With temps above 21°C and daylight saving time pushing the ‘golden hour’ until after dinner, car show season is officially in full swing.
Markham Meets, which holds their events at Woodbine & 16th Avenue, partnered up with motorcycle crew Underground Syndicate to host a big season opening event.
Make no mistake, these meets are all about tuner cars. Subaru, Nissan, Lexus, Mazda and other Japanese brands dominate the car scene. They’re accessible, affordable and infinitely customize-able.
There’s no discrimination at these parking-lot meets, though. A couple of gearheads showed up in American cars like the Buick Regal, Grand National and Ford Mustangs. Some goof even arrived in a Pokemon-wrapped Cybertruck! Now that’s Americana at it’s finest.
There were even a couple of French cars at the meet-up including a 1985 Citroen 2CV, which looked like it could have been from 1955, plus a Peugeot 206 rally car with full livery. Such an odd sight, as those cars were never, ever sold in Canada.
The Japanese cars on lowered suspension. with wide-body kits and huge wings that wouldn’t look out of place on a race track, those are the popular models. That’s what everyone comes to see. Even though kids respect to a V8-powered Corvette, it’s not within their frame of reference. That’s more an old guys aspirational car. But a flame-spitting Mazda Miata is much more achievable for the young generation.
The 1992 Subaru SVX from Demaras Racing’s stable was a big hit at the show, as it’s from the golden age of JDM vehicles like the Nissan 300 ZX and Mazda RX-7 FD. To today’s generation of car guys, those are the ‘old-school’ classics, while WRXs and Civics are todays hot rods.
There were surprisingly few gate-keepers’ at the meet. Those guys are always the biggest assholes around. ‘You know, the type of guys that attempt to control of limit access to events. They try to get the stock WRX to park in the back to save room for their friends customized car on air-ride. Or those who simply make outsiders driving Europeans or American cars (God forbid, trucks) just feel out of place and unwelcome.
Drive your new Corvette into a Universal Cruisers meet in the suburbs (for old cars from the 50s, 60s and 70s) and see how accepting those fellows are. They won’t let outsiders in the velvet ropes. And that’s why those clubs are dying and the new school is blossoming.