As we continue with our Driven coverage today our regular schedule of Saturday/Sunday uploads gets broken a bit, but these posts were never going to fall perfectly in line with that as it really comes down to my opportunities to sit at the computer to edit and write; once the coverage has been finished we’ll return to the normal schedule.

Also delaying this entry a bit, this weekend we took advantage of the nice weather and availability to have a good old “Garage Day” with some of the gang, and powered through a bunch of installs! It ended up being a 12-hour marathon of work which left us a bit sore and tired (I really wish my garage had room for a hoist, my arm and shoulder were killing me at times as I crawled on the floor) but it was fun. The last time we’d had one was – I’m pretty sure – when we were thrashing for Sunday School 2019 with José and had to give Dijon a makeover as well as prepare the rest of the lineup. This was definitely overdue! 

Photos from those installs will come another day though. Now, let’s get back to Driven and pick up where we left off, with Liam’s FK7…

As promised, I had another shot which better showed off the weave of his new kit. Absolutely mental. 

The inside rewarded a closer look though with plenty of carbon there too; the seats definitely stole the show here though. 

This classic Skyline is one that sure isn’t being wrapped up and tucked away for safety. It’s a regular at shows and events but is always perfectly clean too. I hear fender mirrors are terrible from a function standpoint but would you care? I wouldn’t.

Erin’s Mk7 was looking better than showroom fresh, as always. She puts in the effort to keep the paint looking perfect and I admire that; I could never own a black car because I would lose my sanity. 

From the perfect paint, to panel gaps, and even red couplers to match the other red accents inside and underhood; I don’t know who owns this S13 but a lot of care was taken here in regards to the details. The carbon headlight covers were a nice touch too, to fit with the rest of the carbon panels on the car.

It’s probably not the first engine that’d come to mind when swapping an FR-S/BRZ/86, but an RB nestled in there sure makes a statement! I imagine there must’ve been a few hurdles just from the layout change – moving from a flat four to inline 6 – let alone the usual engine swap challenges. Notice how the purple paint had some red sparkle in it too, to work with the engine covers and other accents. 

This EK I’ve seen at various gatherings around the area and I can’t get enough. It even had the full complement of Miracle Bars out back – you know I was going to fanboy over that.

This AP1 looked amazing and I rather liked the red exterior/blue interior combo. With the cage and J’s wing the aggressive Sorcery bumper looked right at home even with the otherwise fairly tame exterior setup too. Having that much carbon that close to the ground would terrify me though! 

Tasteful diffuser and side splitters to balance things out.

This RSX. I mean, would you just look at it? Midori Green is one of my favourite OEM colours of all time and I always enjoy seeing it used on other Hondas, not just its native ’96 Civic. Full respray, supercharger, meaty tires on TEs, and even a tucked bay. I’m not sure if it’s an actual Mugen Room Cover (since the DC5 RSX/Integra never came in Midori Green) but the colour-matched rear view mirror is, either way, a nice detail. 

Under the tinted lenses were what looked to be LED taillights. Nice touch.

I don’t know much about this Civic sedan but have run into it a few times at shows. I like how the collection of parts – for me anyway – gives off a mid-late 2000s feel overall even if not everything fits perfectly with that. B instead of K, EK4 bumper, ram horn manifold; very very nice.

I’d skipped the CTR initially as there always seemed to be people in front of it, but finally I had a chance at a clear shot so I wandered back. Varis can’t really make a bad looking kit anyway, but their FK8 aero is gorgeous.

We hadn’t seen this in a while – this was probably the first Liberty Walk kit that many of us had seen in person when it was originally built. It looked good in the dark blue, a bit of a change from the burgundy it had been before.

Without a doubt, one of the stars of the show this year was this 190E. Or rather, what had started life as a 190E but now probably retains very little from that original car. I had taken a quick look earlier in the day but during a later round of the venue I found a bit of a break in the crowd so went in for a few more photos.  

The engine being on a stand made for a pretty cool display. Apparently this twin turbo LS fits into the bay…I’m not sure what power figures are expected or even being aimed for but clearly the target must be somewhat high.

Of all things, the dashboard especially caught my eye. Everything was clearly arranged and tidy, and like with the rest of the car followed an almost-exclusive red and black theme.

Just unreal.

Moving back to something considerably more tame – although anything would be in comparison – this fixed-headlight NSX. There are a few stock pop-up light NSXs running around town but we don’t see a ton of modified examples here. Jackie’s then (that’s him standing on the right), is one I’m quite eager to see return to the road because he’s not holding back when it comes to modifications. 

I recall someone at one point asking if this was legal because it’s technically impersonating a police officer. If you fall for this thinking it’s an actual Calgary police car though, that’s on you. This was amazing. Haha

I didn’t end up shooting each vehicle individually because some of them we see fairly regularly on the site but Still Plays With Cars had a solid lineup as always. Note Danny’s RS3 sporting some new shoes in the background; I understand there’s more to come for those wheels, to make them a bit more suitable for the newer chassis…

Yes, that’s a Supra.

This S14 may have been sporting a really aggressive – but not over the top – exterior and even a 1J but it was the bay that stole the show for me. Having it be a brighter colour really helped show off just how clean it was; I feel that if it weren’t so vibrant the extent to which it had been tucked and shaved wouldn’t have been as apparent.  

A tidy, satin red (satin PPF on red paint?) FD3S, tucked over in the corner.

Another car I had to wait for photos of, because of crowds, was Zeeshan’s R34. Once they had cleared I went back because I hadn’t seen it in a while and wanted to grab some more. The new Z-Tune front end looked amazing. 

Who else remembers when, back in 2013/14, people would complain that $40,000 CAD for a clean R34 GT-R was silly? If only they knew.

David’s new S14.5 project is also looking amazing. He had bought some S15 tail lights from me a while back in prep for his next build but I guess ultimately he landed in the previous generation instead of picking up another S15. The 14/15 combo will always be cool though – what other generational mashups look this natural?  

If you didn’t know better you’d think a 14.5 was just another actual facelift for the S14 generation, from Nissan themselves. A Kouki S14 face is hard to argue with though, and doesn’t really need much exterior-wise to look brilliant.

Ending the row of Nissans with a caged Rocket Bunny S13 for good measure.

Naturally, we can’t keep working through the Driven ’21 photos without taking another look at the Infamous Supra. These guys drew THE crowd of the event when the freshly-completed Supra rolled in, and for good reason. This was a huge accomplishment for Jesse and the rest of the Infamous crew. I swear I could smell the fiberglass still offgassing at the event.

I finally had the chance to say hi to Jesse and catch up for a bit at a recent meet and as I joked with him, with their new tools and technology they could have started off with something simple like a front lip to test everything out and get accustomed to their new capabilities, but nope; they instead went and made a widebody for the A90! Go big or go home I suppose. I’m seeing a ton of positive buzz around this new kit and I’m hoping that after all of their hard work, we start seeing more of these pop up on builds around the world.

Last up for today is one car I wish I’d spent a bit more time looking at while at the show; this incredibly clean, freshly-repainted Chaser. It wore BMW’s Hockenheim Silver and the bodywork was unreal. The colour-matched skateboard was an awesome touch too, very much beating my colour-coordinated fingerboard hanging from my rear view mirror. Haha. It’s giving me ideas, I won’t lie. 

With that, I’m getting to bed before sunrise gets any closer. Check back soon for the third and final part of our Driven 2021 coverage, before we then get to documenting some of the newer installs on the S15 and other projects! Lots to come, as always. 

-Bill