Boats, Boats and More Boats
As you can see from my first six months abroad, I’ve attended a number of car shows. They’re a great opportunity to see high quality cars in congregated numbers but I’ve found that they lack a certain personal quality. Not being the most sociable person you’ll ever meet, I get the itch to get out and meet people once or twice a month, otherwise I’m quite happy in my own company.
This particular group of cars, the ones you see above, I’ve seen at both Driven and the StreetKazoku meet I got out to last month. Slowly but surely I’ve been able to connect with people, figure out the who’s who of the Toronto car community.
Where I felt like I know pretty much everyone worth knowing in Ireland, its been refreshing to essentially ‘start from scratch’ here and gain some understanding about the local car culture. Canada seems to get a bad wrap due to the noisy neighbours in the south. With such a small population compared to the US, it might make sense that there’s a smaller community here but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
John, Adrian and Ali are located a short commute from me in an area thats a little less built up than the condo-riddled downtown area I call home and if the suburbs aren’t short of one thing, its beautiful open spaces for people to hang out, walk their dogs or dock their boats. This little marina is host to a number of parking areas that the guys thought would be suitable.
Not being too familiar with the area, you just have to hope that the location is good. As it turned out in this case, it was pretty good with plenty of interesting sights like the tall buildings and bridge. Think Drive Ireland but in the middle of Dublin!
Whilst John and Adrian know each other a while, they informed me that they only met Ali when they saw him acquire his facelift Crown Athlete. Sitting nicely on some R34 GTR wheels, this car holds a certain presence that I assume gets it noticed from both enthusiasts and the public alike. The interior is another example of Toyota throwing everything they have at a car in the search for the ultimate luxury vehicle. Sitting in the drivers seat, its hard to believe this is a vehicle from 2003, there’s car being sold now that don’t have the same upmarket quality and home comforts as this machine.
With Adrians car being the pre-facelift version, the results are very similar even though he told me that Toyota offered these cars in a variety of spec levels in both models. Both running the 1JZ-GTE, these automatic cruisers offer both comfort and performance.
John’s car, the JZX100 is something I’m a little more versed in having shot tons of them back home. Arguably the most people of the JZX Chassis, I’ve always appreciated there ability to be both a performance car and have a level of class/comfort.
A friend once told me a story where he attended a car show in his JZX90 and had his brother and nephew with him. He was drifting some roundabouts on the way home and his nephew didn’t realise until he looked up from his colouring book, such was the comfort and quality of his surroundings.
Sporting a fibreglass kit and some recently polished Yokohama Advan Model T5’s, this car is pretty standard mechanically minus an intercooler and exhaust and still rips. Never underestimate the power of the 1JZ!
I had a great time hanging out on what was a casual Sunday in Oakville, that Canadian kindness is certainly evident in the majority of people I’ve met here and its no different with these lads. Expect to see more of them going forward. Bonus points to John for bringing his dog Jazmin with him. Hard to beat Japanese imports and pooches.
