That's right, we're all carless and a bit thin on the ground, but I don't care. Here at Coburn Performance we have a "can do" attitude and even if all that we get right this year is to host the annual CVC BBQ, then that is what we will do. Bring a Volvo, or bring something that at least runs, and we'll share in the fun of the autocross, show-n-shine, and do some serious mullet watching at the 60 ft drags (this is Lethbridge after all and we DON'T DO DRAG RACING here...that's a Medicine Hat sort of thing and not very pious).

Same rules as always, if you don't know where I live, PM me for instructions (if you get lost - just enjoy the sights and sounds of the London Road neighbourhood). BBQ's consist of meat, beer, salads are now allowed on the property mostly to appease the women-folk. I provide the meat unless you like those $1000 steaks from Japan (and if you do, bring enough for the group).

BRING A CHAIR (my dogs think they need chairs - sorry).

And if Volvord doesn't show up, I say we storm his house and steal his car.

Who's in?

I'm in from frozen lug nut Hell...

You know we'll be there!

Sigh. Looks like I'll have family around and won't be able to make the BBQ. Sigh. One of these years I'll find a way to make this more of a priority and override all the other things going on.

Anyone going to the Vintage Sports Car Club of Calgary show on July 19th?

How was the weekend? Pictures?

I didn't take any all weekend...we had such a great time at all the events. Maybe Dale or Matt took some? Great collection of cars, and the autocross was a ton of fun. The 100' was fine - but about 900' short of a real race.

What ended up winning the 100'?

Any standouts at the car show?

I didn't take any photos either. Amber did, mostly of a motorcycle with a bunch of bare chested girlies painted on it. Amber didn't last too long so I didn't get to see more than about half of the show, but there were a few nicely painted cars there. One really well-built '70 Mustang with modern powertrain, a bunch of nice old trucks, a sweet two tone green big window Westy, a few nifty rat-rod VWs, etc. It was a much busier show than last year, and I only saw a couple-few cars that I didn't think really belonged there. I still can't figure out those two random parking spots in the middle of the north side of the park, though...

The 100 foot drags were just about won by a class 1 (maybe 2) Beetle that posted times in the very low 2 second range (2.06 was his best I think). There were only 2 class 5 cars that could touch him, and they needed to be perfect to do it. The wheelstanding Fiero was interesting! The overall winner was a class 6 in the 1.950 second range, I don't remember what car it was though.

I didn't get to see any of the cone crushing competition, but I wandered the pits for a bit. One Focus ST (with an embarrassingly bad driver, he was also in the 100 footers and pulled a 3.7 or something silly), 5 Toyobarus, a half dozen ubiquitous WRX/STi, and that S2K with the widebody kit. For added silliness there was also that amateur-street (nothing "pro" about it) deathtrap small block Vega wagon and a supercharged LS powered stripped out Nissan Silvia dorifto racecar plastered with Monster & Hoonigan stickers, which apparently broke every time it went out. The track was in the parking lot just north of the horse course, with only one grandstand and a road (& some heavy fencing) between it and the fun stuff. I bet that unless you had the stadium seating in your lifted Metal Mulisha monster truck you couldn't see much.

We also went to see the low&slow show on Saturday morning, filled with mini trucks & lowriders & other goofiness. Tyler McLaren (nee Ewert) was running the show, so it was good to meet up with him. My favourites there were a really sweet greeeeeeen early '50s piece of iron that was slammed on 20" billet (powdercoated white) smoothies, and a Jetta diesel rat rod with a burlap dash and not another stitch of upholstery (bare seat frames, etc). It was a pretty diverse gathering!

Ya, the Vanderwoode Turbo Beetle was pretty good at the 100' as always (I still think they should create a family shoot-out for that part of the weekend). By far the biggest bust was the local mounted police guy at the 100' - Crown Vic couldn't get the tires to rotate (I mean, I used to do burnouts in my clapped out AMC Hornet...WTF). Then the cops on the mic were extolling the virtues of keeping the racing on the track and off the street (when we don't have a track and neither does Calgary) - lame-o-rama. One of my personal favorites was that turbo Chevelle - you don't expect to see one of those with turbo power. It was pretty stealthy (note, not driven by a fat guy).

The show was as Matt described - coming up in quality very fast and quite a few really nicely turned out cars. Gone are the pig farmers from Picture Butte. We were through it pretty fast - the blue Mustang (can't find a pic of it to steal and post here) was excellent as were many more. Then there was the bone stock Delta 88...WTF, that thing wasn't interesting in 1984.

Westy


Fresh off the boat.


Yes, it's on the rockers and painted with a brush.


Dude with snake checking out the slick paint on the 'Stang.


Pro-built Camero because it's a little too nice.


Air-cooled collection.


Race cars don't need to run or have bumpers. He was supposed to be the between class entertainment - broke both times. Dude, do your shake down before you've got an audience...just sayin.


Cone crushing was pretty good...but the winners in the combined class 1 and 2 (so that's the 4 cylinder guys with maybe one power adder) were just 2 seconds slower than the class 3 and 4 guys (AWD, turbo, slicks yadda, yadda). It was only a 40 second course, but it did make me want to actually try this sometime soon - I need to get a helmet.

Weirdness there included only Mustangs from the big three (well, one Vega with a blower that I could have outrun and the Focus that Matt's already covered - loud exhaust and an unskilled pilot - again, the 242 down a cylinder driven well could have beat him) - no Camero's or Corvettes as in past years. No hot rods per se and only one truck. From Europe - 3 VW's and one Merc...where were the trash in BMW's and Audi's? Lots of JDM stuff - some good, some not so much. Why cruise a Lotus Elise then not bring it to the dance? Buddy with the Tesla in town should try it. I think the autox guys have the most fun, but draw the smallest crowd and that's a real shame. I'm sort of sick of seeing all the JDM body kit boys at the show and shine when they don't come and compete.

Thanks guys! Hahah! Some great descriptors in there!!! Metal Mulisha monster trucks indeed! It is too bad the autocross doesn't draw more people, and that more of the import and Euro guys don't compete. That Westy is nice! Wheelstanding Fiero???? Hahahah! That is awesome! Would love to have seen that. Pig farmers from Picture Butte!!! Hahahahah! Yes, cruising an Elise and not auto crossing is wrong. I haven't seen that blue Tesla in town recently though, as that guy bought a model S I believe. Low and slow show? That's gotta be new.

Oh man. That Silvia with the LS is a grad of our college who we were thinking of doing a feature story on in our magazine. He's in a wheelchair, and fabricated most of it himself, and created a clutch/ebrake/shifter all into one lever, involving a Wilwood cylinder and a bunch of stuff I wasn't allowed to take photos of when it was on the dyno here. Shame the guy doesn't know how to make it run....it was barely running when it was on the dyno. Sigh. Maybe we won't do the story after all. I know how to buy stickers too.

Sucks I couldn't make it. Next year it won't be my tenth anniversary weekend, and I won't have family in town. Gotta make this a priority. And yes, we need to do some auto crossing. The YROG needs to be there.

Thanks for the write-ups guys.

Edit: Hahahah! Dude carrying a snake. Well done Lethbridge. Well done.

There was also a guy with a Cockatoo...snakes and parrots - what are you going to do?

They should have mentioned the guy built that car himself and was disabled. That would make it more interesting. I don't know why it would cut on him all the time, but it's not sorted out very well.

Hey! This thing works for me again!!!!!

The low and slow show is actually Battle at the Bridge. I put it on with the guys in my minitruck club, SunSet. The description fits well though.

Glad to see you guys again! It makes dreams of a turbo 544 rush through my head again, and it scares me!