This past Sunday Stretch & Poke hosted their second event, ‘Hard Parked’ at Humber Bay Park East in Toronto. The turnout for this event was smaller than the last but the cars that did show up were of top notch quality and sometimes a smaller group is better than a larger group when you are hanging out on a Sunday afternoon.
While I was unable to attend Mike Branco, (the Division R member with the Mazda RX-8 on works)Â did and was kind enough to give me permission to reproduce his photos here, so without further adieu here is ‘Hard Parked’ through the lens of Mike.
A beautiful shot of the over view of the meetWhile not stretching or poking this Acura is damn cleanProper looking AcuraThis el clipped Civic on CCW's is a favorite of mineClose up of the fitmentVinyl wrapped lips? They look crazyI'll never get tired of this s2kClean civicSitting low with Mugen accessoriesScraped Crusaders in the houseSolid looking golf, construction orange is working well hereNice looking boosted e36Mr VIP and a Lexus from the last meetMikes RX-8 on Work VS-xx wheelsAnother shot of Mikes RideOver fendered, flush, s13Two very fitted SubarusI dig itI was never a huge Infiniti fan until I went to a Stretch & Poke meetLooking at these one's though I can't imagine why I didn't like themClean? Check. Low? Check. Dope wheels? Check.Stretch & Poke
Big thanks to Mike for the photos and Stretch & Poke for putting on the event, hopefully I will be able to make it to the next one.
This year the owner, Phil, decided that just a J-32 swap wasn’t enough and that he need some forced induction, so he added a supercharger on top of the motor, which was already sticking out of the hood a fair bit.
The result is a car that’s even crazier than before which he and the rest of the crew at Worked 905 drove (no trailer here folks) from Mississauga to Tennessee for Import Alliance.
Expect to see a lot of this car on the internet this week, local guys doing big things, love it.
Side shot of last years setup at Honda Tech 6and now a sideshot from Import Expo 2010Shot from behind the wheel on the way to TennesseeIf muscle car guys can drive around with blowers under the hood why not Import folk?Cleaned up and closed up at Import AllianceProudly representing Canada
This car is batshit crazy. Check out more from Worked 905facebook page and soon website.
Making one car look like another is fairly hard (unless you start with a Fiero) so I am not sure why companies keep presumably mass marketing kits to do so, furthermore I’m really perplexed as to why the figured to manufacture these kits for 4th Gen Camaros.
Perhaps because this gen of Camaro was kinda meh? Regardless I don’t think any deserve to end up a little confused like this one.
I guess this is trying to look like a Bel Air?If the wheels don't ruin itand if the wheels didn't the roof line sure didSigh
Bonus: WTF Kind of ticket is this
My girlfriend came home yesterday with this complete waste of time ticket.
I know... women drivers right?
Yes you are reading that correctly the ticket is $3.75 and the admin fees are $15.00 I didn’t even know that was possible all my tickets have been several hundreds of dollars lol.
Site Updates
Some fans out in Cali contacted me about a double feature and I am really looking forward to getting it (started and then) finished because I think you guys are going enjoy there cars.
I’ve also been hitting up local photographers for more features and everyone seems really excited to do it so look out for a few more shutterbugs on here.
Finally I will be at Scrape By The Lake this weekend (after a trip to the cottage) where I will have my first real media pass. I had a lot of fun last year so I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble fun I get into with a closer view of the bikini models.
Flashback Friday
Since I am going this weekend flash back to last years Scrape By The Lake event coverage. There are three pages of coverage here and I should come back with at least that much again.
If you’ve been following along with my Friday site/personal updates, or on twitter, will have known that I recently made the switch from my Eibach Sportline/Koni Yellow combo to BC Racing BR type coil overs.
After the initial install, while the ride quality was vastly improved, I was shocked to learn that my new coil overs actually sat higher than my previous setup at their lowest setting. Not cool.
So it was time to consider my options.
Option A: Go back to my previous setup and maybe hack of a ring or two off the springs pre re installation but I quickly nixed that idea as I was a fan of the ride quality, and adjustable height and dampening on the on the BC’s, as well as the camber plates.
Option B: Buy a set of *insert brand here* coil overs and hope that they actually lowered my car further than I already was. Problem with that being that their seems to be a lot of discrepancy online regarding how far certain coil overs will lower Mazda 3 which could mean that I could have ended up in the exact same situation or worse, higher.
Option C: Contact BC racing and see what could be done about my predicament.
Ultimately I went with contacting BC racing and the customer service representative I got, Mike, was excellent. After providing him with measurements of my ground to fender height (24″) and where I wanted my front end to sit (23.5″ or lower) Mike contacted the R&D department who came up with a solution that allowed me to get lower without removing adjustment collars or modifying the coil overs in a way that voids the warranty.
What they ended up sending me shorter shock cartridges, shorter springs, and lock rings with a smaller stack height.
The result was a .75″ additional drop adjusted all the way down without adverse handling effects.
All in all I am pretty happy with how things came together and glad I got the ride height I was going for; a slight forward rake with no direct finger gap all around (if you go on an upward angle you can get your finger in there).
Here is how I am currently sitting, and I can’t wait until I find the right set of aggressive wheels so I can get flush.
Enough talk:
As you can see I have a nice forward rake going as oppose to saggy bumThe rear on this side looks a little higher, I might have to do a little tweakingGround level shot, my pinch welds are lower than my sides and scrape at timesThis shot is what really makes it for me, exactly what I wanted
Division R has been making a lot of moves here on Stance Is Everything lately and today brings another member from their crew, Matt, with his dumped Toyota Matrix.
Spotting a well done Matrix in the GTA is on par with spotting a unicorn, as a lot of them end up in the hands of people who either rice them out or wait for them to die as daily drivers.
Thankfully Matt saved his from both fates and has put his ‘trix to work skimming the top of speed bumps all over the GTA.
Matt’s Tein suspension setup currently puts his cross member at mere 1.437 inches from the floor which means that not very much makes it under his car.
I've seen XXR's on a few Matrix's and they always look great
Matt’s car isn’t only good at collecting fleck’s of yellow paint in it’s under carriage however as he has also gone 4/4 in show appearances this year collecting 3 lowest car awards and 1 best Toyota award.
Polished wheels and silver paint are always a good choice
If Matt’s ride height isn’t enough to get your attention as he drives by his very robust sound system setup comprised of Clarion, Infinity, JVC, and Rockford Fosgate equipment most likely will as it’s been verified to hit a very respectable 136.7 DB.
Reppin for Division R
Matt’s looking at building a new motor with the crew at Monkey Wrench Racing in New York in the near future and further expanding his I.CE. setup to include a full fiberglass trunk and game console.
I’ve been totally sleeping on posting this event, I swear I need a secretary, anyway Strech & Poke the crew behind Stretch & Poke 1 is putting on another event this Saturday at Humber Bay Park East starting at 10 am.
If the last event was any indication of the caliber of cars that are going to be at this one it is defiantly worth checking out if you are in the area.
Furthermore David at S&P has also hooked up with JDM EGO and Fatlace for this and will have some exclusive stickers.
Stretch & Poke II: Hardparked
Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this event as I’ve got my first media pass ever for Scrape By The Lake.
However I know MR. VIP Aidan Borges is going to be attending/helping and out Chris Hoare over at NotSoStock.com is sure to get his photo on.
I should see about helping out with the next event…
CCW is one of a few custom wheel manufacturers who have really been making an impact on the internet lately and it’s no surprise since they make gorgeous looking wheels to essentially.
Their classics and LM20 models are their most popular it would see but I have yet to see a set of wheels from them I didn’t like.
In case you missed this s2000 from T.A.S.RSuper Lite Coupe on ccwsNathan's ride, which was featured here before kills itIt was hard to keep this one out of my Corrado Theme TuesdayMustang owners love CCWsDamnWFSU.Net has serious carsMore Mustang goodnessI wonder what the specs are on theseFD looking greatSo.. much... winRear fitment is off the chartsIf the tops up hard > SoftFantastic product shotNice lookin clown shoeClean.Even Vette's are in on the funGetting ready to put down some numbersTime to try and convince my dad to get one of these again
On Sunday July 11th I attended the charity Tuners Against Street Racing show and shine for the third year in a row. This year to switch things up a bit I entered with Team JH instead of Team Toronto Mazda 3 and we were able to take home best team award which was pretty cool.
Like previous years the event went off fairly well considering mother nature decided to cool us down in the middle of the day with a quick thunderstorm.
I got to catch up and shoot the breeze with a bunch of old/new friends which is pretty much all I ask for from an event.
Amusing things
Cheap laughs are sometimes the best type…
This was on a heavily modified SolsticeWhat if you do both?
I.C.E
This Audiobahn wall was in a Nitro from New YorkThe back end of the Nitro, DJ hero anyone?OG Nintendo power pistol > ThoseThis was hard to shoot, but this MR2 hd a nice clean A/V setup hiding in there
Superlite Coupe
Never seen one of these before so I had to do some research online to learn a bit more about it. I like what I learned sounds like a fun kit to build and drive.
Looks like it belongs on a race trackOne of 2 cars sitting on CCWs at the showA little disappointed I never got to see it run
JRP Jetta
This Jetta may or may not have changed from last year but I noticed a few things this year that I had not before, mainly the sub placment
I really didn't mind the sponsor sticker placementI liked what they did with the CF hood alsoI wonder how imaging is with a set up like this
Minitrucks
I took it easy on the Mini Truck pictures at T.A.S.R since I will be at Scrape By The Lake this weekend and will be coming back with lots of mini truck photos
Body dropped first gen s10This second gen s10 was also very clean
Nissans
Small showing of Nissan’s but quality none the less
The Sentra SE-R was on my car short list for awhile the 6 speed is enticingThis Skyline took home some hardwareOne of the awards he took home was best motor
Subaru’s
Small but competitive Subaru class this year
This WRX owner was reppin Team JH as wellThis car took home elite Subaru and won a photo shoot with Elle Marie Photography sponsored by myselfHis engine bay was freshly redone and included polished components along with a tuck and shaveSo nice.
905 Rides
The 905 rides crew came out pretty hard to T.A.S.R and took home a bunch of awards, and for good reason here are two rides they brought out that really caught my eye
This Infiniti had some pretty nice fitment along with a clean exteriorHere's a closer look at the tuck and the dishThis Probe blew me away, I've not seen one in years and never have I seen one this cleanThe owner said he couldn't find anyone else rocking wheels this wide on a Probe
Mazda’s
Mazda 3’s pretty well dominated the Mazda portion of the show thanks to Team JH and Team Toronto Mazda 3 but there were a few others as well.
Nice lookin 2nd gen, they are so happyI hadn't seen John in over a year so it was good to see him outCustom647.ca brought out their flagship rideDave is a fellow Seche Media CustomerYou might recognize this car from the Mazda 3 photoshoot not to long agoAfter climbing up this ladder I found stickers I didn't even know Ryan hadAmi was rocking new wheels and stripes this year creating a very Subaru-eque color schemeThanu's sedan looking cleanMark is a Mississauga car show regularMike brought out his RX-8 on Works VS-XX wheels
Honda’s and Acuras
Even though ImportExpo/I Love Honda was the same weekend a few guys skipped the 1.5 hour drive and hung out at T.A.S.R
Del Sol rockin one of my stickers 🙂The Shinzo 6th genIf I recall this Acura scored pretty decent in his categoryI need two of the big bottlesOne clean AccordI think this car placed in best JDM themed ride categoryThe orgainzers s2kPeople kept telling me to go check out this car and I was not disappointed once I didMassive 285s out back and blacked out CCWs, I dig
Toyota/Lexus
Another small class that had a great cars Full shot of the MR2 I mentioned in the I.C.E. section
The dudes from Nocturnal made it out againSic Ryde's Lexus again, next year he should be tucking rim, I'm not joking.Aidan brought out his IS300 to a show for the first timeHe ended up taking home best Import otherAidan reppin hard, congrats on the win
Congrats to all of the winners and see you guys next year.
I’ve got a serious amount of photos from Tuners Against Street Racing to sort through and I knew I wasn’t going to have them edited and posted before I left for work today so for this Monday morning I thought I would share what a local, female, BBS/Euro/Slam lover has been doing with her set of custom 17X9 et 20 and 17X10.5 et 28 pink BBS RS wheels.
The final destination of these wheels was an e46 but they made a few different stops along the way…
Originally these wheels were fit to a bagged, silver, Golf which I’m sure most of you have seen here or on other sites around the web:
At Vagkraft 2009Dat assThis is the picture I used for my girls with hot cars Theme Tuesday from awhile back
After the wheels were taken off the GTI they were milled and re drilled to fit BMWs and had a quick stop on this Z4
The pink on these wheels is crazy bright
and after the z4 they ended up at their final home on this e46.
While she’s not entirely done with the stance in the rear she is off to a great start since she has already made a few BMW guys uncomfortable…
That air freshener kills meSittin low
The wheel build is here for those who are interested in how they ended up looking how they do today
It’s not really a secret that I don’t like Donks, I don’t really see what there is to like about them and I’m quite thankful that around here they are few and far between.
For those of you from the Southern States I feel for you as I could not imagine seeing rides like these on a regular basis, this poor Kompressor never stood a chance.
The rear bumper is higher than the hood of that van! And I don't know whats up with the paint
Here are two videos of this thing moving. One under construction and one complete.
Again, poor car.
Site Updates
I have yet another featured ride from Division R coming up and I am going to work on lining up another photographer feature soon as well.
This weekend there are two car shows going down, ImportExpo and Tuners Against Street Racing and since I can’t be in two places at once I’ve decided to go to T.A.S.R because not only is it a charity show but I am sponsoring an award with a photo shoot by Elle Marie Photography.
Which award? Well you will just have to attend to find out.
If anyone is going to ImportExpo and is looking for a place to show off your photos email me and let’s work something out 🙂
On the personal front my shipment from BC racing has arrived and is actually getting installed right now so after work today I should be rid of that pesky front fender gap that has been the bane of my existence since putting the coil overs on my ride.
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
