WTF Friday: Birds Of A Feather

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Mar 25, 2016

Before kicking into this week’s WTF Friday I’d like to apologize for the unusually light week here on the site. Sometimes life well has a way of, well, being life and this little passion project gets pushed to the back burner, doesn’t happen all the time but it happens.

However because I am too stubborn to let a week pass with no Theme Tuesday and no WTF Friday here’s a quick one.

I’ve seen the gray e36 clipped CRX below before, and there’s actually a pretty good chance I’ve posted it before too.

I actually don’t at all mind how the conversion on this car looks. It flows pretty well considering the potential for terrible with cross breed swaps like this, and while the orange accents are not my thing its not terrible.

After seeing the car above I had however wrongly assumed that it was the only one of its kind when actually it is one of two.

This second car uses an aftermarket BMW front bumper and, in my opinion, doesn’t flow nearly as well as the gray one, but the work looks like it is also done pretty well. What I’m really curious about is how far apart these cars are from one another and whether or not one influenced the other or two people just happened to have the same idea.

If you have any info (or more examples) let me know in the comments.

Looping back to the intro I do keep Instagram and Facebook fairly updated if you need your Stance Is Everything fix.

Event Coverage: 2016 Spring Fever

By

DaveT

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Mar 21, 2016

2

When Motorama emerged in 2015 it did so with no tuner section to speak of which, despite the fact that tuner vehicles were not barred from the show what so ever, drew some negative reactions from the local tuner community that felt the need for their own section.

While personally I’ve never understood the need for segregation from the greater show field this year’s Spring Fever at Motorama was a great way of providing a clear divide between the tuner crowd and the show field at large without the two events feeling completely separate.

Complete with its own set of judges and awards Spring Fever truly was a show within a show, but unlike the years of Megaspeed it was a seamless transition from one genre to another and not one that took following a trail of haphazardly placed make do signage.

Much of the credit for the show running as smoothly as it did goes to event organizer Kristine Danton who has experience running outdoor tuner events in Durham. The hard work of her and team, in both promotion and presentation, brought out a well-rounded show field of familiar and first time shown vehicles.

One of those first time shown included Nick Harrison’s mini.

Clad in what looked to be British racing green with the prerequisite white roof and rally auxiliary lighting, it looked as though it would have been equally at home in the original Italian Job film as it would have on the International Center floor.

The G37 above wasn’t a first time shown vehicle, appearing at the show last year, but it is the first time this car has been shown with its new kit and wheels.

The stock body and Concavo wheels have been replaced with a CarbonSignal multi piece widebody kit and Work VS-XX wheels.

Not the only sports coupe to get cut up over the winter ‘The Squeege‘ debuted his own Remake Auto kitted Genesis sitting on 20 inch ‘Cognac Copper’ VIP Modular wheels.

Previously a silver car on K3 Projekt wheels this Hyundai is now a deep maroon color with a Chop Shop fresh trunk set up that features powder coated tanks that match the wheels and some killer upholstery work.

Kevin has somehow managed to one up himself every installation he does which is no easy task considering this is the bar he sets for himself.

It’s really pretty crazy how prolific air ride is in the tuner community these days.

Familiar bagged cars included Jay Santiago’s Speed 3 and Rim Rims Auto’s Audi A3. Two cars that sat side by side at Importfest 2015 as part of Performance Auto And Sound Magazines’ Tuner Battlegrounds competition.

And the GTA Bag Bros themselves Steve Luangpakdy and Mike Pimenta were also at the show along with Airrex Canada rep Matt who was also the event’s dj.

Newcomer to the dark side is Brian Requena who recently bagged his EK after considering it for years.

Auto select tuning handled the custom-made air tanks and the install, and here’s hoping that the ability to raise and lower the car at the push of a button means it will see a bit more road action this year.

Fellow Elevated team mate Petey is still holding things down static.

I happened to be at the right place at the right time when I heard someone explain that the ‘rear axle was broken’ in order to tuck those gold BBS RS wheels.

I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at that.

Directly across from Petey was the immaculate K swapped DA from last week’s Theme Tuesday post.

Somehow I managed to overlook Javed’s K swapped EL from that same Motors of Motorama Theme Tuesday which is a bit embarrassing considering how nice that K sits in his shaved engine bay.

A car that had the shroud of secrecy torn off it at Spring Fever was Matt Budz widebody 300zx.

Widebody in the most traditional sense this car has had its proportions added to with metal not riveted on over fenders.

The metal work was done by Dan Fournier and the paint and finishing was done by Ink And Iron, Toronto’s own all female body shop.

Not done solely for looks Matt wanted to go wide so he could fit some 335 wide tires on the rear and actually put down the five hundred or so horse power this 300 thumps out.

The vehicle of the hall, in my humble opinion of course, had to be the Dynamotorsports built ’72 Celica.

This car has all the right traditional styling cues for a Celica of this generation and a beautiful paint color.

The power plant however – – which is a twin charged 2UZFE v8– is the real show stopper here and what created a near constant crowd around the car at all times.

The car took home a deserving best motor at Spring Fever and I don’t imagine anyone would disagree with that judging.

And with that ‘welcome back’ to the Tuner Hall this year’s Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Expo coverage comes to a close.

Bigger and better things next year? We’ll have to wait and see.

WTF Friday: Do You Have Any Spicy Grey Poupon?

By

DaveT

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Mar 18, 2016

0

I like The Road Warrior, and I like Mad Max: Fury road quite a bit, I also happen to enjoy Death Race and Death Race 2000.

However not once have I wanted to build something that would fit into those fictional worlds.

The same cannot be said about Jason the previous owner of this 1981 Jaguar XJ6.

Yes what you are looking at above is, or rather was, a Jaguar XJ6 a car that started its life as a noteworthy luxury car in its day.

Maybe not the most reliable sure, but luxrurious none the less.

Jason said to heck with that, gutted it, cut it in half, tore the roof off, and made it a coupe creating something that could bang doors with Max Rockatansky himself.

A small block Chevy sits under the hood, dressed up to look the part of a motor fit to power a death machine.

Motorized mini guns have been added as well to back up the growl the cammed and muffler free 350 provides.

The car is still street legal and Jason sold it to facilitate his retirement dreams of owning a boat.

One can’t help but wonder if he’ll end up making his boat a tribute to Waterworld which would actually be kind of awesome.

The original eBay ad is here, the price was $3000 us.

Event Coverage: The 2016 Motorama Custom Car & Motorsports Expo

By

DaveT

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Mar 18, 2016

0

Now in its second year, the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Expo organizational staff built on what they started in 2015 when they took the show over from the group that ran it previously.

Larger in size for 2016 a rigorous screening processes ensured that the shows quality didn’t waver at all with the increased number of accepted entrants.

Hall one has always been where the best of the best are assembled at any show held Mississauga’s International Center, and for 2016 the first car greeting show goers was an amazing gold 1956 Mercury.

The ‘Tri Five Merc’ is a traditionally styled custom build I managed to just miss this car at the Jalopy Jam Up. At Motorama I was able to take several laps around it in a vain attempt at identifying all the modifications.

This car borrows body parts from a wide variety of fifties and sixties vehicles but you’d never really know it because everything flows together as though it were factory.

Another crown jewel of the front hall, and a car that shared official event poster space with the Merc above, was Chris Longhouse’s ’49 Cadillac powered Ford Model A.

Built by Rob Purcell this car is rightfully a big deal in the traditional hot rod community.

As mentioned in part seven of the Taylor’d Dodge project Brian Taylor showed his 1970 Chevelle for the first time in Ontario at Motorama 2016.

Now that this car is buttoned up it is very likely you’ll be seeing it at more events moving forward because it’s simply too nice of a build not to be shown. Maybe, just maybe, I can convince them to let me shoot it sometime this summer.

As usual the majority of the front hall was filled with American classic cars but there was one very obvious exception at the 2016 show, Brad Ruiter’s Miata.

An import displayed in the front hall is a big deal, and shows that the current management behind the show are willing to accept anything built to impeccable standard in the front hall, without any sort of brand or style bias.

An open-minded approach to hall one is something that hasn’t necessarily been true of organizers from previous years.

I’ve said several times that Brad’s car is one of the best built cars I’ve ever seen, regardless of make, and the judges thought so too.

Brad took home several trophies at this years event including a Canadian Top 10 award and Best Engineered Street Machine top honours.

Be it Performance World, Megaspeed, Or Motorama variety has always been a place where this event has excelled and hall three, located just beyond the Motorsport and vendor area, really showcased that variety.

Hall three is where you could find lead sleds built by the Lead Kings…

…Jeff Lutz built Pro mod monsters…

…pro street Chevy Novas…

…strip ready Chevelles…

… bagged hot rods of all sorts…

…and curious chop top pick ups.

Hall three was also where another Stance Is Everything favourite build, Mike Livia’s 1936 Ford Copperhead, was located.

Mike’s success with his project has continued in 2016 as he ended up winning the top spot in the Vintage Auto Insurance Championship series.

Another well deserved award for a very through hot rod build.

Located near by, and perhaps the polar opposite of Mike’s build, was a 1928 Model A built by Distorted Vision.

This build ended up winning the Rat Rod class which is a pretty big accomplishment in its own right.

Binbrook Speed and Custom had a few builds scattered throughout the show; the 90″ Deathtrap, Big Booty Ruby, and Chris’s Mahtton’s Ford.

You guys have seen a lot of these cars in the past month or so but I’m sure you don’t mind seeing them again.

Jeff Norwell won Street Rodder Magazine Street Rod of the Year with his Diamond deuce ’32 Ford.

The Foose built “Imposter” had some of the best body work I’ve ever seen which is absolutely ridiculous considering this ’65 Impala has been chopped and shortened in all sorts of was so that it could fit on a 2008 Corvette frame.

An LS remains under hood with a beautiful gold painted Magnuson supercharger perched up top.

I really wish I’d been able to take a few more photos of the truck above because it too had exceptional paint and bodywork.

While I’ve spent a lot of time posting about Blair’s Dodge project booth-mate John Weatherbie had a bit of a crunch of his own to get his Merucry M1 ready for the show.

He bought this truck as a project last year as a non running, half complete project and has been steadily wrenching away on it to be the perfect summer cruiser.

In addition to wiring the truck, finishing the air ride, and bringing the motor to life John also put a bed floor in it and installed 20″ Detroit Steel wheel steelies.

Parked beside the Dirty D Taylor’d Dodge I wouldn’t be surprised if a few people placed orders for similar 20s after the show.

The bike above had an interesting story, built and then later abandoned, sometime in the ’70s it sat for years before a father son mechanic duo got it up and running again.

A Honda at its core they have yet to really figure out why the bike was left deserted for so long, but figured it was worth keeping mostly un-restored and I’d have to agree.

Oddball Kustoms doesn’t build anything by the books and Stony’s latest build, “The Shadow Hunter”, is anything but straight forward. It’s a Ford truck at its base with an Edsel snout grafted on.

All the metal work was then proudly showcased by skipping paint and going straight to polish.

It’s also got custom-made cymbal wheel covers which according to this blog post were no walk in the park to create.

The Oddball build wasn’t the only truck that a percussionist had styling choices in, I spotted this Van at Vanfest and for whatever reason I always find myself taking a closer look at it.

Performance Improvements wrapped up their Factory 5 ’33 Ford build which is wrapped as a tribute to founder Bob McJannetts old 1933 Ford.

Ruben, who’s a friend of Performance Improvements much like myself, easily took home the top spot in the lowrider class with his six ‘fo.

I’m going to end off this part of the 2016 Motorama coverage with a few trucks that I made sure to take close looks at in anticipation of working on Project Why Wait this season.

The truck above was in the front hall, and the quad exit exhaust on each side is a unique touch not seen on many advanced design trucks.

In hall two Pat Cheatly of Chee-Chee’s Choppers and Rods had his truck in front of Chris Luloff’s ’51 build.

Chris’ build was a personal favourite of my wife and a favourite of Billy Gibbons (yes of ZZ Top) who awarded it with his pick of the show.

There’s one more Motorama 2016 post to come so check back next week for the conclusion!

Theme Tuesdays: The Motors Of Motorama 2016

By

DaveT

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Mar 15, 2016

1

Motorama 2016 has now come and gone signalling the early beginnings of another season here in Ontario.

Before jumping right into this year’s multi-part coverage of the show –brought to you by myself and Drake Nolte— I’m going to do a Theme Tuesday post dedicated to the stand out motors and engine bays of the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Expo.

After all a motor specific post seems quite appropriate with the show being called Motorama.

There were a lot of cars and a lot of motors to check out so while this isn’t all of them it is a great representation of the type of variety that makes Motorama great and the type of variety you should expect from the upcoming coverage.

As always Elevated showed well with their group of well built Hondas including Brian's turbo H22 Civic — As always Elevated showed well with their group of exceptionally well-built Hondas

motorama-2016-motors-elevated-3 — Drake and myself have both seen Brian’s heavily polished turbo h22 motor plenty of times but it is a hard one not to take pictures of

motorama-2016-motors-elevated-function-1 — Behind Brian, Rob Silva showed off his own stellar EJ6 resto mod project

motorama-2016-motors-elevated-function-2 — This car started as a lowly DX before Rob literally left no bolt unturned rebuilding it

motorama-2016-motors-elevated-function-3 — … a labour of love some might say

Petey's EF is another car that is hard not to shoot — Petey’s EF proudly sings the sounds of its people through four polished trumpets

motorama-2016-motors-elevated-blown-s2k-2 — I still remember the first time I heard Adam’s car, it’s got a scream unlike any other

motorama-2016-motors-ktuned-1 — Well kept DA’s are incredibly rare these days so to see one at a show done to this level is worth taking an extra look at, Aaron Pilon did a great job with this

motorama-2016-motors-civic — This gold accented and polished motor sat in a very interesting EM2 wide body Civic

motorama-2016-motors-turbo — Vibrant Performance components could be found on most of the serious builds in the tuner section of the show, like this boosted RSX

motorama-2016-motors-nv-auto-3 — After three years of hiding out NV Auto‘s original ‘Orange Beast’ track car is back. I can’t wait to hear this Borg Warner fed ej207 scream on the track

motorama-2016-motors-nv-auto-2 — Of course their other Orange Beast was at the show as well, along with its driver Riley Sexsmith

This Celica was one of my favorite cars of 2015, and I can safely say it is now one of my favourite of 2016 — This ’72 Celica was one of my favourite cars of 2015, and I can safely say it is now one of my favourite of 2016 as well

The turbo is a Garrett 89mm — And the turbo is a Garrett 89mm

motorama-2016-motors-dynamotorsports-4 — The supercharger is, as surprising as this might be, a Ford SVT unit. Dynamotor Sports cars are consistently high power so I wouldn’t be surprised if this puts down quad digits

motorama-2016-motors-diamond-majestics-1 — Switches N Thangs was well represented by to Majestics Car Club cars

That lowrider attention to detail is of course always on point

motorama-2016-motors-diamond-majestics-2 — The Chilango ’64 had a near constant crowd looking at all the fine details

This is a car that can captivate any enthusiast for a serious amount of time

motorama-2016-motors-pt-cruiser-1 — Earning the only full car shot of this post is this PT Cruiser that made me double take

motorama-2016-motors-pt-cruiser-3 — That sports a 300C hemi under the hood and obviously a rear wheel drive conversion

motorama-2016-motors-pt-cruiser-2 — There’s an entire site dedicated to this car but twitter is a little bit easier to navigate

motorama-2016-motors-drag-2 — Jeff Lutz wasn’t the only person to bring a drag machine to the show, this early Camaro made its presence known in the front hall

motorama-2016-motors-hot-rod-truck — @hoowybrow spent the past month or at his job at Hitman Hot Rods cleaning up this engine bay

Jeff Norwell's Diamond Deuce will transition this post into the land of hot rods — Jeff Norwell’s Diamond Deuce will transition this post into the land of hot rods

motorama-2016-motors-flathead — It’s not every show you see a flat head powered Ford rail dragster

motorama-2016-motors-caddy-v8 — The front hall is never a let down at this show and this Cadillac V8 powered Ford was an easy top ten favourite of mine

motorama-2016-motors-taylord-1 — Of course by now you should also be familiar with the look of the Taylor’d Dodge power plant

motorama-2016-motors-road-killir — Road Kill machine from the front hall

motorama-2016-motors-chris-1 — Chris Mahtton’s nailhead shuts down yet another post, with it’s period correct level of perfect

Motorama Or Bust: Part 7

By

DaveT

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Mar 12, 2016

9

“It’s so ducking nasty”, that’s the text I got from Blair Taylor at 3:14 am roll-in day of the 2016 Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Expo.

Since he had been working on the car from nine am the previous day I won’t fault him for not fixing what is probably one of the most annoying of auto correct, auto corrections.

With all the four 20×8 black painted Mobsteel wheels on the ground and no air in the bags the car did indeed look f*ckin’ nasty, as Blair meant to say before predictive text took over.

Given the amount of work that needed to be done I was seriously impressed it all pulled together.

Not that I had my doubts in Blair’s work ethic, but honestly a lot of stars needed to align for this car to even resemble one piece in time for the show.

Roughly six hours after the original text message Blair sent photos of the car at the show with the display being built up around it and to say I was anxious to see it in person would be an understatement.

When I showed up to Motorama yesterday I was simply blown away by how well the entire car came together.

Having spent so much time around it you’d think I would have been better prepared for the car’s overall impact as a nearly complete unit, but truth be told during its construction none of us had seen it from more than five feet away.

Only outside of the confines of the shop, and near other vehicles, does one really realize how large and how low the vehicle truly is.

At the show the Dodge is sitting beside a bagged long box Mercury M1 and the ‘Dirty D’ Taylor’d Dodge is practically the same length, and nearly half the over all height!

Perhaps the only thing that struck me more than the overall length was seeing the paint job done by Smallwood Custom Paint under the International Center lights.

The metallic gun-metal grey with semi gloss clear really brings together the black, polished, chrome, and various forms of raw metal components that make up the rest of the car.

The 1928 Ford headlights surrounding the grill shell anchor the front end and the custom grill looks great over the radiator which now features hard lines from Mike at GT Custom exhaust.

Mike is of course the same person who built the headers at Taylor’d Customs week of the show.

This past week Blair was essentially sleeping in the shop in order to not come up bust.

The front suspension was finally installed as a complete unit featuring the awesome CNC’s wishbones, straight axle, custom link bars and bags.

The Air Lift Performance management that arrived Tuesday morning was then plumbed in using hard lines anywhere air lines would be visible.

The steering, which that had only been theoretically worked out, was practically sorted out and bolted into place.

Once the fabrication was done and the wheels turned left a very fitting wooden wheel was installed featuring the original “Dodge Brothers Canada” emblem.

The motor hasn’t been run for an extremely long time as of yet, but brief start-up tests have shown no issues.

Lack of running video and rubber burning evidence of the Latham making boost are acceptable here because the Dodge isn’t the only heavily modified car the Taylor Family brought to the show.

Blair’s dad Brian brought out his 1970 Chevelle project for its Ontario debut and parked it in the front hall.

Don’t worry the Motorama Or Bust story doesn’t quite end here. There’s a few more bits that need buttoning up and you can bet I’ll be around to document what should be a very smokey celebratory burnout when the time comes.

In the mean time those of you local can check out the car today and tomorrow at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Expo I’ll be back there Sunday to take more photos of the Dirty D and the show as a whole.

Theme Tuesdays: First Generation S-10 Blazers/Jimmys

By

DaveT

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Mar 8, 2016

0

I did a bit of foreshadowing about this post a few weeks ago and anyone who’s been reading the site for longer than a year –or knows me personally– is well aware that I am a huge first generation (or square body) Blazer/Jimmy/S-10/Sonoma/Syclone/Typhoon fan. One of the first vehicles I ever saw that was significantly lower than stock was a Blazer and since then I’ve been hooked.

Despite the fact that my Blazer project went absolutely terrible I still love these trucks and have a few different versions built in the garage of my mind.

So with all that said, a Blazer Theme Tuesday is long, long overdue.

blazer3 — This was one of my favourite builds to follow, everything on this truck is done right

blazer4 — The tail light conversion is flawless and if you scroll back up the shaker hood that is installed works as expected

fitted_2014_chevy_blazer_original_paint — A local truck that seems immune to rust

vanfest-2015-85-chevy-jimmy — Accurate plate is indeed quite accurate

northern-showdown-2015-gmc-jimmy-1 — One of the best things about Blazers is that they don’t need a lot to look good, oem wheels plus an altitude adjustment and you’re good

I used to be really against four doors but as time has gone on I’ve learned the error of my ways

blazer_1 — I think this was from Detroit Autorama… I think

Locally this is easy top 5 for me. Apparently it's recently been resurrected as well — Locally this is easy top 5 for me. Apparently it’s recently been resurrected as well… hopefully I can catch up with the owner this year

blazer5 — Love the monocromatic treatment of the grill and bumpers combined with the paint accent below the body line on this truck.

blazer6 — This truck applies a similar look, but with an added bad ass power plant

blazer14 — Evidently they make pretty good lowriders too

Minitruckers love their front end swaps and this C10 swap is fantastic

blazer9 — And the Silverado front end on this Blazer helps balance out the insane motor and rear wheel set up

blazer11 — This truck is pretty serious and a feature on it can be seen here

blazer11a — It also received a bit of a makeover, and that feature can be seen here

Nice and clean early style 2 door Blaze — Taking things back to 2009 with these photos…

With some get up and go — … not often you see a 454 under the hood of a Blazer

blazer7 — This of course transitions well into the fact that Blazers can do much more than just lay about looking cool

This truck is full of win — When it comes to sheer function Butch King’s Blazer is probably the most notable

Butch beat those fenders into submission — It was essentally a Blazer on a Nascar like chassis, I say was because I believe it was wrecked beyond repair

This is the only hill climb Blazer I have ever seen more should exsist — Still though its one of the best Blazers ever, simply because of the video below

Motorama Or Bust: Part 6

By

DaveT

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Mar 7, 2016

4

Well here we are on our last build update in this journey and three days before the Taylor’d Dodge –which of late has learned the nickname ‘Dirty D’– needs to be loaded on the trailer destined for the Motorama Custom Car & Motorsports Expo.

Saying the shop has been busy since the previous update is a little broken record at this point but true nonetheless. Aided by a small army of enthusiastic help Blair’s been steadily ticking things off the white board as completion draws near.

The new supercharger belt has arrived built to spec, and with a build stamp on it reading FEB 29th 2016.

This wasn’t an intentionally planned detail by any means, but adds another unique touch to this motor and superchargers history. If you recall from update three Blair’s father bought and later resold the motor a decade before Blair brought it back to the Taylor family.

Brian Taylor manged to dig up photos of the motor when he originally owned it, along with photos of a Dodge he built identical in year to the one Blair is building now.

Of course his was a coupe instead of a sedan, had a standard roof, and sat significantly higher when parked.

The orange car the motor is sitting in is a Buick, and shortly after being dropped between the fenders it was taken back out deemed a little too much motor for the cruiser Brian was building at the time.

The photo above is a picture of a photo of the motor sitting on an earlier stage of its current self. That’s a mouthful to type and I think I heard the Inception drums sound as keys clacked.

Blair reports that the motor was turned over last night and should be ready to fire tonight with the only absentee component being a set of headers. Those are being built by Mike of GT Custom Exhaust who stopped by yesterday afternoon to take the measurements he needed to make a fitting four to one header.

Once a rad finds its way into the grill shell all of the systems including the fuel and brake will be complete meaning the car will be able to start and stop properly.

Air Lift Performance has also jumped on board and their 3H management system will be taking care of the ride and park height.

As I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now the body (that was last seen in update four) is back from the shop in a fresh lick of paint.

The decision to keep the body colour secret until the reveal came late last week, and as frustrating as this might be for all of you reading I promise that you won’t be disappointed when it is revealed.

While I can’t tell you the body colour just yet, I can confirm that the floor is black and painted in a material similar to rocker guard.

This coating allows just enough of the raw hand crafted aspects of the floor to show through and will make the vehicle much more usable in the long run. The upkeep on a bare metal floor in a car with no windows would have been a little ridiculous.

The overall look of the vehicle today is menacing with just a touch of class and the colour pairs well with the 20″ Mobsteel wheels that have also been painted.

These wheels, which will have bullet caps all said and done, are a great visual fit, but physically their large diameter isn’t exactly playing nice with the rear door hinge aired out.

Nothing a spacer can’t over come but a slightly unanticipated hiccup.

As the song goes time keeps on slippin’ but with some luck, some friends, and some liquid persuasion the car will be done on time.

A reveal post should be up this weekend but the car will be at the show Thursday night so I wouldn’t be surprised if a few photos leak on Instagram prior. Of course nothing beats seeing it in person at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Expo this weekend at the International centre.

WTF Friday: Up Is The New Down

By

DaveT

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Mar 4, 2016

4

Remember a few weeks ago when I posted a lifted Hyundai Genesis? Well it seems lifting rear wheel drive sports cars has become somewhat of a thing. I’m not exactly sure who was first here, but at any rate @madladyz33 has like @alex_ankrom gone up instead of down.

Like the previously posted Genesis flares, light bars, steel wheels and lots of rubber have been added to a car that traditionally people don’t take off the tarmac.

There’s no detailed mention of what suspension is getting the Z33 up there but I imagine it’s largely custom.

What I’m curious about is if you run into the same geometry issues (but reversed) when you push suspensions to the opposite factory extreme.

There has to be some drive line and alignment ramifications I’d imagine but I’ve been wrong before.

Just how many more examples of this sort of thing are we are going to see in 2016 and when do we get to see one get really muddy?

Theme Tuesday: 10 Reasons I Should Have Gone To Autorama

By

DaveT

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Mar 1, 2016

3

I really would have loved to go to the Detroit Autorama this year, and honestly I should have, but lack of forethought meant the only way I could have done it was via a there and back day trip, and four hours each way with an almost two-year old didn’t seem like my greatest plan I’d ever hatched.

So for today’s Theme Tuesday I’ll be living vicariously through the likes of Hot Rod Magazine, Lug Nuts Magazine and a few people on Flickr and Instagram who were there.

If you didn’t go either feel free to join me in living through others.

1. The Predator

The Predator is an all steel built car that’s a tribute to the wild show Rods on the ’70s. Considering I wasn’t around in the 70s I really like to se anything done up in this style and this tribute is one of the best I’ve ever seen via pictures.

The owners/builders Dennis and Marion Heapy did it in their garage to boot.

Photos by: Pyro Cars

2. The Chevamoco

The number of altered wheel base dragsters I’ve seen is far to low and this is a mighty fine tribute, mighty fine.
Photo by: Detroit Imagery

3. @Detroit_knight‘s Ford Thunderbird

My old man is often telling me about the seventh generation Thunderbird he had long before I was even an idea, and always ask if I see them at shows. My reply thus far has been no. Had I gone this year I could have said yes.

I sent him these photos anyway and he really liked it to say the least.

Photos by: @blackout_mcrz

4.1940 Willys ‘Barnfind’ Gasser

This Willys has been built true to form of the Gassers in the day and painted to look as though it were found exactly as it sits today. I’m really hoping to up the Gasser content on the site this year, not sure how I am going to do it but I’ll sort that out on the fly…

Photos by: zeph4057k

Tony Vestuto’s 1941 Willys Coupe

As you know from this previous Theme Tuesday I am a big fan of intricate paint jobs and the paint job on this Willys has all the tricks; panel, lace, the works.

A supercharged 350 sits under the hood and it’s also got a cage inside which stands to reason that it cold be driven down the strip.

Photos by: Lugnuts Magazine

5. Procomp Customs ’68 Chevy Camaro

I’m a big fan of Pro Touring builds as they often blend old with new along with a lot of horsepower and a lot of low. Procompcustoms.com built this ’68 and it’s an LS powered done to the nines weapon.

Photos by: M.W. Fischer

6. Scott Fritz 1930 Tudor Sedan

I have been on a bit of a hot rod kick lately (for obvious reasons) and Scott Fritz’ 1930 Ford that sat in the Autorama extreme is about as perfect as you can get.

Chopped 5″ and channeled 4″ its owered by a Flathead with Navarro heads.

Photos by: Hot Rod Magazine

7. Marty Bachand’s 1930 Ford

Another awesome 1930 Ford from Hot Rod Magazine’s coverage and the famous Autorama ‘Extreme’ portion of the show. In addition to the meticulous attention to detail what drew me in on this car was the color scheme, monochromatic done perfectly.

This one is nail head powered and most of the goodies are original Ford equipment or hand-made.

Photos by: Hot Rod Magazine

8.Ford 1929 Model T ‘Hip High’

This Ford came up quite a bit in the galleries I looked at and while I am a fan of the traditional styling, name, and unique headers the super charged power plant really intrigued me.

Photos by: Boss Mustang

9. Aluminum Batmobile

What’s crazier than an all aluminum re-creation of the original onscreen Batmobile? The fact that it is being done by an Ontario shop. I really need to seek this build out.

Photos by: Hot Rod Valdez and Canadian Hot Rod Magazine

10. The Great 8

Though not everyone is my style all of these cars are incredible. Zero short cuts here. My favourite however is the ’61 Impala know as ‘Double Bubble’, however its the 1939 ‘Olds Cool’ Oldsmobile that home the Ridler for 2016.

Photos by: Autoweek