We’ve made it. We have finally seen the start of ‘car season’. After what seemed to be a never-ending winter we have finally had some decent and steadily-improving weather (though I realize that as I continue to go on about this I’m further increasing our chances of snow returning) and that has allowed some local meets and events to resume.

Among those are the Menace meets – taking place on Wednesday evenings at the corner of Blackfoot Trail and 46th Ave SE. These were started as a replacement to the original Beyond meets at Chinook and have seen steady, impressive turnouts. Their return has allowed us to all hang out more in person, show off new changes on our cars, meet new enthusiasts, and check out new projects as well. Of course I have been attending, and as always my camera has been in my hand.

Even though the official season opener was earlier this month, the meets actually ‘started’ a few weeks prior and I have sets of photos from the various gatherings to now share with you all. What you’ll see tonight were gathered over three different weeks, and there will still be more to come. I had continued to shoot, even though I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to get to these photos for a little while; hopefully you didn’t think I had decided to overlook these!

Along with the smaller, informal meets returning to the calendar we also have some big shows quickly approaching, Driven being the first. In fact, it’s in just under two weeks’ time which is both exciting and alarming (perhaps alarming primarily) – we all have a lot to take care of before the big day and the pressure is definitely starting to be felt with not just the parts to install and detailing to look after across the board, but all of the decals that I need to complete for the show. Once we can breathe again we’ll have lots of content to share from the show itself as well as some of the changes and updates to the cars, but in the meantime there’s plenty to show from the handful of meets that have now taken place this season. Hopefully you enjoy! Let’s now rewind to, and recap, the first few Menace meets of 2017:

Andrew’s Mk1 has seen a couple of key changes this year – the first being the new silver Tarmacs (welcome to the 52 Family!), and the second being something special under the hood which you’ll see more of soon. Let’s just say that Mustard isn’t the only formerly-N/A Focus in the group anymore.

Speaking of Mustard, it’s surely no secret that it now sports a Mountune Lower Sport Spoiler along with the Cups. A full post on that little piece will be coming – don’t think I’ve forgotten about it! I still have one more step to take care of before I’ll consider that mod ‘done’ and thus, upload the post on it.

Yolanda’s ST continues to see some small tweaks as she starts to carry out her plans for it, including a set of Boomba engine dress-up parts as well as their BOV.

Tim Hortons, friends, dogs, and modified cars; these meets in a nutshell. In other words, the recipe for a great evening.

Dom’s Mk3 S has recently received a new tune as the start to an increase in performance this year, and it’ll be getting some subtle cosmetic updates too. Last season he added ST side skirts (from Ketchup) and this year it’ll also be receiving a new rear valance, from Mustard.

Don’t freak – I knew my valance would clear. I typically back in anywhere I go because of the ground clearance the rear has compared to the front.

Dom. And dog again.

The start of a new season usually means new banners being applied to some vehicles as well, with the applications often times taking place at the meets! Not only do our winters destroy many windshields, but forward-facing decals can take some hits too from rocks as well as damage from ice scrapers.

Dustin’s always working on the S15 and as a result, Slowbro evolved and gained more aero.

Moe’s Mustang is insane and always easy to spot at the meets. It’s safe to say this is one of the most distinctive Mustangs in the city, and it’s cool to see the styles that are more often seen on imports (and exotics, hi LBW) applied to this.

Apparently, MR-Ss are now old enough for RHD versions to be legal on the roads in Canada. Every time I see the first example of a new model on the road, it always surprises me at how seemingly quickly some cars have hit the 15-year mark.

The glow in the dark Emotion decals (so they appeared to be based on their colour) were a nice detail here.

As Stephen went to leave one night, some kids were quite intrigued by the boost noises coming from his Fiesta ST so he revved it a bit for them. This is one car you’ll be seeing in our group at Driven this year, with a few more changes!

Forget the cars; this (large) ball of fluff was stealing all of the attention one week, and rightfully so.

Danny’s TT, aired out on his new Rotiform DIAs. He has also been working on a Ruckus project which we recently got to see a sneak peek of at our own small gathering. Watch for more of that thing this season once it’s officially unveiled!

This thing was epic and one of the best builds I’ve seen in person this year; an Alpha GT-R with a full Varis widebody, sitting on Volks. No corners cut, nor expense spared it would seem.

Alex made an appearance one week with his ITR, which was already sporting more changes such as the new Rays (which had been seen before, but not on the car). Peep the R34 in the background too, above.

Penny – she’ll sit still and pose nicely but as soon as the camera comes out, she’ll look away. Haha

Maybe it’s just me, but I swear we’re seeing way more R33s now – it was cool to have these matching white examples together for comparison – one GTS-T and one GT-R (the same one seen earlier).

As the weather began to stay more sensible, Yolanda was finally able to throw on the summer wheels that came with her ST – something she was very happy about!

For those unaware, ST4 #004 is owned by a fellow named Kyle Deyoung, so we all chuckled when we saw this personalized plate on an ST of all things. I made sure to grab this photo and send it his way.

And with this one wider-angle photo from the end of the lot, we wrap up today’s post.

With car season now just about in full swing there will be plenty more to share here, and don’t forget to mark your calendars with Driven Calgary – May 6th, at the Olympic Oval. We hope to see you there!

-Bill