Once the main event had wrapped up it was time for our yearly tradition – the Post-Sunday School group photoshoot. Every year we wait for the lot to clear out so that we can park our cars along the far row to get some final photos of everyone together before we go our separate ways – it’s rare enough to have the entire Calgary group together anyway, but add in a car or two from out of town (this time that was Jules with her black FoST) and having another opportunity for photos like these anytime soon becomes even less likely.

Once the awards had all been handed out and the show officially ended, we waited for some other groups to grab their pictures first. It wasn’t too long before the rain that had been approaching for a little while finally made an appearance though, and it certainly sped up the emptying of the lot! Fortunately all of our stuff had been packed up by that point so we had nothing to worry about, and just hopped in our respective cars to wait it out.

In terms of how we arranged the cars for these photos, there was no real planning involved. It was more a case of each of us just grabbing a spot that caught our attention – we lined up the cars while hiding in them (we figured we might as well do something while waiting) so we didn’t even have the windows down to communicate as the rain was fairly heavy. It was a simple process of see spot, take spot, and wait as others followed suit. We ended up with a fairly decent arrangement if I do say so myself, with the colourful Fords together, the white cars together (with Jules in between), and then the little S13 alone at the end. Haha.

Rain on freshly-cleaned cars is never great (first world problems) but at least it waited for the show to finish! It didn’t take too long for it to lighten and once it had we all got out and I started with the photos – thanks goes to Jules for holding an umbrella over me as the last of the rain fell (I’m not a tyrant, it was her idea haha)! I didn’t care about myself but was concerned with keeping the camera dry so she helped with that while I fired off the first few photos…and speaking of photos, let’s get started with them shall we?

The final arrangement – Vlad had to head out so his Lightning will be missing from these; otherwise, everyone was present.

Looking down from the S13’s end…

…and from the more colourful end of the lineup…with a bit of the #52family. You’ll see a few shots today that are similar in terms of angles, cars shown and so on – there was not much planning behind this session, beyond ensuring I got at least one individual shot of each car and one group photo, so I wasn’t concerned about ‘overlap’ in pictures. This was just grabbing photos as I saw chances.

Ford cars, four ways; Focus Titanium, Focus ST4, Fiesta ST, Focus ST.

Keith’s happy Mazda 3, surrounded by unimpressed-looking cars…and a worried one peeking out at the end.

Gotta get the good angles! Side note – Focus/Fiesta owners have no depth perception apparently.

Derrick and Mario, putting up with me suddenly pointing the camera at them. The position for an official officialTHREETWENTY model is still open…

Solo photos now; starting with Brian’s Titanium on its temporary wheel/suspension setup as mentioned. His new stuff will finally be going in soon and we can’t wait to see it come together! He’s currently back on his OEM wheels but is still running on my old springs because there was no way were doing three suspension swaps on the same car back to back to back – two is enough. Hahaha

The new decals have been getting a bit of attention too – at first glance they look like just standard white on blue, but are actually matte white with blue pearl on top of reflective blue. Total PITA to make but so worth it.

Mustard; I loved Jason’s caption for it from his coverage “Lots of stuff going on with Bill’s car lately – it’s like it never stops. Certainly not where I imagined it would go”. You’re telling me Jason! At least I can say I’ve owned this shell for almost 6 years now…

Sriracha; Mario’s plan worked out and from some angles the fifteen52 side stripes almost become ghosted. It’s the same with the banner – from some angles it looks like just a matte black strip, with the second layer only revealing itself upon a closer look or in the right lighting.

Jules’ Tuxedo Black FoST; such a good stance and wheel setup, and a great colour combo.

Another one, because it’ll likely be a while before it’s in front of my lens again.

Yolanda’s FoST; her banner was another crazy bit of vinyl, featuring gloss white with a reflective black border on matte black.

Yeti/Mayo, Brandon’s ST; red and white, like our flag! Or like a Yeti after a bloody lunch as it was once suggested.

Keith’s Mazda 3; another car with a bit of reflective vinyl in the form of officialTHREETWENTY text on the doors. He’s still having to adult but the car has gotten a new clutch recently! It was admittedly more of a maintenance job but car parts are car parts, right? Haha

Derrick’s Camaro, just prior to its new wheels; some photos of those will be up next! From this angle you can also see a bit of the semi-stripped interior, another change (alongside the black roof) made for Sunday School. Mario was debating doing the same with Sriracha but ultimately decided against it.

And finally of course, the S13. She loves driving it and loves having a convertible and loves seeing the reactions it gets, but I’m convinced that the most joy my mother gets from this car is just from chuckling at how it looks perpetually worried with the angled headlights and little ‘mouth’ at the bottom of the bumper.

With our photos taken, I looked around to see what else was still going on at Max Bell. Across the lot, Arif was moving his EK around as some of the guys were hanging out and chatting. Spot the subtle new carbon splitter under the BYS bumper!

Everything else was gone but Mike’s FD was still sitting where the Sincedayone booth had been; presumably he was off moving the other cars back to Alpine/Blackbird with the guys.

Josh’s EG was also hanging around, steering wheel still hanging from the mirror.

Then, a wild Brad appeared and phones/heads were immediately pointed towards him…

…because everyone predicted that his foot would ‘accidentally’ slip off of the clutch. I’m fairly certain everybody in a 5-mile radius heard the supercharger whine from this thing.

And an important note before moving on – those you’ll see here had permission to send it (as the kids say these days). If you go ahead and randomly try this at a future meet or show thinking it’s okay, you’re wrong and automatically an ass. Back to photos…

Eric followed up Brad’s accidental clutch slip with one of his own, in his 1JZ S15. Peep Mario and Brandon filming in the background!

FWD (left) vs RWD (right). I think Eric won for distance…

Mike’s FD again. I was over at Alpine/Blackbird following the show and Mike graciously showed me through the car in some more detail; I hadn’t realized the lengths he’d gone to to lighten it! Without CF panels and a nearly-complete interior (and some conveniences like power locks) it weighs in at 7 lbs less than Gugliano’s gutted Civic (which he happily reminds Gugliano of at every opportunity haha). As one way to save weight he rewired the car with a custom loom, removing anything unnecessary and stepping down wire gauges where possible, such as for his tail lights since they’re all LED now. There is so much time in this car, in areas that people will never see, and Mike still feels he has to do more.

Quickly back to some of our cars now…

Mustard (and Ketchup) and Sriracha. You can just see a tiny section of Mario’s banner’s text shining in the light here.

And on that, some of the other banners again as the closing shot. That’s a wrap! Check back tomorrow for the update on Derrick’s Camaro showing its new wheels, and of course there’s always more to come!

-Bill