car-show

Start your cruising season off with a visit to Mega Speed this weekend

March 10, 2012 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

Normally at this time of year, Southern Ontario is trying to break free from the clutches of old man winter, which makes a visit to a hot rod show a welcome treat. Re-branded for 2012, the annual Spring show in Toronto is now called the Mega Speed Custom Car & Truck Show and is on this weekend at the International Centre. With warm weather in the forecast over the coming week, a visit to Mega Speed should through your cravings to cruise go into overdrive.

In keeping with the times, the Mega Speed Show has more than just all out, old school custom cars. This year’s show includes modern tuner cars, muscle cars, traditional rods, rat rods and the full on show cars. Of course there are lots of lovely ladies on hand too. There are vendors selling all sorts of memorabilia and other car stuff and even an exotic animal display to keep the kiddies interested. Brush Rush North gives show-goers a chance to see pinstripe artists ply their trade and maybe even pick up some art for their own collection. The Motor City and Piston Pushers Car Clubs have taken their display areas to a whole new level, showing off their cars in amazing style.

One of the highlights of the show for many folks is the opportunity to meet Henry Winkler. For those of you who live under a rock, or who are too young to know the name, Winkler is the actor who played Fonzie on Happy Days. If I have to explain, then you won’t likely be going to the show anyway. As a photographer, I was fortunate to spend some time with The Fonz while he set up his display. This dude is beyond cool and genuinely loves meeting fans.

Start your March break and your cruising speed off right with a visit to the Mega Speed Show tonight or tomorrow. To give you a bit of a taste, we’ve got a massive gallery after the break.
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Just because you can doesn’t mean you should

August 29, 2011 by Gary Grant 1 Comment

Do I really need to comment on this?

Performance World in Toronto this weekend

March 12, 2011 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

The 2011 Performance World car show is the most fun show I’ve been to so far this year and it’s right here in my own back yard. Imagine that: a killer car show that I didn’t have to board a plane to get to!

Toronto has along history of breaking up the Winter months with custom car shows and over the years there have been a number of different promoters, but the one that has consistently been on the calendar is Performance World. Maybe that’s because the PW show has grown with the times and embraced the youth of the sport.
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The boys, girls and wildlife of the 2011 NAIAS

January 14, 2011 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

What car show would be complete without the ever present booth professionals? This year, Detroit offered up a few twists on the usual. A native dressed dude from Kia was strutting around with his pecs out and a gigantic feather head dress, while the folks at ZF brought along a real Amazon. Six foot Five & wearing 4 inch heels and a skin tight silver suit! There was even a bit of wildlife cruising the show floor.

Something for everyone after the break!
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2011 North American International Auto Show overview

January 13, 2011 by Gary Grant 1 Comment

Another year, another edition of the ~~Detroit Auto Show~~ North American International Auto Show. Unlike last year’s rather down atmosphere, this year had a very positive vibe. The new model launches were bigger and more exciting. There were more concepts. There was more fun overall. Sure, there were a few less than stellar moments, but for the most part it was a pretty good show.

Like last year, I was there as a guest of General Motors as part of a social media contingent. Last year, the group was primarily bloggers and GM’s social media squad decided to switch things up a bit this year by bringing along a few “Super Fans”. These are folks who are giant fans of one of GM’s brand and spread their love for the product all over Facebook and the like.

I heard more than a few comments that these guys had no business being at a legitimate media day. Surprisingly, these comments weren’t just from traditional media types, as I even heard it from a few social media types. I have a slightly different viewpoint: I don’t think GM made enough of a noise around these dudes!

Don’t get me wrong, the experience these guys had was outstanding and will reinforce their love of the brand. It will also get more buzz going in the marketplace as they tell and retell their tales to friends, family and members of their FaceTube groups. I just think that there was even more opportunity there. Some traditional media types would write stories about these guys and how GM rewarded their fans. There was potential there to build more brand buzz around these loyal consumers and how they stayed loyal through the dark days.

The Garage is going to help with that buzz a bit, as I think it is a missed opportunity.
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Autofest 2010 in pictures

October 15, 2010 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

While all the trackside photography I’ve been doing lately is beyond cool, the down side is that I can only in one place at a time. Back at the end of the summer, while I was at Mosport shooting the ALMS race, downtown Oshawa was full of cool cars for one of Canada’s largest cruise events. Autofest quite literally takes over the city for three days. It is a great event and I hate like crazy to miss it but the past few years it has been scheduled the same weekend as Mosport’s big event. Next year, the ALMS weekend has been moved up in the month.

Fortunately, we’ve got readers like Marshall Davidson who are willing to share their pictures. Marshall is a local photographer and he grabbed more than 1,000 shots when he visited Autofest this year. To check them out, visit him here.

Hooters Whitby car show

June 28, 2010 by Gary Grant 3 Comments

Before our marathon afternoon of kids baseball yesterday, The Dude, Corby Chapin and I headed to the local Hooters to check out their annual car show. Following a couple of pints and some wings, we set out to get shooting. We quickly discovered that despite the weather, the turnout was incredible. The level of quality was incredible and the range of styles was very surprising. From vintage drag cars to modern muscle, rat rods to low rider pick-ups, there was truly something for everyone. One of the highlights for me was finally getting to meet some of the guys from the Bottom Feeders car club and check out their wicked rods.
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Centennial College Show & Shine a good time despite gloomy weather

June 9, 2010 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

For the second year in a row, the Centennial College School of Transportation show and shine has been plagued by dark skies and the imminent threat of rain. Even though rain scares away a lot of cruisers, there was still a wide variety of cars on hand for spectators to check out. There was a live band and a number of activities to keep people entertained. The kids had a blast trying to out do each other on the bicycled powered hydraulic crane, while more than a few adults were lined up to test some new welding equipment.

After the break we’ve got a huge gallery of photos from this year’s show.
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The more things change, the more they stay the same

January 1, 2010 by Gary Grant 3 Comments

Every now and then you might notice a car manufacture launch a new model that is completely different, yet looks the same as the old one. They say there are no panels carried over from the previous model, but you can barely see a difference.

That same theory applies to our newest refresh of The Garage. It doesn’t look all that different, but it offers all sorts of new goodies for you the reader. We’ve kept the easy on the eyes color scheme and header so that things still feel comfortable. The new format we’re using allows much more flexibility for us to respond to your requests and comments and my occasional whims for change. There are all sorts of back end functions that will hopefully allow us to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for and to help new readers find The Garage.

To kick things off, we’ve added in some new toys that I think you will like:

Galleries page: Look at the top navigation bar and you’ll see a link to our photo galleries. Now you can view all of our photos in one place. There are quite literally thousands on images for your enjoyment.

Recent Comments: On the right side, you can see when other readers are commenting on posts that you might have missed as they slip into the archives.

Flickr Pool: For some time now, we’ve had a group pool on Flickr to show off some of our readers photos. On the right sidebar, we can now show you the 5 most recent submissions. These thumbnails link back to the pool, where you can see close to 5,000 great photos and add your own.

Easy networking: Want to share something you found in The Garage with your friends? Now it is easy, with links to all the popular sites like Twitter & Facebook at the bottom of each post.

We’ve tweaked the About page a bit, making it easier to find posts written by your favorite personality here in The Garage.

The will be a few more subtle changes to come over the following weeks as we come across new ideas or follow our whims. This isn’t all about us though, it is about our readers so we’d like your input. What other features would you like to see in The Garage?

Canadian Tire Whitby Cruise

August 15, 2009 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, while hanging out on the couch watching X-Games, I got a call from a friend who asked if I knew anything about the cruise going on at the Canadian Tire at the end of the street. Nope. Hadn’t heard a thing. I was enjoying the Ford vs Subaru battle and had no intention of leaving. Then, it occurred to me that there was going to be a least an hour of skate boarding, so I hopped in the 370Z and went for a visit. I’m glad I did.

This charity cruise was much bigger than expected and included everything from a pair of real Shelby’s to some well prepared low riders. There was a great cross section of new and old, stock to wild. Of course there were a few girls along for the show too!

Gallery after the break.
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