A couple years ago, a trend started online where gearheads would completely cover their cars with LED lights designed for Christmas trees. All that’s needed is a power inverter plugged into the cigarette lighter, a roll of water-resistant blue painters tape, a little creativity and a lot of patience.
For a week, Demaras Racing’s mini monster truck Black Magic has driven around Toronto, spreading Christmas cheer. Neighborhood kids stop and stare and truckers honk their horns. However, Friday was the opportunity to get together with a bunch of gearheads who’d lit-up their rides to go for a cruise through the city.
There’s an online car club called Secret.Meets that hosted a Christmas Car Cruise last year, and repeated the event this year. The starting point was downtown at the Ashbridges Bay boat launch on Lake Ontario. Meet-up time was set for 8PM but most didn’t arrive until just before the cruise started at 10PM.
The convoy of Christmas Car traveled west along Lakeshore Blvd, then headed north to Yonge-Dundas Sq where the neon lights and illuminated ads dwarfed the vehicular display. As expected, some hooligans just couldn’t resist revving their engines and popping off their exhausts, but the din of the crowd drown that noise out.
There was also a quick stop in front of the CN Tower and SkyDome which seemed like the ideal spot, with plenty of tourists around to snap pictures of the cars. But the convoy had become disjointed moving from one location to the next, and when parked on Bremner Blvd, dark cars got mixed in with lit cars. Kind of killed the vibe. So it was off to the Canadian National Exhibition grounds for a proper photoshoot.
The final stop of the car cruise was Exhibition Place, 192 acres public lands on the downtown waterfront. Dotted with modern buildings like BMO Field and Hotel X, it was the 97 year old Princes’ Gates at the east entrance that provided the photoshoot backdrop. A triumphal arch flanked by a colonnade of nine columns, representing the nine provinces at the time of Confederation, topped with a sculpture called Winged Victory.
The drone footage of all the illuminated rides was stunning. Even seeing the Princes’ Gates from so high up was incredible. Without traffic or neon signs the cars wee the stars. Police stopped by twice to check out what the gearheads were up to, gave the thumbs up, but declined to join the show by putting on their lights and sirens.
While more events over Christmas season may pop up, the first one is often the best attended, simply because it’s still so warm out. Even for diehard gearheads, the appeal of standing around a parking lot decreases as temperatures drop to sub-zero levels. Hopefully there’s at least one more Christmas Cruise with a bunch of fun little elves.
Beautifully lit-up cars. I saw one car covered in lights and a truck outlined in lights out here. It may not be a thing around these parts.
Its fun when you see one, brightening the gloomy night.
I never thiughtbthis was a regional trend, but I guess it is. Folks have been doing this in Totonto for 3 years, and I remember a huge Christmas Car Cruise in Chicago last year, so its not just local.
Glad the cops didn’t hassle you.
Nope, not one bit. I even stopped and chatted with a couple cops who said they had better things to do with their day. Real bad guys to catch.
But if you have flashing red bulbs in your string of lights, you are just asking for it.