Late Spring is more fun than early Spring.

Shortly after my last post in early April, there was an ice storm in Montreal and we lost power for 4 days due to downed power lines. The Civic was parked on the street and became covered in a layer of ice. Luckily, no large branches fell on it. 

Frozen Civic

Since then, Spring has arrived for real. I haven't been to ICAR yet because the first Tuesday was cancelled due to rain. Still, I managed to get some track time at our racing school at Calabogie this past weekend (I will make a separate post about this, all went well!) and I'm looking forward to driving the Civic more. 

I also managed to get the M3 out of the barn, but I haven't replaced its battery yet (or registered it!) so it's just sitting outside near the barn for now. I look forward to driving it too!

Out of the barn

Other than that, as you can see from these photos, many people are now driving their summer vehicles and the weather is getting nicer. I can't wait to do some more track events!

Weird Fiat in Place Ville Marie

M8 in typical Montreal conditions

Nice track-car-looking Camaro

Type R near the dirty snow pile

Nice Defender 110

Fat-tired Bronco

Another icy car

Icy Civic

New short Defender

The two cars after the ice storm

Pretty clean Civic EF

My Civic with two 3-series

Not my thing, but Corvairs are rare

New Range Rover Sport

Clean Fox-body Mustang

The older G-Wagen looks cool with no spare wheel

New M3 in matte grey

I like the C7 Vette

Clean CTR

The Civic is waiting for a track event

Two turbo flat engines

Nice spec for this MX-5

I love the colour and the wheels for this RS6

Not sure if this is a GT3 Touring or not...

First spot of a Corolla GR... I like it

Clean early 944

Is this Previa some kind of rare turbo edition?

Unfrozen Civic

Very clean Oldsmobile

The two BMW's together

The M3 is parked in need of a battery

Nice clean 190e

Very clean CRX

Miata in front of our house

I like the grill on the new Bentleys

... but I don't like all the wheel choices

Spring is here... sort of

The Civic is out of storage, but it's still snowing some days!

So technically, it's Spring, according to the calendar. I took the Civic out of storage on Friday March 31st and a few hours after I parked it in front of the house, it began to snow. It snowed again on April 1st when we were in Deschaillons, and today the temperature has been below zero pretty much every day since then. Still, the roads have been dry and I used the Civic to run a few errands. I drove it to Jean-Walter's house today and let him have a short drive. It's fascinating to see your own modified car driven by someone else. I always say that this Civic is not so hard-core and that it's quite drivable on the street for a track car... it did not seem that way watching JW drive. He had no trouble with the clutch, but it hardly felt like a smooth and easy ride from the passenger seat. I think the lack of power steering is the worst feature for street driving. At least the front lip doesn't scrape on speed bumps, because there are dozens of them in his neighbourhood. The car is not terribly loud, unless you're in vtec, which doesn't really happen in the city. It's generally unpleasant to drive this car in the city, with all its potholes, speed bumps, traffic and lane closures. I don't know what I would choose to drive if I had to drive in the city for hours (like an Uber driver), but I can imagine a WRX or a small BMW would be the most enjoyable over all and would soak up some of the bumps in the road.

You can see that some other people have taken out their summer cars as well, as I have seen a few classics and exotics on the road in the past few days. It's not all good news though: tomorrow's forecast calls for freezing rain!

The Civic fresh out of storage, before it snowed

997 is still a nice car, not too big

Nurburgring sticker on a Civic Si

Nice white Veloster N

AMG when they still used the 6.2 liter V8

Lots of electric cars

Elantra N in the neighbourhood

Cool modified S2000

Nice colour for a Kia Stinger

Strange modern style camper

Two very expensive SUV's

I kind of like the S3 in yellow

Subtle M5

Orange accents on this Urus

Rare green E46

80's Jag on 80's style mesh wheels

A rare Acura ZDX in satin black

Winter-driven NB Miata

Skiing with the boys at Orford

I'm a sucker for a Mini on steel wheels

Probably the cheapest 911 out there (convertible 996), still a nice car

Cool flat green Volvo 240

Purple M240i

Looks hood only from certain angles

I had hoped the new Acura Integra would look cooler... it's not terrible

The Hyundai Tiburon design has aged well

Cool spec for this Mercedes

Nice plate on this Lexus (Land Cruiser)

Surprising red soft top on this red E36

One of one Corvette (designed by women expo) at the Musée des Beaux Arts

Bentley parked less than 1 cm from a Civic

Got rumble?

Another Elantra N

BMW i4

... and the better-looking M4

I think the same Elantra N

Another Nurburgring sticker (Sabine Schmitz version)

Cool yellow RX8