I decided to write this article on “hachi-roku time,” a term that may or may not have been coined by one of this event’s organizers, Dave Vickers. What does the term mean? Does it have anything to do with the AE86? As far as I can tell, it’s something you say when you have a complete disregard for time. I could probably spend the entirety of this article taking digs at Dave Vickers for showing up 48 hours late to his own event. And honestly, in keeping with the spirit of this weekend, it would almost be the right thing to do…
Team Mellow Presents: 1st Annual D*GARAGE 86-Day Block Party + Car Show was an event organized by Mike Quinn and Dave Vickers, a.k.a. 2/3 of Team Mellow. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Team Mellow, here’s an article I wrote on them many years ago. (The purple one belongs to Dave. This is the only time Dave’s car will be pictured in this article because he was so incredibly late, sorry no photos of his car with cool wheels.)
Now if you scroll through this article and wonder why this 86 car show had so many non-86s and a car that was once featured in a Super Street article, then you’re going to miss the entire point of this article and more importantly, what this weekend was all about.
Last year, on the cusp of the pandemic, Western Canada lost one of its more prolific drivers, Devin Horsely. Devin also made up the final third of Team Mellow and loved 86s, which was the theme for the Team Mellow drift team. You’re probably wondering: Why have a car show in Devin’s memory if he was a drifter? There’s probably a bunch of logistical reasons you could list, like finding a venue, organizing a drift event in time, or allowing everyone to get their cars ready for an event. (Dave struggled with that last point as it was, and ended up driving a 35-year-old car with no speedo or fuel gauge 12+ hours over some mountains.)
The real reason is that Devin hated car shows, and his best friends’ Mike and Dave thought it would be funny to hold one in his memory. I think this is the true meaning of friendship. The car show was mostly meant to keep people out of Mike’s garage during the afternoon, so the party wouldn’t get out of hand too early.
Truth be told, writing an article like this is difficult because I’m not trying to write an in-memoriam-type article. However, it’s tough to overlook the fact that we all gathered together because of Devin. Devin was the first person whose opinion I actually respected to tell me that the things I liked “sucked.” He was always one of the drivers I made sure to photograph, and he was fixture of our drift scene.
For me, the day was more about the weekend itself. It was a throwback to my early days of spending car-filled weekends in Calgary — when I’d spend time shooting the likes of Mellow, Drift Farm, and the Hotboyz. The personalities I met along the way really helped shape my perception of the automotive scene. It sort of made the weekend bittersweet, as Devin was usually there in my peripheral doing Devin-type things.
Mike Quinn went above and beyond to get things organized for that weekend. He found a place to host the car show, hosted a hangout that would make any prairie car guy happy, and much more. And Dave Vickers? Well, he showed up eventually. And what else can I say? I guess he wears glasses.
Alright, here’s a photo of Dave’s car… Thanks for being you, Dave.
NOTE: Dave and Mike will be collecting payment and sending out T-shirts to those who ordered one.