At just over two weeks away, the 12th annual Driven Car Show - Calgary is just around the corner. The show this year promises to be bigger and better than ever before with appearances by former UFC middleweight Champion and Future Hall of Famer, Rich Franklin (Mr. Detail booth), models Annie Anaya (Stampede Scion booth) and Calgary’s own Hailan Q. (Cooper Tires booth), and Melyssa Grace (illmotion booth) as well as performances by Jason Chen, Clara C. and Chantelle Truong at the Stampede Scion Stage.

We’re excited to announce that Donnah Pham will be at the Beyond.ca booth so come down and say hi and get a photo taken with her. Donnah will have posters and prints for sale and the first 10 people in line will receive a free beyond.ca keychain!

Show Info:
www.drivenshow.ca
Date: Saturday May 11, 2013
Location: Olympic Oval @ University of Calgary
Show Hours: 1:00PM to 10:00PM

Admission:
Adults (Age 12+):
Advance in Person: $15.00 (Netcandi.com representative)
Advance online: $16.00 ($15.00+$1.00 fee) - http://driven.zoobis.com/
At the Door: $17.00 CASH ONLY ($15.00+$2.00 agent fee)

Children (5-11): $10.00
Seniors (65 or better with ID): FREE
Infants (4 and under): FREE

Top Model Photo Courtesy Amped Asia, Bottom photo courtesy of Brent Woo.

While it may be hard to believe with all the snow outside, Spring is here and cars are starting to come out of their winter hideouts. In under a month the Driven car show will be returning to the Olympic Oval for another year of amazing rides, models, and performers. Featuring appearances by former UFC middleweight Champion and Future Hall of Famer, Rich Franklin (Mr. Detail booth), models Annie Anaya (Stampede Scion booth) and Calgary’s own Hailan Q. (Cooper Tires booth), and Melyssa Grace (illmotion booth) as well as performances by Jason Chen, Clara C. and Chantelle Truong at the Stampede Scion Stage, there is surely something for everyone to check out at this year’s Driven show!

Stay tuned for more announcements including some special guests at the Beyond.ca booth! For now, mark your calendars for Saturday May 11, 2013 at the Olympic Oval. Check out some pictures from the show last year: Driven 2012 Calgary Car Show

Update: Donnah Pham to appear at Beyond.ca booth!

For more info on the show, check out the official website at www.drivenshow.ca

The New York Auto Show is now over (for us anyway), the public show dates continue through till the end of the weekend at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. If you’re in NYC for the next week you should definitely drop in and check it out as there are quite a few amazing cars to see. We’ve put together our New York Auto Show Top 5 Cars list but trust me, you’ll want to see a few of those cars in person to really appreciate them. In particular, Jaguar will only be building about 30 XKR-S GTs and they have one to show off at the show.

In addition to all the amazing cars at the show, the manufacturers also employ teams of booth professionals to not only welcome you to the booth but also educate you on all the vehicles if you have any questions. We used to call them booth girls or booth babes but over the years manufacturers have moved away from scantily clad girls to well dressed,… professionals. As part of our coverage we shoot not only the cars but also the people that help present them and we’ve corralled them all together and present to you the booth professionals of the New York Auto Show.

After the grueling couple of days of each car show, our team usually discusses each of the vehicles that were unveiled over some drinks at our hotel bar, or in the case of the New York Auto Show, over some sushi lunch (the sushi is weak in NYC btw). We talk about what we each of us thought of each reveal, which ones caused the most excitement, attracted the most media and which ones we would buy. More about that last point later.

We started to formalize this process over the last couple car shows and began ranking the vehicles and assigning them a corresponding point value. The result is this top 5 list that you’re about to see. As a team we generally agree with each other on what the top 5 cars were, but not necessarily in the same order.

5th - Chevrolet Corvette Convertible

The common theme amongst us when talking about the roofless Stingray was that the vehicle still has beautiful lines with the top down. Generally convertible versions of great looking cars lose some of the sexiness with the top down, and in the case of soft tops, look even worse with the roof up. The C7 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible looks just as good (or even better) than its hardtop counterpart and the only reason it didn’t rank higher was because it isn’t anything majorly new. It just didn’t excite us like the the Stingray coupe in Detroit did. (Read: C7 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible in New York)

4th - Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

Chevy definitely brought their A-game to New York and this summer Mustang shoppers will definitely think twice before laying down their cash. The Camaro was already a contender on the track and with a surprise–cranked-to-11–unveiling of the Camaro Z/28, get used to the image above as it pulls away. (Read: Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 In New York)

3rd - Porsche 911 GT3

Remember when I said we talked about cars each of us would buy? I think we all said that the 911 GT3 looked amazing and that we all wanted one. Of course, one of us reminded the rest of the team about the price and sadly that we’d have to stick to watching Chris Harris bag the crap out of it on YouTube instead. For the record, I still want one. If you read my 2014 911 GT3 preview article you might recall me wishing that Porsche would bring a white one to the show, well that may be why I fell in love with it! (Read: Porsche 911 GT3 in New York)

2nd - Subaru WRX Concept

Pictures of the Subaru WRX Concept actually leaked out ahead of the official unveiling but everyone, and I mean everyone was excited to see it in the flesh, live at the Subaru booth. I arrived over an hour early to stake out a good spot (didn’t sneak behind the curtain like other websites though LOL) and the place was buzzing already and had to sit in the 3rd row. The Subaru WRX Concept needs no explanation, its an amazing looking concept and everyone is hoping that not much changes when it reaches production. As a side note, the WRX concept was actually tied for 2nd but I gave it the edge because it scored top marks from two of us on the team. It dropped to second place after the final tally as it didn’t make the top 5 of someone’s list ;) (Read: Subaru WRX Concept in New York)

1st - Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG

The CLA45 was another vehicle from the show that all of us loved. In pictures, we were all fans with some reservations. Seeing the CLA45 in person immediately put an end to that. It looks MUCH better in person and really there is no reason to not get one of these but of course I’ll keep making up excuses. I’m still a firm believer that this thing will be knocking on the $60s (CAD) and if so, I’d be out of the market even though its got everything I want: all-wheel-drive, power, great transmission and in a nice compact package. (Read: Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG In New York)

Honorable Mentions

A couple of cars just barely missed the cut and I thought they were worth mentioning. During the Jaguar press conference when I heard the name of the vehicle they were unveiling, I didn’t realize it was a production street car. I just didn’t expect it from Jaguar! The Jaguar XKR-S GT looks great in person but the chance of seeing one is going to be extremely slim as there will only be 30 built.

The Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S Wagon was another one of those cars that were just a small update to an earlier unveiling in Detroit so we just weren’t super excited about it. However, it’s still an impressive vehicle if you’re in the market for a vehicle to haul around the family that can still destroy most sports cars on the road.

If you missed any of our coverage, you can check it out at the following link:
New York International Auto Show

With production set to start this summer, it is a bit weird to still see BMW test drivers rolling around in the 2014 X5 clad in (less) camo on the streets of Manhattan unless of course it got lost on its way to the Jacob Javits Convention Center for the NY Auto Show. No announcements have been made by BMW regarding when the vehicle is set to debut but perhaps we’ll see it unveiled this week.

The 2014 BMW X5 is set to get a bit longer than the current model to make room for the smaller X1 and X3 (which also got porkier). Hopefully we’ll have some more details to share in the next few days. For now, enjoy the couple shots we got.

It’s always nice to see when owners of nice cars actually go out and drive them, I mean that’s why they were built right? Well, some may say extremely limited production vehicles such as a Ferrari Enzo should be an exception since they’re already so rare but not so says this Enzo owner. His Enzo is not a garage queen at all as you can see in the video as he takes it for a quick rip around some gravel and dirt covered roads and even through a small section of mud.

Stay tuned for full coverage of the new baby AMG tomorrow!

The first Canadian Rauh Welt was just completed at a North Vancouver shop, Scan Automotive by the legendary Porsche builder Nakai-san of RAUH-Welt. One of the design philosophies of all RWB built Porsches is that they not only need to look good, but also be very driveable. This is evident with the huge rubber like front lip that hangs down to absorb all the impacts the rough Vancouver roads will deliver.

This RWB 993 features the signature ultra wide rear fenders and matching ultra wide wheels all completed with a great color scheme. The blueish -purple, blurple? paint goes really well with the gold and polished lip wheels. It’s refreshing to see builds with some actual color nowadays where builders are choosing to go with matte paint, or stick to safer colors like black, white and grey. To help fill in the wide fenders, the rear wheels have a lip that’s wide enough to place a large Tim Hortons coffee cup. Around back is a new rear wing design for 2013 inspired by the 935 Porsche factory race car.

Looking to build your own RAUH-Welt? Nakai San will gladly come build you one, give him a call and invite him over. Frankly, I’m surprised it has taken so long for one to be built here in Canada. When will we see another?

Update: If you’re wondering how driveable the RWB993 is, check out this video of Nakai San having some fun after the build was completed.

Source: Scan Automotive, Rauh-WELT

Watch as a flying SUV crashes into the windshield of an oncoming car on a Korean highway. It appears that they survived the scary ordeal, but this is one accident they won’t soon forget. These are the sort of crazy videos you’d expect to see coming out of Russia.