This is the winter that never ends, it goes on and on my friends…

At least, that’s how it felt to us – but it’s now a thing of the past (unless of course me saying so has jinxed it, but let’s be optimistic here). The weather has been cooperating, we’re seeing everything from classics to modern exotics back on the roads (I’ve personally witnessed a ’69 Charger as well as a 720S), and meets are once again a thing. We’ve made it at last!

Not everything is back on the schedule mind you, as both Cars and Coffee and the Friday night A&W gatherings have yet to officially return, but at the very least we have Wednesday nights to look forward to once again with Menace and Beyond meets.

I’ve attended a few of the meets so far – but not all, thanks to being sick for a week – and naturally have grabbed a few photos here and there. For today I have a small set from a couple of the first Menace meets of the year which I hope you enjoy, and there will only be more to come as the season carries on and everything gets back into full swing.

You may recognize this parking arrangement from the post on Yolanda’s underhood accessories as some of these photos are from that same meet. Since then, both Brian’s Titanium and Yolanda’s ST have undergone their wheel swaps, with the Ti debuting its newly colour-changed summer wheels. I’ll say this as a teaser – Brian nailed the colour choice.

Speaking of wheels, and Brian, he was asking the other day why Mustard’s still on winters – I’ll be holding off on my own wheel swap until Driven prep so that I don’t have to pull the wheels a second time to clean the barrels before the show. Lazy, efficient, toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe.

One more, since I was so happy to have the car out of hibernation for real even though it’s not ready yet; the interior’s still a mess, it’s still on winters as mentioned, still needs a detail, I’m still waiting on parts, and Driven’s in less than three weeks. Ack.

I’m also happy to be seeing more S15s once again. Generally speaking, I feel the OE S15 pedestal wing is near impossible to beat but it’s hard to argue with the subtle spoiler on the back of this example.

It was probably a tiny bit chilly to have the top down this early in the year, but can you really blame this E36’s owner? On a side note, remember when BMW’s chassis codes applied to the entirety of the generation? We then saw different codes for sedans/coupes/cabs (i.e. E90, E92, E93), and now there are separate codes again for M and non-M versions of each (F80/F30). It’s getting confusing!

While we were all happy to be back at a meet, this poor Doggo didn’t look overly enthused. Perhaps Timbits would have helped. Haha

I had to go back and double-check the name to get it right – this Inazuma Edition BRZ was a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one! Yellow not only suits the lines of the FR-S/BRZ well, but the RS too; Ford missed out on that one. Anyway, it’s cool to see some of the facelifted Toyobarus popping up at meets, as well as to see the Ford numbers grow.

And speaking of surprises, this was a special sight for sure – a Tommy Kaira 25R! Assuming it’s a legit example (pretty sure it is), it’s an awesome addition to our local community for sure – it just needs a set of authentic wheels and then the owner’s set!

And on the topic of wheels, it’s hard to go wrong with some small, bronze TEs on a red EK. I was going to say that outside of our circles you don’t see a ton of clean examples anymore but then remembered that the early models are now 22 years old…yikes. #thingsthatmakemefeelold

Iconic livery is awesome. Mud sprayed all over it is awesomer.

How many times have we joked about doing a taxi livery on Mustard? If it wasn’t for the fact that it has already been done on an ST (William Stern’s) I’m sure we’d have already carried it out. I wonder how many people this tC confuses?

And last but not least, the small overview that you’d seen as the cover photo. To see so many cars and owners out was awesome and the short cruises with friends to and from the meeting locations have been a ton of fun as well – especially the back-and-forth BOV battles. Haha

As always I’ll continue bringing my camera along to these weekly meets and grabbing some photos here and there, so stay tuned for more snapshots from these gatherings! From here on out things are only going to pick up as more meets have their season openers and more cars return to the roads.

Or at least they should, unless Mother Nature wants to troll us again.

-Bill