A decade ago, I used to write 3 articles a week, as was the style of the time. So, did all our content drop off? You’d think the answer would be yes, but really it’s quite the opposite. I started a podcast with some pals called SerialPodcastNine and on occasion, I make some YouTube videos with the team over at SERIALNINE. Long story boring, I’ve been busy and most of my creative efforts are spent on those endeavours – leaving not much in the tank for blogging.
So what brought me back to the blog? Was it the 18 days I spent on the road with my pal Kevin as we tackled Drift Week?
Or maybe it was the weekend spent in Medford Oregon covering the always-special Final Bout Special Stage North West?
If not that, then it must have been the siren song that is Wekfest that lured me back to my keyboard?
All of those would be great and entertaining reasons to write an article, but it was actually the Driven Show Vancouver that brought me back to wanting to pen an article. But of all the things, why Driven? The answer is quite simple the answer is June – not the month, but my 6-year-old daughter.
You see, usually my car life is pretty separate from my family life. Yeah, sure, I use to drag my daughter around to car shows when she was a toddler, but she’s never accompanied me to a car show as a cognitive human being. So what better Father’s Day gift could I ask for than having my daughter help me create an article for my old blog?
Before we dive too far into this, here’s the rundown: June helped me pick the cars I would shoot at the car show. Now, on occasion, she would suggest something and I’d say no and use it as a teachable moment. Other times, I would suggest something and she’d say no, usually because it was a boring colour. Anyway, it was an exercise in daddy-daughter compromise and negotiation.
We landed on this S15 as the cover photo, because one of our cats is named Silvia and we both decided that was a good enough reason to shoot the S15.
June said this car was “honey yellow.” She seemed to like the colour. She referred to most of the yellow cars as honey yellow. I guess this one stuck out.
June’s Grandma drives a Lexus. No, it’s not an IS350 on Work Emitz, but close enough to the 6-year-old.
This Supra had cartoons on it (Japanese-styled cartoons), so it got a photo.
Now this was a real push on my end. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter if it’s a 1JZ-GTE-powered RWD Toyota Sedan. If it’s white, it’s boring and you can’t make June think otherwise. I explained it was “on-brand for DODOlogic” and after I explained what both DODOlogic and on-brand meant, she let me have it.
Another exception was Cody’s 18 Crown. I told June about his harrowing journey home from Wekfest with a leaky oil pan. Once she realized it was sort of a “Kevin and Gerard” (SerialNine) car, she begrudgingly let me take the photo. Keep in mind… it’s a white car.
Eventually June started to preface a lot of her answers with “I just like the colour.” I think this was to avoid my dismay when she commented on a Mustang. She did like the plum-coloured R35.
I used the plum-coloured R35 to trick June into letting me shoot Adam Hagel’s BMW. Adam used to be featured on the site a lot when I lived in Saskatchewan, so it was cool to be able to do it again. June’s too young to understand nostalgia.
This car was a real meet-in-the-middle moment for June and I. A mid 90’s Toyota that is peachy pink. Sounds like a compromise.
I think June saw some purple parts or blinking lights. I’ll be honest, there were a few cars that had lights June liked, but I used a few of my veto on those.
June saw this car from across the parking lot and exclaimed it was “turquoise!” She’s a princess Jasmine fan, and I guess this colour is close to the colour of princess Jasmine’s clothes. Needless to say, she wasn’t too concerned by the “Is this a Toyota or a BMW?” debate.
This isn’t meant to throw shade at all. It’s more about how people can surprise you and that you should resist the urge to assume things about people. Here’s a cute pink car with heart-shaped wheel spokes that is, in theory, in line with what my princess-loving daughter should appreciate. But it wasn’t. She said she didn’t like pop-up headlights. This caught me off guard and I asked if she was really my daughter. I tried to explain the importance of pop-up headlights, but in the end, I couldn’t convince her that we needed to bring back pop-ups. I was reminded of the importance of not yucking someone’s yum.
Finally, we have Jackie Law’s S2000. Hot off a win from Wekfest Seattle, this car was another teachable moment. It’s rare in this day and age to find a car that’s been featured in a magazine, as car magazines have become few and far between. Jackie’s car was a show-and-tell of what happens when taste, genuine parts and execution all come together in one tight and neat little roadster package. June and I had a delightful conversation about real parts vs. fake parts, and what it means to mind the details.
It was time to go, as we had to get to the theatre to catch the latest Pixar movie. It was a delightful story and if I’m being honest, Pixar has really been nailing it lately with the nuances in their storytelling.
As far as Driven goes, it feels like the Vancouver leg of this Canadian car show keeps improving. It’s important to remember as a local enthusiast to support your local car scene. If you see something you don’t like, maybe enter your car next year and lead by example.
As I left the show with my daughter, she said the car show wasn’t boring like she thought it was going to be. She asked if she would like cars when she got older. I don’t have an answer to that, June, but I do know that everyone starts somewhere and I’m grateful to the people behind Driven for allowing me to share this experience with my daughter.