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.
Theme Tuesdays: SIE Canadian International Autoshow Favourites
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.
1912 Stutz Bearcat
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.
Cadillac Cyclone
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.
Pat Cyr’s Scion FR-S
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 RC F GT3
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.
Toyota FT-1
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 Ford GT
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.
Pagani Huayra
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.
Event Coverage: The 2015 Canadian International Autoshow – Pt. 1
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!
Art And The Automobile
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.
Auto Exotica
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.
OEM’s
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!
WTF Friday: Tofu Drift Van
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!
Winter Wednesdays: Yeah Right!
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.
Theme Tuesdays: Unique Suspension
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.
Ink & Iron: Canada’s First All Female Body Shop?
A few days ago a friend passed over some information documenting Hilary Noack’s quest to open Canada’s first all female Body shop.
An industry vet of twelve years, before going returning to Centennial college to become a teacher, Hilary worked at local restoration and customization shop Legendary Motorcar. Having visited LMC in 2011, and observed the quality of their work first hand, I feel safe saying that she no doubt knows her stuff.
The video below provides a little insight into exactly why she wants to start a female body shop, and why she thinks it’s so necessary today.
Prior to watching the video it had never occurred to me that I’ve never once seen a female auto body technician and I have had the pleasure (and sometimes displeasure) of being in a fair number of body shops.
In addition to promoting women in trades Hilary also hopes to address the issue of body shops overcharging for sub par work and shops up charging women because they are women.
More info about this project, and how you can help, can be found on her Ink & Iron campaign at Indiegogo.com page.
Worth A Watch: Lacing The Ghia Roof
Mike McConnell’s Karmann Ghia is an impressive build on all fronts, but one of the things that has always intrigued me about it is the fact that the whole car has been painted with spray cans.
Now I’ve seen a lot of solid colour rattle can paint jobs that have looked great but I have never seen a roof so intricate as his done without a compressor and a proper gun.
Previously Mike showed me a few progress pictures of the lace and windowed paint job, but this week he dropped a video documenting the entire process, it’s not a tutorial but it provides great insight into how it all went down. It’s certainly worth a watch and I must commend both Mike and Jesse for listening to great music.
As always you can find more of their stuff over at The Dub Dynasty.
Winter Wednesdays: Wrangled
We got a decent dumping of snow Sunday Night/Monday morning and if the weather gamblers are right we should be getting more today.
Half melted slush combined with new snow has resulted in my car looking really similar to this Golf below.
Of course I don’t have Jeep wheels.
Vintage Theme Tuesdays: Bed Dancers
From the first time I spotted a bed dancer (which may have been in the movie House Party) I’ve been intrigued by this interesting and unique part of minitrucking history.
From a fabrication stand point making a bed lift up, spin around, completely fly apart, and in some cases shoot flames is no small feat. Coupled with the fact that a miscalculation or failed part could lead to a dented bed, or worse a smashed cab, it’s a wonder bed dancing caught on at all since it really has no practical application. Yet miraculously it did and actually still survives to a much, much, smaller degree today.
Some of you would rather the trucks in today’s post stay lost in time, but indulge me a bit because I’ve held this one back as long as I could.
Japan seemed to be pretty into it as a lot of the vintage videos I found originated there
These videos are both state side with the later being from Hawaii
Model Bed dancers are also somewhat of a popular sub niche, I remember this build blowing my mind back in 2004 or so
