I don’t go to the valley all that often. And if I’m being honest, I didn’t really know what qualified as the valley. I’m not from these parts and usually the borders of my car life end somewhere around Port Coquitlam and extend southward over the border.
For the first time, I took the hour drive out to Abbotsford for a car event. I didn’t really know what to expect. I mean, there’s the obvious things: cars, the usual clouds of vape, and a couple of randos who insist on revving their engines.
Everything was pretty much par for the course at the 2018 Full Throttle Car Meet on March 25. But that comes with the territory at a lot of car meets.
In some ways, that’s the beauty of car meets. Not the annoying stuff, but the predictability. These meets aren’t usually for the general public. Sure, they can be, but it’s more of an afterthought. Car meets are for the car community; all that’s required is a couple of enthusiasts and a few decent cars and you got yourself a meet.
There’s no schedule, bar of entry or competition – just a bunch of people standing around cars, talking about that one thing they have in common. Car meets are what keep your local scene alive.
Car shows are what help your car scene thrive. They bring people together, and they push enthusiasts to present the best version of their vehicles. Entering a show isn’t for everyone, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find an enthusiast who doesn’t (at the very least) like attending a car show.
Meets and shows are both an integral part of any car scene. As Valley Car Club (VCC) proved with their Full Throttle event, the Lower Mainland can easily pull off a local meet. A car show is a whole different story.
The past few years have been tremulous for car shows – always big promises and very little follow-through. That is, until Driven came to town last year. I could say a lot of good things about the Driven Show, but instead I’ll try to be objective. Is Driven perfect? Probably not. But it’s the closest thing we have to perfection in the Lower Mainland. That’s probably because no one else is willing to take the time, put in the effort and invest in our car show scene as much as the team at Driven is.
Full disclosure: DODOlogic has agreed to help Driven out with promoting a few of their shows, but why, you may ask? To extend that full disclosure even more, it’s for selfish reasons. A well-organized car show attracts quality builds and inspires people to build more quality cars. All those cars meet in one place for the show, and someone like me can come along and fill a memory card with photos and have content for days… So it’s sort of self-serving, but it also helps build the scene and community.
In fact, part of the reason I drove out to Abbotsford for VCC’s Full Throttle meet was to help promote Driven, but I got carried away taking photos and did a bad job of promotion. If you’re reading this article, please do me a favour and consider coming out to the Driven Show on June 16. And if you got a cool car, consider signing up at http://drivenshow.ca/vehicle/. Hope to see you around.