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Event Coverage: Fleetwood Cruize In: Part 1

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Since I had never been to Fleetwood Country Cruize In before I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I figured it would be pretty good at least being affiliated with The Speed Channel and Meguairs’ Car Crazy, but I really had no idea just how big of a classic car event this was until we were on our way to Dorchester the night before and we passed classic after classic on the highway.

This was easily the biggest car show I have been to in Ontario with vehicles sprawled all over the ginormous Plunkett estate. It was a sight to behold and worth the trip if you were ever debating it.

Because the show was huge and a lot to take in I decided not to go too crazy with the photos just and enjoy the beautiful day (violent morning hail storms aside) and amazing cars. Most of today’s photos are just of cars that interested me in general, some of which don’t really have a lot of crazy modifications when it comes to suspension and wheels but were interesting none the less.

Even though I tried to ‘take it easy’ on the photos I still ended up with around 90 in total necessitating multiple posts for this one event, whoops.

Artistic shots

I try to keep the photos around here pretty straight on because I consider myself someone who takes pictures and not a photographer but occasionally I like to try a few different style of shot and a couple of my favorites are below.

I've always had a fondness for hubcap shots, but I find it hard to keep myself out
Did a better job of keeping myself out of the picture here
Headlight reflection are also pretty cool
I saw a lot of pin stripping over the course of the weekend, which makes me want to do some
Cool decals like these need to become prevalent again, but I suppose the cars would need to be cool to match...

Amphibious Cars

While we were walking around the show Lyndsey suddenly exclaimed ‘a car just drove into the water!’ to which I replied ‘ya it’s an amphibious car’ before realizing that this was actually the first time I had ever seen an amphibious car in the water, in person.

Pretty cool little mechanical marvels and looking back on the day I kind of wish we waited out the line for a ride in one.

So I suppose you need a both and car license for one of these?
In she goes, one of the other drivers just gave er full speed into the water
While not very fast at all they look damn cool

and speaking of watercraft there was this fast boat sitting not too far from the amphibious cars, If I recall it goes about 130mph and makes 1200hp on pump gas

Probably be a lot of fun out on the water...
Imagine the conversations you could have with this behind you? Ha none.

Oddities

Almost to the lowered cars but these cars also really interested me. That automotive A.D.D. one day I will get it under control I swear…

Zimmers were made in Florida and based around Ford 302s. Only 8 convertibles of this one in the foreground were made
I have seen this red car on the left before, but I can't remember where... Oh and happy car is happy.
The owner say this car is made up of over 40 different cars, I believe him.
A Nissan Figaro first time I have seen or heard of this car
This roof reminds me of Baur e30s
This plaque was pretty neat
Mark Hamill is that you?
Follow through, this car has it...
A mini pulling a small trailer. I may have seen it all now...
Ok Ollie have you ever seen this before?

Under hood shots

I don’t take enough pictures of motors I have realized, I am going to make an effort to change that.

This sat inside a sick Nova which I will be posting tomorrow
The exterior of this car is bright and colorful but the engine bay is simple and clean
Forced induction Mustang bay
I will be posting the rest of this Bel Air tomorrow as well, until then here is a taste
This Corvette engine bay had a lot of cf accent pieces to set it of in black and yellow (repeat x4)

In the weeds

About time I get to some cars with low ride heights eh?

Biscayne hittin' switches
One of the vehicles we passed on the highway
Pretty sure this was a La Selle, making it the first I have seen in awhile
Bagged Mercury Montego, never seen one of these modded before
I'm a sucker for old trucks like these, the rally wheels really suit it too
Fond of this truck also, though not so much the huge stacks it had in the bed
This had some of the best looking paint I have ever seen
Beauty of a lead sled
This was absolutely bad ass
If you look close you can see the outline of the child seat in the rear.
You just have to appreciate a car with this much patina
You guys might remember this Catalina, known as the Tomohawk, from Performance World
One of the things I couldn't do at Performance World was get a good shot of the inside, that was no problem here
I am one hell of a fan of this car, even if it is basically pink

Rat rods, Fargos, Pintos, Studabakers, and more in the next installment from Fleetwood.

WTF Friday: Not sure what to make of this

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Chances are that if I said I was going to post a carbed, rear wheel drive, Honda Accord the vehicle in this video wouldn’t resemble what you were picturing in your head. It just makes more sense for a Honda fitting that description to be powered by an American power plant, after all it’s been done before.

However the two men behind this build decided to take a road much less traveled and throw a Honda J33 T6 motor in the back of a stripped out Honda Accord with fiberglass panels and call it a day.

It’s not pretty by any means but it makes over 200hp and weighs next to nothing so as a drag car it’s pretty effective.

The video below has a bit more information though the curious side of me would like even more:



Site Updates

My car is now ‘complete’ and all that’s really left to do is take some proper pictures of it on the new wheels. A few photos have appeared online from Stretch and Poke but none really do the center color justice including my quick snaps below which make it look like I am just riding on lips:

This was right after a wash, claybar, and polish so it was starting to get quite dark
No stickers on the hatch glass so far this year...

Shooting my car isn’t really top priority right now but I will get around to it eventually.

Site wise I will be at two events again this weekend. The first is a huge classic/hot rod show in London Ontario that is supposed to bring in over 3000 cars and has the potential to be awesome provided it doesn’t rain.

While the second event I am going to on Sunday is the CSCS season opener which I am looking forward to because I get to check out a couple of the dorimoto drift builds.

Finally some bad news. The Canadian Postal Service is on rolling strike starting today. This means that getting stickers mailed out is going to be a crap shoot. If you ordered a sticker any time between May 20th and now I can’t really say when it will arrive as the mail system has been moving pretty slowly while they decide what to do.

I am going to put an announcement on the store this weekend but until then just be patient. I will keep packaging up all the orders that come in so that when they are off strike they will be ready to go.

Flashback Friday

It only makes sense today to kick back to the first CSCS event I ever went to which was actually the 2010 season finale.

You know I don't think I have made a .gif since these

Expect lots more event coverage next week!

Guest Coverage: Summer Sizzle 3

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I didn’t mean to leave you guys without any new content yesterday but things have been a bit hectic at work which means more time spent there and less time spent elsewhere, however thanks to Mike Branco I’ve got even more event coverage from this past event filled weekend in the Toronto area.

While I wasn’t able to make it out to this years Summer Sizzle put on by Pur Secretz Mike happened to be showing at the event and was nice enough to snap a few photos for use here.

Like last year this show took place at Vonn Cycle where they had the ability to shut a few streets down and line it with cars.

Bikes and Vonn Cycle

Since the show as at a motorcycle shop there were bikes on display (along with cars) inside and outside of Vonn Cycle.

The dude in the background kinda looks like Skillz
Wish I knew a little more about bikes...
Ya, I guess that is a nice car to have in your showroom...
Classy lady in red

Domestics

Seeing cars like these makes me super excited for the Fleetwood Country Cruize In I am going to this weekend.

This clean Camaro is new to me
Quite used to seeing this Nova standing out in a sea of imports

Euros

Nice lookin' line up
Not familiar with this e30 hopefully I'll catch it in person sometime
Turbo fed Golf

Imports

Mike's personal ride, VS-XX wheels looking damn clean
This is a nicely done Mazda6
Row of Sedans
Interesting color choices here, not bad
This was the RX-7 that showed up to Stretch & Poke
I think I've seen this wide body RSX before but perhaps on different wheels
Ejaz's Protege
RX-8 wheels are a common mod for 3s but a little less common for Proteges
and this is a...?
See this car sliding Sunday maybe?
If I am not mistaken this car has had a wheel swap since I last saw it
Did Matt get new wheels... again?
Focal Point Concepts, Call of Duty fans it would seem
This looks like the Fast Wheels Chaser
Nice two tone turbo hatch

Some of you might remember Mike’s work from last year where he covered Stretch and Poke 2 for the site, don’t be surprised if you start to see his name a bit more around here as he approached me recently with some pretty cool ideas for the site.

Mikes entire Summer Sizzle photo set can be found here.

Event Coverage: S&P May 29th 2011: Part 2

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Here is the second batch of photos from the first Stretch & Poke meet of 2011. Over 150 cars turned up to this meet which actually dwarfed a few of the shows that day.

I am really glad you guys chose Euros for Part 1 on the fan page because it gave me a chance to edit the rest of the photos I took for todays much more photo intensive post.

This meet had quantity and quality.

Domestics

Obviously not imports but I didn’t have these photos edited for Part 1.

This truck is so rad, refreshing to see something different done on an s10
This was the car with the I should have bought a VW sticker on it.
I actually don't know for sure what make this bike is but I will post it here again cause it is sick

Mazdas

Surprisingly there were not that many Mazdas at S&P, an RX-7 and RX-8 showed up just as I was leaving but I think I might have been the only Mazda driver for quite awhile.

First time I got to see the color of these wheels in person, very nice
I tend not to take pictures of my own car at meets so I borrowed this from stretchandpoke.com

Infiniti

I swear there were more Infinitis at the meet but I only ended up with photos of these two.

Blain's car on familar CCWs that have been flipped and cleaned up
This car was on air but never aired up once, drove in that low, drove out that low

Lexus

The Lexus camp was well represented with VIP and no VIP offerings.

This Liberty member making my car look high
Aidan was obviously in attendance
Officially, official
Officially Liberty
Painting those wheels was such a good choice
So far Chris is at 80% of the things I am at

Nissan

All these Nissans have me looking forward to seeing some drift action at CSCS this Sunday.

Santi from Staticmotion.ca has such a clean car
Bangin' color combo
Pinky and the brain? (What's up Neal)
Proper

Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi crowd was represented by this silver duo.

The fade to cf on the lip was a very nice touch
Both of these cars were with the Lownatics as well as a few more below

Subarus

None of these Subarus helped my urge to purchase one next, bank account still says no.

Hell yes wagons
JPs ongoing project, been a fun build to follow
Nextmod came with a pair of Subarus
More on this car soon....
First time I've seen Gillbert's car in person since the make over
When life gives you lemons paint that ish... purple?
This car is lower and wider than last year
and is pretty crazy looking in person
Closer look at the clearance
Really liked this stance, fairly meaty but nice and flush
The Lownatics crew is going to be a serious problem this year
As all of the cars they brought out were top notch

Hondas

Finally the Hondas, at one point during this event I didn’t think the s2000s would stop rolling in.

Carving Starks! Props to this owners unique taste in wheels
Dave's Civic looking just as clean as last year
BBS'd Civic number 1
and Civic BBS number 2
And fast forward a few years to BBS'd Civic number 3
An S&P regular
There were so many s2000s at S&P it was insane.
Fat and Flush!
Danio's newest s2k
all day...
S2000 errrr where
I have posted nearly identical shots of this s2000 every time I have seen it
However never before have I shot this car on CCWS

See you at the next.

Theme Tuesdays: When in doubt, BBS

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Wasn’t really sure what to run this week and I didn’t have a whole lot of uniformity to the the cars living on my hard drive so I decided to go with a solution that normally always works: BBS wheels and a healthy drop.

Classic BBS mesh wheels will never be played out in my eyes nor will LMs. However I did try and toss a few other BBS designs in there to mix things up a bit.

If you are on the facebook fan page you know I am currently in love with this car
Classy
Nice looking IS300
Not sure if Rudy still has these RF (design 500)s. But on another note do Scorchers stretch?
One of the many reasons why I read The Chronicles...
Miracle whip
Never thought I would like this combination of colors
The colors in this picture reach out and smack you in the face
A lot of low
I've had this picture and the next saved for a long, long time
Well put together hatch for sure
Fitted, fit
Perfect.
I love this shot even though you can't really make out the wheels
That is a lot of beautiful wheel
On one heck of a nice car
Foxbody on BBS wheels... late addition

More Stretch and Poke photos later today!

Event Coverage: Krown Lakeshore Show & Shine

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Before Stretch and Poke I swung by the Krown Lake Shore Charity Show & Shine put on by a friend of mine and fellow Toronto Mazda 3 member.

The show was family run and family focused so it had a real positive vibe to it, and it’s always great to see automotive enthusiasts getting behind Sick Kids Hospital as they do incredible things (I am living proof).

The sun was just starting to come back out when I had to leave for Stretch and Poke and the event was really just getting started. From what I’ve read the whole thing went off without a hitch which is great to hear.

Goings on

Like any good show their was food and side entertainment.

Cars posted up out front of Krown
These guys were brave, that is seriously rough ass pavement.
They put on another show later that was apparently also ill

Classics

Always love to see a clean beetle

A few classic guys had rolled up prior to my arrival. I have not spent nearly enough time around classics yet this spring/summer.

Beautiful Camaro
Well I guess we know who wears the pants!
This cool T bucket pulled up just as I was leaving, couldn't leave it out
One thing I always wondered is how it is to drive with the wheel like that
Next weekend I will be at a huge classic show 🙂

Modern

Being organized by a Toronto Mazda3 Member means that there were a lot of 3s in attendance but some other late models also came out to support the cause.

Acura on super Advans
Dave just beat me out on picking up these Work Wheels about a year back
This car and the RSX above are never too far apart at shows
Clean Camry on Volks... err Corolla of course..
Don't think I have seen this skyline before
Look my old suspension!
Probably the cleanest early gen hatch on Toronto Mazda 3
Gabe's 2010 with it's devilish grin
Joe is still dialing in the fitment of those Volks but should look great all said and done
The event organizers personal chariot
Clean 2010 sedan
This is what a 2010 Mazda 3 looks like on 04 Mazda 3 sportlines
More people need to get on this...

Hopefully Chris does another next year and I can stick around a little bit longer.

Event Coverage: S&P May 29th 2011: Part 1

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Yesterday was the first Stretch and Poke! meet of the year and even though leading up to the event the weather forecast looked terrible (to put it nicely) somehow the thunderstorms held out all day and the weather was fantastic which lead to around 150 cars coming out.

The meet was my first chance to see a lot of local cars and familiar faces from last year and lots of people have stepped it up for 2011 so I am really looking forward to the rest of the year. Here are some of the Euros from S&P 2010 meet number 1.

Random

Downsview Park was packed this Sunday which meant the meet had to be moved to the rear part of the GPK building which actually worked out pretty well because it gave us a great view of the neighboring air show.

I had grand intentions of making it over to the other stuff going on but cars just kept rolling into the meet so I never made it over. However here is some of the random stuff I saw at the meet, and one fighter jet.

A message from8380
This was on a G6 that I will post tomorrow but too funny not to post today
This bike was one of my favorite vehicles of the meet
Kind of makes me want a motorcycle, though I would probably get really hurt
This F18 was cruising around no afterburner though 🙁

VWs

Volkswagen guys are always doing things well and a little different. Hopefully I can hit up Vagkraft this year…

Dan's latest project which replaced his previous Jetta
The Scraped Crusaders are an awesome group of guys all around
and they live up to their name, note that bottle which stayed there until he was out of sight
Susannah's car which I most of the dub guys who follow me on twitter know well
Jetta on Type A's
Quite liked this car, clean as hell and vr6 swapped I believe
The willwoods were the first tip off that something different was under hood

BMWs

Pretty decent BMW showing at this event and even more showed up after I put away my camera for the third or fourth time.

This bagged z4 I have posted a few times along with quite a few other stance sites
I see this car at every event almost and still don't know the owners name, my bad man
Mike and Jay from Stance Factory rolled up looking clean as always
They recently just got back from a trip to deals gap
Jay's new Motorsport edition RCs which he described to me previously as 'something new' and nothing more lol
One of a handful of e30s out yesterday
On the fan page I posted an s2000 with this in the background and everyone wanted more of this so here it is
If you are curious yes it is on air
and yes it goes like a bat out of hell. It will be featured on StreetClass soon

I should have the rest of the coverage (imports) up tomorrow which included a ton of s2000s that made it out along with a few Subarus and Mitsubishis however before then I should also have photos from Krown Lakeshore Show and Shine as well.

Stay tuned!

WTF Friday: Too much?

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One thing that always bugged me about the show Family Matters (aside from the obvious) was the fact that in the intro Eddie (the son) was working on a car that never once appeared in any of the episodes I saw.

In fact the only cars that ever saw much screen time were Frank’s PD cruiser and Urkel’s Iseatta, talk about real bait and switch.

The Isetta was basically a running bit gag in the show (haha look it’s small and Urkel is a nerd so it is funny) but I think things may have gone different if they used this  Allison v12 powered Isetta.

Obviously this one is a little bigger than your average Isetta 300 and sports one more wheel than they came with from the factory but when you are essentially riding the motor from a P51 Mustang you need as many wheels as possible.

Just silly.

Quite honestly this car makes very little practical sense and was probably a handful to keep on the road but as soon as Ollie sent it in I hit Google for more info.

Sadly I didn’t find much more on the car other than the fact it was known as the Alsetta and built by Jim Lytie. No idea what happened to it or where it is now.

Lol talk about all motor!

However I suppose one of us could change the lack of information by purchasing this 1967 copy of Rod and Custom the car was featured in and scanning the pages.

Site Updates

I finally got around to mounting my Equips last Friday as the anticipation of whether or not it was all going to work out was killing me.

Cellphone shot in my moms driveway

Everything worked out a lot better than expected with the only rubbing being upfront which I fixed with a more aggressive roll.

I recently got an alighment and now my camber sits at 1.7-2 degrees all around. Prior to that I had -3.5 and -4.7 (did a bad job eyeballing the camber arms) in the rear which looked pretty wild but I decided to go with a more conservative rear camber so it didn’t make the front look bad and so my tires last the rest of the season as my mod budget is a big donut now.

However I am dropping the rear of my car that last 1/4 – 1/2″ to match the front as the slight rake I was rocking last year isn’t really doing these wheels justice so a bit more camber will probably come from that.

Other than a good detailing (tomorrow) and picking up my other lip from Nextmod I am done! …for now… I might look into getting custom length/rate swift springs for my BC’s next year. My next Rubber sizing is still up for debate too.

Flashback Friday

Stretch and Poke is this Sunday so here are some pics from their first event which was last year. I really hope the weather on Sunday holds out because I have two events to hit up and don’t want either to be rained out.

I'm not even 100% sure this car is still around

See some of you Sunday, the rest of you Monday.

Fat and Flush: Triumphant

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Triumph is synonymous with quite a few great things: a song, a Canadian rock brand, a motorcycle manufacturer and finally the most relevant to this blog a British car manufacturer. I’ve been looking for something to post in the fat and flush category for awhile and this TR6 is the perfect fit.

This car looks like it was made to live in corners, both on the racetrack and on winding mountain roads.

Look at all that tire! Also a fan of the bumper delete
I'd like to be the lucky guy behind the wheel of this...
I'm not going to leave you guys without a side profile...

Found it on a BMX site so I don’t really have much more info so if you do, share 🙂

How to Fully Insure a Modified Daily Driven Vehicle

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Quite some time ago Miles from carinsurancecomparison.org contacted me about a writing a guest blog here on Stance Is Everything.

Typically there isn’t a lot of guest blogging that goes on around here but I decided in this case it might be good to hear from an insurance insider exactly how we can go about insuring our modified cars and still get proper coverage. I know a lot of us are on the ‘they didn’t ask so I didn’t tell’ type of policy.

The post below is his answer to that question and he is going to be checking the comments to answer any further questions you might have.

Remember this is just advice don’t go changing your insurance without researching it first.

Hopefully this never happens to you...

Let’s face it – keeping a car stock is boring. Any motor head out there knows that the first thing you have to do to a new car is mod it out. This may make the car more enjoyable to drive, but it could cause problems with your insurance companies. To be on the safe side, you have to make sure you cover your ground when you want insurance coverage. Here is a look at how you can fully insure your modified daily driver.

1 – Know Your Mods

Before you start looking for insurance for your car, you need to know what kinds of modifications you have. This is easy if you put them on yourself, but if they were from the previous owner, do an assessment of the car. The main things to think about are power upgrades, like turbo chargers, nitrous, superchargers, tunes, exhaust work, and the like. Suspension and body work should not affect the insurance and are therefore unnecessary to worry about.

2 – Find a Good Rate

Take some time to compare car insurance rates online to see where you could get the best deal for your vehicle. The car itself will be a factor in your rates, but so will your driving record and age. You can look around to see which companies have the best deals and explore your options from there. Bear in mind, however, that many companies will outright refuse to insure you, as they view any modifications at all as too much of a liability. Specialist insurers may be your only option, if you intend to use the car for other activities like racing or rally driving. When you start looking at quotes, make sure that you accurately quote the amount of miles you will put on the car in a year. (The average person will drive about 12,000 miles a year, but that number could be much higher if you have to commute to work or school a lot.) An accurate quote here will assure you the best policy possible.

Never, under any circumstances, consider buying insurance without disclosing the full extent of your modifications to your car. In the event of an accident, your insurance company can and will deny you coverage entirely if they discover that your car was modified, even if the modifications had nothing to do with the event. The absolute best policy is always to be honest, and accept that you may need to pay higher premiums as a result.

3 – Get the Policy

After you find the perfect policy for you, you can make your payments and sign your contracts like you would expect. Insuring a modified daily driver is more simplistic than you may think, as long as you know what you have and what you need. You can get your coverage as soon as you need it.

If you decide to modify your car after being insured for a while, you will still need to inform your insurance company. You may find that they will allow some modifications without altering your policy or premiums, but you must contact them and clear any plans you have before beginning work on the car. Always remember that you must disclose the full configuration of the car and what you intend to use it for, or you may lose your coverage.

When he’s not reading about the latest auto news, Miles Walker looks at auto insurance comparisons over at CarinsuranceComparison.Org. His latest article reviewed car insurance TX.

Hopefully you guys found that helpful, and comment below with any further questions.