Markham Meets Monday

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This past Monday was the Canada Day holiday, and there were car meets all around the city. After a long weekend of fun in the sun, the car scene was pretty chill.

All the adverts on Ontario Car Scene mentioned the same conditions: no burnouts, no revving, no two-step. In general, don’t be a hooligan that gets the group kicked out of the parking lot next week.

Right up the Don Valley Parkway from Demaras Racing’s world headquarters was the Markham Meets Monday weekly event at Woodbine & 16th Ave. Technically, this location is York Region, so there was a little concern that police would shut down the car meet-up under their continued PR stunt called operation ‘Silent Night‘.

But MMM seems to have permission from the owner of the plaza (making it ‘sanctioned’ one assumes) and the attendees were to tired and sunburned to be acting out. So the whole place had a relaxed summertime vibe. The only aggressive behaviour were some kids chirping the tires on Woodbine when leaving.

There’s no telling what you’re going to see at one of these meet-ups. When it’s a brand specific show like the Toronto Subaru Club, it’s going to be a sea of World Rally Blue WRXs and STIs. But Markham Meets Monday had everything from brand new Toyota Supras to classic Ford Mustangs.

The most interesting part of the shows are the mild customs. The kind of cars built in the driveway with just enough customization to reflect the owner’s unique style and taste.

There was one or two high-dollar builds, like a right-hand-drive Subaru Forester on airbags and enough LED lights to be seen from space. But for many motorists, these are also their daily-drivers, so the cars can’t be made too outrageous.

As usual, the only Subaru SVX in the parking lot was the 1992 model driven by Chris Demaras during the summers. Most folks assume the car is stock, simply because they’ve never seen one before. But they also think the car is a Mazda RX7 or Mitsubishi 3000 GT of the same era. In short, nobody ever knows what the car is.

Subaru aficionado Gavin was at the show with his 2001 Subaru Impreza GG wagon that’s had a WRX heart transplant. Driving the white 1988 Toyota Supra was new friend Eagle who was suggested that the SVX should be brought out to ‘Oblivion‘ the 80’s & 90’s Car Culture show in August.

Whether the racing schedule will allow for a steed from the Demaras stable to be entered into a dog and pony show is still to be seen. That might be the only show where the Subaru SVX would get recognized!

Regardless, these late-night parking lot car meets are plenty of entertainment between Formula 1200 races and CSCS events. These events are very much a connection to the original car meets from the 50s when it was just a bunch of car crazies hanging out at the Bob’s Big Boy in California.

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