Traditionally, Park and Polish has been what I consider the last big show of the year for me. Held in September, it’s a nice way to wrap up the season and makes for a fun day with friends. A huge number of cars fill up the lot with something for everyone – muscle cars, exotics, modified imports, classic trucks, and so on. I have been attending for several years now and always look forward to it.

Unfortunately, this year we awoke on September 5th to find it raining. The organizers had promised that rain or shine the show would go on though, so with the cars packed we made our way over to Quarry Park. Since registration was being done on a first-come-first-serve basis we arrived fairly early to the venue, at which point we found ourselves being directed over to the parkade beneath one of the buildings. Even though tents and stands had been set up outside as usual, the organizers decided that they’d open the parkade and use it for the show, and once it was full anyone who arrived after would be parked outside.

Normally cars get sorted into three broad classes and are parked accordingly but this time it was much more relaxed in that sense. I wound up near exotics and classics with most of the other ‘tuners’ being at the opposite end of the parkade. Before long the parkade was deemed full and I started to wander around to see what had shown up.

Ultimately, while a number of us did still take part in the show it was significantly smaller than in the previous years. I hope I’m not sounding like I’m complaining because I’m not – the organizers did a great job of working around the weather but there was no avoiding the fact that it did impact attendance numbers and make the show feel quite different to previous versions. Hopefully next year the weather will be better but it was still a fun day and I’m glad I took part.

I will also state right now that these will not be the highest-quality photos. It was a relatively dark parkade and I did not have a tri-pod with me. regardless, I hope you enjoy taking a look at some of the vehicles that owners drove through the rain storm to enter in the event and help support MADD.

The Focus fortunately looked pretty good after being dried off. Even the Turbomacs didn’t get that dirty during the drive.

A Huracan rolled by as the 599 GTO and F50 were being cleaned.

One of the day’s award winners, and rightfully so.

This Beaumont was very well done. It too won an award that day and it was well deserved.

An orange McLaren 650S arrived and backed down the aisle to park near the hypercars (I believe this is the same one we saw at last year’s Park and Polish). I’m really hoping that one of the new 675LTs will make its way to Calgary so I can see one in person.

Just a couple of stalls over from the Focus was a roped-off section containing the stars of the show. At first I thought we wouldn’t get a chance to see them up close but fortunately the ropes were just there to keep the crowds thin. One of the staff would let visitors through and once some cleared out, another few would be let in. Perfectly understandable given how valuable the cars were, and how many people were lining up to see them.

The 918 and GT3RS were the examples seen at Cars and Coffee previously – same as the LaFerrari. Still, I wasn’t going to just walk by without taking any photos!

Behind the GT3RS was the one I was waiting to see – the McLaren P1. I had only seen this car in photos prior to this so I was excited to finally get a chance to see it in person and grab some shots.

The lift system really does have a lot of travel, which I’m sure quickly comes in handy when driving the car on the streets.

Shortly after the car was put into Race Mode which raised the wing and lowered the ride height…

…which made the car look even crazier still. Frankly, I don’t like the looks of the P1 nearly as much when the wing is down. To me it looks like something’s missing.

Next to the P1 sat the LaFerrari.

Of course, with these cars together I could not pass up the opportunity to grab some more photos showing them all together. This is what I’d been waiting for.

This is probably my favourite photo from the entire day since it clearly shows the big three together. I don’t know if or when this opportunity will present itself again but I hope to be there should it happen.

I ended up making a couple additional visits to the hypercars later in the day but at this point decided I should carry on with seeing the rest of the show.

For fun, a race track was set up where visitors could compete for prizes. After selecting a Hot Wheels and a lane you would then stand at one of the six control panels and when prompted, hit the button to release your car and watch as they all raced down the track towards the end.

A light would be activated by the first car across the finish line and that person would win a prize. It seemed like a fairly popular attraction as they actually ran out of prizes to hand out during the day. A few of us raced later in the day and it was pretty fun.

This shot does a good job of illustrating the diversity usually seen at Park and Polish – a 458 Speciale right next to a Meteor.

Right at the entrance to the parkade Keith and Yolanda had found spots for their 3s. The illumination here was thanks to Yolanda’s crazy-bright auxillary lights.

Team Revere had a couple of cars at the show; this EVO X ended up taking home an award. I was quite taken by the engine and bay of this one, it was nicely done with teal accents and lots of details.

The WRX was purposely run through mud right before the show but apparently most of what it originally picked up had been washed off during the drive over.

Here’s the aforementioned Meteor, which from this angle appears to tower over the Ferraris next to it.

A few tCs joined the show including the Iron Man themed ‘STARKTC’.

I was happy to see the Cement Gray Scion tC, on the left here. It was upon seeing one of the then-new tCs at a Beyond meet a few years back that I started looking at new cars. I soon discovered the Cement paint option and that became one of the candidates along with a Yellow Blaze Focus…you all know how that ended. I still like them a lot though.

Last up today will be this pair of Corvettes representing Davenport.

The second set of photos will follow soon to wrap this up, showing more of the cars as well as the trophies that were handed out that day. Stay tuned!

-Bill