I’ve done uncommon low, and uncommon low riders so the only natural progression of the oddball Theme Tuesday series is less than typical Hot Rods.
It’s pretty cool to see the hot rod aesthetic applied to such a wide range of vehicles. In some cases in might look a little weird but in most it’s actually quite awesome.
There’s no doubt in my mind that everyone of you fortunate enough to have a car in high school remember it fondly. For most of us in addition to holding countless memories and stories –many of which are not appropriate to share here– that car was the stepping stone into the car scene at large and the beginning of a much larger journey.
Petey was lucky enough to have had two cars in high school, one he drove to hell and back, and the one featured today that from first acquisition was destined to become his family built pride and joy.
Early Civics, particularly EFs, have always been held in high regard as timeless fun to drive car that responds incredibly well to modification. Unfortunately it is also a chassis that reacts incredibly poorly to winter climates, particularly those that necessitate the use of copious amounts of salt.
This car may not have seen a lot of use during Petey’s high school years but it did need a generous amount of bodywork before it could be considered a viable base for a proper build.
Conveniently when Petey was ready to give his EF an overhaul he was employed at TNT Auto body in Brampton, and with the help of co-worker Wayne the rockers and quarters on this car were painstakingly restored.
During that restoration process the North American front end was replaced an EF9 front clip complete with extremely rare factory round OEM Stanley fog lights, icing the cake up front is an authentic Chargspeed lip.
The block of the b16 motor that sits under hood has been painted black and adorned with a polished intake manifold, and polished valve cover. Giving it a little more pep is an Apexi world sport class 2 full exhaust.
With help from his friend Orlando, Petey tucked the wiring harness away and his dad gave him the assist on the brake line tuck and booster delete.
When the motor was out the engine bay was painted deep purple to contrast the car’s new grey exterior.
For shoes this car wears extremely rare SSR DEFI fin wheels that have been beautifully refurbished to 16×8 and 16×9.5 sizing.
The step lips and unique centre caps give these wheels a truly one of a kind, period correct, look that works really well with the restrained exterior aesthetic Petey has created.
The stance –which was made reality thanks to a Droptec modified set of Skunk2 coilovers and equally modified lower control arm bushings– is of course on point and netted him some hardware at the 2014 Fitted Lifestyle Toronto event.
Inside, Petey’s car has been upgraded using only the finest of Honda OEM parts; red leather seats from an s2000 compliment the Type R carpet and join the s2000 gauge cluster from JDM addiction.
The electronic cluster is the perfect bit of tech to go with the E9 power window conversion Petey also performed.
Not wanting to leave his audio set-up trapped in the late 80’s Petey’s new audio system is powered by Windows 7 and has some thump thanks to a floor mounted 12″ Audiobass sub.
True of all the other cars that fly the Elevated banner (a crew which as supported Petey since day one) Petey has taken his car to the next level and it’s been a pleasure to be able to showcase it here on Stance Is Everything.
Petey’s Thanks: Garage 16, TNT Autobody, Droptec, JDM addiction, ROG, his pops, and the Elevated Crew.
Today we pick right back up where we left off Monday with Drake’s 2014 CSCS Beach Burnout coverage.
The weather held out for drift practice and early qualifiers but unfortunately come later in the day the heavens opened up and ultimately brought the event to an earlier close than anyone would have liked.
It’s always a bit of a shame when rain draws things to a close and I can’t help but always feel bad for event organizers who have to put up with the wild mood swings of mother nature, after jumping all the other hurdles necessary to put on an event this size.
Unfortunately the weather is just one of those things we will never be able to control, the good news is Drake got some great photos before having to retreat to his Miata for shelter.
The next round of the 2014 CSCS Racing series is tomorrow at Toronto Motorsports park Cayuga, see you there!
Two weeks ago while at Classics In The Square Rob from Performance Improvements suggested I take a close look at two vans parked approximately fifteen feet away from their booth.
From a distance neither van looked particularly noteworthy but he assured me they would be worth the look and he was right because I was instantly blown away at the craftsmanship, attention to detail, and sheer ridiculousness of their interiors.
I’ve seen a few custom vans in my time but never any quite as extensive as these two, which look like they just rolled out of those vehicle preserving air filled bubbles.
The first van (a Dodge I believe) was done up completely dungeon style:
If I were to put a mental picture to the person who did the van above I would assume he is someone that dresses in all black, has long black hair, and probably black nail polish.
If I were to put a mental picture to the person who did the van below I would lean towards a heavier set gentleman who enjoys a scotch and a pipe.
The rest of the Classics In the Square coverage should be up sometime next week, and I promise there are no more vans.
Random SIE/Dave Thomas fact: Between 2009 to now I have never shot a single rolling shot. Not.A.Single.One.
Reason? I’m normally the lead/follow driver.
I should really try my hand at it sometime soon, here’s the fourth edition of the rolling shot Theme Tuesday Series.
While I was somewhere between Toronto and Montreal on my way back Eurokracy 2014 Drake Nolte was in Grand Bend covering the second round of the 2014 Canadian Sport Compact Series which took place at the Grand Bend Motorplex.
The Grand Bend stop is a favourite for many because it’s proximity to the beach practically begs for you to make an entire weekend of the event.
This year the weather Friday through Saturday was flawless, but come Sunday mother nature was having temper tantrums reminiscent of the 2011 CSCS season. Never the less the show went on as best it could before the weather ended things for good.
Prior to that Drake managed to walk away with some great coverage and today we will take a look at the pits and show and shine before moving onto drift coverage later this week.
Recently I stumbled across a fairly peculiar looking 300zx and in the search for more information I came to learn that the ‘Buttigiri Special 300zx’ lead a fairly interesting life of constant change up until it’s presumably life ending move from one part of the world to another.
This story isn’t new (it actually pre-dates this site) so there’s a chance some of you already know it. However I’m willing to bet a few of you have never heard of, or seen, this car before.
Like many an awesome tale this story starts in Japan with a humble factory spec Nissan 300zx.
The car didn’t stay stock for long though, as the owner clearly had intentions of building one of the wildest Z32s to ever roll the streets. Specific details are somewhat scarce but it’s pretty clear the car went through at least 4 revisions which are below:
As you can see the car was pretty wild in every iteration and something that you would never expect to see ice racing in Norway, and yet that is exactly where it ended up.
(49 seconds in)
Such a weird ending for a wild car, and yet it somehow seems almost fitting that a one of a kind Nissan would go out in a truly one of a kind fashion.
Impressively the fifteen plus year deceased Nissan s14 chassis boasts one of the larger after market catalogs in existence. There’s literally no shortage of options when it comes to modifying these vehicles and yet oddly enough many of them end up remarkably similar.
The same body kits, the same wheels, the same paint or wrap, and more often than not the same engines.
When Trevor shipped his S14 Silvia over from Japan he knew following in the footsteps of people before him was out of the question, so when it came time to put a new motor in the car he turned to a power plant he knew like the back of his hand…
…the Volkswagen VR6.
On paper the idea of a VR6 motor in a Japanese car sounds like something that simply shouldn’t work, and if you mention it to either Nissan or Volkswagen enthusiasts they both tend to doubt the feasibility of such a project, or recoil in horror at the fact that someone would even consider such a ‘blasphemous’ idea.
To these doubters and naysayers Trevor responds with the same words affixed to his bumper; Shut Up! I Fucking Got this.
Incredibly Trevor’s world colliding mesh of Japanese precision and German effectiveness came together quicker than you might think –about eight weeks– and the ball really started rolling once he received the adapter plate from SEO Motorsports.
SEO Motorsports had previously put the Nissan 350z transmission behind the Volkswagen VR6 motor in one of their own projects and knew it would be a suitable backer for the turbo 12 valve Trevor intended to use.
The plate used to mate the transmission to the motor was just one of many essential pieces of custom fabrication that has gone into this car. On top of the obvious motor mounts that need to be fabricated when you put a FF motor in an FR car the intake manifold needed hand crafted and TIG welded in addition to the valve cover, inter cooler piping, and a long list of additional under hood accessories and components.
If the feat of getting the motor positioned into it’s new home somehow isn’t impressive enough it’s worth noting that Trevor actually taught himself how to TIG over the eight weeks he built the car.
Before continuing to outline a fraction of the work that went into this build it’s probably worth mentioning that the motor Trevor chose for this build is no spring chicken, it’s got over 250 thousand hard driven kilometers on it dispersed through a nearly double digit number of cars.
Why build a unique project around a motor with so many clicks on the dial? Well why fix something that isn’t broken? This motor is capable of making good power, has never let Trevor down, and has never shown any signs of kicking the bucket, so Trevor put it in.
Remember he’s got this.
However just because the motor was well seasoned doesn’t mean it couldn’t get a little bit of cleaning up before being installed so Trevor did a little bit of preventive maintenance before getting a few things ceramic coated by RE-Speed in London Ontario.
Since the power plant got a little bit of sprucing up Trevor also gave the engine bay a once over, tubbing the front wells and having the whole bay painted the same metallic white the rest of the car will eventually be by D’ALCOR Collision Inc.
With the motor sitting between the tubs the next hurdle Trevor had to tackle was the wiring harness and since Trevor’s job takes him miles away from his car every few weeks he simply took the schematics of both vehicles with him on the road and tackled the harness during his down time.
Once back home in his garage, with one rainbow end of the wiring harnessed connected to the other, Trevor reached out to Ricardo Tolay at DNA performance in New Jersey for help dialling in a driveway tune that would allow him to start shake down runs.
Currently the car is fairly sound mechanically, but inside Trevor’s head lives an impressive list of things he feels can be approved upon before he deems the car properly finished.
In fact at the time of this shoot Righteous Garage was about to pull the suspension of the car apart and replace it with HSD components in order to get the car sitting over those Work VS-XX wheels exactly how Trevor in-visions.
Already one of the most unique Nissan S14s ever built this car will no doubt be a thing of legend once it is finished to Trevor’s approval. I can’t wait.
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Trevor sends thanks to everyone who helped him out during the build including all the Twisted Whips members eagerly waiting and encouraging him to finish!
Eurokracy must have had a lasting impression on me because when it came to this week’s Theme Tuesday first generation Volkswagen Caddys came to mind and simply wouldn’t leave.
Clean first generation examples are a bit of a rare sight (at least here in Toronto) so whenever I see a nice one I can’t help but stare like a slack jawed yokel.
I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that many of you are the same way.
Team Importfest and Nextmod have literally been grinding away in order to bring some heat to this year’s event, they not only rolled out Canada’s first Rocket Bunny kitted GTR, but followed it up in short order with Canada’s first Rocket Bunny RX-7.
I don’t think either car is 100% finished quite yet (read: riding high) so expect to see the final products in all their glory at this year’s ImportFest Toronto July 26th.
Big tings a gwan in Toronto these days.
Photo Credit: Angelo Madrasto | Focus Films
