Volkswagen Close to Home 2015

Time for a more civilized post with some good lookin’ vee-hick-ulls. If you’re a fan of Euro/VW stuff, then this Close to Home show that Fifth Ave Volkswagen puts on every year is going to make your panties wet.

It’s a cool little get together of everything Volkswagen/Audi that displays a small segment of the little surprises that Calgary has to offer when it comes to these platforms. Every year, there’s always something different and there’s always something that will turn heads. It may not be everybody’s thing but I feel like this side of tuning has become accepted as it’s own little niche, and everyone that shows up to these shows know what they’re about. Those that have never seen anything like it are intrigued but never turned off. That’s the cool thing about the VW/Audi community, in particular – nobody REALLY gets it, but everyone accepts it. It’s just too wild not to appreciate… And for the most part, it’s done in good taste.

It was a quick Sunday for me though – I usually go, snap some pics and head out – it’s a fairly small show but good to see some familiar faces.

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We met up at JC’s so that we could roll there together. Gopesh’s car all clean from the Edmonton drive. Still waiting on centercaps…

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It’s not how you drive your car, it’s how you stand by it… This guy is always in the way.

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JC’s hwip

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Corey also came along – what a pleasant surprise, given that he is a South boy and lives too far to hang out most of the time. I am digging the bronze on white.

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Meh

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Pretty cool camo-theme

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Clean and bagged R32. I feel for those fenders.

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Funky GLI

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More bagged goodness

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This was a cool car. Everything looked like it was in it’s “work in progress” phase. Check those fenders

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Pretty comfy seats with plenty of bolsters to keep you in your seat during those tight corners and built in ventilation for those hot summer days.

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Mint Beetle in a Tiffany color scheme

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Mike’s Ghia looking good as usual

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Loved the wheels on this GTI. Reminded me of the Gram Lights velvet red finish

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Pretty neat wood grain valve cover. Not sure but it looked like it was done by hand too.

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This was one of my favourites – the gold VIP modulars are super clean.

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An up-close… All gold everything. Good choice, sir.

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This was dope. I love the matte cream/tan on older cars.

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Another Karmann Ghia – it’s interesting to see the huge difference in this compared to how Mike has built his.

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Rich’s S6 also all clean after that trip back from Edmonton.

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Josh’s S5 bagged on Meisters. First time actually seeing it in person for me.

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And of course, Gopesh’s GTI up front and center.

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Another of Josh’s S5

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And one more for good measure. I love the look of A5/S5’s on Meisters. So perfect!

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A shot of three – excuse my naming – hippie vans. I mean no offense by it because I think they’re cool as hell. Tents on top and everything.

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Here’s a shot of one of them and the interior. Check that couch!!

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Josh’s girlfriend, Trudy’s S4. Nice line up near the front – S4, S5, S6.

That’s pretty much all there was at the Fifth Ave show. Always a good turnout and cool to walk around! Hoping to get a shoot in this weekend, so stay tuned!

A Taste of Summer

So I finally had a reason to pick up the camera and take some shots – albeit, nothing spectacular since it was more a chill sesh, but still some content…

It was +27C today so we all decided to cruise in the evening to get some ice cream and then we randomly showed up at an S2000 meet. Pretty random, but the weather today was too amazing to just sit inside. It’s practically the first time since we’ve all just hung out and done something rather than work in the garage.

Anyway – just some random shots of this mid-week hang out.

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En route…

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Diana got a few random shots in. Looks like I’m about to pull the e-brake for a mad drift… Not.

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Met up at JC’s. Diana always has to photobomb shit.

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Rich’s car with the fresh VOLK/RAYS stickers applied on his LE37’s

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JC’s car with his new additions – Modellista front lip and Tom’s rear lip. The front part of the lip has a chrome addition that you can barely see but it’s dope.

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Punit’s Integra… His GS is going under the knife soon…

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One of my heap

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This shot turned out all polaroid and shit. Punit was on his phone the whole time – someone tell that guy to get bluetooth…

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JC rollin’

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Punit…

Sorry Rich – by the time I realized that I didn’t adjust my camera properly to get your wheels spinning, it was too late to get one of your car

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Diana got JC and a little bit of Rich in the side mirror…

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Prime parking for Village.

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This is the hipster hang out. Notice the bikes parked on the mid-left there…

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Gang signs and spoon licking. I’m not a huge fan of ice cream (despite my Gelato post yesterday) so I just came to hang.

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Bad pic cause of the shadows. But – note that couple on the right there – JC’s car was breaking their necks the whole damn time we were there. By the time we were ready to go, they practically pounced on him and asked him a bunch of questions. JC’s turn to shine was today.

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Another.

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I liked the shirt.

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Two people unimpressed in this pic… So we just left to go check out the S2000 meet…

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When we got there, we were greeted by Charleston (Justin’s dog)…

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It was a pretty small meet – probably just a little hang out. Whatever, it was good weather, so why not?

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We parked on the other side so we wouldn’t look like posers.

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More chillin’ pics

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Rich wanted a majestic shot. The sky helped…

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Diana wasn’t so majestic…

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Some quick shots of the S2000’s… Corey’s S2000 on bronze CE28’s

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Justin on Corey’s previous set of black TE37’s

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A few more shots of our cars

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Last one all to myself and JC photobombing.

Happy Tuesday!

Photoshop: Audi RS7 x AME Shallen WX

Got bored again and I’ve been wanting to play around with different cars and different wheel set ups. The only way I can afford to do that is through photoshop… So, here’s another creation.

Audi is just killing it with their cars lately and the A7/RS7 is one of the top contenders in my book. I love the styling and for the few that are currently on air and modded, the wheels just aren’t great. Maybe it’s just me but a little Euro mixed with a little bit of JDM looks awesome.

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Montreal 2013 – Part 2 of 2 *The Cars*

Well I’m super excited to post this because I was super excited when I saw it going down. I was wanting to go to Gibeau Orange Julep for a long time because a few years ago when I came down, I didn’t get the chance to go since it’s kind of far from where we are. I made sure that we would make the trip this time, and we went sometime in the evening after dinner.

Just a side note – where we are is very inner city and it’s an older part of Montreal, so there are rarely any nice cars driving around unless you go into the Downtown area and it’s all apartments and not one single house to be seen.

So as we came up from the Metro at the stop near Gibeau Orange Julep, there were highways, tons of cars, traffic – it was like a whole different city. As we were walking there, I saw an RX7 with an APR GT wing, I saw a bunch of dumped BMW 325XI’s, S2000’s, an M3 and I thought to myself “DAMN, Montreal DOES have people that do up cars!” and I was excited to see it. Once we started getting close and finally took a seat, the parking lot had some modified cars there too. I remember even saying to Diana “It looks like this is where all the ricers hang out”. A blacked out silver Cobalt SS was there pumping his music… Other oldschool VW’s with checkered pinstriping and steelies a few stalls over…

As we were waiting for our food, the parking lot started filling up very quickly. One after the other – Audi A4 on BBS, A white Lambo, Some more VW’s ranging from matte paint to oldschool and aired out, a 2JZ Soarer… Wait a second. Is this… like Montreal’s version of the “Beyond Meet” that we have here at Chinook mall on the upper parkade? Diana and I sat there for a while and watched the cars roll in one by one and people got out of their cars and started chillin’. You’ll notice there are rarely any Japanese cars here… It’s almost Euro across the board.

Yup – this WAS Montreal’s version of the Beyond Meet and I wasn’t going to sit around drinking Orange Juice without taking some pics. So off we went! I was a little hesitant at first cause I had no car, but once I got in the crowd – who would know? People love when other people take pictures of their shit. I’m that guy.

A shot of the place with some oldschool VW’s parked on the side. It gets crowded here cause it’s super popular. It’s like Peter’s Drive-in… but better.

First up was the oldschool, minty red BMW.

Super clean and fresh VW on air. The paint was immaculate.

The white lambo that pulled in. Crazy. Montreal has a ton of ballers. I think on St. Catherine St I saw R8’s, a Bugatti Veyron, an oldschool Lotus, a bunch of A7’s and S8’s… incredible.

A MK6 GTI on BBS. Clean, but to be honest – I’ve never been a fan of those BBS wheels. They just don’t flow right and I haven’t seen a car that looks great on them. But still clean.

Another MK6 GTI aired out with what looks to be CCW LM5T’s but not sure. Loved his stance though.

Tried to get a shot of his trunk set up, which was super legit. Hardwood all the way on to the backs of the rear seats.

Front shot of it.

Another super clean MK5 GTI on air.

Oldschool love.

This MK5 GTI was probably my favourite one there – unique matte cream colour scheme on MB wheels. Simple, but it stood out like a sore thumb. In a good way.

This BMW was pretty clean. Saw the red/pink wheel bolts and thought it was cool. Up close it was kind of a shoddy job though – looked like it was painted on with a brush. Some areas were missed, some even got onto the wheel. Nice try though.

Another one on bags. Audi TT on MB wheels. God I love the look of that.

And another MK5 GTI on bags. CAN’T GET ENOUGH

This guys car also had fresh paint and on BBS’s. Couldn’t tell if he was on bags though, but at this point – I’m going to put my money on it that he was too.

I think the three most unique and popular cars there that night were the three from Royal Flush Canada. I was surprised to see a following like that over here, even though only three of them showed up. All done up exceptionally well with good all-around modifications. This 3-Series was bagged on oldschool Ferrari wheels. His rear was insane.

Another was the FG Civic on a static drop I believe. Also very clean. Not sure what wheels those are.

And the crowd pleaser of the night was this 2JZ Soarer on SSR Sp1’s. I have a super soft spot for Meisters/SP1’s so when I saw this, I couldn’t get enough. His fitment and everything was perfect. Kudos to you.

Better shot of his stance.

Shot of the rear wheel.

Rear decal.

A shot of the trunk set up of that green VW earlier. So legitttttttt

Was surprised to see a Volvo C30 there. Pretty good fitment, but I wish it was bagged too lol

Matte black VW on matte bronze wheels. The body was nice, but the wheels and fitment needed some work.

One of the confused ones there.

Tried to get a big shot but the girls glared at me as soon as I had my camera up.

Another shot of the matte cream GTI.

Some betters shots of the 3-Series and his rear fitment.

Even unpacked their flag. l need one of those.

So goooooood. check the alternating bolts too.

Where do VW guys get these ideas?!

Tried to get a group shot of the Royal Flush group but everyone kept crowding the Soarer lol. Guy with the long hair is the owner.

I’ll just end it with this one.

The caliber of cars there is pretty much the same here. There is always going to be a handful of cars that stand out and do it right, and there is going to be a bunch that are halfway there, got lost along the way, or are just confused altogether. Either way – it was nice to see a car meet and I’m lucky to have been there while it was happening to take some pics.

I don’t think I have anything lined up until the weekend for illmotion’s Sunday School Show & Shine… but stay tuned. Maybe something will come up!