Driven Calgary 2019

Gary Wang May 20, 2019

Driven Calgary is a great excuse to spend the first week of May in Calgary. It also serves (in my mind) as the start of car season in Alberta. Last year we were greeted with hot weather and sunshine. This year, we weren’t so lucky…

Thankfully, the questionable weather didn’t deter from the event. I feel the organizers intentionally reduced the number of entries compared to last year. The venue wasn’t packed full of cars, but for a photographer (and an admirer of cars) it was a welcome change. There was enough space between most vehicles to get decent photos and try out more angles. So without further ado, my coverage of the event!

@setorepmedia ‘s 993 getting a live air suspension install in preparation to be RWB’d at Edmonton Driven (June 8 people, mark your calendars!)

@sakurauchi_sti gets a special shout out because I don’t think people 1) do itasha enough and 2) execute it well with a car that isn’t JUST the itasha. This car’s got aero, widebody, wheels…the entire package. Also decent choice of waifu.

Japanese car but fuck JDM, right? Good wheel fitment though.

Audi TT on the revered BBS LMs and probably the most hilarious wrap of the show. Works amazingly well though.

F30 335i slammed on air with the digi-camo style wrap. Maybe a bit overplayed at this point, but still well executed.

There wasn’t much of a doubt, but this 740IL won best stance. The Work Emitz wheels are perfect.

Hako + Work Equip 01’s…I’ve seen this local Edmonton car many times but its condition impresses me every time.

Liberty Walk G35 with Work Meister M1 3 piece wheels. The setup has stayed the same the past 3-4 years but still looks great.

@renn.s’ STi. Still a favorite of mine due to its aggressiveness but retaining overall simplicity.

There was a bit of R34 GT-R overload at the show. Being as rare (and as expensive) as they are, there were 3 at this show and may have lost a bit of their “special-ness”. I think the other half of the issue is that there are only a few R34 GT-Rs in Alberta and I’ve probably seen them all. What a first world privilege that is, especially considering the States can’t even import and register them legally yet!

E63 AMG Wagon? YES YES YES! It’s also for sale, but I’m sure that 1) I can’t afford it and 2) I can’t afford the maintenance

Clean MKIV supra. Somewhat questionable panel fitment though…

Widebody RX7? Work Meister M1 3pc? Boso style exhaust? Yes to all the above

Best license plate, made more epic due to the 2JZ under the hood

Clean and tastefully modified 350Z on TE37’s. One of my favorite colors for TE’s!

Coolest car at the show? It was for me. Molded body, RB26, full cage, and cameras for side view mirrors. This dude living in 2099.

RS7 on Rotforms. Being on air suspension though, I don’t understand why there’s still a wheel gap…just slam it dude.

997.1 with a duck tail spoiler. I thought about doing something like this with my car, but I appreciate the adjustable spoiler too much.

Engine swap RX-7’s was a recurring theme. This one has a 2JZ heart

Nice contrast with the white wheels and pearlescent purple body

F7LTHY brought out 3 cars from Vancouver. All Liberty Walk Widebodies, all immaculate. This Ferrari 458 had a custom tattoo-inspired design on the wrap.

The Acura NSX is one of the best looking LB widebodies. Being a very angular car from factory, the LB fenders match the lines of the car well.

That chassis mount wing works well for an aggressive car like this GT-R

The other Liberty Walk GT-R in attendance was this red one, which was raffled off by 80eighty. I believe the winner is an Edmontonian, which is surprising but very cool nonetheless.

The rock chips in the front bumper are a bit sad (paint protection saves lives, people), but at least it means the car is driven

At first glance, this R32 looked like a nice stanced VW with a homage 911 RS livery, but upon closer inspection…

Whewwwww Porsche brakes and HRE wheels. Beautiful combo!

This TTRS was one of my favorites at the show. It was also one of the few cars that decided to run winter tires (smart). I love the OZ Racing rally wheels. It must be a blast to drive in winter!

Another Rallybacker kit in Alberta, and it is on a very low FRS.

VS-XX will continue to be one of my favorite wheels

Best S15 in the show. @bignjpns15 ‘s car is perfect. Great choice of aero. I like the meatier tires as well, and the spray painted tires remind me of the No Good Racing EK Civics of Kanjo fame.

It may be a “poor man’s Porsche” but this 944 is immaculate.

Purple G35 with deep dish VS-XX. Fitment is super tight

The carbon fiber rear fenders are unreal. Also, Advan GTs are the new TE37’s. See ‘em everywhere!

Got tofu bro? (the answer is yes, since there was a bucket of tofu right beside the car)

There’s something about wagons that I love. Practicality + car-like handling. This BMW would be an ideal road trip vehicle, especially if you wanted to attack some twisty roads but still haul all your camping gear.

ZE40s with some carbon fiber accents. It’s a perfect daily

I’ve seen more cars slammed on TE’s and I like it. A mix of race car and show car (emphasizing show car though, obviously)

A set of gold Advan RGII’s with a very cool brake setup behind it. I have no clue what calliper it is, but if you do, let me know.

That concludes my Driven Calgary coverage. Overall, great show and saw a lot of new and familiar faces. Excited for the rest of show season and all that it has to offer!

Cheers,
Gary

The Edmonton Motorshow

Gary Wang April 22, 2019

I’m almost 3 weeks late in posting this, but this isn’t anything new. After missing last year’s motorshow (since things don’t really change that much in one year), I decided to go to the show this year. One of the big reasons I wanted to attend was because Avant Garde Motorsports had a large booth there and I wanted to support David, as well as Terence and Theresa, who were volunteering there over the weekend. See some of the standouts below!

This Murcielago isn’t actually a real SV, but modified to SV spec. Still mean

The new Toyota Supra. I’m not sure why there’s so much hate, but I can say that the satin/matte paint look is overrated.

The new 992 has a funky front end but damn if the rear end isn’t amazing. Love the red stripe going across the rear

I believe I saw this F12 TDF last year at the Ferrari of Alberta dealership. Amazing seeing it up close again. What a rare car!

At this point I need to give Auto Obsessed credit for their amazing display of cars. I loved how they didn’t try to cram as many cars as possible in to a small space, but selected a few pristine cars to show off. They also happen to be incredible detailers and the go-to shop for detailing supplies. I’ll have to bring my 997 over on day for a detail!

A Carrera RS Clubsport! Holy smokes! 1 of 290!

DB11. Big thumbs down to this booth, whose name I couldn’t remember. You literally couldn’t go inside unless you were rich, and they basically only had this 1 car to show anyways. What a silly flex.

Cool Ford GT. Those wheels are freaking gigantic!

VF Engineering supercharged Gallardo Superleggera

That’s a wrap on this year’s Edmonton Motorshow coverage. Definitely felt a bit different with some big hitters (Mercedes, BMW) being absent, but this was more than handled by Avante Garde’s incredible display of cars as well as Auto Obsessed’s booth. It was definitely worth coming this year and if more independent shops/dealers decide to show, it might be worth going next year as well!

Cheers,
Gary

The Next RWB?

Gary Wang April 22, 2019

Although I may be jumping the gun, there’s going to be a new RWB in town. Without giving up too many of the details, it’ll be at Driven Calgary and Driven Edmonton being setup and built. The owner sent the car to Terence to do a rustproofing on all the nuts and bolts to prevent any issues from cropping up during the actual install. The car is a 993 Carrera 2 Cabriolet in a very interesting blue color. See some work in progress photos below!

Can’t wait to see this thing get cut up by Nakai!

It’s a very unique opportunity to see an RWB build go from start to finish in person. Even being able to photograph the process is a unique opportunity. Can’t wait to see Nakai work his magic on this thing June!

Cheers,
Gary

The 911 Refined

Gary Wang April 22, 2019

If you’ve been following my Instagram at all (@da_wangsta), then you’re probably aware of the string of financially inconsiderate purchasing decisions I’ve made over winter. It all started with a sweet deal for a set of Work Meister S1s’ from Toronto, and ended with lowering springs, new struts, and a slew of maintenance items. Another day at TT Automotive, really…

In terms of what the car was actually in for, it was for a few things: oil change, brake fluid flush, rotor service, front strut install, lowering spring install, and an exhaust tip install. Obviously things don’t always go their way, and more had to be done than I initially expected. More of that to come!

Clearly, the 911 had some pretty questionable ride height. Being a non-PASM equipped car, the ride height is about 20mm higher than its PASM equipped counterparts. I believe Porsche kept the ride height due to European regulations to allow for snow chains to be in installed, but seeing as that’ll never happen with this particular example, we’re going to drop it.

To remedy the situation, I chose H&R sport springs. I wanted to retain a like-stock ride quality, and seeing Terence’s (now sold) 997.1 on H&Rs, it was a no-brainer for me.

Terence started with the rear struts and accessed the top mounts through the back of the car. After removing the subwoofer and sound deadening, we stumbled upon our first issue.

Although the struts themselves were in excellent condition thanks to the previous owner, the strut top mounts were shot. The rubber holding the mount together was destroyed and caused the struts to not sit straight in the mount. Unfortunately, these are also close to $300 each and wouldn’t arrive the week after. Thankfully, I was squeezed in for an appointment and new mounts were installed with no drama. For today though, the mounts will be reused.

During the strut and spring removal and replacement on the front, Terence said that everything was stuck on pretty good and required a bit of coercing to come out. The car is a Toronto car and was also winter driven by the previous owners, so this does not come as much of a surprise. However, it also is a lesson in the importance of rust protection. Don’t make your mechanic’s job harder (you’ll have to pay them more! haha).

Old & New. Old struts and springs have been on the car for 150 000+ kms so they were due for replacing

While the struts were being installed, the rotors were also being serviced. Over time the aggressive pad compound wore grooves into the rotors and the brake feel wasn’t great.

Terence is super thorough, cleaning the individual rotor holes to ensure no debris will make their way onto the pads or affect the cooling of the brake system.

The refreshed brake setup. Hilariously, the black calipers have faded over time to a dull grey. Terence also gave the wheel bearing and hub a coat of black undercoating, as the Work Meisters don’t have center caps.

I’m usually not a die hard fan of any specific brand of oil (I just run whatever synthetic Wai @ Jasper Autoworks does eg. Castrol or Eneos in the Camry) but with the Porsche, it’s a high strung DFI engine with a less bullet-proof design than the 2AZ-FE in the Camry. As a result, I’ve decided to run with AMSOIL European Formula at Terence’s recommendation, who runs AMSOIL in all his cars. Although I don’t believe all the marketing hype, I do believe it is a high quality oil that will serve the 911 well. I mean, if Terence used it in his old 911 and runs it currently in his F430, I think we have a solid product.

The rest of the work on the car, such as the exhaust tips, brake system flush, and oil change were done on a different day, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to document any of it. However, picking up the car, I saw this:

As the springs settle, the drop will become even more evident. After some fender rolling, and shaving the rear bumper, the end result speaks for itself.

For the sake of comparison, lets compare it to Mark’s RWB, which runs the same wheel and color scheme (albeit in a much more badass offset)

Not much else is expected for the Porsche, minus some carbon fiber aesthetic pieces, and fixing some small issues here and there. Overall, I’m very satisfied with how the car rides. It’s firm but still comfortable and handles cornering better than before. I’m excited to get it out and drive it more this year.

I’ll also admit that I’ve got a backlog on content, so expect a few posts in quick succession coming up.

Cheers,
Gary

The Blizzard Beater

Gary Wang December 29, 2018

After installing the JP Vizage Kit and lowering the Slamry, I always had concerns about winter driving. I didn’t really worry about getting stuck, but damaging my front lip. A few months into winter and I can say that everything is fine and the car has just enough clearance to get over most of the nasty stuff.

The only concern is freshly fallen unplowed snow on the roads. If you live in an area that gets a decent amount of snowfall, you know that there will be tracks on the road where the snow has been pushed off, leaving humps of snow between lanes and in the very middle of lanes. The car does scrape and flings snow up from the middle hump, but nothing that the EZ Lip can’t handle. Of course, it’s seen better days at this point, but for a more or less disposable piece of foam, it’s done exceptionally well.

Which brings us to the end of December, when I realize that my presence has been lacking the site. Another semester of PharmD has come to a close, new wheels for the 911 are here and ready to go (more on that later), and the Slamry has been faithfully completing its winter duties without much issue. During this time, no photos were taken, automobiles or otherwise. So in typical Diffractoids fashion, I went out at midnight and decided to look around for some places to shoot!

The parking lot of the Windermere Registry is a decently lit spot.

Having never been around Allan Drive except to renew my registration (I totally forgot to do that this year, crap), I decided to drive around to scout some photo locations. There are a number of nice professional buildings in the area, including some new ones that haven’t been leased out. These buildings offered a nice backdrop to the photos!

A McDonald’s run ended the outing and fueled the editing for the remainder of the night.

I woke up the next morning to a reasonable snowfall and decided that the best way to start the day would be with a bowl of ramen (shoutout to Kazoku Ramen @kazoku_yeg for that glorious Tonkotsu Black Ramen). After that, it was a fun wintery drive downtown to the Rice Howard Parkade to take a few more photos. Again, I’m impressed by the Michelin X-ICE XI3’s for handling the snow and ice without issue, despite the ground clearance and FWD setup.

Having had enough fun in the snow, the photoshoot ended there and the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing!

As I mentioned before, there are some new wheels for the 911 as well as a few modifications in the pipeline. I thought winter would be easy on the wallet, but the less you drive the car, the more you want to do to it. C’est la vie, I suppose.

Happy New Year everyone and we’ll chat in 2019!

Cheers,
Gary