illmotion Sunday School Show and Shine X – The Finale

August 22, 2022 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

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!

Redline Sorority – 3rd Annual Sorority Row Car Show

August 8, 2022 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

This past Sunday was Redline Sorority’s 3rd “Sorority Row” car show at the Max Bell Arena and it was a gahdamn scorcher. Not complaining (maybe a little) because when it’s winter, I hate it even more, but it’s always a good time to hang out with some cool cars and good people. This was my first time entering the show, and I went to spectate last year when it was at Hyatt Infiniti and the amount of cars probably about doubled what it was – so it’s nice to see it growing so quickly. The Redline girls have been making a bit of a different splash in the car world over here – not a bad one, but a welcomed one. Car groups have been largely male dominated, driven, and led by groups of well… Males. Once in a while you would see a female enthusiast trying to break through that glass ceiling but would often fall short. Not because the males didn’t let them or the females didn’t try hard enough. It’s like trying to make your voice heard in a crowd that has megaphones while you stand there without one – some people around you might hear you and acknowledge you, but the majority of the crowd likely won’t notice you. Again, not because they don’t want to, just simply because they can’t hear you.

Over the years, the Redline girls have really toughed it out and stuck through a lot of what I mentioned above and eventually they really started gaining some positive traction. They put on little meets and invited other female enthusiasts to come out to build that comradery, or sorority, in this case. And over time, we started to see more ladies bringing their cars and their projects to these once male-dominated meets and shows where they have made that aforementioned “splash” in an ocean where it’s really tough to stand out. This ocean has become so saturated with car groups and teams and brands and shops that it’s really hard to individualize oneself so uniquely that people want to be a part of your image. Not that anything is wrong with any of the above because it’s easier to get noticed as a group versus an individual – I get it. The one thing that the Redline girls have that many other groups don’t is some really focused and like-minded individuals. They bring a strong sense of pride with them and their cars and it shows through their social media, their products, and of course, their shows. It’s not easy putting on a show – it takes planning, teamwork, the understanding of the logistical pieces of putting one up from the time of registration to packing it all up at the end of the day. There are so many moving pieces and it is largely underestimated.

I’m going to be the one to say it here – because it’s the elephant in the room when we’re talking about it – but a large part of the car scene comes from how you build your car. I know, I know – there are memes about spending $30k on a car just for the clout or to stand beside it for 2 hours at a meet. But that $30k (or whatever it is) and how it’s used goes a long way if you want to really want to “hang with the big boys” or however you want to think about it. The Redline girls have very well-built cars and since we’re already on this topic – they’re better than a lot of cars some guys build. It shouldn’t be a topic of males vs females (I’m better than that, believe me) but had the Redline girls all owned base Civics and Altimas with some FAST wheels and Hello Kitty neck pillows (HARD stereotyping here for the sake of the example lol) – I’m not so sure that splash would have been made, know what I’m sayin’? Before anyone gets mad at me, the point is not that there’s anything wrong with the above (again), the point is that these girls have built quality cars with attention to detail in things that have earned the respect of others in the community. That’s what it comes down to. That’s what it’s always come down to – whether you’re a guy or a girl.

Anyway… The Redline girls have come a long way in really making these waves in the community that have never been made before and I’m here for it. When illmotion was first started in 2010, I remember the excitement and the passion that flowed through my veins. I remember the thrill of it all and I think that’s something that should be shared by everyone. So when these girls come in and are looking to make the same moves we did over a decade ago, it reignites the passion and excitement. Rich and JC know – there’s a fatigue that just comes after doing it for so long but when you see that same drive in another group that you once had, it makes you happy because you always wondered what’s going to happen next or what the next big thing is. Maybe Redline Sorority is the next big thing…

I blabber too much sometimes, so let’s just get on with it. About 130ish pics in this post. Usual disclaimer – I try to capture every car. If you don’t see it, well once again – people were in the way, you were chillin with your lawn chair right out front and I get performance anxiety, or you came or left after I was done the section. If it’s not here, I don’t have any other pictures. It was also duck buttery hot so I apologize as these were not my best photos… I was melting. LOL

PS- not too much jabber below. I just wanted to get the post up for you guys to see, as I’m sure that’s all you care about as well.

PPS – don’t @ me with the he, him, they, she, her, female, male shit. Not about to have that convo when this is just about cool cars LOL

Rich doing this thing all day. Props to this man for standing here playing music all day. Thanks for also playing Clarity and BTS.

Rich and his new wheels – just in time for the show. Looks real good now.

Had to turn the shadows up real high to get my wheels to show a little bit hahaha

JC on his new TE37 Sagas in mag blue. Dark wheels on white is a problem. lol

The Evo on the right there was pretty slick. Wrapped in almost pale army green with Voltex aero and some Infamous canards and a splitter.

Nicely built engine as well to boot

These two GTI’s were rad.

Something for everyone at the show.

Not much of a stranger anymore to our local shows but also a sight to see…

Vert S13

Xavier’s MercS220 bagged on OZ wheels

Jay’s bagged Jetta

Jon’s G37 looking great as usual. Just realized it’s wrapped – never noticed until yesterday. Super clean job!

Carley’s Tiguan – no longer on the light pink wheels sadly as I thought it was always a perfect fit. They’ve moved onto a new home on Alyssa’s RS5 and they look fantastic on there too.

Danny’s TT bagged on BBS’s looking clean as usual

Zak’s Acura Vigor on trispoke wheels

I understand this Genesis underwent quite the transformation weeks and/or days/hours leading up to the show and finishing in the wee hours of that same morning. Repainted, wetsanded and polished. Turned out great.

Toyota Crown – TONS of these at the show yesterday it was unbelievable. Didn’t know there were so many. Many of them were still fairly stock – understandably – probably harder to get some parts maybe? That’s the only thing holding me back on getting one too lol.

Chris’s wild F-450.

Still loving the details around this with the blossoms.

Brooke’s bagged Q60 looking mean.

Chris’s bagged RS6 wagon.

Alyssa’s bagged RS5. It debuted at Driven with the new purple wrap and pink wheels (from Carley’s Tiguan). Great combo.

Justine’s highlighter FRS. Glad to see she got her barrels cleaned even after getting her nails did.

The many raffle prizes that were available from their sponsors.

And the awards.

Yolanda’s Focus ST

Mel’s Fiesta ST. Engine in and all running now.

Maggie’s Golf R on RE30’s

This was a super clean FRS with RB flares. Love the headlights too. 🙂

This S15 went on to win the best JDM.

Bill’s S15 looking glossy.

Sue’s Focus hatch

My oh my did this one pop. The red…

The super clean wheels/barrels. Everyone knows the pain of owning white wheels. Bill pointed out that he even had the wheel weights painted white to match. That’s how you do it.

Mannnn… It’s like Preludes have gone extinct. Don’t remember the last time I’ve seen one with a Greddy lip. OG.

This BRZ went on to win Hyatt Infiniti’s choice award. Wrapped in a millenium jade with pale pink blossom wheels. I saw this in Edmonton last – I love this color combo.