Driven 2015 x illmotion – Before the Doors Open

Another great day of showing has come and gone and as tiring as it is, or as exhausted as I get, the excitement still gets to me. When I first started entering shows about 8 years ago, I was excited the night before, the day of, and even the day after. After a while, the show scene starts to take a toll on you and the hours go by slower and slower each year. The one thing that doesn’t change though is the fact that every year, I get to meet new faces, associate the car to a person, and just talk cars all day – that’s the life I want to live – just to chill with cool cars and cool people.

As I write this, deja vu comes over me from the last year I wrote a blog post and every year the quality of cars gets better and better. (this is a good thing). There are people bringing in good quality cars with good quality parts – as much as we want to move away from the replica/fake market – we never will. I’ve had the pleasure myself of being a part of the illmotion booth since the beginning and the team has done an exceptional job of raising the bar each year with the quality they bring into the booth. I want to stress – this doesn’t mean that I think the rest of the show sucks – because it really doesn’t. There is so much more quality out there that belong to other groups and companies and they hold their own very well. All I’m saying is if you’ve ever walked around the illmotion booth and talked to the guys when they weren’t too busy trying to stay awake, you’ll realize that they’re just like any one of you – these are their builds, their time and sweat and it is reflected in every single one of the cars there.

As tiring as the show scene may be, the quality of the cars is steadily gaining momentum and I love it. It’s been my gripe every year that I write this type of post that it needs to be better, it needs some sort of jump start again. The general sense I get is that there is a lot of friendly competition happening – every one wants to be better than the other. When that happens, people are inspired to do and try new things – sometimes it works brilliantly and sometimes it needs to be re-worked. Whatever the case it, the show this year definitely brought some fresh, new builds out. I’ve seen some comments about the lack of work put into builds (ie., lack of engine, lack of aero, lack of whatever else might tickle your pickle) but the trouble is that it takes time and money, unless of course you have lots of both. While this isn’t near the same quality as Eibach or SEMA, this is still better than where we were 3, 5, or 7 years ago. There are builds that stand the test of time and over and over again have proven to be some of Calgary’s best builds. This marks the start of another season to do it better for the coming years – little progression is better than no progression.

I’ll have a series of posts split up as I work in coordinating with illmotion on their posts – this first one is just a pre-show post. Before the doors open up, before the lights are on, it’s the calm before the storm, if you will…

Let’s start the show!

Started off with the bae. It’ll never be that clean again until next year…

Beside me was JC’s CT200h – which went on to win best VIP later that night.

Punit’s GS450h on his newly coated copper wheels.

Corey’s S2000

Rich’s S6 Wagon

Gopesh finally able to debut his new look officially with the new BBS centercaps and all.

Ryan’s EP3 – this is no stranger to the car show scene. He went on to later with best Civic as well.

Alex’s immaculate Integra – a build that is so well done that you cannot walk past. The attention to detail on Alex’s car is just insane. Mugen bolts everywhere (even where you can’t see them)… It just screams quality. Alex took home best in class Acura that day, I believe.

A group from Winnipeg came down to join us as well – this won best NSX.

One of the crazier and fresh builds to join us was this bagged TSX – Spoon bumper, Porsche GT3RS grey, ProjectMu… The list goes on.

A crazy 350Z that also joined the trio.

Josh’s bagged S5.

Phil’s widebody AE86. One of my all-time favourites – never gets old.

A shot before the madness rolled in…

Jackie’s new-old Type R on bronze TE37’s. Jackie and Punit made the trip down to Edmonton a few weeks before the show for this.

Steven’s STI – brings back some old memories for me… I love to see the progression on this.

Steve’s RSX

Nick’s GTR

Aldo’s S2000 with new Regamasters and rear ASM fenders.

Trung’s Voltex S2000

Derrick’s Integra

I went through one more time with a different lens – less distorted… But here are more pics, nonetheless.

Up close of Alex’s engine bay.

Up close of the TSX’s engine bay fitted with Kraftwerks

Donovan’s FRS on bronze/bronze Meisters

Noel’s freshly wrapped Silvia. Love the black.

Daniel’s Golf R on RE30’s

Errol’s Amuse S2000

Alex’s daily – TL type S on bronze ZE40’s.

Shaylee’s 240

Romel’s old AE86 – now belongs to Alex. Alex is the one that sold me my FR-S – so it was nice to see him and the car there.

Mike’s RX7 – this was extremely clean. I didn’t get any underhood shots but it’s a sight to see.

The elusive Honda S600

Arif’s EK sitting pretty with his new BYS bumper finished just a day before the show.

Romel’s Celica finally made it out of the garage after all these years. Fitted with new fenders, a new bumper, a new rear wing and wetsanded all the way through. This thing shined.