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What’s Your Ideal Canadian Road Trip?

By
DaveT
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2

With the season on its last legs this is around the time of year that, if I was not trying to get a project truck off the ground, I’d be planning one last trip via car or plane.

In previous years I’ve gone to h2O International in Ocean City and SEMA in Las Vegas and though an actual trip isn’t in the cards for 2015 SYLVANIA Canada asked me to consider where on their list of #GreatWhiteLights destinations I would go if money and time were no object.

With the weather this time of year being so fickle, and having only traveled abroad to fairer climates in the fall, deciding where to start took a bit of thought. However my first stop on a cross Canada trip would be Quebec City.

The sole reason I’d go back after being there so recently is that I’d really like to give the LS powered Porsche 993 spotted at Offset Kings the feature it so sorely deserves.

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While in the area I’d also touch base with Gabe of French Canadian Video and see if there were any end of season events I could attend, or another car we could shoot.

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From there I’d turn on cruise control for an extended spell until I wound up in Alberta where I’d say hello to long time contributing photographer, and friend, Mike McConnell.

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After a bit of sightseeing in Drumheller at the Horsetheif Canyon, I’d have to get closer to Calgary before I left the province of Alberta and stop by The Dub Dynasty headquarters to meet Jesse Shinckle and check out his Beetle project.

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Then I’d head over to Whistler BC because ever since I went in 2009 –and it absolutely ruined Ontario Snowboarding for me– I’ve been longing to go back.

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I’ve also heard the car scene in BC is really something else with quite a number of Japanese Imported vehicles finding their way to the Vancouver streets and the more favorable weather allowing for a longer, though rainier, season.

Finally the last destination I’d stop at if I were following the Great White Lights map is White Horse, Yukon.

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While I’ll admit it’s probably way too cold for me to comfortably exist for too long GT3 Driver Scott Hargove (pictured below) went recently and had a blast driving around a WRX equipped with SYLVANIA zXe bulbs.

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But that’s just me. If you were to follow the Great White Lights map where might you end up? Take a look at greatwhitelights.ca and take their quiz to find out!

Once you’re done the quiz you can enter for a change to win a $1000 Visa Gift Card and $250 dollars to spend at Canadian Tire along with zXe #GreatWhiteLights to guide your road trip adventure!

Coffee Time: Mike’s S2000 – A Video By Basic Builds

By
DaveT
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0

Basic Builds mastermind Rob Anzit recently got the chance to spend some time with Mike Pimenta (@mike_s2k) and his ’07 Honda s2000.

Bagged on Airrex struts, sitting on K3 Projekt Wheels, and sporting a host of both cosmetic and functional upgrades Mike’s car makes an excellent subject for the short video Rob produced below.

Rob’s previous work has been featured here before and you can stay up to date with his most recent photo and video work by following him on Facebook on Instagram at @basicbuild and on twitter at @basicbuilds.

Theme Tuesdays: AMC Gremlins

By
DaveT
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1

A really awesome bagged Gremlin scraped through my news feed this past weekend and became the catalyst for today’s Theme Tuesday.

Though they have a ‘hate it or love it’ look about them, and were not all that powerful being built during the 70s fuel crisis, their relatively cheap cost but high durability made the Gremlin a somewhat popular race car (drag mostly) in the 70s and beyond.

Drag, dirt track, and even pro touring examples were easily found while finding ones put on the ground was a little harder. Of course as always I did manage and those are down near the bottom.

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I seem to come across a Gremlin ever other year, this was at the ELTA Summer Bash
Prior to the one above this was the last Gremlin I saw in person
Over 1000hp under the hood of this particular green and black monster
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Up until today I thought this car only did passes with its wheels well in the air

Turns out it does do some trips down the strip four wheels down
Turns out it does do some trips down the strip four wheels down in about 8 seconds. The motor is a 499CI AMC plant if you’re wondering
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A trio of AMCs from Hot Rod Magazine, all three run tens and two are the car of the hour, more info can be found here
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Sadly everything I dug up on this car was tiny and horrible quality, but can you imagine the tubs on this?

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At some point in the history of modified racing Gremlin bodies were used, in some regularity. Odd.
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Schwartz Racing is building this particularly bad-ass Gremlin which will retain AMC power, use Ridetech suspension, Baer 14″ brakes and a custom chassis
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It’s also bodied on 335/30 wheels on 18″ xxrs. The build thread of this project is here on pro-touring.com
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This interesting chopped, raw Gremlin comes from generationhighoutput.com

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Not just interesting on the outside it is also blown
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Apologies for the postage stamp image sizing on this one!

 

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Second to last we’ve got this one hit wonder. I’ll go out on a limb and say a minitrucker built it but I can’t find any more information…
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I actually found the car above in an early build thread of Mike Lowe’s Gremlin
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notstock recently had a shoot scheduled with this car and I can’t wait to see what he does with it

There’s been a request I do Toyota Siennas next but I’m all ears for future ideas!

WTF Friday: Jag That Runs

By
DaveT
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2

It seems that almost any time I post a Jaguar it has been modified wildly different than its original, slightly posh British cruiser, intentions.

As cliché as the term is this XJS is no exception.

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Starting life as a standard XJS this Jaguar is now a Pro Street, driveable, quarter-mile car that looks as impressive as it’s spec sheet reads.

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Under the hood is 350 stroked to 383 with a B&M blower for some more roar when the loud pedal is trounced. It’s backed by a TH350 automatic trans with 2800 stall that goes to a Ford 9″ rear end.

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The body was painted ten years ago when it was converted and the chassis sees a ladder bar coil-over set up in the back.

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Being a Jag it’s got a few electrical issues (turn signals, slow windows etc.) but is otherwise apparently a great driver.

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Looks really cool too, if you’re into the Pro Street look.

The car was bid up to just under 12.5 once then re-listed with a starting bid of 11.5 but it doesn’t say it sold so I wonder where it may have ended up, or if the owner just decided to keep it and do burnouts until the end of time.

Event Coverage: Cars & Coffee Toronto Season Finale

By
DaveT
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0

The season is ending at a rapid pace here in Ontario, as double-digit temperatures quickly give way to single, and show/fun cars start to vanish into garages for a half-year long hibernation.

In a celebratory send off to an awesome summer Engineered Automotive held one last Cars & Coffee event after previously announcing the July gathering would be the last one for 2015.

Much like the last the quality of cars, as well as the general vibe, was incredible.

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This time around Ash and Lyndsey came with me (Lyndsey for the Coffee Ash for the fun) and the first car I had to stop Ash from attempting to get into was this 98 Diablo that could have just as easily driven off a ’90s kids poster.

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Chris Hoare of DNBK made it back from a trip to Japan just in time to come out to the last Cars and Coffee. Can’t imagine there are many days left in the season where he will get a chance to enjoy his NSX.

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The Compmotive equipped 911 from July seems to be a regular attendee.

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It’s such a great looking car and it sounds very nice as well.

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Mat made the trek for Hamilton with his S14 which too sounds quite awesome driving.

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Like the 911 this too is also spotless every time I see it.

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Inside of Engineered Automotive the cars seem to have undergone a bit of a shuffle, practically nothing that was on the floor last time remained the same.

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The cars on the lifts seem to have changed as well because I don’t remember this R32 from the last visit.

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And I know for a fact I wouldn’t have missed a 959 lurking in the depths of the expansive shop.

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A bit closer within reach was a CTS-V powered classic Cadillac.

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The warning on the door above was pretty funny and makes me wonder if it was put there before incident or after.

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Stepping back outside near the front of the shop an employee from Pfaff was rolling in an incredible sounding RS4 draped in Castrol Livery.

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There was also a very, very, very clean MK1 Jetta out front.

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The VR6 swap was so well executed it could easily be mistook for factory.

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Ken’s Toyota Celsior was parked in early the exact same spot it was last time, and I took almost the exact same photo.

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Timeless is really the only word that appropriately describes the combination below.

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And when it comes to long lasting looks this Dodge is hard to beat.

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Around the side of the building a crew of Corvettes was parked.

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I’ve always been a pretty big Viper fan, with the hard tops being a rung above the rest in my eyes. An ACR model just further makes me envious.

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Someone who I can only assume is, at the very least a long term employee if not the owner, at Engineered Automotive showed up in a black Ferrari Scuderia with EA emblems tastefully place all over the car

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Before I was about to take one more quick lap through the shop I snapped this photo of the Mustang ’68 GT500 that was on the hoist back in July. I may or may not have watched Gone In 60 Seconds later that evening.

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Going back inside I manged to get just a bit of undisturbed time with a pair of Shelbys cars.

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Seeing a real Shelby is rare enough but parked directly in front of the car above was a Daytona Coupe that I imagine one of very, very few in the city.

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It’s going to be a long wait until the next Cars and Coffee, hopefully the anticipation will take me through what is probably going to be another long winter.

Theme Tuesdays: Chevy Luv Trucks

By
DaveT
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1

As a Chevy truck fan it is actually a little embarrassing that it has taken me so long to dedicate a Theme Tuesday to Chevy’s first minitruck even the fact that I have not seen a Luv in the metal in roughly three years is no excuse.

Designed and built by Isuzu these trucks look like nothing else with the Chevy bow tie which, combined with the unique name, only helps make this truck more memorable. Sadly rust claimed more than it’s fair share of these but they still have a fairly large following.

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We’ll start thus one-off vintage and work newer, and what’s some vintage without a 70’s Street Machine styled rendition?
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Lifted trucks don’t get posted much around here so the exceptions to the rule are kind of awesome. Case in point Mickey Thompson’s Marine Luv
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Have to love the gas pedal that allowed him to literally stand on the accelerator
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Also check out the extremely creative throttle cable routing, more info on this truck can be found here
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I’m not sure what’s up with the BMW roundell but this Luv is wearing a rectangle headlight conversion that was popular at the time
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This build is several years old, and from an old Mini Truckin’ feature
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From this angle these trucks really do look more like an Import than a Chevy

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This truck actually totally inspired this post, love the different styling and those wheels are outstanding
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Attentive readers will recognize this frame from a previous post
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The frame sure does lay this Luv out hard
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This truck too has been posted years ago
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But at that point I’m pretty sure this had yet to make its way inside, yep LS In Everything even Luvs

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Close things out with a Luv built to slide, because who doesn’t Luv tire smoke?

Is there a cool Luv build I forgot? Let me know in the comments below.

WTF Friday: Wife Don’t Like It

By
DaveT
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1

Didn’t really have anything in mind for this week’s WTF Friday (read: saw something Monday, forgot what it was Thursday) so I went with the old reliable method of putting ‘Rat Rod’ into Kijiji and clicking until something popped up.

This is what popped up, a door-less, convertible, Geo with a Rolls Royce ish front end.

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Quirky if nothing else this little Geo is also ready for all weathers via a soft door/top combo.

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I wouldn’t recommend rolling it over however as this just might be the scariest roll bar/ roof support ever.

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Why is it for sale? Well after using it for their wedding the sellers wife proclaimed ‘she don’t like it’.

Happy wife, happy life right? If you feel like taking this burden off the owners hands it is for sale here.

Project Why Wait: Colour Me Bad

By
DaveT
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3

It’s been about three months since I first introduced project ‘Why Wait?’ and while I’d like to tell you a lot of physical progress has been made the reality is it’s still sitting at Taylor’d Customs in roughly the same spot it was mid summer.

But that’s fine, the pyramids were not built in a day, nor were they built without plans, and in the time between then and now I’ve been doing a little planning.

Though my vision for this truck is fairly standard, and I could just as easily squint my eyes at a few photos of other advanced design trucks and imagine, I wanted to get renders made because one of the things I enjoy most about any build log is watching a render become reality.

Because I want this build to stick around for a while and not look like an “early/mid 2010 era build” ten years from now I’ve opted to visually keep things pretty classic.

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I reached out artist, designer, reader, and friend Chris Piscitelli and in short order he whipped up line drawings of my truck as a short bed laid on hubs and wide whites and Astro Supremes.

I then asked him to colour the truck in similar to the existing patina because for the foreseeable future the truck won’t see any gloss paint. After years of worrying about paint chips, door dings and the like I’m looking forward to a more maintenance free finish and quite frankly all the layers of paint tell a pretty neat untold story.

I did however ask for two paint alterations, a white flaked roof, and fairly specific door art.

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The Mac’s Truck & Rail isn’t random. Mac was my wife’s fathers nickname and Macs is our son Ash’s middle name. He unfortunately passed away from cancer before my wife and I met but was a railway man by trade and a gear head through and through so we’ve decided to incorporate him into the build by spirit.

Chris added a few details of his own here as well, namely the dark blue wheel colour for the steelies and the fender exit exhaust.

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In my head I was always heavily leaning towards the flaked roof and Astros option but my wife, who’s a bigger fan of the steel wheels, asked if we could see a render with he flaked roof from my preferred version and the wheels from hers versus a version with steelies with an untouched roof.

Much to my surprise I actually liked her alternative option more than what I previously envisioned.

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One final revision of the door art back to white and we were just one minor detail away from the final render….

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… and there it is the current final direction for Project Why Wait!

Theme Tuesdays: Holden FJ/X

By
DaveT
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1

Being upside down to the Holden Fj/X’s place of origin (Australia) I don’t know a lot about these cars. However when my friend Ollie sent me one last week I quickly went to Google looking for more examples.

As it turns out much like Morris Minors* these cars can really be done any which way. Gasser, Sled, Street Machine, Rat Rod, the list goes on…

 

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This is the one Ollie sent in, don’t know much about it but white letters, truespokes, and a bit of tuck go a long way around here
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If you’ve seen Mad Max: Fury Road you’re no doubt familiar with this car, the production company bought it off the owners below

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Bad ass little drag ready Holden
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Another drag prepared example with a bit more of a gasser vibe
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Interestingly enough in my search I end up on the H.A.M.B quite a bit
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Twin turbo V8 FX that runs an 8 second quarter mile

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It’s crazy how similar these cars are to American cars of the same era, cars around the world were cooler in the 50s
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They take well to a healthy roof chop and ride height adjustment
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Fairly sure this is the same car as above but I’ve been wrong before
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Dave Keen’s Holden FJ

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Only makes sense that at least one picture from today’s post comes from an Australian parts supplier
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This particular FJ is known as the ‘Draggin Coupe’ and was first built in the 60s, then lost in the 70s before being rebuilt last year
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The feature these photos are from can be found here
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This Holden, which visually might by my favourite, was Australian Street Machine of the year in 94

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It looks like a riot to drive!
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Round things out with the Holden Efigy, which is a homage to the FJ built on a Corvette pan
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Great looking car, if nothing more than a one-off creation
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Cant argue with how great it looks laid out

 

*I should do a second Morris Minor Theme Tuesday shouldn’t I?

Event Coverage: Rollerz Only 2015 Autumn BBQ

By
DaveT
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0

Earlier this year I regretfully missed the 5th Annual Majestics/Luxurious Summer BBQ. It was still covered here on the site thanks to Chris Johnston, but with the Reunited show being M.I.A this season I was starting to get worried I wouldn’t get my personal lowrider fill for 2015.

Enter Rollerz Only who announced their BBQ at the same park two weeks ago. The weather might have been acting up quite a bit –read: cold and rainy– but the turnout was still pretty good all things considered.

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The Toronto Chapter of The Cadillac Kings came out and this is the first time I’ve actually ever seen this group of cars in person though we’ve had a few interactions on instagram.

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Hard to argue with a black on black Caddy laid out on wires, but if there was an argument for it it might be a black on black Caddy on Centerlines.

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The Caddy below isn’t part of the Cadillac Kings as far as I can tell but was pretty awesome none the less.

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A prerequisite to any cruise is proper tunes as demonstrated below.

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When it comes right down to it the Impala is a lowriding mainstay and there were a few examples at this years autumn BBQ. I wish the ’60 was parked in a bit better of a location because it was clean as hell.

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This gold ’64 hardtop oozed California.

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Affiliated C.C. Member Hai rolls this absolutely awesome ’58 Impala. I’ve taken a number of photos of it previously and will continue taking many more, such a nice car.

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Ruben brought both his El Camnio and Chilango ’64 to this season closer BBQ.

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With paint work this intricate one would assume Ruben doesn’t drive it much, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. What’s the point of having such a nice car if you’re going to keep it locked up all the time?

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Lowrider coverage simply isn’t complete without a few cars parked on three.

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Having never seen lowriders before Ash was pretty intrigued despite the cool weather.

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So when the hopping started I strapped him in his stroller for a front row seat.

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The deuce in the background of the photo above broke first hop but it was soon rolled out-of-the-way and another took its place for a little head to head action.

Jeff came out to work the switches Naeem’s ride and his own.

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Really no matter how many times I see it this will never get old.

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I decided to take my leave before the weather took another turn and it was a scramble so the coverage is short and sweet this time around. Hopefully next year I can hit the one earlier in the year!

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