Internet Friends
I still find it hard to believe that this scene exists within a massive cityscape. This could easily be up in the mountains on a long lost road that’s only traversed by hikers and a few locals.
Instead, we find ourselves in the heart of the Humber Valley. It still amazes me that multiple natural areas like this still exist within a city of 3 million. Slightly secluded, there was still a number of walkers and drivers who were only too happy to inform us that we were facing the wrong way down a one way road, because people here are only too happy to share their feelings with you! Not like back home where people would just call you a clown in their head but say nothing.
Enough about the social shortcomings of my fellow countrymen and more about this machine you see here. This fine piece of German engineering belongs to my buddy Callaghan, a man who shares my love for German cars running Japanese wheels as you can see. Despite my short time here in Canada, I know Callaghan a lot longer as we’ve chatted on Instagram over the last number of years through his account ‘grenadegx01‘.
The account first caught my attention a few years back when he shared a photo of my 180sx, which was sporting the full set of 17x9 +15 GX01 that were still chrome plated at the time, albeit in poor condition. I’ve since had them refurbished in a ‘chrome‘ powder coat that I’ll get onto the car whenever I make it back home, although it’ll probably be a 17f/18r combo as the 17s all-round doesn’t suit my eye anymore. I’ll get an update out closer to the end of the year as I’m due a trip home in November.
After a couple of failed attempts at meeting up due to rain or getting called into work I managed to get out to shoot this thing. I’ve got a particular attachment to E36s, having owned a touring version about 8 years ago. I love the rough and ready state of this chassis, the wheels fit onto custom redrilled hubs, no dodgy conversion spacers here! The boot spoiler was sourced from a friends coupe and subsequently modified to fit.
The overs front and rear were acquired in the last few months through the used market but originate from Cliq Tuning, giving this boxy sedan some serious girth. Which, it takes full advantage of by stuffing two pairs of the best wheels to ever come out of Japan into that added space. Buddyclub P1s being a personal favourite of mine, alongside the scarcely seen Uras NS01.
The front bumper is a Rieger style unit that has admittedly seen better days but when this is your one and done daily/drift car in a place that sees more potholes that the moon and winters can bring a foot of snow in a few hours, then you need to be willing to give kudos to a guy who’s running about 8 degrees of camber and regularly has to flip tires in order to get the full use of them lol.
Its really the trinkets and add-ons that make a car, be it a Padre Pio sticker or a set of Garage Moon Power interior mats or some Valino gloves basking in the golden hour light that make a car different. Parts that are expensive to acquire or require modification to work really show you the people who are in this community for the right reasons and those who just want to peruse the Origin Labo catalogue. Not that theres anything wrong with that but I can appreciate someone trying to make their car more unique.
This was also my first opportunity to shoot some video since I moved having recently acquired a newer and more travel friendly gimbal. Some more practice might be required having reviewed some of the footage but expect to see the YouTube channel getting fresh content in the new year! If anyone in the GTA has something cool and wants to get together then feel free to shoot me a DM or use the Contact tab above and we can work something out.
I picked the right time to shoot this car as its soon to be sold or parted out in order for an S-Chassis to take its place and whilst its sad to another E36 potentially bite the dust, its nice to know that I’ll get to see an equally cool and unique car inevitably take its place.
