Alright folks, the Sunday School coverage begins now – but I use the term ‘coverage’ loosely. I’ll say it right now as a heads up; I won’t be sharing much of the show itself this year, so I apologize to anybody waiting for another large multi-part series from just the show itself. Others like Jason (lifewithjson.com) have already done a stellar job of showing the day through their lenses so for anyone who was unable to attend the event in person, there’s no shortage of content online to go check out.

The reason for my relative lack of picture taking during the main event certainly wasn’t due to the machinery on display. This year saw a number of new builds make their debuts, all of which were amazing – Calgary’s car scene has grown tremendously in a fairly short amount of time and at this year’s Sunday School we were treated to the unveiling of some rather serious, detailed, and high-quality builds. Those which were not new debuts were outstanding as well, as fellow enthusiasts had continued to refine and improve long-term cars and build on what they have already started. The bar is continually getting raised, and in rather large increments it feels like.

It seems that at many of these shows time flies by and the events’ ends approach faster than we expect. This Sunday School however saw what was by far the most extreme example of that – I have no idea how the better part of 6 hours could disappear so fast, but it did! It honestly felt like the day had just gotten started and I then looked at my watch to discover it was already 3pm! I think a number of us found ourselves surprised by this and therefore wishing the show would go on longer so that we could have more time to admire the vehicles on display and take in all of what was there, but before we knew it the show was coming to a close and people were packing up.

To be fair, I personally did take a way more ‘relaxed’ approach to this year’s show. Typically I get everything set up and then immediately grab the camera and head out to start doing laps of the venue, but this year I was quite frankly beat. I had stayed up stupid late to finish the Focus following our mad two-week thrash to get it swapped and running, and so I was happy to get a chance to just slow down the pace for a bit. Plenty of friends came over during the day to check it out in person after all of the teasing we had done of the conversion online, so I was happily showing and talking them through the car and answering questions about the whole process. Coincidentally, the day of Sunday School was also Keith’s birthday so we celebrated that as well, with cake and other snacks in our tent which was another great excuse to sit back and relax.

I would have very happily spent several hours more at the event to properly look over each vehicle and take in the subtleties and details of each, but I suppose I’ll have to reserve that for future meets and shows as these vehicles are brought out again. If you see your vehicle in the next few posts then I hope you like the photo – or photos – of it, and if not I hope you don’t take offence. I look forward to seeing all of these builds out again in the future, and I think it’s a safe bet that we won’t do something so stupid like tear a car into thousands of pieces with only a couple of weeks until a major event like this, so we’ll actually be somewhat rested the next time around. Right guys? We won’t do that again? Please?

Anyway, without any further delay here are some snaps from me of Sunday School 2016. Enjoy!

The photos will be shown more or less in the order in which they were taken, but I took the furthest thing from an orderly route through the venue this year. First up is Brent’s slammed Legacy which was rocking new splatter paint on the wheels – a really cool touch!

Next to it was Colin’s matte white wrapped MS3, aired out on its purple Rotiforms.

The colour on this FD is by far one of the best shades I’ve ever seen. It almost reminds me of Frosted Glass from the Mk3 Focus.

A little weave peeking through is always a nice touch.

Some Rocket Bunny goodness, in 240SX and 350Z form. Complain about the overfender ‘craze’ all you want, but I won’t be joining you in that. I want more! Haha

Impossible to miss with its paint was Richard’s epic Mustang, as recently seen on Speedhunters. It’s cool to see Japanese wheels being used on a platform that probably doesn’t typically receive them.

Giuseppe’s always-impressive R32; there’s probably not a single bolt left on this car that has not been touched over the years.

I’m seeing more RC-Fs around the city than I had expected to, and some are already projects for their owners as well. Also, check out the concavity of the rear wheel!

Jimmy’s monster of an M3 was in attendance; with the hood closed there are still clues as to its performance potential but I think it could still count as a bit of a sleeper given it puts out several hundred (!) horsepower.

Errol had his RSX out at the show, parked backwards to the rest of the field in order to show off its new Rize Japan tail lights. I’ve seen a few sets of lights from Rize Japan in person now and am definitely jealous.

Your eye may have first gone to the Underground Racing Gallardo or the F355, but when we walked by José made a beeline for the R34 sedan instead. He definitely had fun checking out all of the RHD vehicles that we are fortunate enough to see regularly, which are basically forbidden fruit for enthusiasts in the US.

Charles’ insanely bright R33, parked next to the LOWCALS tent.

Speaking of LOWCALS and their group, I had my neck snapped when I was walking by their row of cars and spotted David’s license plate on this S15! I knew he was getting a new car but my guess was that he was going for an FD, so when I saw this instead I did a double-take.

Another definite head-turner for me – as well as lots of others – was this. I don’t know who was inside the costume but you are a legend! It was hilarious seeing this running around the show. The only way it would have been better would have been if he also had the Reacher Grabbers like in the “Unstoppable” meme.

I didn’t get a chance to grab a photo of it parked, but I at least was able to capture this blue R33 as it was rolling out. A visitor from Saskatchewan, this was an awesome example of the more uncommon Skyline platform.

Squirtle! I did actually start up Pokémon Go while we were there but didn’t catch anything…

It’s probably time that I threw in a picture of our group! We were parked on the East side of the lot this time around, where we had never been before. We were also given two rows which worked out great; it allowed us to have Mustard and Tabasco – the only two full ST bodied Mk3 sedans – parked together on one end, and a tent at the other.

One thing we had kept as a surprise for the reveal of the Focus was the engine cover. I kept Ketchup’s original cover which Mario had painted previously and have been collecting signatures from those who helped us see the conversion through. It has most of the signatures now and I will work to get the rest on there as time goes on. As some noticed and asked about at the show, yes it has a little bit of damage but that was sustained in the collision that wrote off ketchup. It’s another part of the story now, so it will be staying there.

Amusingly, some people reportedly mistook Jose’s car for Mario’s old ST, which we kind of expected to happen.

As I had mentioned in the previous post, to poke fun at Canadian stereotypes we purposely would fit in ‘eh’, ‘sorry’, and ‘aboot’ as much as possible when José was around, so we all had a laugh when we saw the massive Eh List decal on this Integra.

Back to the 403media group now (remember how I said I didn’t follow an orderly route?), with this aggressive S14 sitting low on some XT7s.

And across from it, Haute AG’s mental E46.

I’m having a ton of fun with a turbo the size of a center cap; I can’t imagine what this thing must feel like!

It seems to be pretty uncommon to see G37s modified around here so this one always stands out at events, especially when it’s dumped on the ground like this. That side skirt had to be a millimeter or two off of the ground, if it wasn’t actually touching.

Birdy’s FR-S showed up sporting a new wing and splitter. As crazy as the lines are on the Rallybacker widebody, it all flows pretty well when colour-matched.

C-west/Rocket Bunny mashup – I always enjoy seeing aero from different companies mixed together, and the FR-S/BRZ platform is a great one to do so with since there are so many choices out there.

Closing out today’s post with one more of Jesse’s Supra, showing off the new diffuser out back. Check back soon for Part 2!

-Bill