Quite a variety of coverage coming up on the site over the next few days, guest coverage of the Canadian Sport Compact Series will be coming through sooner rather than later, and tomorrow we start to take a look at recent Battle At The Bridge show in Calgary.
Kicking the week off however is coverage from July’s Classics On The Square which was a small, mostly American classic, show that took place in Mississauga’s Celebration Square.
In it’s inception year Classics On The Square 2014 wasn’t a massive show but it was extremely well run and 100% family focused. Myself, my wife, and my son all had a great time thanks to the live band, food trucks, and well rounded turnout.
From what I’ve heard the ‘powers that be’ at the City Of Mississauga were also impressed with the event overall which means this show should be back bigger and better next year.
Details, Details
Despite not being a huge show Classics On the Square had a surprising amount of foot traffic which at times made taking pictures a bit difficult, so when foot traffic picked up I busied myself with more detail oriented shots.
A&D Performance brought out their street driven 1/4 mile terrors
I was pretty surprised to find that Supertrapp is actually still in business. I thought they were mostly an early 90’s thing.
Vintage Speed
I’ve read a bit about the Bugatti 35B on-line but this was actually the first example I’d ever seen in person, quite an impressive piece of kit in the metal.
Some crazy parent just about let his son climb all over this car before I mentioned that it wasn’t a good idea… some people’s parents
I can’t imagine two people side by side in this and I’m not even a big guy!
There Will Be Low
Nice to see a few members of the lowrider community come out and help an event such as this.
Hubs & Whites will never fail
Small Cars Too
Prelude to the Jalopy Jam Up
The Jalopy Jam Up is right around the corner (this Saturday) and Jeff Norwell along with Performance Improvements were promoting the show.
Heavy Metal Contingent
Like any good classic show, Classics on The Square had it’s fair share of American muscle.
This ‘vette had some of the best flip fliop paint I’d ever seen in personThough this might be a bit much…
LS motors make everything betterAnother look at the very crazy A&D performance VegaEnd things off with one hell of a Mach One
Just like the two years previous, this year’s Importfest coverage will conclude with a showcase of the cars my friends so generously showed under Stance Is Everything for 2014. Since 2012, when Importfest was first kind enough to carve out some floor space to the site, I’ve tried my best to arrange a variety of vehicles that not only represent the breadth of content here on the site, but also bring some diversity and uniqueness to the show.
Usually this all comes together pretty well but for a variety of reasons 2014 proved to be a bit of a challenge.
At the time I was first approached about the six spots Importfest had open my son Ash had just entered this world and cars were literally the last thing on my mind. Fast forward a few months and I come to realize that three of the people who showed last year were out due to downed/sold vehicles, weddings, or other personal commitments.
Once I got a bit of time to ponder how to fill those empty spots my car got destroyed opening up yet another spot to fill while my focus was again shifted elsewhere. Amidst all the chaos and items vying for my attention I briefly considered giving away all six spots and regrouping for 2015.
Thankfully my friends simply wouldn’t let that happen and thanks to the five gentleman below things really came together for 2014 and I think that this year may have been the most diverse thus far.
For those of you that didn’t attend (and those of you that did) here is this year’s lineup!
I honestly can’t thank Ty enough for all the help he was able to provide with my car accident situation, and here he was helping me out again at Importfest by not only bringing his truck out but also convincing Erik to pull the trigger and sign up along with him for this year’s show.
A truck has always been a must have at any Stance Is Everything Importfest booth and for those not intimately familiar with the Silverado platform Ty’s truck is incredibly low for a static truck of this size.
Seeing this thing move around so close to the ground is a site to be seen, and the up-sized OEM replica wheels suit the otherwise all black truck perfectly.
After being sidelined with a blown motor Erik brought his turbo Probe GT back to Importfest for 2014 with a new set of wheels and a healthy heart. Up until the day of the show I wasn’t actually sure which of his two cars Erik would roll up in but I’m glad it was the Probe.
His Saab is a great looking car, and an equally unique platform, but seeing people’s reactions seeing a tastefully done, boosted, Ford Probe is pretty novel.
John was actually the first car officially signed up this year, and the original plan was to have our cars side-by-side to showcase just how wide his 3 actually is. This of course couldn’t happen after mine got twisted, but it was still an honour to have John’s car show under SIE because it’s one of the most memorable Mazda3s in the area.
The car is also on it’s victory lap since it will either be sold or parted before the year is out.
Taylor’d Customs Audi A4
Blair brought his A4 back for 2014 with the new 3M wrap done by Street Dream Auto Sports and people absolutely loved the car, something to be said about the power of a German sedan laid out on bags.
I’m sure if people knew how well this car drives they would only fall further for it.
Taylor’d Customs Beetle
In addition to the Audi Blair also brought out his static Volkswagen Beetle, a project he’s been working on since the beginning of the year.
Filling the shoes of Luke’s Beetle from last year is no easy task but the Taylor’d Customs Beetle project managed to do so with ease. People simply couldn’t get enough of the unique green beetle sitting millimeters from the ground over widened white steelies.
Clean and low, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that ones again the people’s car was the people’s favorite at Importfest 2014.
Every year I like to have one ‘hail Mary’ car at the show. The hail Mary car is a vehicle that I’m never quite sure if the owner would be interested in bringing, or one that the show organizers would traditionally accept. In 2012 it was Blair’s 57 Chevy Pickup, last year it was Luke’s Beetle, and this year it was Rob’s 1971 MGB GT.
When I saw this car at Fitted for the first time I was an instant fan so as soon as I knew I had an opening I asked Rob if he was interested in filling it and to my excitement Rob responded almost instantly with an enthusiastic yes. The Importfest staff must completely trust me now because they didn’t even question the inclusion of Rob’s car in the show.
Parked next to Blair’s Beetle Rob’s car was quite a hit and a car nobody would have never expected to see on the Importfest show floor.
Huge thanks to Blair, Erik, John, Rob and Tyler for representing the site this year and being so easy to work with in what has been a pretty eventful summer for myself.
Another thanks to Rob for unintentionally timing the release of his CSCS/Importfest mash video with this post:
If you’re on the west coast Importfest Vancouver takes place this weekend! Hit up Importfest.com for more info.
In the truck community body dropping (custom guys argue that it is called channelling but that’s a discussion for another day) is pretty much par for the course, but among the car driving population it’s done far less often.
Understandable because most cars produced in the last twenty or so years don’t have any frames to speak of which means that technically can’t body drop them.
When faced with no frame to work with what most people do is raise all the suspension pick up points, and the floor, and call it a body drop, or scrap the uni-body all together and slide a frame underneath.
Today’s post contains a little bit of both, go figure there area few weird platforms in here too.
Damn near the first return for ‘body dropped’ carCouldn’t find any more pics of this Civic but it looks pretty wildFound a new (old?) pictures of the bodied Cav
At least I assume this is the same car as the one above… unless there is two… there isn’t two is there?This Lada has had the sub frame and floor moved up higher to get it sitting down low
Rover body dropped over an Air cooled pan. This is a previous WTF Friday vehicle if it looks familiarSpeaking of air cooled…
Juiced bodied Grumman by Rayvern HyrdualicsBodied static MK1 from a 2013 Speedhunters feature
The look on the guys face in the white shirt matches mine when I found this build on s10forumThe bucket is one of the first ‘bodied’ Volkswagens I read about. Sadly the build thread along with the car seem to be dead.
Now every low rider I see is going to look high…Leaving this doored Bel Air for last
Today Drake and myself continue our coverage of Importfest 2014, and this set runs through more of the overall show field.
There’s some familiar cars, along with a new comer or two, and an elaborate internet influenced ‘celebracar’.
Nice to see another classic sneak into ImportfestKilian’s Flex repping for Rockstar MotorsportsBeauty Z06 on OZ wheels flying the Grounded Conceptz flag.
I’ve been trying to get a decent shot of the air management on this Jeep for awhile now, so creative.
The engine bay on this Lexus is wild, one day I’ve got to hang around and listen to it runAnother shot of Sic’s Benz because I couldn’t resist
The owner of this car switched up the wheels this year for a bit more of a VIP influenced vibe
Doubt there’s anything left to do to the rear of this car
No sense sending that HKS supercharged power down to some skinny rubber
Purrari
There’s been a bunch of chatter this summer about Deadmau5’s Sekan Skin wrapped Purrairi, it’s done the Gumball 300, gone on a Coffee run with Rob Ford, and sat on the Importfest show floor.
The car is a bit much for me but if I had his money who’s to know what I would do.
3s on Threes
The 3 field in Importfest was pretty competitive this year. About ten cars in total including the ones shown below.
Trevor’s Speed3 is on it’s victory lap since it is currently up for saleThis speed had some of the most carbon fiber I’ve seen used on the chassis, interior, under the hood, it was really everywhere
I’d love to see this just a hair lower but then that CF lip might become a sacrificial nodeJosh lighting things up with his custom lighting solutions
Elevated/Level One
Elevated Status and Level One joined forces for this years Importfest and had a back to back set-up. Both crews are known for their clean cars so ‘Leveleated’ made a lot of sense.
Super clean GTI, perfect fender between tire fitment out backDrake was a fan of Adam’s Vortech charged s2000
Petey and Brain created one of the best photo ops of the showPretty sure I’m in on that girls instagram account now
Petey walked away with the static best stance award
Check back for more coverage this week including the yearly showcase of cars that were in the stanceiseverything.com area!
While browsing The Amazo Effect a few weeks back I came across the ‘Tachyon Mini Cooper’. The what you say?
Well the Tachyon Mini Cooper is a proper generation (read: small and nimble) Mini Cooper body drapped over a tube frame chassis that houses a Porsche 944 motor crafted by Tachyon Performance .
Looking for more info on the car has thus far only lead me in circles, but judging by the photos below the car does seem to still be some sort of a work in progress rather than a one off shock and awe project.
While the 944 wasn’t exactly the most coveted Porsche in the world take it’s 217bhp motor out of it’s native home and plunk it in something much smaller you’ve got a decent recipe for a car that will throw you back in your seat and send passengers reaching for the holy shit handles.
There’s no video of this car that I can find, but if any of you have more info you certainly know where to send it.
Until then I’ll just imagine how ridiculous this car must be.
Every scene has a car show that ultimately influences enthusiasts in the area and for many of us in Toronto Importfest is that show. Importfest is loud, busy, extravagant, and quite literally the ‘biggest and baddest’ in the area.
On show day (interspersed between model photos) browsing the #importfest hash tag, on whichever social media forum you prefer reveals, confessions of those who simply can’t believe they made it into the show and others who want nothing more than to have their car on the Metro Toronto Convention Centre floor next year.
For competitors the weeks (or sometimes even months) leading up to ‘ifest’ are a mad scramble to cross the t’s and dot the i’s, and it’s not uncommon for members of the show field to be seen walking the show isles in a zombie like state, occasionally conversing with other competitors about how little sleep they had the night before.
For accredited and uncredited media alike we scramble like ants trying to capture as much of the show as we can. Previously I’ve attempted to capture Importfest alone but this year Drake and myself took on the show together and between the two of us we’ve got over 150+ photos that will be making their way to site in parts over the next few days.
Today’s coverage is just a start and more should be up Saturday.
Depth Of Field
Usually the Importfest field has an air of familiarity to it, but this year it seemed as though there were a lot of cars I either had not seen in a while or just plain had never seen before and the field of competitors ranged from drift cars to Jeeps and back again.
Normally I don’t spend a lot of time in the Gran Tourismo area but this MKX caught my eye… don’t see many on the road let alone any modifedI’ve shot photos of this bagged Jeep a few times but now that it is on Forgiatios it is easier to tell that it’s lowered
CSCS competition one week, Importfest the next
This is the second year in a row a clean MR-2 seems to have emerged from nowhereTBA approved managed to snag this Gruppe-M supercharged NSX for their booth
The ‘Mellow Yello’ 370 is now tangerine Orange
Nice to see this car at Importfest, normally only see it once at year at Fitted
Lab 246’s super clean EG hatch accompanied by a matching RuckusSo this car vanished for a few years but suddenly reappeared at this year’s IF. You might remember it looking like this
Josh Schaff gave his Jetta a bomber look that fits really well
I’ve got to start making something for my son..
Personally my two favourite rides from Sic’s fleet, both perfect
Just a great timeless look on each
Pretty sure this is the first time this GC8 has been seen since getting the 22b fenders and new wheels
Team Vossen holding it down
Honda Power
Hondas have always taken a bad rap in the show scene as predominantly catering to the all show and no go crowd but this year’s Importfest showcased more than a few cars that had the power to back up their looks.
This F22 powered hatch had me scratching my head last yearThe no fuss cream engine bay just compliments the powerplantJaved’s EL has undergone another makeover and still looks greatI loved this subtly widened s2000 on RegamastersSo glad that the owner didn’t carry the teal through into the interior and went with something different entirelyThis car puts down 425 to the wheels at 13psi and is currently up for saleMark Gentie’s Proper Fabrication Civic EF
This car is good for a 9 second quarter as seen here which I’m told makes it the fasted in Canada
Rocket Bunnies
The thrust propelled small mammal influenced designs by Tra kyoto have hit in spades this year with Canada’s first Scion TC, Mazda RX-7, and GTR models being unveiled at Importfest 2014. Love it or hate these kits are certainly not going anywhere any time soon.
I really didn’t expect to see this at Importfest 2014Part-time drifter and full time Internet celebrity Chris DelaCruz finished up his FR-S RB2 project and debuted it at Importfest
The Sekan Skin/Nextmod Mississauga/ Importfest Rocket Bunny RX-7 also debuted
And the talk of the show had to be Harvin’s RB GTR, which is the first in Canada and was sitting in the Importfest/Vossen photo booth
Another colossal Importfest show is in the books and to start off the 2014 coverage Drake Nolte has resurrected the ‘women of’ Theme Tuesday which has been MIA since 2011!
Depending on where you work this post might be NSFW so consider yourself forewarned, enjoy!
JRP/Sonax returns once again with their crowd pleaser
Looks like the guy in the ‘FS’ shirt is taking a goooood look
The model lounge this year featured the Importfest Rocket Bunny GTR
Strickly Sidewayz brought their drift track to IF this year, best RC drift track IF has had
Long time readers know that the lowrider BBQ hosted by the Toronto chapter of the Majestics car club is must attend event on my yearly list, so when I learned it was scheduled the same day as Importfest I knew I had to do the two place at one time routine and get coverage for both.
Fortunately for me Importfest is twelve hours long, and Humber Valley East park is on the way so I was able to attend both, and this year contributing photographer Chris Johnston came to the check out the show for the first time as well as Gil and Dave from the Scraped Crusaders.
Since Chris and myself had to cut out a little early I didn’t get any of the hopping on film but, there’s a hop contest at the Reunited Car Show August 24th so hopefully I can get my fill there.
Without a doubt the best way to enter a showIt’s pretty incredible how long two door cars used to beI mean seriously…
Pretty awesome to see this car roll up and 3 kids hop out
Ruben was out with the Chilango 64 which he’s been driving as much as he can lately
Nothing gets lift like a lowrider
This was one of my favourite cars last year, love the colour and flaked roof
I must not have taken a look inside last year however because I was blown away by this interior, can’t even imagine what it’s like to drive a living room around
Sometimes though all you need is a pair of die
Chris knew the owner of this car so he encouraged me to take a look a close look at itEngraved and muraled this car is a rolling work of art
That’s all for this year, just 365 until the next.
Today Drake and I continue our overage of the July 20th CSCS event with the ‘stationary’ set of photos. Though it seems every event I spend more and more time looking through the infield I always manage to miss one or two vehicles I straight up shouldn’t.
In this case it was a f20 powered Super7 but I digress….
Seriously though how did I miss this?…and how did I miss this?Technically this should have gone up yesterday but yes that is a Ranger chasing down an miniDiscussing the best way to move hay balesThe owner describes this truck as a 600ish horsepower tool shed pulling a swimming pool. Amazing.From what I’m told this van is called the ‘Diaper Viper’… never got a chance to take a good look at it but…10.45?
Pure functionThe ex Worked 905 J swapped Civic lives on
This car is called ‘the heap’…it fitsThis on the other hand is not a heapThis car would now be deemed illegal in QuebecThis car is so damn clean, love the mismatched wheel selection too which is normally something I am not into
Billy’s extremely unique Integra now on Varrstoen LM reps
Clean over fender job on this IS300
Thanks to Josh and Tracy for letting me camp out under their tent a few timesTy’s latest ‘ruined’ truckGreat execution on this car, super flawlessGoing to end things off with this amazing rocket bunny equpped BRZ from Alpah MotorsportsThere’s a few of these locally but this one (in my opinion) takes the cake, ride height and wheel fitment are perfect
The BRZ wing is a great match too
and of course you can’t shoot a RB BRZ and not have this shot
After not being able to personally attend the last two rounds of the Canadian Sport Compact Series I was really looking forward to a long over due day at Toronto Motorsports Park Cayuga this past Sunday.
In addition to all of the usual awesome that comes with CSCS –that is the time attack, drag racing, drifting, and show and shine– I got the chance to catch up with a few of the friends I only get to see track side, as well as meet a few more readers of the site.
The weather issues that plagued the Grand Bend event were not even remotely a factory this time around so both Drake and I had our shutters going all day to bring back some great coverage.
As usual I’ve split the coverage up between track and stationary content and today we take a look at what was going down on the road course.
Time Attack
Drake captures a cool angle I never though of beforeClean and quick little carThe banner on that Cooper actually says mini pooper. Toilet jokes never get old.The Sunday prior to this event this car was motor less. Come Race day it had a very loud, very health LS under the hood that took it to the top of the Unlimited RWD classMarco Jorge has one of the most intimidating RX-7s I’ve seenIt shreds the track too
Cool to see Mike Gardner has linked up with our friends at Cyrious Garageworks
Just another day out in an LP570
Drift
Steve ended up blowing up the sr20 in his e30 so he picked up this car for a new drive line.He tried his best to slide it before yanking the motor but unfortunately this horse would rather be shot than drift
Cool Kids Club driver Anthony was having a bit of a rough go at things this roundMiguel Pereira also had a bit of a turbulent day, his practice runs started pretty solid……but he ended up catching the wall once in practice……then again in qualifyingLucky for him he’s got a lady to pick up the pieces
He was however able to get the car back out there despite both incidentsDugan Mcgee managed to get pretty high up on a hay bale during practice but he too managed to get things back together for qualifyingFinally managed to get a shot of Jover I am (mostly) happy withThis is quite a unique car, if the R32 front end isn’t enough to raise an eyebrow……I’m told it has a 1UZ motor under hood which is somewhat of an uncommon swap
On one occasion this Miata got a little squirrely and everyone held their breath, it all worked out thoughAnthony Vonditsianos has one of the best looking cars in the current CSCS drift field
Both Drake and myself couldn’t help snapping every time he was outMike DeTurck’s ls powered e46 is also a blast to shoot
The finalists for this round were Brent Stratton, Cody Loughead, Riley Sexmith and Dylan SharpeSince the last event got rained out Cody and Dylan did their final tandems at Cayuga and it was awesome to see these two V8 powered cars battle it outSay whatever you may about V8 drift cars they sure put on a hell of a show
This and the photo above are actually of the same driftDylan’s driving this year has him sitting in second over allRiley came out swinging this roundHe looked right at home behind the wheel of his new NV Auto Subaru and took home first place
