The finale. I honestly never thought I’d be sitting down and writing about the last Sunday School show.  Maybe a part of me thought something this good would last forever, but we all know that good things don’t last. Perhaps I was a little too starry-eyed to think that this wouldn’t end, but it feels like it’s ending too soon, doesn’t it? I feel like we’ve gone through so many phases and trends that maybe we’re at sweet spot of what we’ve been striving for all this time. People are building cars with tremendous attention to detail, they’re spending money on good parts, and all I see nowadays are TE37’s, GT’s, and BBS’s (not complaining). I never thought the day would come and now that it has, the biggest show in the West is leaving us. Kind of the perfect end though, no? The 10th iteration of a show that has gained so much traction and respect over this last decade and it went out with a mic drop.

I honestly couldn’t be more happy with the turnout of the event. Everyone brought their best and it showed. Some still don’t care for cleaning at all and to be honest, I’m not sure why at this point lol. Why enter a show if you’re not going to bother presenting it properly? BUT I’m not going to rant about that here, it’s not the time for such nonsense. So many cars and people I haven’t seen in years came out and it was so good to see. Like I said before, this is really the only show that you see all of these cars in one place. I was thinking at some point yesterday that the reason these guys bring their cars out is because of the connections we’ve all made with them over the last decade – through our photoshoots and write ups and just reaching out and wanting to connect to get to know them and their car better. Does that even happen anymore these days? It seems like it’s all about the followers and likes and less about the relationships and the people. This last show has been over 10 years in the making – can you imagine? Something that lasted 5 hours, but was possible because of all the efforts and collaboration between so so many people. Insane.

It was another perfect day – I thought I almost jinxed it in my last post by saying the weather has always been perfect. We had some mix of sun, shade and a little bit of overcast, so the pictures all differ in lighting depending on when I went out to go shoot. It was even a little perfect that it drizzled ever so slightly right after the awards – it’s like the city was a little sad with us…

I was lowkey hoping there would be a nice speech at the end but I think the energy was starting to run low at the end of the day and emotions were maybe a little too much for some, so maybe I’ll do it here – on behalf of everyone. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to those of you that were around on day 1. Those of you that bought those 20 or so OG teal illmotion decals that were gone in minutes. That was the realization that maybe we had something to hang on to. Thank you to those of you that joined us along the way and even yesterday if it was your first time – you’re the reason the show was as great as it was. Thank you to all of the other groups that came and popped up along the way and rode those waves with us through the crazy trends and styles – some that we hope we never see again and some that hopefully remain. These guys have put in hundreds of hours to put on these shows and it’s finally time to hang the hat. Thank you to all of the friends that have willingly come and spent all day to help put this day together. Thank you to everyone.

This ultimately concludes the illmotion chapter as we know it today. The legacy of illmotion will remain frozen in time on the internet and in pieces across my blog – literally one of the only places still left standing after all these years. There are days where I think even this place needs to retire, but there are far too many memories on here for me to just up and leave. I’m at 97% of my capacity for media storage on here now and I can’t help but feel that as the illmotion book closes, somehow a part of lifewithjson does too. Thank you again to everyone that has supported what illmotion was about and what it was started for from the beginning. It’s a rare sight nowadays to see an illmotion decal anywhere, but at one point, it did its job of bringing a group of collective and like-minded individuals together. There were no clubs. No separation or distinction. Just one big family. And as it goes, this is not a goodbye, but a see you soon.

Anyway, I really did try to capture every single car and tried to patient with some when there were crowds, but I’m sure I still missed some. As per usual – if you don’t see it here, that’s all I got. Not going to put a bunch of dialogue because of the amount of pictures but I’ll try where I can 🙂

Met up with the Esoteric group at Deerfoot city at 730ish to roll-in together. I should’ve known better that rolling in with Filipino guys that we weren’t actually meeting at 730. We were meeting at 8. LOL

Nick’s Evo he just picked up not too long ago and slapped on a few parts pretty quick.

Gian’s 7-Series sitting low. Just figured out it was static when I spoke with him that morning. Pretty dope.

Armand’s Civic

A look at the awards for this year. Turned out so sick. When JC had the idea of wanting to use a Street Fighter theme and drawing this up for him, I was so stoked on the finished piece. Blackbox customs did a killer job on making it a reality too.

The shirts. Fiyah.

Great morning weather

Roll-in – some random shots when I was in and out of the area. Starting with Noel’s Silvia

Annual pic with Brandon AKA the former ABG Hunter.

Esoteric booth being set up…

JC guiding entrants to their spots… Paul in his EK rocking that OG speedtech decal.

K20 Fit. So crazy.

All smiles with Mike in his Corolla. So good.

Cool guy Isaac

This dude calls me out on Instagram the day before about having to clean his wheels because of me but didn’t clean his wheels.

Made him do it. Can’t be tarnishing our reputation like that LOL

That’s all I had for roll-in. Starting with the Esoteric booth, naturally because that’s where I was LOL. Paolo’s FK

Nick’s Evo

Elgene’s bagged STI on Volk 21C’s. So good.

The turd that now needs new sidemarkers. Thanks Errol.

Over at the booth, we had debuted the two new designs – one was the collab between JTOONED and Esoteric and the other was Esoteric’s “illmotion finale” shirt.

A closer shot of the Ramen hoodie. Thank you to everyone that came by and picked one up – you guys rock. We were 3/4 sold out before the show even started LOL. For those of you looking for them – they’re all currently sold out. If we have any flakers, I’ll be putting them up in the storefront or on my story. We may make another run in the future!

Gian’s 7-series

Angelo’s Evo X

Arman’s FK7

Daniel and his RX8 and his newly mounted wing. Thanks for cleaning the wheels for the show after your track day LOL.

RV’s Varis FK8 looking great on white Advan GT’s. Thank for fixing those lip bolts 🙂

Corey’s S2000 – nice to see he was able to make it even after having his baby 3 days ago. Congrats!

Arif made a surprise visit down from Kelowna. Been a while since I’ve seen this. Unfortunately he did not pass the BI check despite his plead to be exempt due to his long drive. Go to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Alvin’s Golf R

Rich’s IS – rocking the new center caps and red spoke decals. Now it’s all coming together!

Junsay and his bike came through. Amateur-hour for him at this show – at the start of it all he said it wasn’t that bad and near the end of it, he was dying LOL. Cherry popped.

He’s checking to see if you cleaned your barrels…

…Because Steve definitely did not.

I think this is Errol’s new doggo – being babysat by Kim LOL (Sorry if I’m wrong)

Barb’s S2000 with cleaner barrels than her man. You know what they say…

(I don’t actually, but let’s make it mean something dirty)

Terry’s Mugen ITR. Another Unicorn that you don’t see much. Congrats on the award!

Jeevs’ EK

and his EG

Brian’s IntEGra – if that confuses you – it’s an EG with a JDM Integra front end converstion. Actually pretty damn clean lol

Ed’s OG CRX

Tim’s EG looking cleannnnnnnnn.

Hoang’s Civic – I still love this to this day. That GT wing is probably older than most of the kids there.

Alex’s IS-F – freshly detailed by Duncan too.

Had to check. LOL

Tristan’s Varis WRX hatch on Advan GT’s and a new Voltex wing out back. This is a great look.

Eric’s S15 – freshly ceramic’d but bro forgot to clean his wheels. LOL

Eric’s Sienna sitting low on Works

Enzzo’s Evo Wagon

Daniel’s M3

Still love all these carbon aero accents

Jimmy’s M3. Good to see you again sir – he told me not to mind his barrels. They’re dirty cause his car is actually fast…

I mean… I don’t know if I can argue that or should he be cleaning them anyway? LOL

Sleeper Fit

Sickkkkk

Jon’s G37. Thanks for moving for the pic sir 🙂 The world needs more people like you LOL

Rob’s C-class. I saw he was doing a really meticulous detail job days before the show. I took a closer look and it was perfecto. Great job sir!

Cool colour combo

Jesse from Infamous Aero and his completed R32 with a bunch of custom aero pieces he hand made. It’s been a long time since this has been out.

Looked great!

Danny and his girlfriend were driving these little things around and as I heard it get close as I was taking a shot, I lowkey panicked LOL. Cool shot though hahaha

Harrison’s MX-6. Super clean

Bill told me to check the passenger side of his car but I must have misheard the location because I was looking everywhere but didn’t notice anything that I should’ve until later he tagged me… If you look at the below pic, you’ll actually see part of the decal peeking out in the pic above LOL

This was actually too sick LOL. Great idea Bill

Kelvin’s Varis FRS

Adrian’s S7

Clean Miata on TE37’s

Kevin’s Genesis

Gotta show some love to the Tuner Decals boys as always.

These guys are Jtooned’s day one boys. Thanks again for always bringing my stash along with you guys! Hopefully I can create new decals soon…

Funky Garage S15 with his cool livery. Saw you cleaned the wheels too LOL! Good job!

Mitch’s Mark II/GX81

Cholo’s now-Spoon FK8. He had a bunch of new stuff put on before the show and it’s pretty crazily outfitted now. Congrats on taking one of the awards home.

Brooke’s Q60. Caught her sitting cleaning the rims earlier. Love to see it. Congrats on the awards as well.

Calvin’s WRX on Kiwami’s

Alyssa’s RS5 looking great as usual

Justine’s FRS. Every time I go to edit a picture of her car, I know it’ll take me longer cause I need to make sure I need to get the hues and lighting right. It goes all bonkers LOL

New seat?! I don’t think I noticed this before.

Mel’s Fiesta ST

Maggie’s Golf-R on RE30’s

Yolanda’s Focus ST

Frank’s RB RX7. Rocking the gold decals again. He mentioned that the first time he debuted the decals was the first time he entered Sunday School so he thought it would be fitting to put them on again for the last one. Looked great

John’s FC RX7.

Cool little details

I’m not sure if John actually even cleaned his car. Though, he actually uses the car for what it was built for, I let it slide. But I wanted to take a MF cloth to it so badly.

David’s M6

Looked so good

This Mustang in the So Scare booth. Probably had the best black paint in the whole show. Love seeing the effort put into black paint.

Jacob’s new Kona N

Brandon’s RSX with J’s goodies

Derrick’s FD

Roel’s Varis FK8. See dude – told you pictures look better with the doors closed 🙂

Jackie’s finally-finished Spoon NSX. Thing was so crazy – Ricky and I legit waited probably 3 minutes (which is a long time to wait for a picture) because the crowds were boning so hard over it.

Punit unveiled his freshly-done Integra at the show as well.

This thing was actually kinda wild. That rear camber.

Sick.

Was this Crown always dumped like this?! So sick.

Talking about tilty wheels. Couldn’t get a better pic lol

Can’t say I didn’t try…

Errol apparently wasn’t supposed to be in the show but I guess he couldn’t read the sign and ended up in the show lot anyway.

Still needs to drag the wheel on the ground like he promised…

Alfred’s FK8 with a newly fitted Spoon bumper and J’s hood.

Stewie’s Spoon FK8 with Voltex and Mugen goodies.

Alex brought 3 of his German girls to the show. All looking crazy as usual.

Rhys’ M3 Coupe on RG-D’s

 

Mike’s FD – rare sight lately.

And Ryan’s Ferrari always a neck breaker at the shows

Sitting low on S1R’s

Daniel’s Ralli Evo X with so much titanium under the hood, it’s crazy. He’s actually started his own titanium fabrication business for Evo’s… Go hit him up @papa_piaa on Instagram

@BagitoTV made the trip from Edmonton with his Seeker FD.

The line-up of classic JDM cars – so good.

Kyle’s Celica. Haven’t seen this thing in a looooong time. Nice to see it’s still kicking around.

Justin’s S2000 on SSR’s with Spoon brakes behind

Andrew’s VIP IS-F. Legit probably the only really good VIP build all around. The thing with VIP builds is that most of the money is under the car where you can’t see it. T-Demand goodies all over – I love this thing. Well-deserved award!

Stephen’s GR86 – wheels looked good even with the race pads sir 🙂

Sam’s new BRZ that he’s been waiting a long time for. That blue is niceeee

Spencer’s Tacoma and his Treeline setup

Stingers look good when they’re slammed.

Rajneil’s FC RX7 low on TE37’s. I absolutely loved this thing and the colour combo and execution. Kind of gave me some oldschool C’s Garage vibes for some reason. Used to follow that blog for so long.

A pretty unique DelSol with what looked like a hydraulic/manual lift out back.

Actually unsure if this is stock or built in. Looked like a pretty clean install though!

Had to circle back around for the GT-R’s. Tommy’s GTR looking great as usual.

This midnight purple GTR was probably the one that took forever to get a good shot of without people standing in front the whole time lol.

Those brakes would be my nightmare to keep scratch-free lol

Back at the booth! Everyone working on wrapping up the afternoon. You can see Errol and Josh going through the rolls that were bought to try and get them into the raffle boxes before the draw.

Errol and Alex wound up buying a few full rolls – those of you that might have been confused at the show as to what was happening – typically every Sunday School, these money bags come through and buy a shit ton of raffle tickets. Yes, they could’ve just bought the vacuum, but all proceeds go to the charity chosen for that given year. This year was Wood’s Homes – an organization that helps provide children with mental health needs the care that they need.

The girls did a great job at handling the booth all day. It was a crazy one!

All of Errol’s tickets…

A shot of the illmotion X decal.

Eleana doing the picking for the raffle prizes.

Thanks Eleana!

Errol, of course, ended up winning the honour roll trophy and pretty much almost everything else he threw his ticket into. As much fun as it would be to take everything home, it was decided to start drawing blue tickets (which were the tickets from the general public) instead of the whole orange roll that he bought.

Errol doing the picking. I think he ended up picking orange anyway…

Jackie ended up taking home the Dyson

Group hugs from the Redline girls for Rich

Big group shot of the illmotion team, Redline girls, and me. LOL

The face of illmotion over the years. Thank you once again for putting this on year after year. The retirement from the show is well-deserved. See everyone when we see you!