I can’t believe we’re already a week and a bit into June but alas we are; there has been so much going on in regards to cars that it seems the year is now flying by after winter dragged on and on. Last weekend was the Menace mid-year meet, Sunday School planning is now underway, and I’m sure before we know it the traditional “final” events of the year like Park and Polish will be on the horizon too. As the old saying goes though, time flies when you’re having fun so we must be having plenty of it with how quickly the calendar pages are being turned over.

Anyway, while I keep working through the editing of the photos and video from everything, I have for you today the second set of photos from the 780 Season Opener. Like I had said last time I didn’t go nuts with photos at the Opener because I had just taken a ton at Driven Calgary, but of course I wasn’t going to attend this and not take anything to share here. I hope you all enjoy!

Kicking it off with this WRX – the mostly-satin grey exterior really served to make the fluorescent Gram Lights stand out even more. This is a build I’d be curious to know more about; it was caged, featured aero work, and overall looked like a pretty serious setup.

Usually you don’t have to look far to find dogs at car meets and I’ll never turn down the chance to grab some photos of them, especially when they pose nicely or are insanely cute puppies.

It’s wicked to see that there are a few Hakosukas running around Alberta these days. Appropriately or coincidentally, this one was parked together with a younger/newer version of the model, an R33.

It was interesting to see this FR-S sporting the swoopy/aggressive/in-your-face Varis widebody (and matching hood) without a crazy GT wing out back. I do believe it has since been fitted with one though.

This old Rolls definitely stood out and was a cool sight so as it left I watched it for a moment…and then noticed the plate! Quebec is not exactly close…

I knew Brian especially would like the Mustangs that the police had on display so I made sure to grab a shot. Amusingly, the ‘tow hook’ on the Fox Body was fashioned out of handcuffs!

Something about welds and intake manifolds and piston rings. And a floorboard.

Looking back through my files I found that I unfortunately didn’t get any more shots of this S13, apart from when it’d appear in the background, and so can’t share much more on it. I don’t even recognize the kit; perhaps someone can chime in.

For how ‘common’ Skylines are up here, R32/33 sedans definitely seem to be overlooked a bit which is a shame. And even though it confuses many, I think seeing any sedan with a rollcage sacrificing the usability of the rear seats just makes it cooler. Because race car.

Walking around the opener, one thing that definitely surprised me was the number of RSs present. I’m certain I saw more that evening than I have in Calgary, total, since they came out last year. It would seem Edmontonians like their AWD Foci.

Speaking of Foci – the Yellow Blaze Mk3 club.

It would seem (and I hope) that this could be a tradition for the opener now? Last year I grabbed a shot of an overloaded Miata cruising around – which instantly became one of my favourites of the year incidentally – and this time around there was this 3-series convertible on people-hauler duty. Drive laps of the lot, see how many people can pile on, and laugh/smile the whole time.

Of course, as the night went on cars gradually started to head out, including some of the Focus/Fiesta crowd after the 3-series passed by. The debate rages on over the ’13/14 vs the ’15+ ST front ends but I’m definitely a fan of both. Note how well the intercooler can be shown off with the removal of the lower grille too…

As I had mentioned in Part 1, a great benefit of travelling up to the Opener is of course the chance to see friends from the other city in person for once and fortunately that was able to happen with a few people. Jules was able to attend the meet a little later in the evening and I got to see her new toy…

…or, well, newer toy. They’d actually purchased this ’13 ST late last year but until the Opener I hadn’t seen it in person. I was also able to check out its new shows – Brada Forged TF1s; their finish, combined with the silver lip, all against the Tuxedo Black was an awesome combination.

Ashley also came out and asked me to grab a few photos of her MR2 for her. This was actually the first time I’d seen this in person too as it hadn’t been on the road for a little while – I hadn’t even known it was RHD! Haha

She had been in Calgary for Driven the week prior and grabbed a couple of decals from me there; she was happy to show off where one of them wound up!

As we start to wrap up, I couldn’t overlook some of the R34s, for the fans (and American readers haha) out there. With the way values of these have gone it’s nice to see that people are still enjoying and personalizing them and not just locking them up.

And keeping with the ‘Skyline’ theme, let’s actually wrap up with this Nismo R35 which appeared out of nowhere. I quickly grabbed my camera and fortunately got one shot of it, and I think it’s the perfect one with which to end this post.

So there it is, our little overview of the 780 Opener! Hopefully you enjoyed and as always, thanks for reading! Back to editing now…

-Bill