You’ve been waiting to see them and I’ve been waiting to share them, so let’s get right to it shall we? Today marks the beginning of our official Driven Calgary 2019 coverage with the first set of photos from the event. Here we go!

We kick things off this year with Yolanda’s Focus ST; not because she was part of our little group, but because hers was the first car in the row. Honest. No bias here at all. Haha. Anyway, she was keeping the Stormtrooper theme going strong with some more black aero and even a bit of carbon fiber here and there, to offset the factory white paint.

Shutterbug was up next; of course it’ll never be modified but it did see a fair bit of work before the show this year, receiving paint correction prior to a full body wrap in self-healing paint protection film. No longer do we need to worry about people bumping it at events, car covers marring the paint, or so on. Incidentally it also had the worn paint on the driver’s rocker panel (which it had when my mother bought it back in 2016) touched up so it’s now looking even closer to new.

And of course, Mustard – showing off the new SS Tuning front flares and the return of its original fifteen52s, the Tarmacs, following a custom refinish. This is the best this car has ever looked and as much as I enjoyed the little livery for the last few years, seeing it bare once again was a nice change. Peeling off the old graphics was not a fun procedure but definitely worth the sore fingers.

Carrying on down the line now; this might have been the same 350Z that we spotted at Sunday School last year, going purely off of the still-unknown-to-me-but-still-attractive front bumper and little wing out back; if it was, the colour was a new update for this year and worked really well against the white accents.

We had – and still have – no idea who owns this RS but of course it caught our attention because Focus. Note that of the red/black scheme the red is the paint, indicating this was an ’18 LE model.

Car shows are fun and of course I want to keep an upbeat attitude in this post, but I want to make this quick (though important) note with this photo. This R32 sedan was one that stood out to me for the direction behind the build, being very similar in concept to Mustard; effectively, a GT-R converted/inspired sedan – taking the aspects from the faster version and transplanting them all into the four-door shell instead. Given my interest in it I was quite pleasantly surprised when we had the opportunity to meet the owner/builder Joey a couple of weeks after Driven when I answered an ad he had on Kijiji for some car parts. Very sadly he suddenly passed away just a few days after that however; from the very brief interaction we had he seemed like a very nice individual, and we were quite shocked to hear the news. Our condolences to his friends and family.

Twins – kind of. The BRZ in the background appeared to be a facelifted version, unless the bumper was swapped onto a prefacelift model.

Talk about presence; it’s hard to top a slammed 7 series on Emitz. I believe this actually took home an award at the end of the night as well! 

If you know, you know. A caption really isn’t necessary here. Drool away. 

Going back many years, I used to occasionally pick up truck-oriented automotive magazines alongside those that I still read today. I can’t say I follow their trends/styles as much (nor have as much knowledge about their subculture in general) but I always appreciate how they go all-in with their colour schemes and vehicle themes; custom badging with the projects’ names, colour-coordinated components throughout, and everything is always immaculate. Props to these builders for the lengths they go to – even though I never see myself taking on a truck project (save perhaps for a light restomod of the old Suburban someday?) I will always admire the details they put in.

Can we call the GT3RS-style graphics on this MkV an OEM+ mod? I will. If you don’t get the reference, it still looks cool. If you get it though, it’s a wicked little touch. Also, I have to point out the fact it was sitting on freaking HREs!

I’m sure I’ve made similar comments before when sharing this ’95 3000GT, but it’s always worth reiterating. This thing stands out so much for its entire style and approach; it’s a throwback to the older days of modifying compacts/imports so is unlike anything else you see at events these days, and it’s amazing for it. It’s great to have such a thoroughly built example of builds from days gone by, next to more contemporary projects, as a reminder of where the “scene” has gone over the years as it has evolved and grown.

That said, it’s also interesting to see which traits are starting to come back around again. The fact that a couple of shots with Birdy’s lambo door-equipped FR-S were next is actually coincidental!

Work continued on Mark’s 993 throughout the event, as it was prepared for Nakai-san’s makeover later on.

I won’t lie, it’s almost odd to see a narrow-body WRX of this generation but you don’t need an STI to have a great build. The colour scheme on this was great, especially with the TE37s’ decals matching the other accents.

During setup day we laughed when we came across this E36 as there was a large dog casually sitting in the passenger racing seat, perhaps looking a bit confused by all of the happenings. I was a big fan of the entire look of this thing; hard to go wrong with a race livery on an M3.

Whoever spec’d this M4 deserved a round of applause. I’m still in the F80 camp though, but this colour combo was hard to ignore. I imagine the interior upkeep would be a full time job however, especially if blue jeans were the pants of choice. They’re basically all I own, which rules out white seats in any of my cars…

Nice touch on this 2 series, having the mirrors’ signals tinted yellow to match the headlights. And that retrofitted M2 bumper looked so good; definitely one of BMW’s best M front ends I’d say.

I think I’m just now noticing as I go through these photos (along with ones taken at events since) that E36s are seeming to be more popular than usual this year? Every season there seems to be one model that suddenly starts appearing everywhere and perhaps 2019 will be the year for these? Anyway, the whole look this thing had going on was great with the CF/dark grey/light grey combo and the aggressive flares and fitment. I’ve seen it in motion on the street since the show too and it looks menacing when moving.

Terrible photo of a great S15. Giuseppe actually has this thing kind of for sale at the moment, so if you’re looking to get into an S15…don’t buy it. Don’t let him get rid of it. Make him continue with the build and continue its evolution. (Sorry Giuseppe).

Jimmy’s F81 on TE37s. I’ll sometimes run into Jimmy at events and briefly say hi, but I actually had the chance to have a great, fairly long conversation with him at Driven this year about some of the builds VEX had at the event that day, and cars in general. I even finally had the opportunity to pop down to Vex for myself to check it out and he kindly gave me a quick tour through the facility. Thanks again Jimmy!

It’s not often you see a full V1 RB FR-S/BRZ these days. It was nice to see this one still rocking the original kit and going fairly under the radar otherwise (relatively speaking) with no livery or other crazy add-ons. It sounds crazy to describe a widebody 86 as being “under the radar” but perhaps crazier to consider that it actually is.

I don’t believe we’d encountered this Civic sedan before; I was certainly quite taken by it. Fairly timeless exterior, classic B-swap under the hood (there’s a debate that could go on for ages; B-swap or K-swap?), and the Ek4 front bumper too. Much nice. The little touches of orange from the Type One decals and sidemarkers were a nice accent against the white/black/carbon exterior.

With an example like that EK sedan in mind, it’s admittedly quite a shock to see an FK8 next. Oh boy has the Civic changed. Both great examples, just in different ways. Mario doesn’t agree with me but I’m still a massive fan of the FK8s, and when they’re lowered on some properly-sized wheels (*cough* NOT 20s HONDA *cough*) they look incredible.

Rob’s S13; always easy to spot in a crowd with that paint colour. This is one of my mother’s favourites, and Rob has been a big help by lending his assistance on a few occasions now with sourcing parts for, and looking after, her S13.

Next up we have Jesse’s Supra, which was showing off his new Infamous tire lettering and Kansai wheels. I was glad to see the banner that we threw on last minute at a previous Driven (‘17?) was still going strong. Haha. Worth noting is that this thing has since been transformed with a new livery for Infamous which it pulls off oh-so-well; you’ll surely see its new look in a future post but it’s of course visible on the LOWCALS’ channel and social media now.

And last but not least for today, Shawn’s RHD ITR debuting a new Gathers livery. This was nice change from the usual Spoon scheme (nothing wrong with that though; there was even a Spoon livery elsewhere at Driven) and it tested my knowledge a bit when Shawn quizzed me as I’d forgotten Gathers’ connection to Honda. Haha.

And with that, we’ll wrap Part 1 of our Driven coverage. I’m not yet sure if this will be a two or three-part series, but regardless there is of course more to come. This has been a busy year to say the least and I hope you all enjoy everything that has been – and will be – shared!

-Bill