illmotion

illmotion Sunday School Show and Shine X – The Finale

/ 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!

illmotion Sunday School Show & Shine: History and Retrospect

/ jasonhoang / Leave a comment

With the finale of Sunday School just around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on the last 9 shows and talk about the rise of illmotion and the show as you know it today and the end (I don’t want to say demise because it’s far from that) of illmotion from my own personal perspective. For background information, so that there’s no misunderstanding as you go through this post, I was a part of the conception of illmotion and somewhere along the way, life got in the way and my personal needs and wants took precedence and I said my good-bye’s. Bridges were never burned and to this day, I’m proud of what the guys have continued to put out and organize. It may not be what we/they had envisioned over a decade ago anymore, but if illmotion is synonymous with anything, it’s one of Alberta’s biggest and best quality shows around. No cap (Kids say that these days right?). No question. There is hardly a local show that garners the attention of car-people in the West like Sunday School does and I’m so, so grateful and happy to have been a part of it from the very beginning.

Let me paint a picture of the birth of illmotion before we get started. It was March 2010. We were young. The weather was warming. We thought we had some cool cars. The car scene was trying to break through the phase of sticker bombs and GT wings were frowned upon. Your chassis-mount wing and burble tunes were so far out of view that it would’ve probably been made into a meme before we knew memes were a thing. Car groups were not even a thing unless you were a drifter. Clubs? What’s that? The three biggest names in the Western hemisphere for the car scene were illest, Stance Nation, and Canibeat. Canada had nada. There was no such thing, there were no “cool” groups to “identify” with. That’s all we kind of wanted back then – something to associate ourselves with as a collective group of hobbyists. One thing led to another – the logo was designed, decals were created, a website was born, a storefront put up, photoshoots and write-ups were non-stop. What else could have been done?

A car show. A big one. We pooled ideas together – we want it big, we want it to be about quality, we want people to come together unlike they have before. What should it be called? Sunday School. How much should people pay? A minimal fee. What do we do with all the money? Donate it to different charities each year and keep the rest to continue putting on the same show next year. Will we be successful enough to do it next year? Who knows. We just gotta try.

And so, the rest is history. Sunday School. Fucking cool. I like to compare it to the Big Bang in an obviously much lesser form. Everything that happened, happened at the perfect moment and everything came together so perfectly.

At the very beginning, illmotion was a lot of work. It consumed us. It consumed our lives, our free time, and every waking moment that we had was spent thinking about how to make illmotion better than yesterday. Photoshoots every weekend, then editing, then doing write-ups… Rinse and repeat. It became a tedious thing but the end results always made it worth it. The shares, the joy, the recognition, and seeing people want to be a part of what we worked so hard for.

Over the years, illmotion changed and aged as we did. As you did. As the scene did. It became less about doing photoshoots and having posts up on the site and more about just bringing good cars and good people together. Sunday School was the place to do it and where it always happened.  The last 9 shows have always been one of the hottest days of the year – there hasn’t been a show that has had shitty weather. The crowds have been great, the cars have been top notch and the day always ends up being one of the best days of the year for car enthusiasts alike.

Sunday School has become one of the only shows all year where you get to see a lot of the cars that never come out to any other shows or meets. It’s gained the respect of those that don’t believe in showing their cars anywhere else – and that means something. The thing we sought to do at the beginning of it all is what was achieved. The guys have put on the biggest and best car show for over a decade and unfortunately, it’s coming to an end in just a few days. The finale. X.

I’ve said it in other posts for car shows, but it’s worth mentioning again. Car shows of this magnitude are no easy feat. It’s not just booking a venue and making sure everyone knows what time to come. The minds behind it all put a lot of thought into placement and ensuring it’s aesthetically pleasing and that it makes logistical sense. Attention to detail plays a big part in putting on a show. People aren’t parked all willy-nilly, there’s room for everyone to do what they need to do, and if the space can only handle 500 cars, they aren’t bringing in 600.

Sunday School has also naturally created other things like friendships that never would have been formed otherwise. It’s become a catalyst for forming these new relationships and fostering existing ones. Friends are what make this show come together. Everyone – from the moment they wake up – puts in 110% to help ensure the show goes smoothly. From packing things up, to picking up supplies and setting up the tents and booths, to being at the gate to guide people, to staying under the tent to organize merch or handle goods, to breaking it all down at the end of the day. It’s all friends doing what they know best after learning over the last few years.

Every year, I absolutely dread doing coverage because it’s just so massive and I 100% try to capture every single car at the show if I can. This year is going to be one of the biggest shows yet (not kidding) and I already feel exhausted thinking about all the photos and editing, not to mention it’s going to be around +30C…

But I think this one is going to be a little bittersweet. It hasn’t hit any of us yet – so I’m sure it hasn’t hit any of you either. We’re all so busy prepping and getting ready that we have no time to think of the end. On behalf of myself and illmotion, I want to thank every single one of you for one of the best decades of our lives. You are the reason we started illmotion and you’re the reason the illmotion team has continued to do what they have. But alas, as we grow old and families grow and life starts to take new turns, the last chapter is about to come to a close. It has been a very long and fulfilling journey. My hope isn’t that someone takes over the Sunday School show legacy – I think it’s fair to say that it comes to a close with no expectation that the torch be passed on. My hope is that there is something in the near future that is void of the need for clout and scene points and followers and money that has the same kind of small dream for the car scene that we did. I want to feel a truly self-less show again that brings people together that isn’t a popularity contest. I hope that day comes.

And so as Sunday School X draws near, I want to end on a different note. Bring your A-game. It doesn’t matter what I or anyone else thinks that means – just bring your best. Make this the best possible show by bringing the best possible version of your car. Whether that means clean barrels, polishing your car if you’ve never polished it before, fixing that loose end up on your wrap… Whatever it is that you think is the best you can do, I want to see it.

I’ll likely be sweating my ass off all day but please do come say hi if you see me. I really don’t bite. I’m just bad with names.

The countdown begins. See you all on Sunday!

illmotion Sunday School Show and Shine IX – Part 6

/ jasonhoang / Leave a comment

As I end the Sunday School coverage for this year, I had mixed feelings about the turnout – nothing terrible – just that I usually have something to “talk” about but honestly, this year I don’t. In the past, I would often rant home about the plethora of replica parts and wheels – not that they didn’t exist at the show, but there was so few of them that it wasn’t worth writing about, and we’ll never be rid of them no matter how much we beg and plead. Other things that would make my eye twitch was poor paint condition (aside from ABG hunters paint – likely too busy trying to catch one than polish his car – so he gets a free pass). People actually care about the presentation of their car now – either it’s fully wrapped in Xpel/3M or it’s fully polished and topped with ceramic coating. My latest self-created award was the “dirty wheel” award that seemed to become a “meme” in our scene because of what happened at Driven 2 years ago. People are either cleaning the fuck out of their wheels or they’re asking if it’s a real award so they can keep them as dirty as possible LOL.

I’m being tagged in posts days before shows with captions like “who’s going to win @jayhoang’s dirty wheel award this year?” and that shit blows my mind! I’m not saying I’m the reason for change at all, I’m just saying that I’m happy that people are paying more attention to detail than they ever did in the past. It’s such a welcoming change because cars are so much more than putting on quality parts and showing up – it’s about how you present those parts and bring it all together. Your car could have $30k worth of mods on it but if your paint looks like shit or your $4k wheels look like they’re professional dirt collectors – your car will ultimately kind of look like shit too. Presentation is the cherry on top – not the wax or the ceramic coat you paid $1000 for – you need to make your bitch shine from the paint to the windows to the damn valve stems on the wheels. It needs to be fabulous.

So, my feelings about the show are not bad – it is a good thing and it’s refreshing.

With that said, we put illmotion Sunday School IX coverage to a rest with this last post. Thank you to the illmotion guys for putting together yet another stellar show that really means a lot more to the community than they might think. It’s kind of unfortunate because we’ve come so far and it’s taken us 9 years to get to this point of quality and recognition and on the 10th year, it’s done. 10 years is a long time to be doing this, no doubt, and people trip into new chapters of their lives. As much as we are still kids with cars at heart, good things have to come to an end. As I said in my first post – if there’s one thing to look forward to next year, it’s Sunday School X. I have no doubt in my mind it will be the biggest and best show that will come around for a long time… See you guys next year!

Starting off the line is Jimmy’s 3-series wagon on Volk TE37 Saga’s in the VEX booth

And right beside him, another 3-series wagon on BBS’s

Clean and boosted RX-7

Spoon-themed Type R on bronze Volk TE37’s.

Jayson Mac’s Toyota Levin with a 3SGE beams swap and ITB’s. The bronze TE37’s add to his build to really bring the iconic JDM car to life. I’ve seen this go through lots of stages through Instagram and at the VEX shop and it’s nice to see this come together. The red is also a nice change from the classic panda white/black you would typically see.

Giuseppe’s S15 Spec R on Gram Lights and a set of Endless BBK behind. Giuseppe has come a long way with the S15 in a very short amount of time. I’m not sure if this was intended, but it’s very reminiscent of his R32 with some of the aero he’s chosen and I love it.

Another shot of Binh’s Datsun 240. Tough to get photos of it that day since it seemed to be a crowd pleaser… Literally before and after this photo, it was packed with people.

Terence’s fresh K20 EK – it feels like he literally brings this car out to the illmotion show and then parks it again until the next show… LOL

Silvia on bronze TE37’s

A beautiful Porsche 993 RS 4.0 in red

Dallas’ RX7 on Volk TE37 Sagas. I believe a day or two before the show, he was rolling his fenders to get the wheels to fit nicely. Love the look. Over the last few months (maybe years now?) Dallas has been restoring the RX-7 to a more suitable and original state after the previous owner had some unwelcoming mods…

Boosted FRS slammed down on black/black Work VS-XX’s and a Rallybacker widebody. This was exceptionally clean with great bodywork.

Ryan Dandurand’s MR2 on matte black TE37’s. Ryan’s MR2 has been around for as long as I can remember. Considered to be one of the true OG cars that have stuck around and remained timeless. Ryan makes small modifications every year to keep it fresh but very little needs to be done to it for it to remain a timeless machine.

Alex Yoon’s IS-F on Volk ZE40’s. I haven’t seen Alex in years – we met way back when we were both driving Civics and being ricers. I recently reconnected with him and was stoked when I found out he ended up getting an IS-F. He had a lot of troubles earlier in the year with wheel fitments and had to basically take the hit on the first set of wheels he ordered since they were an aggressive set with basically no one around willing to take them on.

The ZE40’s were his second set and quite frankly, I think suit the car perfectly. ZE40’s are a great wheel but it’s not a wheel that looks good on every car like it’s older brother TE37 or something like the Advan GT. These sit right at home with the IS-F.

I believe this is the same GT-R that was sporting the “Top Secret” livery for a few years – and I think he’s decided to go without it now. Looks a lot cleaner this way.

Jake’s impeccably clean LS-swapped S14 on Advan GT’s. Jake’s car has been around for a while and not a lot has changed on it but not a lot needs to be changed either. His car has always been one of my favourites year after year – everything is just so nicely put together and the body is mint. The combination of JDM pieces like theAdvans and the Brides with the CTS-V brembos and LS-swap is just so good…

Ryan Dandurand’s Ferrari F355 slammed down on Work Meister S1R’s. The Italian twin to his MR2…

Zane’s full-out Varis Kamikaze GT-R on frozen carbon Advan GT’s by Bulletproof Automotive. Again, not much has changed but not much needs to change either… Always a stunner.

Another clean build in the Vex booth was this R32 on Wedsport SA-72R’s. Not a wheel you see much of, but looks great on this.

With all the new A90 Supra talk happening, I’ve yet to see one in person but the classic 90’s Supras don’t get old either. Still undecided on how much I like the new ones, but I do love me a clean A80…

Rhys’ Ferrari F430 also sitting low… I thought moving onto Porsches was the next step but maybe Ferrari’s are? I’ll never get there LOL

Another shot of Tommy’s R34 GTR Sedan…

Honestly – if there was one pic I wanted to take the most, it was of Nick Prah’s RX-7. Nick has been working on his RX-7 for a very long time and months ago when he helped me with restoring the FR-S back to stock, it was still in pieces at the shop. I know he said he was trying to get it ready but was unsure because of some of the extra side work that he took on…

For those of you that don’t know – Nick is a bodyshop guy and does all his own paint and modifications. He’s also probably one of the most detailed and biggest perfectionists I’ve ever met. I don’t know Nick much more personally than talking to him and having do work on my car but between the level of perfection he’s put into my car and the amount of time and work he’s put into his own – Nick is next level.

I spent a good amount of time walking around Nick’s car and there’s just so much that can be missed and appreciated if you didn’t really know much about him or the car. From the molded TCP Magic kit to the paint faded vents on the hood and on the Ganadors… There’s a level of complexity to things like this that you really need to just look at and take in slowly because it’s just that good…

Between the small details and the absolutely perfect paintjob he’s done – Nick also took home one of the honour roll awards which understandably is and was the most deserved award of the whole show. Not a single swirl on the paint, not a body gap too big or too narrow… This is what perfection looks like to me and is at a level that not even I can begin to imagine getting to simply because I don’t think I’m as patient as Nick is.

It’s builds like this that make you truly wonder if you’re building your own car right. Makes me proud to be able to say that Nick was the one that made the FR-S as good as it was simply because of how good a job he did on it. There are other examples in the city that display his work which were not in attendance at the show that I know of, but to have the “Nick Prah” touch is an honourable one for sure.

Garett’s dumped Miata on Work E-Wings. One of my favourite Miata’s to date – simple and clean…

Garett was one of the individuals that tagged me and asked who was going to win the dirty wheel award this year so I just double checked… Definitely not him. You could eat sushi off that lip – despicable. (LOL jk – glad you cleaned your wheels :D)

God damn I love a good Datsun… It’s really hard not to love this body style – it’s so classic and retro but just screams “JDM!!” to me

Another classic – Hakosuka GTR. What a lineup over at the entrance to the lot… great builds fellas…

Who loves dumped wagons? I do.

Derek Harvey’s super clean FRS on Gram Lights. I had to take a few minutes to check this thing out in person – lots of cool stuff going on here with Derek’s build and I only get to really see it on Instagram most of the time. I’m glad he decided to stick with the stock body – those hips are too nice to mess with.

In the engine, he’s got a V-mount – something you don’t see everyday on an FRS/BRZ and some titanium goodies as well. Super clean and well done.

Travis’ static VIP LS430 on Weds Kranze Cerberus sporting the Mode Parfume kit. I really really really love this look…

That IS from roll-in with the crazy kit and wheels…

A shot of the rear wheel – like an insane amount of lip – probably a good 7-8″ worth.

Another shot of the Spoon-themed Type R…

Silvia on VS-KF’s…

Another one of my favourites was this Mugen GE8 Fit with a K20 swap in the Legit Society line up. Like I mentioned in my earlier posts – the GE8 will always have a spot in my heart and this is a super clean example of a well done Fit. I wish there were more Fit builds around here – they have a lot of potential to look really good and go decently fast if you have the moola…

A very clean Varis Evo X on ZE40’s with the super concave face.

Another Varis Evo X but widebody this time wrapped in a sort of cream white wrap.

Eric’s VIP Sienna on Advan GT’s from Zokusha Tuning. Another one of my favourites just because it’s so niche and make some people go “what”. The VIP Van scene is just not big here and it’s likely because there isn’t a lot of choices to go with… Unlike Asia, we don’t have the choices of Vellfires or Alphards. If those ever came, I would cop one so fast…

Kriss Martin’s Varis widebody Evo X on bronze Volk TE37’s. This was black until a few months ago – I dig the new colour.

Another 3IS on Work Kiwami’s in a high polish. I love ultrasonic blue.

Another new one to me is this yellow Varis widebody STI Hatch on a set of Racing Green TE37’s. Two very extravagant colour choices but surpsingly combo well together.

I actually love the Racing Green on the TE37’s… Not sure it’d be easy to pull off on any other colour but this works great.

Carlos’ Varis widebody V2 WRX on bronze ZE40’s. Carlos’ car has been through several variations and this is by far my favourite. A mashup of tried and true JDM pieces with great execution. I get wet when I see super concave ZE40’s…

Marino’s ultra rareTRD widebody Supra…

Another STI sporting the Varis bumper on Gram Lights…

Kai’s 86 sporting the TRD lipkit and fender fins, Voltex swan neck, craftsquares and Volk ZE40’s. I really dig the final outcome that Kai came up with – it’s a mixture of OEM+ using the supremely underrated TRD kit for the 86’s with hints of GT using Voltex and Craftsquare. Another 86 that’s remained stock body and should be appreciated…

Iain’s Genesis coupeon Rotiforms…

I’ll be the first to say that I’ve been a longtime naysayer for the Golf R. Let me back that up by saying that it’s not because I hate VW or anything – it’s just that for a car that goes for the same price as the STI/Evo/CTR – it just looks generally underwhelming. Scratch that – it looks extremely underwhelming. Now I’ll also admit that I don’t know a shit ton about VW’s or euros so my opinion is likely unwelcome but if someone took the “R” badges off and showed me a Golf R – I wouldn’t know it’s a Golf R. LOL

On the other hand, take off the Type R batch or STI or Evolution badge off their respective cars and most would be able to probably guess it’s not a normal Civic, Impreza or Lancer. I know, I know – you are all saying “it has AWD and is superior to the CTR!” or “It has the same power and more potential!” – I get it. I understand it. I just can’t fork out that type of money for a car that looks like it’s base model brother (in my eyes).

HOWEVER, this Golf R – this one I can get behind. If the Golf R came with this lip kit and hood, then I’d be all for it. I saw this and said – “fuck, I love this Golf R”. All I’m saying is that VW kind of seemed a little lazy after they decided to make it AWD and have 300hp… They looked at the exterior and said “meh good enough”. lol

Mike Salek’s pride and joy Ducati – I’ve seen this thing go from frame to bike on Instagram and just like Trucks and Euros – I don’t know much about bikes – but I do know what is dope and what is not dope LOL.

The level of detail on Mike’s bike is amazing. From the Alcantara seat, to the custom paint… Truly a work of art down to the last bit.

Even pieces of dry carbon surround the bike…

At the end of the day, the tradition of giving out raffle prizes and honour roll awards begin… Lily – Prashants’ daughter chose the winning tickets. We seem to always get a comment that it’s rigged because the same people always win… It truly isn’t rigged and if you saw the amount of tickets that the same “winners” bought, you’d realize there was either no hope for anyone else or they just had a higher chance than everyone else.

Keep in mind that those individuals (who will not be named) put in literally hundreds of dollars in for raffle tickets where as a cheap ass like me would buy 1 or 2… The money goes to whatever foundation is chosen each year so it’s not like it gets recirculated or anything…

JC calling a winning ticket…

The crowd waiting anxiously on directions on how to leave the lot properly – it seems some don’t know how to…

To think – this is the 2nd last time I’ll be photographing all your beautiful faces in the crowd…

That’s a wrap for Sunday School!

illmotion Sunday School Show and Shine IX – Part 5

/ jasonhoang / 1 Comment

Onto part 5…

This will kind of be a mix of photos from JC and myself. When I came back to the show later in the afternoon, I decided to try and make a slow walk around to check out some cars and snap some that caught my eye, so there may be some repeats. During my (slow) walks, I sometimes caught a bit of conversations that people were having while I was composing a photo or trying to find a good angle and lots of the chitter chatter was how Sunday School was probably the best show in a long time. Others said that it’s the only show worth going to that doesn’t seem like a cash grab. On the other hand, conversations were straight up about cars (naturally) – what kind of engine swap is best, which profile tires they tried that didn’t cause rubbing, what offset their wheels were…

It really illustrates two things – 1) that my thoughts about the show are not wrong and that people really do recognize Sunday School as more than a “show” and 2) it brings together like-minded individuals in a very community-esque way. People have booths up, maybe they have their lawn chairs out to just take a break, some are working their hustle, but no matter what it is you’re doing – everyone is here for the same good time. Sharing tips, specs, ideas – in case you’ve forgotten, the show was meant for a way to put the local car scene on the map – not to give away awards or bragging rights (although it is a bonus). It’s where you see the true OG’s come out to play and share what we’ve all looked up to for so long. It’s the grounds for inspiration, really – you could walk around all day and find something that might be right up your alley or something that might completely turn you off – but that’s OK.

In the last 9 years, if I were to use the show as a gauge to illustrate how much this scene has changed – boy, are we far from home. The coolest thing about photographing this show for 9 years straight is the fact that you can see almost exactly where in time trends shifted for us. Perhaps a good idea for a post for another day – but the point of it is that we’re far (but not gone) from the replica parts phase and we’ve maybe jumped too much and are now in overkill phase. There is such a thing as “too much” and in the past, I used to yell “Needs a bigger GT wing!” but now I’m screaming “Make the GT wing smaller!” at the top of my lungs, or the classic “Those wheels need to be wider/have lower offset” and now we’re at the “no, no, no – make them fit properly!” We were so close to that balance but missed the mark and maybe the illmotion retirement creates the lull in the scene to bring us back to our senses until something new comes along…

Food for thought… Let’s get on with part 5.

GR STI Sedan on bronze ZE40’s under some fender flares. I dig these flares – not too flashy and just enough to work well with the sedan’s lines. It’s not super easy to get the wicked concavity in the ZE40’s unless you can run a really wide wheel.

Gabriel’s timeless turbo GSR on CCW’s

RHD Forester STI on Gram Lights

Decked out Tacoma. I don’t like camping, but I’d camp with this..

A clean 240SX in the 403Media booth…

I looped around again to Brady’s STI sedan just cause I had to see it in person. Such a beautifully put together build… Those TE37 Sagas are money.

Another angle to look at the kit and fitment of the wheels.

Logan’s STI Sedan again…

Rob Hartson’s STI hatch absolutely dumped on Work VS-KF’s. He rides like this static as well.

A pretty bad ass Veilside RX7 in green/black. If you knew about Veilside before Tokyo Drift, you might have a better appreciation for the kit but nonetheless, still a bad ass kit…

The green colours make their way into the engine bay as well…

Lexus RC-F – I think the only one at the show. I’m surprised it never really became a popular chassis to mod – I’m not sure if it’s due to the price or just the lack of aftermarket parts for it… Still a decent looking car though.

Once again. Don’t know anything but I love this…

RHD MR-S. I haven’t actually seen one up close in person – this used to be my dream car way back in high school. I remember seeing my first one in a copy of Import Tuner and I dreamed about it constantly, trying to find ways to get one…

Kirsten’s Altezza on Fifteen52 wheels

The glitter purple painted IS300 on a rose-gold set of CR-Kai’s. After I was corrected that this was in fact not a wrap, I immediately had a greater appreciation for it. I hate myself for assuming something that isn’t your typical paint job is wrap – it’s straight up disrespect and I don’t mean it. I think I’ve just gotten tired of going up to check to see if it’s paint or wrap because 99% of the time… It’s wrap LOL. Good job sir!

The Renault Clio from roll-in. Super mint…

Another shot of Aaron’s R32 GTR

A wicked BN sports widebody RX7 with a RB26 swap. When it was first rolling in, the bumper had what looked to be saran wrap all over it but from a distance, it looked like a really bad paint job and I was severely disappointed. When he rolled closer, I was relieved LOL! This was another one of my favourite builds at the show – never seen this around before…

LS-swapped FRS! I wish I heard this thing rolling through…

Mugen FD2 on CE28’s

Gerick’s Lexus RC350 with a RB kit on TE37’s. At one point, he did have the RB wing as well, but looks like he’s opted to run clean.

a 3IS with an ARK Solus widebody fitting super wide Work Meister S1R’s. It sports a gold/black colour theme throughout the car and goes by the nickname Killmonger (black panther for those not in the know). The colour and vinyl design looks much better with the widebody now than it did with the stock body. Super aggressive.

Bill’s Grand Prix – still in amazing condition as usual. I don’t believe it gets much seat time with all the other cars Bill has in his stable, but it’s nice to see that he’s still bringing it out to shows.

Those of you that are new here might wonder what a Grand Prix is doing in the middle of all these modified imports, euros, and trucks and it earns a special spot in the show for those of you that know Bill and his family. Bill’s father passed away a few years ago and this was his toy – bought brand new in 1993. It was daily driven for 16 years and Bill later bought it from his Dad for $1.00 when he passed it down to him. Bill and his Mom, Sue, both attend every dang illmotion show and event when they can and have literally been both mine as well as illmotion’s number 1 supporters from day one. They are the two faces I will try and come say “hello” to at shows because they’re just so welcoming and open to literally everything.

Bill continues to work on the GP whenever he can and continues to honour his Dads legacy by maintaining this car. Something I think all of us would do if we were in the same boat – it is simply a way of continuing to remember to not forget.