I find it hard to believe that is has already been just over a week since we were admiring all of the vehicles on display within the Oval. I know that’s not a very long time but regardless the last several days seem to have flown by.
With Driven behind us now the next big events on the radar are HIN and ill.motion’s Sunday School, and as always be sure to swing by the Grey Eagle Casino on Wednesday nights for their meets in the meantime! I’m hoping to get to a few more big events this summer to enjoy it while it lasts, so it’s time to check out the Cruise Calendar and see what’s coming up.
Back to the topic of Driven though, today I have for you all the next set of pictures from the show. I don’t know what else I can really say about the show in general at this point so let’s just get to it – we pick up right where we left off, with the Rocket Bunny BRZ you saw in the last photo of Part 2.
I got a chuckle out of this – I enjoy seeing the variety of decals that Rocket Bunny owners display on their rear wings, and this was one of the best I’ve seen so far. It was only appropriate to use the ultra-wide lens to exaggerate the size of the wing for this photo.
CY’s Chaser was looking clean and having not seen it in a little while, I didn’t even recognize that it was his! I think I even asked him if he had his car at the show, without knowing that we were standing near it.
This M3 is one I always enjoy seeing. It’s clean but aggressive and features some really nice parts and details. The fade on the lip of the trunk lid shows some of the carbon fiber that lies beneath that white paint, and I believe those are the European tail lights which have amber turn signals instead of red.
Tunerworks had this awesome old van in their booth but it wasn’t entirely a display piece as they had a small group inside serving free coffee to showgoers! Their Nutella latte was incredible, and as I was getting a sore throat from having to yell so much during the day (remember that we were right next to the stage?), it really helped. You’ll have to excuse the rigging – I was stubborn and wanted a shot showing both the front of the van and the fold-out serving area.
I liked the contrast between these two Skylines. South of the border (in the USA) R32s are now becoming legal so enthusiasts can really start enjoying them and working on them. Meanwhile, they’ve been in Canada for a decade now so there has been plenty of time for owners to modify them extensively and in many different styles as well.
This was the first time I had seen a BMW i3 in person so I made sure to grab a shot. While it’s closed up here, later on during the show the doors were open and it had a decent crowd around it. I’m already seeing modified examples pop up on the interwebs so I’m curious to see how far the aftermarket will go with these.
I told you that the Rocket Bunny RX-7 would be seen again in the coverage! If you look closely you’ll see that this is actually a right-hand drive model; apparently it arrived in Canada back in February so it looks like time wasn’t wasted in giving it a makeover. When I saw under the hood later I learned that it started out as a white car, so along with the RB kit being fitted the opportunity was taken to change its colour.
Check out the dish on the rear wheels! I don’t know anything about what this RX-7 looked like prior to being worked on here, so for all I know this could have been a stock, white FD roaming the streets of Japan not all that long ago.
Calgary Autoworks had a few VWs on display at the show including this clean Mk2. The engine bay on this was really impressive and a white exterior/red interior combo will always get my attention.
Colin’s bagged GLI is a car I haven’t seen in person in a while so it was nice to find it parked in the Oval. He’s been working on this for as long as I’ve known him. You can see here how he reworked the quarter panels to house much wider wheels, and also fitted a European trunk lid.
On the topic of VWs, The Dub Dynasty is responsible for some seriously cool cars and their new Beetle project is looking extremely promising already. I understand that just like Mike’s Karmann Ghia (which you can see in the background) this too will be receiving a Subaru swap. Keep up the great work guys!
This Jetta was pretty ridiculous (in a good way) with some really unique touches. Who would have thought you could create a two-tone scheme with just one colour of paint? You can see a bit of the shaved engine bay in this shot too.
One more from the Dub Dynasty group for good measure. It’s hard to go wrong with BBSs and a serious drop in altitude.
BagBarn had a booth at the show with an assortment of vehicles. Out of the 6 Foci at Driven, 3 were on bags – Mario’s, Brayden’s, and BagBarn’s own car here. People hate on air but it’s a great solution to getting your fix for lows without having to treat oil pans as consumables.
Over in the Calgary Muscle Club was Rob’s LS-powered 240SX. I like that he added the little LS1 badges to the fenders, providing a hint to those paying attention that there’s no longer a 4-banger under the hood. Some consider it ‘wrong’ to perform such a swap, but I’m not one of them.
Probably the most odd-ball car at the show was this Consulier GTP-LX – I’ll wait while you Google that. Up until just a few months ago, I had never heard of these either. Yes, the looks were apparently always an issue but they were actually quite respectable for their performance.
Naturally I pay attention to the decals that owners sport on their cars and this was one that caught my eye. We weren’t sure of its exact meaning but one thought was perhaps it’s a different take on those family stickers that are taking over back windows everywhere?
I liked the orange accent within the headlights on this G, which coordinated with the brake calipers. Details matter! Ironically though, speaking of paying attention to details, it wasn’t until I was going through the photos for this post that I noticed what else was written on the 350Z’s tire, aside from #teamrevere. When you see it…
TRD kit, Tom’s lights, TEs. I like, I like, I like. This was one of my favourites from the day as it was just a well put-together car. Call it what you will but I thought the livery/graphics/assortment of decals worked really well too.
One is a Rocket Bunny. The other isn’t. Just so it’s clear to everyone…I’m sure it’s not a coincidence these two were parked directly next to one another. Haha.
While I like both, I have personally always preferred S13 coupes to the hatchbacks. This one was nicely done with a nice dark purple paint which made the white accents really stand out. It also makes Alex’s shoes really stand out…
RB-swapped S14 with a tasteful widebody and incredible fitment. As I recall the group of cars that this was parked with were all powered by RBs actually, which was pretty cool.
It should be obvious but this is the TSX from Manitoba again. I liked the contrast of the yellow valve cover and battery top against the otherwise consistent gray/teal scheme. I came back to this one a few times during the day to take in all of the details.
Punit’s GS was looking a lot more aggressive after having a lip kit fitted and the AMEs refinished in a new colour. I was quite surprised to see the new copper tone but it looks really, really good against the blue paint. Now though I’m wondering how it’d look if the factory chrome trim pieces were painted to match?
It randomly occurred to me the other day that Jason seems to have a different car each time Driven comes to Calgary. I remember seeing his Civic, then his STi, then the LS, and now his FR-S with a Louboutin colour scheme. I can’t wait to see how this one progresses further.
Brooks made the trip over from Saskatchewan for the Edmonton season opener, and did so once again for Driven with his wrapped, widebody Evo. New for this show was a rather large APR splitter up front.
Arif was happy to show off his new pride and joy, a BYS front bumper which had just been painted and installed in time for Driven. He’s heard me say it before but this is my favourite bumper for EKs as well and it looks dang good on his. Also new this year are the bright yellow Volk CEs.
Another angle of the widebody 350Z – I’m normally not the biggest fan of clear tail lights (OEM or aftermarket) but here they work. With the prices of 350Z now substantially lower than when they were new, I’m wondering if we’ll see a rise in the number of these at shows? I’m sure the new Rocket Bunny kit will be strong motivation for a lot of people to pick one up as a project.
“It’s just a daily. It’ll stay stock.” We’ve all heard or said that before. We all know how well that goes.
And now, the last one for today’s post is of this Scooby wagon, a vehicle I didn’t know much about aside from the fact that it looked properly mean with the flares and matte finish. Very cool!
In the next little while I’ll probably post some more photos from Driven, but this concludes my main coverage of the show. Thank you to the sponsors and organizers for putting it together! As I have said before, we felt that this was the best Driven that Calgary has seen and while we may have been even more excited than usual since the show didn’t come to Calgary last year, the caliber of cars on hand more than lived up to our expectations. After seeing what was present last week, I can’t wait to see what people bring out for HIN and Sunday School!
-Bill