There are nearly 7 million people living in the Greater Toronto Area, which means there is always a car meet happening somewhere. Some events are geared towards classic muscle cars, often taking place on a Sunday morning at a local Tim’s for a ‘Cars & Coffee’ type of event. The well-behaved ‘older’ generation that bring lawn chairs and a thermos. Then there’s the other end of the spectrum; the Obnoxious Car Club and their late night meet-ups in a parking garage.
On Sunday night, most people are home, trying to get a good night’s sleep for work or school on Monday. But there’s a different type of gearhead still out on the streets. They gather in isolated, covered parking garages where the echo chamber of concrete amplifies the sound of engines.
A quick trip up the Hwy 404 north of Toronto took us to one of those meets.
On the 2md floor of a parking structure in an industrial park, the Obnoxious Car Club gathered to cause as much commotion as they could. Driving up the ramp, the sound of turbochargers spooling up and exhausts popping off was like a symphony.
A pink Miata, a pair of Hyundai Genesis coupes, and a Nissan 350Z in battleship grey were the welcoming committee, revving the approval of the 2003 Subaru WRX we arrived in. An Infiniti G37 with evil looking headlights leered at us.
This car club seems very different that the Mississauga meets, where many of the younger crowd drive BMWs and Audis paid for by mom and pop. This was much more a group of grease monkeys who do all their own wrenching. One look at the tri-coloured WRX we parked next to shows that this group is focused on performance, not looks.
The strangest part of the meet were the three York Region police cars at the entrance. Like sentries, they gave a knowing nod to everyone who entered the concrete cavern. Just a mutual understanding that the cops wouldn’t chase the club away, as long as overzealous gearheads didn’t start doing burnouts, defacing the property. Despite the cacophony of crackle and pops from tuned exhausts, the place was remarkably chill.
Around midnight, most of the cars had left, and the police cruisers rolled through. One of the constables commented ‘You had enough?’ and we took that as a sign it was time to leave. But some others understood it meant we had a 5 minute head start. Once we were on the street, all that exhaust noise was reason to get pulled over.
Off we raced into the night, looking for the next spot, or a quarter mile strip of pavement away from public view.