Event Coverage: S&P – United We Stance

By

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Sep 15, 2011

Summer sure flew by pretty damn fast, the first Stretch and Poke meet of the year doesn’t even seem like it was all that long ago and now the last one for this season has come and gone.

Though I was only at this season-ender event briefly I was there long enough to see that the community is appreciative of all of Dave (and the Stretch & Poke team)’s efforts and showed that by the great turn out.

It was also great to see a few cars out that I had never seen before, something not typical of a meet held later in the year. Must have had something to do with the awesome weather.

I pretty much ran through this event so sorry if I missed your ride, come out to the Nextmod BBQ this weekend and I’ll do my best to correct that 😛

The Fiat

Weird, didn’t I start yesterday off the exact same way?

I think this one is Abarth 695, perhaps a 695 ss either way it sounded pretty damn nice and was incredibly well kept. People should bring unique rides like this to meets more often helps keep things interesting.

fiat_abrath_3 — I would take this over the new 500 any day

fiat_abrath_2 — That wiper piece is cool as hell

Ford Flex

It’s pretty cool that perhaps the only non shop or celebrity owned bag over coil Ford Flex is from right here in Toronto. The owner has a lot of plans for the car and now that I am used to the camber out back being on a truck I can see the potential in it.

With Brett helping him this project should turn out pretty straight.

ford_flex_trunk — A look at the air management

Euro

vw_scraped_cru — Couple dubs rolling with the Scraped Crusaders

vw_sc_vette — Quick wheel swap for a familiar super low Golf

vw_sc_vette2 — But it looks as though he may be switching again

audi — This car ping ponged between BGP and DVP just like me... just a few minutes after

vw_golf — White on white looks dope on this MK4, also a fan of the boser hood

bmw_e30 — This e30 looks nearly identical to one a Trevor at tdott.me used to drive

bmw_e36 — Parked beside the above e30 was this e36 which I think is from Modified Society

Imports

supra_2 — Never seen this particular Supra before

supra_datass — Remember when people put Supra tails on everything? Thank god that is over

mazda_s — My friend Stephan recently picked up a new set of wheels made a big difference

subaru_gil — Gillberts got some changes coming to his ride I can't wait to see

acura — I recognize this car from the Stretch and Poke Forums

subaru_chu — This car is certainly pushing on e famous status

nissan_skyline — GTR on TESL's looks amazing

nissan_gtr — This Skyline on SSR Mesh (?) is equally appealing, also both shirts in the background are rad

mitsu_evo — I can hardly keep up with Carson's foot wear changes, thes AME's look great

infinitis — Two of the dopest Infinitis in the GTA

honda_accord — I dig the wheels but I am a little impartial obviously

honda_s2000_blk — I think I posted a rear three quarter of this car yesterday

honda_dan — Dan prior to winning best stance at Battleground

honda_dan_2 — Ants eye view of Dan's ground clearance... or lack there of

nissan_if — Importfest 370 which you can see in Montreal Oct 1

nissan_if_2 — I don't see any reason why people will not take to these like the 350z

Still a few more events to round out the season yet…

Event Coverage: Battleground Show & Shine

By

DaveT

-

Sep 14, 2011

12

I mentioned last week that Sunday September 11th was a busy day to be a car enthusiast here in Toronto.

Conveniently the two events were close enough (about thirty minutes apart) that you didn’t really have to make a choice between the two if you were only a spectator like myself.

The first event I attended (and returned to) was the Battleground Show N’ Shine put on by Battleground Performance and Division R.

Previously Division R had most of their events in Mississauga but this year they decided to switch things and as a new event, at a new venue, the show drew out a good amount of cars so I am sure the organizers were pretty happy.

The Fiat

This was actually one of two crazy Fiat’s I saw last Saturday which on it’s own is pretty weird because I don’t normally come across Fiats outside of classic car shows. What made this particular one different (other than the fact it is an X1/9 something I have never seen before) is that it was powered by a turbocharged h22 Honda motor.

fiat_motor — A quick google search revealed that this might not be the only one

fiat_trunk — Fuelcell up front along with what look to be 8" subs

fiat_front — In addition to the motor swap the car has obviously undergone a lot of cosmetic changes

fiat_rear — See the guy in the background looking at it like wtf? There was a lot of that

Domestics

Once I made it past the Fiat I headed over to where some domestics were parked to say hello to a few friends

amg_crossfire — One of my favorite local sleepers

chevy_james — James and I (mostly James) are looking to put together something for the underexposed mini truck community in Ont should be cool once we do it

chevy_james_model_2 — In addition to being quite nice this girl loves trucks

chevy_camaro_blazer — James came out with two friends, one who drove a bagged Camaro and another who drives a currently un-restored mini from the early 90s

chevy_camaro_trunk — In typical Lowkey fashion no sign of the air management in this Camaro

chevy_cobalt_ss — Cobalts are becoming a bit more commonplace at shows

Hyundai, Nissan, and Infiniti

hyundai_gen — The dudes in the car beside this Gen seem to be watching my closely...

divisionr_lineup — Part of the Division R lineup

gen_trunk — Alvin's Kenwood trunk setup (thanks for rockin' the new sticker)

infiniti_g35_side — This G35 on 20x10 /20x11 Raderwerks should be familiar to you by now

infiniti_g35_front — As part of Division R he couldn't be judged but I am sure he would have done well if he could

nissan_gtr_front_three — The Sic Ryde lineup changes so often though you can't really blame me for missing new additions occasionally

Mazdas

mazda_orange — Don't think I have ever thrown up a side shot of Tim's Protege

mazda_rx7_kitted — RX-7 with a body kit I have never seen before...

mazda_rx7_beast — I have to stop messing around and actually get an engine bay shot of this car for you guys

Acura/Honda

acura_teg — Really liked the wheels on this car... never seen them before

acura_teg_rims — Close up of the kicks Venette Vega wheels

nsx — I'm curious how many NSX's are in the area as I keep coming across ones that are new to me

honda_first_gen — I also seem to have under estimated the amount of first gen Civics

fuken_ricen — Unlike the RX-7 above I got pics of this cars motor and nothing else... it runs 10s

hondas — Couple Hondas parked in the far side of the lot

honda_crx — Always nice to see a well kept CRX

honda_crx_motor — Engine bay of the above rex

honda_girl_2 — I think a girl might have driven this one

honda_ccw_girl — This one I know was lady driven

honda_emilio — Emilio from Two Litre Media made the trek out from Kingston

emilio — Spotted him at the end of the day shooting for the raffle winner

honda_worked_underhood — The engine bay is pretty cool certainly not many, if any, like it

honda_s2000_black_rollin — Level One rolling in after Stretch and Poke

honda_s2000_red — Their rear diffuser game is serious

honda_s2000_dan — Dan ended up taking home best stance

honda_v6 — This V6 civic showed up while I at Stretch and Poke

honda_brian_engine_bay — Brian's Ek still never ceases to impress me

honda_brian_rear — The entire build is on point

honda_brian_front — Little jealous of those wheels...

Putting on a show is a heck of a lot of work so congrats to Battleground and Division R for pulling of their first one.

Tomorrow I will have photos from the last Stretch and Poke meet of the season.

Theme Tuesdays: Toyota Estima/Previas

By

DaveT

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Sep 13, 2011

9

To honest I am not quite sure how well this one is going to go over because I know not everyone is into these egg shaped vans, but when I was thinking of something different to do this Tuesday these were at the top of the list.

I can’t think of any local Previa’s or Estimas but they are quite popular in Japan and a few have popped up in the US.

Thanks to a couple threads on VIP Style Cars and some posts on OMG Pancakes I was able to pull together a group wehere everyone should be able to find one they like.

previa_1 — Those are some wide ass Equips

previa_16 — I'm curious what sort of IRS goes into the back of these

previa_15 — Those window visors seem to be pretty popular

previa_12 — I wasn't really a fan of the front bumper on this one but from the back, money

previa_10 — Camber in the back is a little more than I usually like I dig the color combo

previa_8 — If I remember from last night this van has gone through a bunch of revisions

previa_6 — As I get farther down in this post I get less worried you all are going to like it...

previa_2 — Very, very, well put together

previa_3 — Kind of crazy how aggressive of wheels these vans can pull off

previa_4 — These wheels kind of remind me of Luxury Abstracts

previa_7 — This one is easily top 3 in my favorites off all I've posted so sick

previa_14 — Most of vans I posted today were originally posted by the owner of this van on V.S.C.

previa_9 — Pretty sure he's been featured on a few blogs and has a thread over on Stance Works

If I do a second round I might choose some of the more out there examples…thoughts?

September Sticker Giveaway

By

DaveT

-

Sep 13, 2011

6

I’ve got too much vinyl. I realized this a few weeks ago when I emptied the box I keep all of my stickers in on the floor. Over the course of the season I just kept throwing them all in a box until boom, overload.

Since the door of my toolbox is pretty full (thanks for everyone who sent stickers in) I’ve decided to give away almost all of what I currently have sitting around.

This giveaway will work a bit different than the last few so make sure you read this entire post if you want some of the stickers pictured below.

giveawaypile — All of these could probably make one hell of a stickerbomb

Instead of just releasing the new cursive two tone stickers I had made for Imporftest in the store I’ve decided to let you guys decide which three color combinations will get made for the first run.

To enter this months give away head over to the Facebook fanpage and like your favorite colour combination.

script_shea — To like the Black/White 'Shea McGlone' colour combination click here

script_erik — To like the 'Erik Morrison' purple/teal colour combination click here

script_john — To like the black and orange 'John Weatherbie' colour combination click here

script_gold — To like the Black/Gold Sam Afzali inspired colour combination click here

script_alex2 — To like the Red/Chrome Alex Pascua color combination click here

script_alex — To like the Red/Black Alex Pascua alternative colour combination click here

Anyone who likes one of the five colour combinations between now and 10pm eastern standard time Sunday September 18th 2011 will be entered into a draw to win a random sampling of the stickers above.

(Note you can like them all but it won’t increase your chances)

The winners will be announced here and on facebook Monday September 19th 2011.

Once the contest is complete the three stickers that have the most likes will be send over to SecheMedia to get made and then put on sale.

Good luck!

Thanks to the following people for producing the vinyl:
CarsXGirl
Curbed
Drifted.com
Drift Squad
I heart Stance
Importbible
Mod For Life
Nextmod
Static Motion
SecheMedia.ca
Sweetie Girl Racing
Sic Ryde
Streetclass
Stretch and Poke
The Chronicles

Featured Ride: Randy’s Prelude

By

DaveT

-

Sep 12, 2011

5

Remember your high school car?

I am sure you do because for many of us this wasn’t just our first car it was our key to independence and no matter how hard we try it’s impossible to ever re create that connection again.

While for some reason or another many of us have parted with our high school cars Randy is one of few who was able to hold onto their high school car long enough to turn it into something more than just an alternative to taking the bus.

Randy’s striking Prelude was recently posted in the Prelude Theme Tuesday and while you wouldn’t be able to tell now this car came from incredibly humble beginnings originally purchased as a way to get Randy to and from his job.

While at that time money wasn’t great Randy was able to do a few modifications to the car (Tein S-Techs, JDM fogs, and an AEM CAI) however shortly after getting started Randy realized that modifying a car and putting himself through college didn’t leave him with a lot of cash flow.

So even though he was just at the beginning of the build he decided to put car modifications on hold and focus on getting through college both academically and financially.

This turned out to be a wise choice because anytime he had a spare moment in College he planned what he wanted to do to his car once he left.

Once he was able to put long nights and finals behind him Randy capitalized on his research and took his car from nearly stock to what you see today.

Along the way he also ended up meeting a group of enthusiasts who helped him learn to do a lot of the work to the car himself and he is quick to admit that without the help of this group of friends known as ‘TBB’ his car simply wouldn’t be what it is now.

Currently driving one of the cleanest fifth generation Preludes around Randy is happily enjoying the fruits of his labor recently being featured on Prelude Power and entering two local shows.

Randy hopes to achieve more with his car in the future and with his mindset, determination, and network of friends, I only see great things to come for this already fantastic looking Prelude.

Photo Credit: zomgitsnole

Modification List

Exterior

OEM front lip
Mugen Style Sideskirts
Mugen Style Rear Add-Ons molded to stock lip
Shaved sidemarkers off of front bumper
FX35 bi-xenon projectors retrofitted into OEM headlights with painted black housing
DDM Tuning HID kit / 4300k OEM Philips headlight bulbs
Authentic JDM fog lights / DDM Tuning HID kit 6k bulbs
LED License Plate light

Interior

S2000 AP1 Seats
Proper+ Clear/Black stripes 220mm Shift Knob
Painted silver “bezel rings” in gauge cluster
JVC’s KD-AVX11 DVD/MP3 deck
Wink 5-panel panoramic rear-view mirror
LED dome/trunk light

Suspension/Wheels

BC Racing BR Series Extreme Low Coilovers
Suspension Techniques rear sway bar
DC lower tie bar
Burning gold work VS-XX’s 18×7+25 / 18×9+30
Nankang ns-II’s 215/35f 225/35r

Engine

AEM Cold Air Intake
Custom “bosozoku”-style exhaust
NGK Iridium spark plugs
NGK spark plug wires
Skunk2 Cam Seal Plug

WTF Friday: Hello, Mcfly?

By

DaveT

-

Sep 9, 2011

5

I’ve known about this Delorean for a couple of years (I’m a big Back To The Future Fan) but for whatever reason I have never posted here about it. However with BTTF being on back to back to back Monday and Stanceworks recently posting a familiar picture of the car on their facebook page my interest has be rekindled.

Based on these photos it would appear that at one point in time this bagged(?) would be time machine was spotted somewhere in Ontario.

However it also appears that only two pictures of this car in existence are from a Canadian Tire cruise in not like the ones I so often attend. From there it seems the car simply vanished into thin air.

wtf_fri_is_it_real_son2 — This is the picture most people don't see

wtf_fri_is_it_real_son — Most people have seen this shot

Does anyone know the story about this car? Did it skip on back to 1985? Or jump ahead to 2015?

Site Updates

As mentioned earlier this week I will be hitting up the following two events Sunday and coverage from those should start to pop up Tuesday or so.

Monday I am hoping to have another feature up, and if not a feature a new contest to give away some the vinyl I have kicking around the house.

Flashback Friday

An Audi A3 popped up for sale recently that if I had 20 grand I would pick up, I don’t so I am just going to go back and look at these photos I posted at 09 and wish I did.

If anyone wants to grab me a set of the new Nike Air Mag’s that would be sick… I’m a size 10.5.

Liberty For All

By

DaveT

-

Sep 8, 2011

7

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

By

DaveT

-

Sep 7, 2011

5

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.

ranger_front_three — I feel for Ranger owners your suspension set-up certainly makes getting low a challenge

ranger_rear — I beam suspension = near oni levels of front camber

gnx — 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…

ford_truck — 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.

curbfeeler — Nice lookin' Sunday cruiser

never2old — This vehicle belongs to the Performance Improvements family and they have put lots of miles on it

burgandy — This one had a beautiful paint job and picture perfect bodywork

ford_conv — If convertibles are more your speed here is a traditionally styled example

ford_5window — I've always liked the way the fenders of this car hug the wheels

found_3 — Interesting choice of fenders here, hi-boy/low-boy hybrid?

Fenderless

rubber_front — This is the perfect example of a classic that is not babied

rubber2 — Notice anything on the rear quarter panel?

rubber1 — Probably some left overs from a period correct drag event, or a typical Sunday drive

never2quick — Don't think I have ever seen a white frame before, works well here

ford_side — This little roadster was one of my favorites of the show, I got caught up in the details

ford_front_end — Engine bay is certainly a thing of beauty, as was the pin striping

blk_red_ford — This car also did a good job of capturing me with details

detail_1 — Unrelated to this car but I think I had that flaming eyeball on a pog.... what you had pogs too.

detail_2 — Uber clean brake and suspension setup too

black_ford_three_quarter — Simple elegance

black_ford_motor — This car has nothing but the essentials underhood

wheel — Can't go to one of these shows without taking a shot like this no matter how hard I try..

black_solo — Dumped, chopped, and sitting by its lonesome

lineup — 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

By

DaveT

-

Sep 7, 2011

2

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.

Ocean Blitz 2011 Promo Trailer from Ricky J on Vimeo.

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

By

DaveT

-

Sep 6, 2011

3

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.