I’ve been to a lot of car meets in my day, including a RevScene meet and a meet at Vancouver’s Spanish Banks. But now that I’ve been to a RevScene meet at Spanish Banks, I’ve seen and done it all – well, almost.
I know there have been plenty of RevScene meets at Spanish Banks. but this was the first time I was able to attend this spring meet. Where I come from, spring meets don’t happen for another four to six weeks – and even then, you can usually still find snow on the ground.
I didn’t really know what to expect from the meet and I took my sweet time getting there. By the time I got myself and my car together and grabbed a coffee, it was 11:45 a.m… and the event started at 11 a.m. I quickly learned that there’s no such thing as fashionably late to a RevScene meet. After passing several parking lots filled to the brim with cars – some had even started spilling into the street – I gave up and settled on the parking lot that was furthest west. This lot was also known as the “boonies.”
I began the long journey back to the area that appeared to have the highest traffic flow. I was feeling a great amount of shame for being so late, until I realized that my tardiness put me on a path that passed in front of this Nissan Quest with an Elgrand front. Thinking back on it, this might actually be one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. It might mean very little to some, but I guess that’s why I think it’s so cool. Despite every other trend happening right now, the owner of this van took the road less traveled by… and it made all the difference.
After I finished ogling the fine JDM stylings of the Nissan van, I passed this Porsche sporting a Gulf-inspired theme. I’ll be honest, I didn’t pay much mind to Porsches before moving to Vancouver. This is probably because they aren’t the most common car on the prairies. However, after spending eight months and some-odd days fully immersed in my new life on the west coast, I can say that my interest is growing. This interest is especially piqued when an enthusiast gets ahold of one.
The fact that there’s a car crew/team/group of friends out there called “Emotional Boys” helps me sleep better at night. Or at least it makes me chuckle a bit whenever I think of it.
After some more walking, I came across Ryan Maccie’s vert S13. It would seem that it has undergone a colour change from white to grayish silver. Ryan will always have some of my admiration for straight-up telling me he doesn’t get why people like Aristos/GS300’s… while I stood in front of mine.
It only seems apt to move on to Justin Wallace’s GS. I was informed that this was the last time we would see Justin’s JZS looking like this. It seems every year Justin re-invents the wheel and comes back with something even better. Please note: me saying that he re-invents the wheel is just a figure of speech. I actually have no idea what he has planned and whether wheels are involved. Regardless of what happens, we here at DODOlogic can’t wait to see it.
The RevScene meet even brought out some of our neighbours from the south. Old Henderson himself, a.k.a @potatoglasses, made the trip up from Seattle. I’m pretty sure I came across him later on at Earnest Ice Cream, which is a typical Henderson move.
Because I took so long getting to the meet, it was sometimes hard to get to all the cars I wanted to. Don’t get me wrong –some cars stayed put for the entire meet, but others seemed to be on the move. This LS was a car I spent time chasing around just so I could snap a half-decent photo of it. I thought it was a pretty nice example of how sometimes simplicity is the most tasteful route.
I had spent a few days before the meet showing some of my American friends around Vancouver. After 10 minutes of walking around downtown, one my friends jokingly asked, “Where are all the JZX’s?” To answer his question, I suppose I would say right next to the Altezza.
I think it’s sometimes easy to forget just how much the 15-year import law has shaped the car scene in western Canada. I know I’m guilty of taking it for granted. I tried not to forget this at the meet and took some time to focus on cool cars that we can have, but maybe others can’t. This includes cars like this Nissan Pulsar.
Or this Toyota Crown Athlete.
Of course, some cars – like this S15 – are a popular enough choice, that they remain at the forefront of everyone’s minds when they think of cars legal to import.
I am happy, though, that people are now looking at the less popular chassis choices, such as the Nissan Stagea. There were a few variations of the Stagea scattered across the parking lots.
Gerard de Peralta of SerialNine even brought out his Stagea while in the middle of a few changes. One of the coolest things about the Stagea, aside from being a RB-powered wagon, is that the emblem is a Unicorn’s head mirrored and flipped over on itself to form the shape of a “S.” That’s right, Nissan found it in their infinite wisdom to use the single-horned mystical creature as a means of identification for this vehicle.
Sometimes dealing with all the new imported chassis’ can get confusing. Before seeing this car, I was told to check out this bone stock Stagea with a 1JZ-GTE swap. When I heard about this car, I found myself unreasonably upset. That anger quickly subsided when I finally came across the car and realized it wasn’t a Nissan at all, but rather a Toyota Crown Estate. I did, however, curse my friends for misguiding me and then carried on my way.
R32 Skylines are, of course, nothing new to us in Canada. In fact, you can often tell that they have lost their novelty by the abuse some of them have endured over the years. However, it is still fun to find cared-for examples of this chassis, even if it is getting harder and harder to do.
Importing a 15 to 20-year-old car is pretty cool, but not much cooler than importing a 40-50 year old car like this old-school Skyline. It’s probably not the fastest, most practical or efficient way to spend a fair chunk of change, but it is one of the most respectable (at least in my books).
Another favourite car event of the week was when the internet helped retrieve a local stolen car. The Monday following the RevScene meet, James Kent had his S14 stolen. As usual, a distress signal reached the car community and news of the theft traveled quickly. In fact, word traveled so quickly that James’s car was found hours later and safely retrieved. It turns out the internet can still be used for good – and I really have seen and done it all now.