There are two weekends each year which we count as “the big ones” as far as the car season is concerned. The first would be the weekend of Driven Calgary, and the second would be this weekend; that of ill.motion’s Sunday School. There are many other annual events (such as the Thunderbird Club’s All Ford show and shine – coincidentally also this weekend – which we’ll be attending) that are also important to us, but in regards to the “tuner” community here Driven and Sunday School are the main ones.

Anyone who has either been reading the site for a while, and/or is in the Calgary/Alberta area, will need no introduction to ill.motion’s massive annual event. It’s one that we won’t miss for anything and has proven to be a very good motivator to get stuck in to a project and cross items off of its to-do list.

Looking back, there were a couple of years where we went absolutely mad on the prep front; in 2015 we had over 20 cars in our group and basically took up an entire aisle at Max Bell, and of course there was 2016 where we tore the front half of Mustard down to a shell with only a couple of weeks left before the event, and debuted 10 week old Sriracha, and had Josè come up from California with his own Focus. Last year was definitely more relaxed, but this time around while we didn’t set a record for the number of hours spent thrashing or organizing, we didn’t coast either.

With the 240SX being the exception for obvious reasons, all of our cars will be sporting some new updates and modifications as compared to last year’s iMSS but there was one in particular on which we really focused our efforts – Sriracha.

Anyone following our Instagrams (or who read the Driven Calgary posts) will know what Mario decided to commit to this year but in case you missed it, the little Fiesta is now a little wider! But that wasn’t all Mario had planned…

A couple of weekends ago my neighbour Doug generously helped out with his machining and fabrication experience (and tools) for a little job, while last weekend saw the main surgery get carried out with the FiST’s fenders, front bumper, and hood all getting chopped to make way for some new pieces.

Kanji aside, none of us had ever tackled something like this before but that didn’t stop Mario from channeling his inner Nakai and sending sparks flying from his car.

Naturally my camera was present for the operation so we will be bringing you all a proper look at the install of the flares (and other parts) in due course. For today’s post however, I hope you enjoy these few photos of the undertaking. Again, more can be seen on both Mario’s and the site’s Instagram accounts but the car has yet to be officially shown off following the work. That’s what this weekend is for!

Tomorrow, little Sriracha will be out at the Thunderbird Club show and shine and of course at Sunday School the following day. I know Mario’s pleased with how the FiST has come together this year and I can speak for all of us when I say we’re proud of the finished product.

As for next year’s prep, who knows; maybe we’ll be taking what we learned here and applying it to another one of our cars…

 

Thunderbird Club All Ford Show and Shine:

Richmond/Knob Hill Community Center, 11-3 (Registration opens at 9)

ill.motion Sunday School: 

Indigo Parking Lot – 725 9th Ave SW, 11-4 (No registration as show is full)

 

-Bill