I got to see in person, and it was pretty wild.

Typical of Mike’s style it’s not traditional in anyway shape or form, but I can dig the aesthetic. Though I’m curious what kind of bed he might put back on it in the future.

Parked among tire mounting machines, in one of the lesser traveled halls, I stumbled upon this RWB Porsche.

There’s so many RWBs these days that it’s hard to know exactly which one this is but I can tell you it’s pretty damn bright and features blue and white everywhere.

I’m not totally finished with SEMA for this year but I’m close. Enjoy a few more photos below, and you can probably expect a final over flow gallery next week.

SEMA Showstopper: Don’t Sleep

0

The Porsche restomod market is arguably the hottest it’s ever been. With each passing year a new shop or two emerges to throw their hat into the ring of restoration and modification.

Many attribute this to Singer setting a new bar, and over saturation of wide body Porsches. Whatever the reason, I’m all for people building Porsches tastefully and properly.

Sleepers Speedshop is California-based shop that is clearly capable of such high quality restorations.

At SEMA 2018 their shop build was proudly featured in the Eibach Springs booth.

The barn find Porsche 911 was reimagined and brought back to life exclusively within the walls of their shop.

No part of the car was left untouched. Everything that can be new, is, and everything that isn’t was refurbished to look like new.

Interestingly the split pea green paint is actually a factory Porsche color.

While it wouldn’t have been my first pic in color, especially from a chip, I must admit it works well.

Especially when paired with the flat bronze paint found on the wheels.

Like the outside the engine and engine room are completely refurbished and gone through.

The tidy wiring job is thanks to Rywire who was a project partner.

The inside is again, incredibly clean, and down right spartan.

Just what you need to drive the Porsche in anger without having to worry about anything else.

Throughout most of the show the car had a pretty heavy crowd of people floating around it but I was able to snap these pics right before closing time.

There’s a few behind the scenes pics of the build over on Speedhunters now.

In the meantime I’m working on more SEMA content for both SH and here so be sure to following along.

Motor Monday: A 1970 Trans Am Like None Other

0

SEMA, the big show. A show which the past three years I’ve watched from the sidelines back here in Ontario. This year however, with the recent up turn in freelance work, I was able to make a trip to Vegas work.

By all accounts 2018 was a great year for the SEMA show. Quality seemed up across the board and as a result there were plenty of builds people were excited about.

One of those builds, which was more or less veiled in secrecy leading up to the event was parked in the Vibrant Performance booth.

Vibrant Performance is a local Canadian company. Their headquarters are less than an hour away from where I’m typing this now.

Art Malczewski, the media manager at Vibrant, and I bump into each other all the time. When he found out I was heading to Vegas this year he said I ought to stop by the Vibrant booth. He promised there would be something special.

True to his word, he wasn’t wrong.

Riley’s project ticks all of the right boxes when it comes to things I like. It’s aesthetically clean, it’s low, and its got an LS. It’s also an incredible display of fabrication prowess. The cherry on top is that all of that is found within a chassis that’s often neglected.

Sure Camaros of this generation are rather plentiful. But a Trans Am? It’s the forgotten sibling.

Riley built this car himself, in the side yard of his parents home. The project took a lot of personal, and financial sacrifice to complete, but it’s truly his magnum opus.

Riley pulled as much inspiration from the Trans Am series of ‘yore as he did modern vehicles. In his own words the interior is more race truck, than it is Trans Am racer, but it all works.

The amount of work done here is honestly staggering. I returned to the car on three different occasions just to get a closer look and still missed hundreds of details.

The only other car to warrant more visits from myself had a Ferrari motor under hood.


In talking with Riley the car was built simply to be a weapon. It’s not an exercise in showing off product. Nor is it simply going to be shoved into a corner after the show.

He engineered the custom chassis, which utilizes Ohlins dampers in a push rod configuration, to perform.

The car was completed mere hours before roll in was set to close so it needs some shakedown but all that will come with time.

When everything is sorted the plan is to rev the LS as high into the 10,000 RPM limit as possible as much as possible. With the 8 – 1 equal length header snaking through the engine bay, I can only imagine how great this car sounds at full chat.

As good a job as photos do to document what Riley has built, some vehicles truly need to be heard.

Given that Riley is friends with Stance Works’ Mike Burroughs I imagine there’s quite a bit more media on the car to come, including, I hope, plenty of video.

More details about the build, as it sits, can be found on both Speedhunters and Stance Works.

Theme Tuesdays: Engine Bays Of Drift Jam

0

Because following up the tremendous job my son did covering Drift Jam is no easy feat, I’m going to forgo standard coverage in favor of an engine bay specific Theme Tuesday.

It’s been some time since I’ve done one of these, so if you’re curious to see what’s under the hood of some of the cars at the newest drift event in Ontario, take a look.

Alex Lachance went with heavy flake for this 1JZ swapped FC with some heavy flake.
1JZ_Fox and his Mustang smoke machine
LS all the things
@josh_fabmac started the year with an LSA supercharger….
…but ended it with an East Coast Supercharger
@thedrewmclean’s 2JZ E46 Touring
The novelty of seeing a MK3 Supra drift has still not worn off

One of the fanciest painted engine bays in the entire series
Unfortunately I only got to see this v10 s2000 at one event this year
It was great to see in action none the less
Grass Roots Motorsports sports this turbo LS powered 350z
And of course NV Auto‘s Riley Sexsmith pilots this 2JZ FR-S. Which he also took to second place in pro 2 this year

Drifting Through The Eyes Of A Four Year Old Boy

3

Since about six months of age, maybe even a bit younger, I’ve been taking my son Ash to events with me. He’s been to Monster Jams, car shows of all varieties, drag strips, and road courses.

He’s been to so many events with me that people seem a little disappointed when I arrive without him in tow.

With photographers as parents (my wife Lyndsey is a new-born and family photographer) it was only natural he’d wind up holding a camera at a very young age. I’m not sure who had the idea first, but just before he turned three we let Ash play with the original Rebel XT I started with.

There were a lot of blurry photos to start, but as his motor skills improved so did the resulting photographs. Furthermore as his personality developed it was interesting to see what caught his eye. Often he’d end up focused on details and items I would straight up miss.

Earlier this year I toyed with the idea of taking a back seat and letting him shoot an event as much or as little as he wanted.

Because he is only four years old, only certain events would cater to my idea. Too many people he’d be intimidated, too few and he’d be bored. Too large a venue he’d be tired and I’d end up carrying him which means no photos for either of us.

When I went to the first Drift Jam event of the year, Gamebridge revealed itself as the perfect venue. Not too big, and not too small it was just right. Better still at an hour away, if my idea failed, no harm no foul.

At this event I upgraded Ash from a Canon Rebel XT to a Canon T2i fit with a fairly beat up kit lens. Processing wise, I made a few minor color and exposure adjustments, but resisted the urge to adjust composition.

After culling through the photos I sat down and showed them to Ash.

His own commentary appears in the quotes of the post below.

We showed up mid way through lunch when the cars were parked. A strategic move on my part that allowed him a closer look at the cars before they hit the track.

“I liked the race cars, they were fast. No Lighting McQueen”

Of the “race cars” the bright and colorful Nocturnal Terror 180SX really caught his eye. Unprovoked he started taking a number of photos of the car.

“The inside, so much stuff and green”.

After the Nokturnal Terror his focused shifted to stickers with Japanese Kanjis. He’s currently in his first year of school, and learning to read, so I assumed he was trying to read what they said.

The reality? “Ninja letters, like Ninjago. I like Ninjago”. *

*For the non parents Ninjago is a Lego based TV show.

In general he seemed to really like the Alex (@black_anvil_garage)’s 1JZ Mazda RX-7. But he wasn’t able to articulate exactly why.

Maybe he got a bit of Mazda love from his old man.

When I asked Ash why he was attracted to everything gold, Ninjago popped up again. “They had Golden weapons like Ninjago”.

Surprisingly cars were not the only thing on the card at the end of the day. Ash was particularly excited to show the French Bulldog photo to our Boston Terrier Olive.

Olive was less interested.

Ash was also extremely excited to share this photo of a Kit Kat bar a Gambebridge staff member gave him to his mother. This impromptu product shoot happened while I had my head poked under the hood of a 1JZ powered Mustang.

The backdrop in this instance is his wagon. Surprisingly he saved that piece of chocolate for about half an hour until drifting began.

When we came across this car he asked if the wheel being off meant it was broken.

I explained the need for wheel changes in motorsport and he seemed satisfied enough to move on to interior photos.

“Racing helmet.”

When we got closer to the track, he suddenly became extremely interested in the barriers and fences. Mainly why where were so many made out of different materials.

Explaining the holding strength of a chain link fence and the velocity of a car travelling out of control, is an interesting track side conversation to have.

There’s really only one child friendly spectator zone at Gamebridge, so we posted up there. He seemed pretty excited when the first car passed.

I wish I caught his first reaction to the lingering effects of tire smoke. I’m so used to it I forget getting peppered with tire bits can be off-putting.

It didn’t take long for him to master when to look and when to look away.

Having never really seen drifting this close he was in rapid fire mode. He took enough photos track side that I had to clear his capture card of the duds several times over.

Of course, the Nocturnal Terror S chassis showed up once again in his track photos. He really was fixated on the flashy Nissan.

Eventually he exclaimed “The fence is in the way!”. So I suggested he shoot through the diamond shaped openings.

Much to my surprise, he actually managed to make it work pretty well.

The novelty of shooting cars did eventually wear off, so I dropped him in one of the waiting Go Karts while I took a few more photos of my own.

Given how well the this turned out, I don’t think this is the last time I’ll conduct this little experiment. Little dude might put me out of a job real soon.