This is definitely a post I didn’t forsee putting together this weekend, but I won’t complain about it!
Unexpectedly, on Friday I received a text from Mario asking if I knew of any meets going on because Reggie was in town; he had semi-spontaneously made the drive over to surprise his folks and would be around for a little while. Mario, Reggie and I quickly coordinated and I proposed the usual Friday night A&W gathering at Donny’s given the short notice and time of day we’d be looking at for a meet. It would definitely be a bit of a different background for Reggie but most of us would be there anyway since it was part of the regular schedule. We confirmed the time and place, and later that evening were all at the restaurant in our various vehicles; both my S15 and Grand Prix were out (my mother wanted to drive the GP so she piloted that one), Mario arrived in the Tesla of course, and then Reggie came in with his impossible-to-miss F80.
Reggie’s projects have always served as inspirations for me, even going way (way) back to his original 328xi back in…08/09-ish? It’s been a while. The last of his cars to be seen on the site would have been his original FR-S as it was set to undergo yet another makeover (we started sharing progress on that in early 2017), but if you recall the story of that car you’ll know why the project unfortunately never saw completion. Since then he has of course kept working tremendously hard and has achieved incredible things with Nightrunner which has allowed him to continue building and creating with crazier projects, though for many of us here in Calgary the last several could only be taken in via the internet and what he documented on Instagram (one exception being the Fit he owned for a brief time, which Jason now has…which I still haven’t seen with my own eyes). His K-swapped S15 in particular is the one I am the most sad about having never been able to see for myself, but his F80 has evolved beautifully in the last little while and I was excited to be able to take it in, study the little details, and grab a few photos of my own. With that, this weekend’s post is a bit of a mini-gallery of what has been dubbed the NRI M3 “GT4 Street Car”. This thing was absolutely bonkers in person, and I hope you all enjoy the little set of photos that I captured of it. It was great to see you again Reggie, and even though it’s brief, welcome back to Calgary (for now)!
-Bill