The Best Car Meet of 2020

I stand by that title. This was a resounding success. After a season (or half-season more like, thanks to Covid) of unparalleled stupidity and immaturity, this was the meet that we all needed.

I’ll use Jason’s title of “3G meet” to refer to this (and the future gatherings) because his reasoning for it is hilarious and idea behind it is pretty fitting given what we were trying to accomplish here. Like with building the cars themselves it’s easy to get sucked into the idea that more is better, when in fact quality – not quantity – is the only metric that matters. Having jumbo Beyond Super Meat-rivalling gatherings is all well and fun but they inevitably go sideways (especially when cars at them do) and the once commonly-known basics of proper behaviour become a foreign language to the newcomers.

So yes, it came to this. I pitched the idea and everyone jumped on board to make it happen, given we were all equally frustrated. A group chat enabled a number of us to set the time and place and from there invites went out. For the first iteration of these 3G meets the location was the tried-and-true A&W, given Donny has a decently-sized lot and we could then support him with a little bit of business that morning.

From here on out though, they could be anywhere. The locations will be random, the times will be random, and they will likely not even be on a schedule as basic as “every second Sunday” or “third weekend of the month”. These will take place when we feel like having them, invites will go out with relatively short notice, and nobody makes a single public post or mention until after it has wrapped. It’s what we have to do these days it seems and honestly, I’m fine with it. In a normal season there will be enough regularly-scheduled events taking place that an infrequent schedule for these will likely be more than enough for everyone’s calendars anyway; and it’s not like we never run into each other elsewhere.

These though will be our little get-togethers so that we can hang out and catch up just like the good old days, and ensure that they stay as a gathering of great cars and great owners.

With all of that out of the way, I do hope you enjoy my little set of photos from the first-ever 3G Meet; a special thanks to everyone who came out and made it such a fantastic gathering! I missed the chance to chat with a few folks as we all wandered around for the couple of hours we were there, but I think it’s safe to say everyone had a good time. We were all there to have a relaxing morning with our fellow gearheads and that’s exactly what we got.

We also got A&W lollipops, thanks to Donny. Bonus.

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Might as well start off with a general overview of the bulk of the meet, featuring Jason working his magic with the camera. It was good to see him shooting again after a hiatus this year for adulting.

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I’ve seen this Mk4 out at a few gatherings now and it’s easily one of my favourites. I love the inclusion of the subtle Boser hood and it’s all draped in (I’m pretty sure) Lexus’ Desert Sage Metallic. AKA one of the best OEM colours ever. The yellow headlight buckets (high beams?) are a wicked touch too.

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Jason’s Mk3 has great parts and styling everywhere, but the headlight covers had to be the coolest bits for me.

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Jason’s CTR, sitting alongside a fellow CW example. It’s amazing how much of a difference the Mugen lip makes, bringing some body colour down further.

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Wouldn’t be a Calgary meet without a set of TEs present. Or 10.

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I’m always happy to see Mel’s Celica out, still going strong after all these years. I’ve always had a soft spot for this generation and am a little sad we don’t see them done up as much any more.

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And of course if Mel is present, Lex won’t be far away. It only took about a dozen shots before I got a clear one with her looking at me. Haha

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JC and Aldrich had their ISs out; it’s crazy how much more aggressive the new generation is as compared to the original.

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Even though I’ve seen his car everywhere over the years I’m not sure Jack and I have really had the chance to properly chat much before, so it was nice to do so here. I swear it’s always spotless.

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You may recall that Levi’s R32 was at Speedy at the same time as my S15, also getting a colour change (to an R35 gunmetal). I’d seen it out at a Deerfoot City meet a few weeks back but it was well after sundown when he pulled in. This was my first opportunity to see it in the daylight since its own restomod and it looks phenomenal! Tons of the new parts on this are OEM replacements but the few aftermarket pieces were perfectly chosen to top it all off.

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Flipping back to the other side of the aisle, Justine, Maggie, and Jon were all lined up; with Jon still flexing on those BBSs (that joke’s still going strong).

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No caption needed, really. Mic drop. Check Jason’s site for a closer look at the air freshener.

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At the first glance I assumed someone had brought out an SC but then I realized it was indeed a Soarer! Still a great-looking platform after all these years and will forever remind me of my high school days, riding around in Justin’s.

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To mix things up, both a Viper and R8 casually joined the gathering.

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Woooster’s EK9 would be cool enough even if it was a “normal” model, but it’s actually a Race Base (N1) version and stupidly rare. It’s awesome to see such a special model here in town and in good hands.

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Eric had pulled in a little later with his Spec S, and with a free spot next to him I took the chance to bring my own around for a few quick photos.

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As I wrote in one of the paint updates, mine would be (and is now) wearing a handful of the same exterior pieces as Eric’s so I was hoping at some point to get them side by side quickly for shots like these. It’s amazing how high mine looked in comparison!

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We even managed to both have square, black and white decals in the same spot on our windshields.

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We just needed an S14 to complete the trio.

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Lex wasn’t the only dog out at the 3G meet; this little one was resting inside the Viper. Too cute to pass up a photo!

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Josh and a few others took over a row a bit further down the lot so I wandered over for a quick look. The EG was shining as always, now with new clear corners. I think it was 4 years ago already that he debuted this thing at iMSS? It still looks like it was finished yesterday though – he takes exceptional care of it.

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370Zs seem to remain relatively rare sights here, at least as far as I’m noticing. Here’s hoping the new Z gets snapped up by some local builders once it comes out so we can see some of them running around! Back to this one though, spy the perfectly-coloured titanium tips out back. All these need is a drop and the OEM Nismo catalogue and they look perfect.

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Turning back to the main section of the meet, I loved this sight: cars all nicely parked, everyone relaxing and chatting, and not a single meet-ruiner in sight. This is what we wanted!

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Ryan and Corey had their AP2s side by side with a new blue FK8 CTR as company. I did take a photo of the CTR alone, but didn’t realize until I reviewed the photos at home that it came out slightly out of focus. So, go me. The accent colour of the TEs’ spoke decals was perfect against the Boost Blue!

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RE RX-7, complete with Ganadors. Oh myyyyy. This is one that turns up fairly regularly at shows and meets and never fails to draw a lot of attention. I like how the exterior is very muted in terms of colour and then you get the crazy pop of the red seats inside.

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Mani’s WRX, another constant at gatherings. On the way to Balance’s 5th Anniversary BBQ earlier this summer he and I wound up side-by-side going down the road and traded the customary waves and thumbs-up as you do. A few days later at one of the N/A meets we had the chance to actually say hi and introduce ourselves and have run into each other constantly since then.

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Jason heading out, on his way to destroy me in the editing-and-posting-of-photos race as he always does. He has two kids too; I don’t get it. Haha

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One nasty-looking Evo X on Calgary’s favourite wheel; the white roll bar peeking through the windows was a nice touch. Danny’s new M2 was also looking good, sporting a light headlight tint now. I’m excited to see where he goes with this one…

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And last but not least for today, Adrian heading out in his coupe. Not too long after we basically called it a day as we felt we’d had a satisfactory fill of a refreshingly mature gathering and carried on with our Sundays.

This is how our meets used to be, and I’m over the moon that we’ve now had a couple gatherings like this as the end of the season comes ever closer. With next year’s state of the world still unknown we could have a normal season, a repeat of the trimmed-down 2020 schedule, or anything in-between; as long as we can fit in some of these here and there though I’ll be happy.

-Bill

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