A weeknight car show in the suburbs doesn’t sound that interesting. But a meet-up in the east-end town of Pickering meant the perfect opportunity to return to The Big ‘M’ drive-in burger joint before cruising over to the meet-up. Pefrect!
You’d almost expect the meet-up to be in the parking lot of this old-school spot. What could be more ‘American Graffiti‘ than that? But car culture has changed, and car-hops retired their roller-skates long ago. So, off to the local mall.
Expectations for the show were high, as the recent season-ender at Markham Meets Monday was so epic. Hundreds of cars, easily a thousand people, all packed into a strip mall. The frenetic sound of engines revving plus all that underglow! Maybe all the mojo from the car community got used up that night.
Just rolling into the Road Warriors / i30_Media show you already knew it would be a bust. The parking lot was so empty we actually drove past it without realizing! Nothing but a couple of pickup trucks in the McDonald’s parking lot having a late lunch.
There was one very mean-looking Challenger parked in the middle of the lot; probably that was the event organizer. With a custom wrap and ‘angel-eye’ headlights, the Dodge was the early star of the show.
After 7:00 pm a trio of exotics showed up including a Ferrari, Audi R8 and a satin black Lamborghini. They looked so out of place parked in the half-empty lot next to minivans and boring SUVs.
As the evening wore on, more cars arrived. The red Corolla with matching driver (and undeglow lights) had the right spirit. So did the blue Lexus. But these were just four-door family sedans with minor modifications. Not trying to knock them, but they’re far from the hot rod spirit..
There was a gunmetal grey WRX with a huge spoiler and serious power-adders in the engine bay. But it was just too little, too late. Time to leave.
There’s no left turn leaving the mall, making getting on Hwy 401 a challenge. The local police station was the perfect place to pull a U-turn. That’s when the highlight of the night appeared; a late 70s Chevrolet police cruiser. Full frame, V8, big chrome bumpers. This must have been an intimidating sight in the rearview mirrors of gearheads back in the day.
It’s probably good to be lowkey. I remember those old police cruisers. Our police go for fancy Camaros and lowriders. https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2017/3/hot-wheels. https://www.tiktok.com/@paulanthony01/video/7236839023988477230
OK Price, those are the WEIRDEST cop cars I’ve seen all day. Up here in Toronto we occasionally get ‘Take It To The Track’ day where the police bring their Mustang to the drag strip.
.
But we also had Blinky: https://policecanada.ca/policeca/on/toronto/tpsblinky/tpsblinky001.jpg
Blinky is pretty wild.
Since racing season is over, and http://www.DEMARAS.com only does automotive articles, I thought about a series on Toronto car culture… and Blinky is right up there with the best/weirdest.
I don’t know the car culture in Albuquerque. When I was in my teens, racing motorcycles, we used to go to the flat track, stock car, and sprint car races every Friday night. I rode motocross on Sundays. We went to the drag races occasionally. I think we still have an active drag racing community. I don’t believe Indy racing is as big here since the senior Unsers have passed on. I’ve never been active in car clubs. I was active in bicycle, rose, bonsai and computer clubs for many years. I don’t participate in any clubs these days.
I never grew up around car culture or racing, but I became part of the car community a decade ago. Now, it’s a big part of my life. Heck, we even plan vacations around the racing schedule.
That’s what passions do to you. Vacations? What are those? We last went on vacation to San Diego, CA, in 2019, but that was to give papers at an ancient and modern language conference. However, we did have a short vacation in April. We drove 900 miles for the total eclipse.