The great thing about urban sprawl is all the deserted ‘big-box’ stores. In the suburbs of Toronto, near the awkward corner of Hwy 401 and Hwy 407, is an old Rona store. Huge parking lot, great lighting, and an accommodating landlord who lets car meets happen there all the time.
The pop-up meet organized by Phantom Meets GTA had some buzz about it. Seems like every show is a ‘season finale’ yet many gearheads kept their cars out of storage for one more weekend. As long as the weather holds up, seems the shows will continue.
This weekend, there was a distinct German theme. BMW M2 and M3 models were on hand. A pair of Audi TTs parked next to each other, and a convertible Golf with the top down confirmed that it still is Indian summer.
The number of people that showed up to the meet was quite surprising, but it’s great to see the Toronto car scene is so healthy and popular.
Vintage coupes from Mercedes and BMW really stole the show. Any goof can walk into a dealership with enough cash and buy a German luxury car. But just locating one of these Teutonic beauties, let alone keeping in top shape, is a real challenge.
While these shows don’t have an end time, and keep going until ‘late’ there was a distinct end to this one. Despite the organizer insisting ‘No Burnouts, No 2-Step, No Takeover Shit’ once people decide to leave, that’s exactly what they do. Doesn’t matter if you try to kick them out…they were leaving anyway.
Check out this video of the end of the show and the drive back to Toronto in the Bugeye WRX.
The Subaru crowd seemed to stay away from this meet. There were only two at the show including Demaras Racing’s retro Bugeye and a late-model VA series WRX. despite the bad reputation of hooligan behavior, as soon as the ‘shit’ started, both Subarus were gone.
Soundxx like a popping good time.
It was outside of the usual, but I wasn’t too worried about police. Since I’m 20+ years older than most of the guys at these ‘illegal car rallies’ as the media calls them in Toronto, I just explain to the officers that I’m looking for my son. That he took the family car and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t causing trouble.
Your night-driving videos are mesmerizing. The lights in this one were so interesting. Part of the way they looked white and part yellow. Plus are your median lights on cantilevers? PLUS it was very cool when the yellow lights were on the right side because they morphed into an image of a full moon. But I think that was a trick of the light?
I hope you enjoy these little glimpses into the life of a gearhead on a Saturday night. We’re not all hooligans, but there were certainly some around that day!
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The old highway (401) has those yellow lights that the camera hates. The new highway (407) has super-bright white lights up high on insanely tall poles, located in the median (not sure what cantilever means in this case).
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I used a setting called ‘hyperview’ which takes the outside edge of the image and stretches it, distorts it. So between the yellow lights, the moon, and the lights reflecting off the inside of my windshield, it’s tough to tell what you’re looking at. An unintentional light trick.
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I shot some more last night (will upload as Night Drive 14 next weekend) where I attached the camera outside the car, on the roof, so fewer reflections. I also put a separate microphone on the rear bumper next to the muffler. So it sounds ‘racy’ but very little wind buffeting.
I used the word cantilever because the light poles look like the come up from the ground and curve over to hold the lights. But that would be such an impractical choice. Artistic, though, but I daresay your road engineers focus on practicality. Must be another trick of the light.
Then YES for years, they used cantilever street lights on the highways. Maybe there were some on an old stretch of highway in the video.
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Those were so cool back in the day. The poles leaned in at the top and created a tunnel of light.
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But they seemed quite impractical to vhange the bulbs. The new ones, with the tall poles, they just push a button and it lowers the whole light assembly down to earth… like lowering a flag (as an American, surely you do that daily).
Well, if the light assembly lowers, I guess the engineers did focus on practicality!
Funny thing about the flag. It has been co-opted by the MAGAS. Which actually isn’t all that funny. Most Americans do not have flagpoles. The ones I see are mounted in holders on the house.
Thats OK. I was just teasing. Like EVERY American has a 40′ flagpole in their yard which they salute and play a bugle tune to every morning.
I thought you were! And LOL to that image.