It’s been nearly a month since Demaras Racing brought a car out to one of the summer car meet-ups. In the colder months, these events are the only option for gearheads, but with race tracks open all summer, sometimes park & chill get ignored. Which is too bad, because they are a great way to go car spotting.
After a quick car wash, it was a blast across Hwy 401 to the west-end Toronto suburb of Mississauga.
Car meets in this area tend to get shut down pretty quickly by the police, so organizers have sought ‘partners’ to host. For example, this meet-up was in the parking lot of a ChickQueen. Seems like an odd spot,, but the owner of the fried chicken joint gets some business out of it, and the car guys can tell the police that it’s a promotional event for the restaurant. Seems to work, at least until sunset when people start revving their engines, doing burnouts and acting like hooligans.
Tuners cars are the main attraction at these shows, and there were plenty of Subaru models on display. Daniel Demaras’ daily driver, his second-generation Bugeye WRX in World Rally Blue, was parked behind a fourth-generation Subaru WRX ‘VA’. Despite the cars being built 16 years apart, the formula remains the same.
Its quite amazing that Japanese sports cars from the ’90s continue to have such broad appeal. Maybe it’s the ‘Fast & Furious‘ effect; after all, Brian O’Conner did drive a Supra in the first film. Maybe it’s just that Toyotas and Hondas were the cars available to generation of gearheads growing up. Cheap, quick, infinitely modifiable, and there was probably one already parked in the driveway of every suburban home. Regardless of why, cars like this 1994 Toyota Supra twin-turbo always steal the show, as they represent the best of that era.
Todays Japanese sports cars like the current-generation Toyota Supra, Nissan GT-R, and the Subaru BRZ / Toyota GR86 twins are incredibly popular with modern day motorheads. There isn’t a Mustang or Camaro in sight, probably because insuring a V8 powered car is damned-near impossible for anyone under 40.
Mississauga is a unique place. Huge numbers of immigrants from the middle east and India have settled in this area and created communities where everyone can feel comfortable. It’s not an anti-Israeli area, but it certainly seems to be pro-Palestinian. The one-man Dodge Ram parade was nothing more than a couple laps of the parking lot, yet it seemed so out of place to the white kids from Toronto.
As usual, the meet began to devolve as evening turned to night. A pair of HEMI-powered Dodge Chargers rolled in, snaked their way through the parking lot, and did some big, smoky burnouts out back. When these American V8-powered cars arrived, many spectators shouted ‘Rev it!’ and incited the behaviour.
Yet the next day, the organizer posted a picture online of the offending car and plate with Bhangra music playing and called the driver a Brampton clown.
For anyone not from Toronto, Brampton is a suburb with many Sikhs, and the comments just smacked of racism. Mob mentality really took over, and online commenters demanded the Charger drivers go back home to Brampton, calling them ‘Jeets’ and other slang racial epithets, and insinuating both low-IQ and low credit scores.
Fried chicken and cars go well together. Back in the day when there was dirt track racing in Albuquerque, we would buy fried chicken and take it to the races on Friday and Saturday nights.
Brother, be glad the video I shot isn’t in Smell-O-Vision because we were parked near the garbage cans. Every time the wind changed direction, I’d gag!
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Next time Im grabbing a 2 piece combo and just parking far away!
The garbage spot isn’t the best place to be.
Brother I could not believe it. So desperate to kèep the car meet away from prying eyes, the all parked in the ba k. Just horrible.
At least they weren’t pumping the grease trap.
I’ve got to find better places to hand out on weekends!