Throwback: Driven/DTP 2009

You can tell I’m getting desperate for posts when I start posting shit from 2009. But I’ve never posted this before so I’m kind of in the clear. As I was going through the pics, I realized that I didn’t even take many pictures. The majority of the pictures I took were of Mercedes Terrell with some of our cars and then a few randoms here and there, but no pics of any other cars at the show. However, whoever was in attendance for this show would probably agree with me when I say that this was the shittiest car show that was ever put on in Calgary. It was during a time when there was a lot of confusion between whether the show was called “Driven” or “DTP AKA Driven to Perform” and there were issues with the sponsors and the venue and who was going to pay for what. It ended up just turning out incredibly shitty because this venue was about half the size of the Olympic Oval – where the car shows were usually held.

This was also during a time when a lot of us had just started in the scene and it was beginning to evolve. Fitment was still somewhat uncharted territory, people were just getting into experimenting with lower offsets. In fact, I remember at that time – whenever we talked about offsets in the low +20’s, that was considered low. I’m willing to bet that there weren’t any companies that would even think to make wheels 12″ wide with offsets in the low -20’s, let alone have anyone even think about doing it. It’s really only been 5 years and look how much has changed… The example I come back to time and time again is the GT wing. 5 years ago, it was frowned upon and hated… It’s the new stance trend if you can pull it off.

Anyways – most of the pics in this is of Mercedes Terrell, so if you like her then this is for you. As I write this, the temperature outside is -41C with the windchill… Only about 2 more months to go until the nice weather comes back and we’re out and about doing photoshoots again! It’s almost time to wake up the garage queens…

My Civic – not really in its glory days, but just before that phase. It was a very subtle phase – like all the other stages before it. I did experiment with a different wheel set up that I saw on the FEEL’S FD. They used a FWD stagger and the logic was to help with understeer. 245 and 8.5″ up front with 225 and 7.5″ in the back. The front wheel wells of the Civic were huge and I ended up fitting quite aggressive wheel/tire set ups under there with no issue. I am ashamed to say that I even switched back to Eibach Sportline springs on this set up cause I was worried that I would be “too low” on my coils. I’m an idiot. However, now that I look at this picture, this would be the perfect daily driver – clean and simple.

Dal’s K20 Integra – which was later sold to Reggie and then parted and sold. This was an iconic car for a long time because of all the work that was put into it. Even looking at it – it’s not hard to appreciate all the work that was put into this. Reggie later made it even better by cleaning up the engine bay and making it much more aggressive.

The only other shot I got of a single car. The NSX that has remained the same every time it’s in a show… lol BUT he did have the Advan RS’s on and those were brand spankin’ new way back. So that was cool to see.

Also at this point, I just want to say – please excuse my shitty picture taking skills. No tripod, no flash, high ISO = bad situation.

Anyways – here’s a good look at Punit’s Integra way back in the day as well. On the gold Meisters that Diana now has on her Fit and painted purple. Unpainted CF hood and hatch. No swap. Still just very clean.

Kind of a bad view but it’s of Jackie Law’s S2000 and Corey O’Hara’s Civic right beside him. Jackie’s car undergoes a bunch of different stages every year so I don’t even know which one it’s at right now… But it has always remained a fan favourite.

Rear shot. Kind of like a foreshadowing… Mainly because of Dal’s J’s Racing wing and my Volk TE37’s. I believe later that year, we ended up doing a trade – my wheels for his wing. I got the wheels for an unbelievable deal from Will at STRD so I had no issues doing the trade. Once I acquired the wing, that’s when I started going HAM on the Civic hahaha