I found out about a Mazda meet taking place last Saturday when Yolanda sent me an invite to it. Honestly I wasn’t too sure if I’d be going or not, but Saturday afternoon I found myself with a free evening and the weather was great so I figured why not? How could I lose with nice weather, a chance to see friends and check out some cars, and an excuse to take the Focus out for a drive? I threw the camera in the car and headed over to Deerfoot Mall.

I arrived at the NW corner of the lot (as instructed) to find a small group with a few cars, and as soon as I parked and got out it was discovered the meeting location had changed to the other side of the mall instead so we all hopped back in the cars and cruised around. After that quick detour, as we came around the corner I saw Yolanda and Keith already parked with a group of other Mazdas so I knew it was the place.

I had no idea how big it would be but I believe in total 17 cars attended which wasn’t too bad! I ended up only taking a small number of photos but it’s better to share them than keep them confined to a folder on my computer!

Once I parked, this was one of the first things to catch my eye. The TBird could use that decal, the way it burns through gas. The Focus, not so much…

Keith and Yolanda were representing the non-Speeds at the meet with their Mazda 3s.

Since I didn’t manage to get a photo of her 3 with its halos on at Driven, I made sure to this time around. There you go Yolanda!

In the last post you saw Marshall’s MX5 at Grey Eagle and here it is again, sans hardtop this time. The RX-8 in attendance was one half of the rotary-powered population that evening…

…with the other half being Mike’s RX-7 – you may recognize it from my Driven coverage. As it turns out, his cousin is my cousin’s husband. We finally had the chance to meet in person and say hi.

Also present were also a couple of Mazdaspeed 6s – this, and the black one two stalls over (which sports the decal you saw in the first picture).

The red Speed 6 above seemed to have received a fair bit of attention under the hood. I’m not familiar enough with the Mazdaspeed aftermarket to be able to start listing off brands or exact parts, but you can see the manifold, piping, and intercooler in the shots above.

A little after he arrived, Mike popped the hood on the RX-7 which immediately drew a crowd. I’m not one to shun swapped RX-7s, but it’s always nice to see one retaining a rotary.

While the others were chatting I quickly wandered off for a shot of the group. We joked that this must look weird to those who don’t ‘get it’ – we drive out to malls and other establishments not so we can actually go and shop/eat/etc., but instead so that we can open our hoods and stand around in the parking lot.

Despite it being a Mazda meet, at the end of the second row there were what appeared to be a few outsiders…and a shopping cart which had wandered off. Side note – It only just occurred to me as I was typing this, but this meet was the perfect chance to recreate that meme of the Focus ST and MS3 (you know the one – “…and then I LOL’d”). Too bad I didn’t think of it at the time!

Anyway, about those outsiders…the Focus can be considered a cousin, hence why I was invited in the first place. It does have a tiny bit of Mazda in it though, in the form of a Speed 3 rear engine mount. And as for the two Evos….

…they were actually Mazda Evos as it turned out so they were fair game. Sorry, no Mitsubishis here!

I forget exactly how long we stayed but while it was still warm and sunny we all hopped back in the cars and headed out – some left for a cruise while others called it a night. To follow this up we’re now planning a joint Ford/Mazda meet for June 19th, at 6:45PM, at the same location (NE corner of the Deerfoot Mall parking lot) with hopes of getting even more cars out this time. If you’re free that evening make your way over to the mall and find us!

And if you can’t wait that long for a meet, you’re in luck! Make your way over to Grey Eagle tonight for another Wild Wednesday. Summer is short people, let’s enjoy it while we can!

-Bill