Better Late than Never. Remembering 2019
Saturday morning had arrived and Driven Ignition was still fresh in my head. I had not had an opportunity to view the majority of the material I had captured yet but I did have a chance to post up some teaser shots of the Liberty Walk NC1 from the previous night. One thing I always like about Calgary’s venue is the fact that the Driven organizers allow participants the ability to park the night before and get a head start on detailing their vehicles. (Whenever I enter any of my vehicles into a car show, I always feel rushed the morning of, which personally takes some of the fun out of an event for me. With the Driven events being a paid to enter venue for both competitors and spectators, the night prep in my opinion helps make the venue a better experience especially for out of town entries. As a result this increases the visual quality for those attending the event on the Saturday.) The venue was not officially opened to the public until 1PM so I had some time to edit some more files and grab some breakfast.
The window of my Hotel room showcased that the weather had not changed for the better, with more snow looming in the forecast, but I headed outside with the Olympic Oval as my destination. The traffic wasn’t bad on the way and I looked forward to checking out what new vehicles had arrived the morning of the main event and seeing them detailed and in better lighting than the night before.
Outside of the Oval, the precipitation was starting to fall as the crowds entered to see the huge display of vehicles and vendor booths. Inside, there were many clubs with representation from Volkswagen, BMW, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru and Porsche as well as stock body cars to widened ones. In 2018 I had read some concerns of how full the show was with vehicles parked too close together and not displayed well and if that was the case, 2019 had improved in this area with ample room to walk between the displays.
Just a few examples of the BMWs that were in attendance at Driven Calgary. Airbags were popular for several of them including this wild one wrapped in a camo and also the Deathrow 7 series.
At one end of the Oval I tracked down some modified vans from VanKulture. It appeared that most of the members ventured from B.C and they took their modifications seriously with one lowered on Work Emitz wheels and another on Advan GT’s. If I ever decided to get into a van, I would take some styling cues from this group.
Once again, there were some Trucks and SUVs that were geared up for braving the elements. With Calgary being located so close to the mountains, it only made sense to have a vehicle equipped with the latest offerings for camping at the show.
The black on black Work Meister s1 3 piece wheels flowed well with this Panda themed sti. The pie cuts welded under the hood for the piping were a work of art accented with the Process West red intake manifold.
While there was a lack of Honda S2k’s, there were some nicely modified Rx7’s in attendance.
There were some quality Nissan builds ranging from s13s to s15s displayed from mild to wild.
Battle of the GTR’s. R32 vs R33 vs R34 vs R35. Who does it better?
2019 brought with it a range of vehicles on display that I had not seen previously at Driven events. This SEMA showtruck called The Bear could not be missed as it overlooked the crowd of spectators. The attention to detail to the undercarriage was something I did not typically see on vehicles and even an rc rendition of it sat in the back.
Some of the show stoppers for me included these two ratrod trucks. I was quite surprised to see them since I was used to this show being primarily an import/euro show. Hopefully this trend continues to grow for Driven with more modified/restomod classics showing up.
KINGSMUSTRISE represented as usual.
Not to overlook a couple of entries from Saskatchewan with Team Elitism.
With such a large venue as Driven Calgary it was overwhelming to try and capture everything. More in Part 3 for the final segment.
