The Canadian International Auto Show officially concluded on Sunday and as of now all of the vehicles have either returned to their owners, or are on the back of trucks to continue their press tours around the globe.
Today we take one final look at the cars of 2015 before hunkering down and gritting our teeth through the cold weather until the Motorama Custom Car & Motorsports Expo.
In an effort to be the home for photos of damn near every outside the box platform or niche lowered vehicle, this week’s Theme Tuesday is dedicated to the Ford Crown Victoria.
With so many Police Interceptors making their way into public hands many of these cars throw back to their service days in styling, but there are a few that buck the trend and go their own route.
Kick things off with this Crown Vic that was built by Ford many moons ago
With Lonestar Throwdown taking place last weekend one might say I’ve had trucks on the brain, and while bouncing around various sites looking for my fill I remembered Mo of the Scraped Crusaders sent by this video of Crogy’s Dodge Ram I meant to share.
Bagged, bodied, blacked out, spike lugs, and tons of sparks. Worth watch.
A friend of mine added me to a somewhat local buy and sell Facebook group that is a virtual endless source of entertainment.
Racing lawnmowers, three wheelers (the banned ones), ancient snowmobiles, clapped out pickups, hodge-podge home-built go karts, and boats that look more suited for land than water are just a few of the things posted there.
While the above may not sound all that unusual, a few very peculiar things also show up there on a regular basis. Like, oh, say a Ford Ranger equipped with tracks and skis.
A regular, somewhat modified, high km ’94 in stock trim this Ranger changes into the perfect vehicle for (and I quote) “driving out to the fish out with all your stuff” when the custom-made skis and tracks are added.
The video below shows the Ranger in action and while it’s not about to break any land speed records –I can’t imagine the 4 cylinder is happy about the added weight– it does seem to work as intended.
If this piques your interest it is also posted on kijiji for $3000.
Quick hit from the Porsche collection at sloancars.com which has the largest collection of aircooled Porsche’s in the United States.
Spotted on Brett Sloan’s Tumblr which is always a reliable source of awesome.
Upon returning to work Friday a few somewhat car interested co-workers asked what my favourite car of the entire show was. Being indecisive, and crippled by automotive A.D.D, I couldn’t exactly narrow things down to one but gathering up a few seemed like a novel idea for a post so here we are.
I extended the same question to Chris and Drake to help round this one out.
Located in the Art and The Automobile display this is one of only three Stutz vehicles I have ever seen in person, and the only one from the companies original run.
A descendant of their 1911 Indy 500 winner this car was touted as a mix of class, luxury and speed back in the 1900s.
Chrysler’s Turbine car (posted yesterday) wasn’t the only aircraft influenced vehicle at the 2015 show. While the Chrysler had the turbine power, and the Cyclone only looked like it did, this concept Cadillac was full of other air craft inspired features like proximity sensors and a radar based guidance system.
The exterior boasts nose cones, fins, and afterburner like tail light surrounds, while the interior has a few styling cues from jet cockpits.
Stepping into present day one car I really wanted to see was the latest rendition of Pat Cyr’s competition FR-S.
Stripped down and rebuilt from the ground up Pat’s car has never looked better, or been more capable.
Lexus brought their potentially FIA GT3 bound race car to CIAS for its Canadian debut.
Based on the RC coupe this car was Chris’ favourite vehicle of the show.
A favourite among the three of us Toyota’s Ft-1 concept has all the makings of next generation poster car, should something even remotely close to it make it into production.
However being a “design study” rumoured to be powered by a golf kart motor I have my doubts.
The new GT was Ford’s big booth draw for 2015 and, being made here in Ontario this car had a lot of us Canadians talking. Sometimes second generations miss the mark entirely when it comes to retooling but Ford really nailed it with this one.
On paper a lot of people don’t seem to like the missing supercharged V8 but I reckon after a few videos pop up, and lap times, people will start to care much less.
Last car honours today go to a vehicle that really needs no introduction the Pagani Huayra. Sitting a stone’s throw away from where the Zonda sat a few years prior this car was the highlight of the Autoexotica room, and to some the highlight of the entire show.
As winter begins to get long in the tooth, the Canadian International Autoshow arrives to give enthusiasts of Ontario a bit of reprieve.
This year in addition to being on the ball and applying to media preview day early, Chris Johnston and Drake Nolte were able to join in on the festivities as well. Adding their coverage to the mix really helps make up for the fact that I typically get distracted at this event by gratis food, press kits, and Hot Wheels vending machines.
Collectively we all took a hefty number of photos so the coverage will be broken up into multiple parts, including a special Theme Tuesday tomorrow.
But first, part one!
This year the area of the show previously occupied by Triumphs, Hot Rods, and Richard Petty’s race car was filled with concorus quality classic cars. Sponsored by the Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and CBC’ Murdoch Mysteries, this exhibit threw back to the days when cars could almost be considered functional art more than automobiles.
A stark contrast to the cars in the other halls this exhibit was stunning, and rivaled the Auto Exotica exhibit for monetary value per square foot.
As always the Auto Exotica section of the show was full of cars that will be forever out of the average person’s price range. There were a few stunning vehicles in this area but the ‘Belle of the Ball’ was the Paganai Huayra, which there will be photos of tomorrow.
Most of the cars at the Canadian International Autoshow actually been debuted at the North American International Autoshow in Detroit but it’s always nice to see the latest and greatest in person.
Going to call it here for part one but there’s much more to come this week, stay tuned!
So I might have to take a late pass on this WTF Friday subject since this is actually the second iteration of this particular van, and here I am writing about it for the first time.
The last time Previa’s graced this site they were more of the hard park and show variety but The Tofu Drift Van isn’t meant to look good sitting still, it’s meant to shred tires around the track.
Version one of this van used the factory rear end, but after that proved inadequate the owner/builder basically removed the entire back half of the van and replaced it with readily available s14 parts, and s13 coil overs.
He also added a cage during the process since, well, now a lot of the floor is gone.
The result of all the owner’s hard work is the sheer awesomeness showcased below:
Hungry for more power the next upgrade will be to put a Subaru flat six in the van because at this point why not make this build further unique? (Also he has a lot of real world weight distribution reasons why this is the best choice).
More information on the build can be found at the tofudriftvan.com in addition to Facebook and Instagram.
The more oddball drift chassis the better!
A few years ago Steve took his bagged TL off the road in order to fit his very wide Luxury Abstract wheels.
Over the course of it’s stay in the shop for a custom wide-body conversion my standard reply to any updates he shared was “Yeah Right!”.
This became a bit of a running joke, but now the joke is on me as the car is now painted and looks fantastic. The colour his hard to tell from these photos but from the others I’ve seen it looks quite captivating. I’m also told photos don’t really do it justice so I guess I will just have to wait until I see it in person.
There’s still quite a bit he’s looking to have done before he calls it “finished” but so far the début date is set for this years Fitted Lifestyle event.
For someone who talks about suspension as much as I do its surprising this Theme Tuesday idea took so long to become reality.
Coil springs, leaf springs, I beams, and torsion bars give way to push rods, cantilevers, hydraulic cylinders and air springs for today’s post that should be a favourite among the fabricators and engineers reading.
