Every weekend in Toronto, there’s a casual ‘park & chill’ car meet at the local Tim Horton’s or abandoned big-box store parking lot. Local cops and politicians call these gatherings ‘unsanctioned car rallies‘ and break them up rapidly.
On the other side of the spectrum are events like the Subie Showdown.
Organizer Marcello Nalli has run this event for the past three years, and it keeps on getting bigger. With the disappearance of the Toronto Subaru Club and its annual Hypermeeting at Subaru Canada’s head office, the Subie Showdown has become the biggest Subaru exclusive event in the province, likely in the country.
Each August, the Subie Showdown takes place at the Orangeville Fairgrounds at Hwy 10 and Hwy 9, about an hour northwest of Toronto. The Orangeville Agricultural Society has a 60,000 sq. ft building on the property which normally houses horses rather than horsepower, but it provides plenty of space for the 250+ show cars.
Out in the acreage were over 1,000 more cars including spectators and show car owners who weren’t willing to pay the premium price for an indoor spot. As afternoon turned to evening, the outdoor show continued to change and evolve as gearheads came and went. On interesting thing was that spectator parking was segregated; anyone driving a Subaru could park reight behind the rows of outdoor show cars, but anyone driving a BMW, Lexus, or Honda had to park in the overflow lot.
It was great to see so many Subaru race cars at the show, including a bunch from Pfaff Motors. Sadly, the cool cars from Can Jam Motorsports and were competing at the Black Bear Rally taking place 2 hours northeast of Toronto on the same weekend, so they weren’t at the show this year. Too bad, because it would have been nice to see even more rally cars up close.
Of course, the big attraction of these shows are the custom cars. Metal-flake paint, widebody kits, and aftermarket wheels can turn a run-of-the-mill Subaru into something completely unique. A WRX is like a blank canvas ready for personalization into a one of a kind ride.
In recent years, the Subaru BRZ has taken the place of the old WRX as the accessible, affordable model in the lineup. A brand new Subaru WRX in top-spec can easily reach $45K which leaves very little in the average gearhead’s pocket for a candy-apple red and flat-black wrap. At $30K, a BRZ or its Toyota GR86 twin is a deal by comparison.
The Subie Showdown was a big moment for Demaras Racing and our retro ’92 Subaru SVX. The car has had some modifications this year like underglow from Wired_Rides and very recently some synthwave style stripes from C17 Media. The car was actually picked up on Friday afternoon and driven directly to Orangeville for ‘early roll-in’ the day before the show. It was kind of like a debut for the new look.
As always, car shows are contests to determine the best of the best. To send as many happy people home with trophies as possible, the Subie Showdown had multiple categories for judging. Best WRX Bugeye, best WRX Blobeye, best Forester; and our vaporwave SVX was included with the Best Classic for pre-1999 vehicles. The style of the SVX is polarizing to put it lightly, but we still managed to bring home some hardware with a second place trophy. A stock 1998 Subaru 22B valued at $450,000 took first prize; tough to beat that machine.
Once the awards were handed out and the show was wrapped up, organizers reminded everyone in attendance that local police were waiting right around the corner. They asked everyone to show respect to the community by not speeding through the streets, or doing any burnouts, two step, or donuts as it will just burn bridges with the Orangeville community. A well organized roll-out followed, and slow moving Subaru parade on southbound Hwy 410 to Toronto served as a good bye to the Subie Showdown for 2025..
We dropped a note in their suggestion box to consider some big cooling fans next year since the facility isn’t air-conditioned and the temperature outside reached 33°C. Overall, a great event; Marcello and his team did a great job running such a big show.
Ppppssssstttt Hypermeet is a GO! Sunday September 28th
Accepting vendors and show&shine registration 👌🏽
Check out Instagram
– @camprumble
Sadly, Hypermeet is the same day as Enduro Elite round 4…. and racing always comes first.