Last weekend I was able to attend the World of Wheels car show held in Calgary, I didn’t know really what to expect since this is the first car show that I have attended in Calgary. When I first walked in the hall my first impression was how similar it was to the Majestics car show in Regina, mostly muscle cars and trucks. Don’t get me wrong I am not just into import cars, what I wouldn’t give for a 1967 Shelby GT500… but back on topic,
My first impression was soon disproved as I walked further into the building, where I soon saw import shop booths, lots of import cars and event booths. One of the first things that really caught my eye and really had me excited was in Auto Value Parts booth, a Mercedes Formula One car; unfortunately as I got closer I noticed it wasn’t actually a real F1 car, which I should have known better. When things seem too good to be true… they usually are, but I was still very impressed by the car as it is the closest thing to a F1 car that I have been.
There were 2 shop booths that really caught my attention, with very good reasons; the first was Vex Performance, which had 2 stunning cars show casing their booth.
This 2009 Nissan GTR is putting out 950+ HP on race gas and 850+ on pump gas, this car wasn’t built just for shows either as it was 2012 Alberta’s Fastest Sport Compact with 10.33 at 142.51mph and achieved 3rd at the 2012 Race the Base highest top speed at 349km/h. Vex also had a 1994 Toyota Supra with 1000+hp on race gas and 800+ on pump gas, which was equally as impressive.
The other shop booth that I spent a lot of time at was Compact Tuning Lab’s, where it wasn’t the flashy new sports car that caught my eye but their beautifully maintained Datsun 280Z. I have a big soft spot for these old Datsun’s.
Among the other cars they had in their booth this 1991 Honda Civic, aka Godzilla, really stood out to me. It has a turbocharged Honda V-6 J30A1 VTEC engine which is putting out 350HP at 10psi, I can only imagine what that would feel like in a stripped down, bare bones lightweight car like this. If this show comes to a city near you I recommend you check it out, I really enjoyed seeing all the different cars, trucks, motorcycles and automotive cultures it had to offer.
I was at that show
I don’t know how they could throw out numbers on that EF9, when you could visibly see it hadn’t been ran, nor did it even have the oil feed hooked up going into the turbo. I’m sure it will be fast when it’s done though
The funny and disappointing thing about that civic is has never run and as the owner said, never will. It’s strictly a show car. There was no wiring hooked up and it was trailered in and out of the show via a wench. It would have been amazing to hear/see that thing drive out at the end of the night.