Well, it has been an interesting week. To make a long story short, and not go into more detail than is needed, my mother wound up in the hospital with a fairly badly broken leg and ankle (because ice) so most of my time has been spent there the last few days. She should be out soon but will still be severely immobilized for a number of weeks until the cast is off.
Typing this up now (at some stupid early hour) is the first ‘work’ I’ve gotten done in a few days; I obviously hadn’t intended for the site to sit idle for a week but sometimes it has to wait! Anyway, I fortunately had this selection of photos edited and ready to go so I wanted to take this opportunity to toss them up. I had planned on having a larger set for this post but the rest can wait for a Part 2 I suppose – once I have a chance to get them edited as well.
I’m continuing with the theme of throwbacks this month as part of the site’s 5-year anniversary, this time taking a look at the Beyond meets of 2012. Aside from the few small gatherings we saw at the end of last summer, it has been a few years since the Beyond meets were hosted and their absence has been felt. I still clearly remember the first one I attended, at the start of 2009, and from then until their ‘conclusion’ a few years back, many great times were had at the Chinook parkade on those Wednesday nights.
Just as with Driven 2012 I naturally had my camera with me at these meets to capture photos for my own records, since there was no officialTHREETWENTY to share them on, and now I’m going back through those folders to pick out some images to share with you all. What you’ll see below (and in that Part 2, hopefully) are photos from the entire summer, presented in no real order, so you’ll see cars move around and lighting change randomly, for example.
Anyway, that’s enough talking. On to the photos!
We might as well start off with a somewhat-wide angle shot of a meet, right? I believe I didn’t even have my ultra-wide lens yet…also, look at the Focus! Just look at it. It feels like a lifetime ago that it was that stock.
Remember the windshield rollcalls? Good times. Haha.
I’m glad, but not surprised, that I had photos of this – Matt’s old Saturn SL! I was always a fan of this thing because I have a soft spot for these cars; it was in one of these (that was even the same colour) that I learned to drive stick! My good friend Justin had one back when we were in high school and he taught me to drive manual with it one weekend. No it’s not a Silvia or RS or anything crazy but man did Justin and I have a lot of fun cruising around with, and working on, both his SL and my Grand Prix that year.
Another angle of the little Saturn; yes it was static, and yes it scraped like crazy.
Moving on…you know these are old photos because Jackie’s NA1 is in them!
Parked beside it that week was Gopesh’s GTI. Note how the grille’s stripe was redone to match the wheels and other accents. This was earlier in the season too as the rear valance was not yet on the car (as seen in the previous photo).
As seen in the Driven 2012 post: Punit’s custom re-barreled RegaMasters. They were insane wheels and I’m still surprised he got them to fit without going widebody.
One of these is not like the others.
Remember I mentioned teal being popular? Haha. I forget the name of the owner (Adam? Sorry! I’m sure someone can chime in) but this Civic was pretty nice. Incidentally I believe these wheels were also Punit’s, but I can’t recall exactly if they went from his Integra to this Civic, or the other way around.
Side note – I apparently had the Grand Prix this week as you can see it creeping into the frame!
Mag Blue TEs, ARC winglets. Very nice.
Speaking of Mag Blue TEs and teal again…Reggie’s ITR made a few appearances this year following its full rebuild. Forever one of my favourite ‘local’ builds (he lived in Calgary at the time but then moved to Vancouver where he made over the car again), this thing was so far above our average at the time.
I took every opportunity to capture a ton of photos of it and I’m glad I did. Like I mentioned it was made-over again once in Vancouver (with C-West aero, a new wing, different TEs, and so forth) before ultimately making the cover of Super Street’s annual Honda issue, not to mention the Chronicles Top Ten list prior to that.
A so-so shot of the bay, but I can’t exactly go and grab a new one! Haha. I loved the colourway of this car and how Reggie took the time to even have things like the hood hinges refinished.
Meanwhile, back in the stock-ish club. Haha. That E90 was Solomon’s, which I believe was brand new to him when this photo was taken. This is the same car that went on to be matte silver, with an LCI back end, KW coilovers, and more (it was featured here on the site a couple of times).
Trying to keep the timelines of everyone’s builds straight is getting difficult at this point but I can tell that Colin’s GLI (the blue one) had already received its full respray here as the front bumper’s side grilles were shaved as part of that makeover.
Another overview shot, this time with Jason’s Varis STi making an appearance, as well as Brad’s EM1. That might also be Aldo’s Mercedes next to Punit’s Integra?
Super clean EG. Is it just me or does it seem like there were more RHD examples of these running around back then as opposed to now?
As much as the J-series swaps were talked about when they first started popping up, they never really seemed to catch on. It’d be understandable that not everyone is willing to run hoodless (or with a cut up hood) to make room for the much larger powerplant…it’s still a cool swap though!
Time for Tiggy to be the focus (…) of a photo. This was the year I had picked up the Volvo R wheels, and I can tell they had just been fitted here as not all of the centercaps were yet wrapped silver to match. Also not yet fitted were the Downforce CF front lip or OEM blackhousings, both of which came later in the season. In my defense the car was always going to get a second set of wheels since it needed two sets of tires anyway, but this might have been when things started to pick up a little bit of speed…
And finally, Derrick’s Camaro, but in the very early stages of the build. It had tint on the windows and lights, the rear spoiler, and I believe the intake had been fitted by this point but it hadn’t yet received wheels or been lowered. As it sits today the mod list isn’t the biggest in the world but what it is, is effective; looking at this photo, it might as well be of a completely different car!
With that, I’m wrapping this one up now so I can get to bed. I won’t make any promises as to when the next post will go live but I’ll try to not keep you all waiting too long! Having also wiped out on some ice today I’ll also do my best to avoid a repeat of that…the last thing we need is another person in a cast!
-Bill